Two challengers won the elections Tuesday for water and fire districts. Alan Cooper defeated incumbent Chris Engel for Garden City Park Water and Fire District commissioner, and Ed Scott defeated incumbent Howard Abbondondelo for Albertson Water District commissioner.
Cooper won 252 votes to Engel’s 129. Cooper will begin a three-year term on Jan. 1 and will serve alongside Commissioners Kenneth Borchers and Peter Chiment, who were not up for re-election this year.
“I want to thank everyone in the Garden City Park Water and Fire District,” Cooper told Blank Slate Media. “I am humbled by their support and will diligently work to provide the best district we can to constituents.”
Cooper, a Garden City Park native who served as commissioner in the late 1990s and early 2000s, said that rising water rates and stagnation drove him to run for his old post.
“Since I left office, I feel this progress has stalled and the district is not keeping up with the changing landscape of both fire and water services,” Cooper said in an earlier interview with Blank Slate Media. “The current board has become complacent and it’s time for a change.”
The newly elected commissioner said his priorities for the water district were to keep costs low and prevent stagnation on the board. For the fire district, he said that staffing is at a low point and he plans to increase recruitment.
The Garden City Park Water District covers parts of Garden City Park, Manhasset Hills, parts of New Hyde Park, parts of Mineola, parts of North Hills, parts of Roslyn, parts of Williston Park, parts of Albertson and parts of Garden City.
Cooper is associate dean of the Willumstad School of Business at Adelphi University and the owner of a consulting firm specializing in process improvement and organizational development.
In Albertson, Scott won with 536 votes to Abbondondelo’s 180.
Scott, 54, is a retired NYPD sergeant who owns his own business in Albertson and has served as the Albertson Square Civic Association president for the last nine years.
The other two commissioners in the district are Richard Ockovic and Kenneth Vey.
The Albertson Water District spans 1.5 square miles and has a population of 13,500. There are three storage tanks with five wells. In addition, there are 447 fire hydrants and 50 miles of water mains.
Scott said he wants to advocate for the residents and taxpayers as much as he can because as an unincorporated village that representation is hard to come by from town officials sometimes.
“I did not want to see what happened to the city out here on Long Island,” Scott said in a previous interview with Blank Slate Media. “I want to keep suburbia suburbia.”
A major issue Scott saw in the election was the potential for commissioners to bring back expensive health benefits through the district. The civic association president said he believed that it would be a burden to taxpayers to pay for something he considers unnecessary.
“It has a domino effect and it would come at an unnecessary cost to the Albertson residents,” Scott said. “To me, it’s greedy. The Albertson residents should not have to foot the bill for someone else’s medical benefits.”
During his term, Scott said he plans to use his experience speaking on behalf of others to improve the district.
“We don’t have a mayor. I am used to speaking up and not serving myself, but the people,” Scott previously said.
