New opponent in Village of Great Neck elections

Adam Lidgett

Raymond Plakstis Jr. a first lieutenant in the Great Neck Alert Fire Company, will replace Christine Campbell on a ticket aimed at unseating Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman and two current trustees, Village Clerk Joe Gill said Thursday.

Gill said Campbell turned in a declination of the nomination to run on the Voice of the Village Party with Pedram Bral and Anne Mendelson just two days after the party submitted petitions to the village.

Gill said after a candidate has been nominated they have three days decline or accept the nomination.

After Campbell declined the nomination, Gill said, Plakstis accepted the nomination to run for trustee.

Plakstis, who served as Great Neck Alert Fire Company Chief from 2001-2002, ran for Great Neck Park District Commissioner in 2011, losing to current commissioner Dan Nachmanoff. Plakstis came in second with 368 votes, Neil Leiberman, husband of Great Neck News columnist Karen Rubin, received 347 and Great Neck resident Martin Markson received 342.

Bral, Mendelson and Campbell were part of an under-the-radar write-in campaign in the 2013 elections, which resulted in hundreds of residents lining around the block to vote for the challengers.

The opposition campaign led incumbents to rally for support at the last minute.

Trustees stood for hours making phone calls outside the polling station to residents to shore up support against the surprise challengers, officials had said at the time.

In that election, Kreitzman defeated Bral 325 to 232. Trustee Mitch Beckerman took 316 votes and Trustee Jeff Bass won 320 votes, with opposition trustee candidates Campbell and Mendelson receiving 226 votes each.

Both Beckerman and Bass are running with Kreitzman for re-election on the Better Government Party. Sam Yellis, a Village School social studies teacher, will also run for trustee as the lone Bridge Party candidate.

Rebecca Gilliar, who described herself as campaign manager for the Voice of the Village Party, said after the Kreitzman, Bass and Beckerman won re-election in 2013 they continued to treat the village “as though it is just real estate to be given, bargained and sold away.”

Gilliar, a frequent critic of the village who helped organize the opposition’s write-in campaign in 2013.  She said the opposition candidates believe trustees “have an architect on the village staff designing a new Village Hall in secret” and that they “show disregard for what the rest of the 10,000 village residents think.”

She also said the candidates believe that under Kreitzman, the business district has dwindled and that apartment buildings will dominate over private homes, eroding property values.

Kreitzman defended the village trustee’s handling of real estate sales, the planning for the new Village Hall and economic development in the village.

He said the village is currently selling a parking lot on Steamboat Road because the businesses that somewhere to park were no longer there, making the lot unnecessary.

The new Village Hall, which is to be located at 265 East Shore Road, has been discussed publicly at many meetings, he said.

“I don’t know what they mean by ‘secrets,’” Kreitzman said.

In January, Village of Great Neck trustees selected the Melville-based H2M architects + engineers to do the preliminary architectural and engineering work on a proposed  new Village Hall and Department of Public Works facility. Kreitzman said at the time that H2M has done sewer and civil engineering work for the village before. This is the first time the village has asked them to do architectural work.

The village board, he said, rezoned parts of Middle Neck and Steamboat roads to condense the business district in an attempt to revitalize the downtown area — a move that he said was largely supported by village residents.

Under the new zoning, mixed-use buildings, with commercial properties on the first floor and residential on the second floor, are allowed on Middle Neck Road.

“People always comment on all sides but the great consensus was that everyone thought it was a good idea,” Kreitzman said of the rezoning. “The zoning probably went through eight or 10 versions before it was adopted.”

Gilliar also said that the candidates believe that “Under this mayor, residents will continue to be illegitimately fined and punished and harassed while developers who do not reside here will be welcomed to do as they please.”

Of all the codes the village enforces, Kreitzman said, about 90 percent of them are state code, and that the village is required to enforce them.

He said often times residents found violating a code will first be given a notice of violation, which carries no penalty, as opposed a summons. Residents then have two weeks to either correct the violation or ask for two more weeks to correct the violation.

Kreitzman has said he and the trustees running for re-election have the experience to run the village. There are many projects, Kreitzman said, that the village board has started and he would like to see finished, including the rezoning of Middle Neck Road and Steamboat Road and various measures to calm traffic and increase pedestrian safety.

Voting will take place on June 16 from 12 p.m.-9 p.m. at Great Neck House, located at 14 Arrandale Ave. The Village of Great Neck mayor is paid $10,000 a year and trustees are each paid $4,800.

The Village of Lake Success and the Village of Kings Point will also hold elections in June.  

In Lake Success, trustees Adam Hoffman, Gene Kaplan and David Milner will all run unopposed, Village of Lake Success Deputy Clerk Pat Pilla said.

Trustees are paid $1,800 a year, Pilla said.

Voting will take place from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Lake Success Village Hall, located at 318 Lakeville Road.

Village of Kings Point trustees Ron Horowitz and Hooshang Nematzadeh will also run unopposed, Village of Kings Point Clerk Gomie Persaud said.

Kings Point trustees are not paid, Persaud said.

Voting will take place from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Kings Point Village Hall, located 32 Steppingstone Lane.

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