My friend and colleague Patty Katz is running for Great Neck Water Pollution Control District commissioner. If ever there was a job and a candidate so perfectly matched, I have not heard of her.
Patty is a lifelong Great Neck resident and, through word and deed, has shown a selfless and fired-up commitment to her community. She was a member of The Town of North Hempstead Environment Legacy Fund for Land Preservation and the town’s Ecological Commission. She was outreach coordinator for Guilt-Free Green, an educational program helmed by State Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel. She raised money for a mission to Africa that brought potable water to villages in Kenya and she was the worthy recipient of the May W. Newburger Women’s Roll of Honor.
But, my connection to Patty is personal; we met around the time we joined Reach Out America (ROA), a local 12-year-old grassroots progressive organization that is dedicated to meaningful, doable, measurable change through the actions of five committees. My issue is the first amendment and so I joined the Separation of Church and State Committee, which I ultimately helmed. Patty, too, has her passion, which is the environment. She created the ROA Green Committee and chaired it for more than nine years.
We at ROA are dedicated to working for a better America. However, some of our committees garner more success than others; our agenda issues have enjoyed some progress, but mostly our goals are works in progress. But Patty’s committee, due in very large part to her energy, enthusiasm and dedication, has actually been part of some groundbreaking change. In conjunction with other groups, she helped anti-fracking legislation to be enacted, agitated successfully to promote wind farms, and testified and protested to stop the proposal to develop the Port Ambrose LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) facility off the shore of Long Beach.
Now, Patty heads Reach Out America with me. I am president and she is vice president and, working closely with her, I have not only come to see for myself how ethical and hardworking she is, I have also learned what a generous colleague and friend she can be. She is a self-starting organizer and tireless once she begins a project which she then always sees to conclusion. Her contribution as vice president has, despite the very short time she has held office, reaped measurable progress. That cannot help but be true when she becomes commissioner.
Please vote for my friend Patty Katz at the Great Neck House on Arrandale Avenue or Great Neck Social Center on Grace Avenue on Dec. 13.
—Rita Hall
President, Reach Out America
Read “Katz Announces Candidacy For GNWPCD Board.”
