Schafenberg runs as independent
in March 18 election
Four candidates are vying for two open seats on the Stewart Manor Village Board in this week’s village election. Incumbent trustees William Grogan and Mary Carole Schafenberg are seeking re-election as independent candidates to four-year terms after winning election to one-year terms last year. The challengers, Orlando Sa and Peter Genova, are candidates of the Village Party, which currently holds three seats on the board.
Grogan was elected last year to serve the remaining year in the term of Trustee James Lynch, who vacated his board seat. Schafenberg was elected to serve the final year of Stewart Manor Mayor Gerard Tangredi’s term as trustee. Tangredi appointed Schafenberg to fill the seat two years ago after he won election as mayor. Sa lost in last year’s three-way for the two trustee positions. Tangredi had appointed him to fill Lynch’s seat until the March 2014 election. Schafenberg is running as an independent candidate of the People’s Party after winning election as a Village Party candidate last year.
“She decided to go out on her own. She didn’t explain herself,” Tangredi said.
Schafenberg, 65, an elementary school principal at Astoria’s P.S. 76 William Hallett, did not respond to phone calls or emails seeking comment on her candidacy.
Tangredi said the Village Party’s decision to put up two candidates was strictly political and did not indicate a rift between the mayor and Schafenberg.
“There were two vacancies and the party needs to run both candidates,” Tangredi said.
All the candidates have cited holding the line on local government spending as their top priority. Trustees’ annual salaries are currently set at $2,000.
Grogan, a 77-year-old former U.S. Marine and a retired IBM executive who’s lived in the village for 40 years, said he is focused on maintaining a tight budget. He is running as a member of the Independent Unity Party.
“We kept control of the budget. It’s projected we have a modest budget surplus this year,” Grogan said. “I’d like to see a zero increase. But I think we’ll have a very low rate of increase if it’s necessary.”
A longtime member of the Stewart Manor Fire Department, Grogan said he took particular pride in working on a $27,000 state grant last year with Stewart Manor Fire Chief Tom Skinner for a heart monitor-defibrillator.
Sa, a retired 52-year-old New York City Police detective who also had a local masonry business, wants to restrict spending but sees an acute need for road repairs.
“I would like to keep costs down,” Sa said. “The village needs new roadways done. I do have some background in construction, so I might be able to help them out on the road projects.”
The 62-year-old Genova sees his 25 years in the health care field as an asset he would bring to the village board. He is currently a project manager for the North Shore Health System.
A member of the Stewart Manor Fire Department and a founding member of the Friends of Stewart Manor, the 22-year village resident said he thinks the village board isn’t properly focused.
“I recently witnessed a ‘working session’ of the board members. They spent two hours disagreeing over what to call raises for the village employees, a step raise or an incentive raise,” Genova said.
He said he is also concerned about the Elmont Library closing a local branch in Stewart Manor it had pledged to keep open and wants the board to re-examine its relationship with the library.
The polls will be open from noon to 9 p.m. on March 18 in Stewart Manor Village Hall at 120 Covert Ave.
