North New Hyde Park’s two civic groups are planning to merge in an effort to help them cooperate more and lighten the burden on civic leaders.
The Lakeville Estates Civic Association would absorb the North Lakeville Civic Association under a plan the groups’ eight officers have approved and will put before their members for a vote next month, civic leaders said.
The groups scrapped plans to merge in January after deciding it would be too expensive.
Their membership has grown in the past year, but it’s proven difficult to find volunteers to fill recently vacated leadership positions, putting more work on the plates of the current officers, said Bill Cutrone, president of the Lakeville Estates Civic Association.
“People just have too many commitments and some things just get put on the bottom of the pile,” Cutrone said.
The new, unified Lakeville Estates Civic Association would have the same seven officers currently leading the groups, said Jean Capobianco, the North Lakeville group’s treasurer and acting president.
It’s not yet certain who will fill specific roles, but Cutrone will remain president and Capobianco will likely remain treasurer, Capobianco said.
Civic leaders anticipate the required 10 percent of the group’s members will approve the merger at their Nov. 16 meeting, Capobianco said.
The move would be one of the biggest changes in the 75-year history of the groups, which represent about 2,000 households and more than 14,000 people in the unincorporated sections of New Hyde Park.
The civic groups have grown to about 300 members and have worked more closely in the year since Cutrone became his group’s president, he and Capobianco said.
Cutrone took over after Michael O’Donald, the previous president, abruptly stepped down last year.
But the groups still have struggled to draw young parents and members of ethnic minorities as New Hyde Park has undergone significant demographic shifts, the civic leaders said.
Becoming one group would remove the civic groups’ current geographic boundaries, making it easier for the officers to work together on recruitment and other initiatives such as beautification, a recent priority for the groups, Cutrone said.
“If we merge the two civics it would work out a lot better, because we don’t have to worry about, ‘Am I in my district asking people to join?’” he said.
But Marianna Wohlgemuth, who with her sister, Marietta DiCamillo, reactivated the civic groups in 1990 after years of dormancy, said the merger would not solve the long-term problem of a lack of active participation.
Having one civic group may also complicate relationships with school districts and fire departments, which only serve residents in certain parts of the civic groups’ territory, Wohlgemuth said.
“In terms of solving the immediate problem, it’s fine, but what happens in two or three years when the current board doesn’t want to continue?” she said. “… You still have to increase participation, which is very difficult.”
The groups’ guest speakers have drawn more people to meetings recently, and they are planning a holiday party for next month’s meeting to draw a larger crowd, Capobianco said.
People have also taken notice of the flowers they have planted and their efforts to clean up Hillside Avenue, she said.
“They see that we’re trying to do the best that we can,” Capobianco said.
