By Maylan L. Studart
East Williston resident Raffaela Dunne won a seat on the village Board of Trustees in Tuesday’s election, beating fellow newcomer James Reichman by 59 votes.
Three candidates ran for two open trustee seats. Incumbent James Iannone, who was on the same ticket as former Deputy Mayor Bonnie Parente, won re-election with 244 votes.
Parente ran unopposed for mayor and won the seat with 324 votes. She takes over from Mayor David E. Tanner, who sat on the village’s Board of Trustees for 21 years, the last eight of which he served as mayor.
“I am grateful that the residents have given me this opportunity,” said Parente. “My commitment to the residents is that I will work very hard to both maintain what we all love about East Williston while also looking to make improvements where necessary.”
Parente said some of those improvements will include increased communications with residents, addressing security issues and quality of life issues raised by residents.
“I look forward to continuing to work with re-elected Trustee James Iannone and newly elected Trustee Raffaela Dunne,” Parente said. “Trustee Dunne brings with her engineering and business expertise and a desire to get things done.”
Dunne took the trustee seat with 233 votes while Reichman received 174.
Dunne is senior vice president of Manhattan-based boutique real estate development advisory Washington Square Partners. She has been an East Williston resident since 2006 and before that lived in Mineola.
Dunne began her involvement in village politics 10 years ago when she led the Teen Safety Committee. Following the committee work, Dunne was asked to serve as liaison to the village’s recreation committee. She currently serves on the village’s Planning Board.
Three hundred twenty-seven voters cast ballots in Village Hall.
