Flower Hill Mayor Robert McNamara and three village trustees will run unopposed in this year’s election on March 20.
McNamara has served as mayor of the village since December 2016, when he was appointed to the position vacated by Elaine Phillips, who left for the state Senate. He started as a trustee six years ago, and also served as deputy mayor.
“It was something I had always wanted to be involved in,” he said. “Elaine [Phillips] and I are close friends, and she said ‘come in as a trustee, we’d love to have you,’ and went from there.”
McNamara said he wanted to run for re-election because there were several projects that he wanted to see through.
“It takes a period of time to get some momentum going to accomplish the things you want to accomplish,” he said.
Chief among the projects was the takeover of Middle Neck Road, which is currently owned by Nassau County. He said the village was negotiating with the county to buy it but said he wanted the road redone, so that drainage was improved and the sidings looked better. He said he expected the road to officially change hands this summer.
McNamara said he also wanted to improve traffic congestion on Port Washington Boulevard. He said he has spoken with the state’s Department of Transportation about improving the exit from St. Francis Hospital, widening the apron connecting the boulevard to Middle Neck Road and repaving the entire boulevard. He said there would be public hearings before action was taken on the road.
Otherwise, McNamara said he wanted to maintain the status quo in the village. He hopes to keep taxes low, the roads in good shape and ensure that new construction (of which there is plenty, he noted) fit in with Flower Hill’s aesthetic.
Kate Hirsch, Randall Rosenbaum, and Gary Lewandowski are the three trustees running for re-election.
Lewandowski, who has served on the board since 2013, had a similar reason to McNamara’s for running for re-election.
“I still feel like there is a lot of stuff we want to get done as a board, items we want to progress the agenda,” he said.
Hirsch said that she was running because she felt it was important to be engaged in the community and that issues handled by the village had a significant impact on the lives of residents.
She said there were no major policies she wanted implemented— her goal was to keep the village running smoothly.
“We are very fortunate to live in such a wonderful area,” she wrote in an email. “I do not have any specific things I want to see changed in the village, but there are recurring issues (tree preservation, speeding, the impact of new construction on the community) that I imagine will need to be addressed time and again.”
Efforts to reach Rosenbaum were unavailing.
