Great Neck voters on Tuesday will cast their ballots to decide who will make up the majority of the three-member Great Neck Parks District Board of Commissioners.
Normally only one of the three commissioners seats is open for election. But with the retirement of former parks commissioner Ruth Tamarin, two seats are now being contested.
The seat that would have been normally up for the vote is currently held by park district Chairman Dan Nachmanoff, who is seeking re-election against two opponents for a three-year term.
Tamarin’s vacated seat is only a two-year term, but it is being sought after by four candidates.
Nachmanoff is being challenged by former guidance counselor and physical education teacher Neil Leiberman and North Shore Décor employee Jeffrey Meier Stein.
Retired New York City police officer Frank Cilluffo, former president of the Parent-Teacher Association at E.M. Baker Elementary School and founder and owner of Body Dynamics Inc. Sharon Epstein, insurance broker Eileen Falk and North Shore Hebrew Academy executive board member Laura Cohen are all fighting for the two-year position formerly held by Tamarin.
The two races include two political newcomers – Stein, Falk and Cohen.
Candidates in both races have cited the park district’s finances as major concerns of theirs.
Cohen, who was raised in Great Neck and moved back to the area to raise her family, said she is committed to fiscal responsibility and wants to find new sources of revenue to pay for the parks.
She has also said she wants to inject new life into parks district programs and wants to look into scheduling programs so that they don’t interfere with other activities the likely participants would be involved in.
Cohen said she and her husband spend time in the parks with their children giving her an immediate knowledge of the park facilities, how they are being used and who is using them.
Falk, who is a third-generation resident of Great Neck, said she wants the district to do a better job in communicating how the parks are run. She has also said she also has issues with the fees community members must pay for access to various aspects of the parks.
She has said she wants the fees to be on a sliding scale basis to accommodate a socioeconomically diverse Great Neck.
Joining them in the race is Frank Cilluffo, who lost to Tamarin last year, something he said has made him a better candidate.
Cilluffo said his defeat resulted in him reaching out to more residents and made him a more hands-on candidate.
He has said there needs to be a fine-tuning of the park’s day-to-day operations.
He has said he knows what aspects of the parks need to be fixed because he, like many residents, use the parks facilities every day.
Epstein, who has said she grew up in Great Neck and returned years later with her husband and children, said the parks are currently well-managed, but that small changes should be made and she would bring fresh ideas. One of these ideas is to create more programs for parks district residents who no longer have children.
In the race for the three-year seat, Nachmanoff said he likes to look at ways to bring revenue to local government without much cost to the taxpayers.
Nachmanoff, who served as Mayor of Russel Gardens from 1997 until 2003, was elected commissioner in 2011, following the retirement in 2011 of former Commissioner Ivar Segalowitz.
He served as the president of the Great Neck Village Officials Association, from 1999 to 2001, and as the director of intergovernmental affairs for Nassau County.
Stein grew up on Long Island and moved to Great Neck about 10 years ago, where he would eventually raise a family and own his own window coverings business, North Shore Decor, he said.
He said his skills – including his hands-on attitude to his business and the organizational skills he learned working for years previous in an off-premise Kosher catering business – will help him fit into the position as parks district commissioner perfectly. He also said the district is going through an important transitional period with the retirement of Tamarin, and that change is necessary and, at times, vital to the growth of the parks district.
Stein said he also wants to schedule regular town-hall style meetings, as he believes this is a way to get more voters to come to the polls, as they would finally feel that their voice is being heard.
“We, as commissioners need to hear ideas generated by the community for enhancing programming, facilities, and events as well as hear any questions or complaints directly from the residents of the Great Neck Park District,” Stein said. “We should also be prepared to answer those questions directly.”
Leiberman, the husband of Great Neck News columnist Karen Rubin, said he wanted to run because he wants to preserve Great Neck’s parks. Leiberman has been attending parks meetings for nearly 20 years, he said.
He has run twice before, losing to Nachmanoff in 2011.
If elected, Leiberman said, he wants to find creative ways to boost non-tax revenue for the parks, as well as reach out to other elected officials. Some of these officials include village mayors, Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth and Nassau County Interim Finance Authority Chairman Jon Kaiman.
Residents of the Great Neck Park District, which includes all Great Neck villages and unincorporated areas – with the exception of Great Neck Estates, Harbor Hills, Lake Success, Saddle Rock and University Gardens – can cast their votes on Dec. 9 from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. . at one of four polling sites.
The polling sites are Great Neck House, located at 14 Arrandale Ave., E.M. Baker Elementary School, located at 69 Baker Hill Road, Great Neck Social Center, located at 80 Grace Ave., or at the Manhasset-Lakeville Firehouse located at 97 Jayson Ave.
