The Great Neck Park District promoted three staffers to full-time park laborers, touted a series of recent accomplishments and approved the purchase of two trucks at its Board of Commissioners meeting on Thursday night.
Great Neck Park Superintendent Jason Marra said two retirements sparked the search for new full-time park laborers in filling the entry-level unionized positions, leading to the district went through 24 applicants and rounds of interviews.
Marra said it was a “very tough decision” because of the quality of the applicants, but ultimately Zygmunt “Ziggy” Mazurkiewicz, Bradley Meier and Edgar Jiron were selected.
“I think between Ziggy, Edgar and Bradley, these are going to be three tremendous additions to our staff and is going to take the park district in the right direction going forward,” Marra said.
Mazurkiewitz has two and a half years of experience with the park district, a great deal of skills and knowledge in contracting and construction, Marra said. Mazurkiewitz also “took the lead” on the creation of the “skybox” in the park district’s ice rink, he said.
Jiron, meanwhile, has been at the park district for nearly a decade. Marra said he has worked overnight at the tennis center, is an expert at construction, learns quick and keeps to himself to “make sure he gets the job done.”
As for Bradley, Marra said he has worked almost three decades as a part-time employee – amounting to well over 20,000 hours of service to the Park District.
“He’s been a staple at Allenwood Park, he’s always got positive comments about his customer service,” Marra said. “So we’re going to propose to the board that he’s also considered for the Park Laborer I position.”
The Board of Commissioners approved hiring all three, leading to a standing ovation from attendees, including other park district staff that came out to support them at the meeting.
With their hirings, the Great Neck Park District’s staff of full-timers is now 48. The park district also employs hundreds of seasonal and part-time employees, which vary from season to season.
In unrelated park district business, commissioners also approved the purchase of a Ford F-350 4×4 and a Ford F-350 4×4 crew cab, which can carry more people, for $83,432.44. These purchases were outlined in the 2019 capital plan.
“This is all part of our fleet replenishment and we’re very close to coming full circle on that,” Marra said.
In other unrelated park district business, Marra also highlighted the park district’s performance at the 2019 Empire State Games, a statewide skating competition, at Lake Placid.
The district’s synchronized skate team, the Galaxies, won a silver medal. Additionally, Brooke Cenname was a junior ladies gold medalist, Rebecca Bernstein was an intermediate ladies gold medalist and Ava Goykberg took home bronze in the high excel beginner free skate category.
Officials also highlighted the success of the park district’s second annual Lunar New Year celebration, which featured an array of performances.
“It was an incredible success. It was packed,” Commissioner Tina Stellato said. “Everyone was in good spirits. It was a great day.”
