Familiar faces in uncontested races in six Great Neck villages

0
Familiar faces in uncontested races in six Great Neck villages

All six Great Neck village elections taking place in March are uncontested, village clerks said, with only incumbents filing to run.

The filing deadline for candidates was Wednesday, Feb. 13. Elections will take place Tues., March 18, which is the third Tuesday of the month.

The six villages — Great Neck Plaza,  Great Neck Estates, Thomaston, Russell Gardens, Kensington and Saddle Rock — have a combined population of 15,337 people, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates for 2017.

Of these villages, Great Neck Plaza is the only one to pay its trustees, while Great Neck Estates is the only village with four-year terms. Every other elected village official serves two-year terms.

In Great Neck Plaza, which is home to more than 7,000 residents, Trustees Gerry Schneiderman and Lawrence Katz are running uncontested for their respective seats. They make $10,000 each in their positions and serve two-year terms.

Schneiderman has served as trustee since 2000 and was the chairman of the Board of Zoning Appeals from 1982 to 2000. Katz, a certified public accountant and attorney who previously served three years on the village’s zoning Board of Appeals, has served since December 2012.

Great Neck Estates also has uncontested races, but for four-year terms instead of two due a law approved last year. Mayor William Warner, Trustees Jeffrey Farkas and Ira Ganzfried, and Village Justice Harry Burstein are running uncontested. Their positions are unpaid.

Warner has served on the Board of Trustees since 2001 and began his first full term as mayor in 2017, following the resignation of former Mayor David Fox.

Farkas was appointed to replace former Trustee Sidney Krugman in 2015 and currently serves as the deputy mayor of the village.

Thomaston Mayor Steven Weinberg, whose village is home to roughly 2,735 people, is running uncontested, as are Trustees Jill Monoson and Burton Weston. The positions are unpaid and their respective terms are two years each.

Weinberg, an attorney, became acting mayor in September 2014 after Mayor Bob Stern resigned, and officially became mayor about a month later. He has been serving in that capacity since.

Jill Monoson, an attorney with the Great Neck firm Kestenbaum & Mark, began serving as a trustee in January 2015. Prior to that, she was a village justice from 1999 to 2009.

Weston, meanwhile, was elected in 2017 after Trustee Gary Noren decided not to seek re-election.

In Russell Gardens, population 878, David Miller, currently the acting mayor, is uncontested in his bid for mayor. This follows the retirement of longtime Mayor Steven Kirschner, who has moved out of the village, in January.

Russell Gardens Trustees Jane Krakauer, who has served since 2009 and Martin Adickman, who has served since 2003, are also running uncontested for two-year terms.

Meanwhile in Kensington, home to an estimated 1,131 people, Trustees Darren Kaplan, who is also deputy mayor, and Alina Hendler are both running uncontested for two-year terms.

In Saddle Rock, with an estimated 728, residents, Mayor Dan Levy and Trustees Mark Collins and David Schwartz, currently serving as the deputy mayor, are uncontested in their respective bids.

Levy, a ophthalmologist in private practice, was elected to be the mayor of Saddle Rock after the death of Leonard Samansky in 2011. He also served on the Board of Zoning and Appeals, on the Board of Trustees and as the village’s commissioner of parks and recreation, according to his biography on the village website.

Schwartz has served as trustee since 2011, while Collins has been on the Board of Trustees since 2005.

The villages of Great Neck, Kings Point and Lake Success, hold their respective elections in June.

No posts to display

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here