As Great Neck residents prepare to go to the polls and vote for their village representatives on Wednesday, March 18, many familiar faces are running for re-election.
In the Village of Thomaston, trustees Aaron Halpern and Jay Chagrin are running unopposed.
Both were initially drawn to local politics after a plan was proposed in 2021 to replace the historic Tower Ford auto dealership with an apartment complex.
“Several residents, myself included, wanted it made into a landmark,” Chagrin said
“It took a village,” Halpern said, but the activists succeeded in pushing the village to designate it as a landmark. In 2022, two trustees chose to not run for re-election, and Chagrin and Halpern were elected.
“I’m interested in what goes on in my neighborhood, and I have opinions as far as making sure that the community stays the way we like it,” Halpern said. “We make sure that we don’t have any large development projects.”
Chagrin said this led him to be more skeptical about local policymakers.
“Certain things were a little eye-opening after I retired and started getting more involved,” he said.
Chagrin and Halpern said they are proud of the board’s commitment to maintaining the village’s quality of life, and Halpern highlighted that the village’s budget has been in good standing, so the board has not had to increase taxes in recent years.
He also touted a recently passed law that restricted short-term rentals in the village.
Chagrin has been involved in the Save Kings Point Park activist movement to prevent a land swap of public parkland with a private organization.
“I think that there is a need to get more community awareness and involvement in saving Kings Point Park,” said Chagrin. “It is one of the last virgin forests on the North Shore of Long Island.”
Chagrin criticized the Village of Kings Point and the Great Neck Park District for its support of the plan.
“They just want to knock it down for private use,” he said.
Village of Kensington Mayor Jeffrey Greener is also up for re-election.
“I think it’s important for everybody to be involved in their community and engaged in civic life,” Greener said.
Greener said he got involved in local politics 10 years ago when he was asked to serve on the Board of Trustees.
Last year, when former Mayor Susan Lopatkin moved out of the village, then-deputy mayor Greener took over as mayor.
Greener said it was not much of a learning curve because he had already been deeply involved with the village, but it was a lot more work.
Greener said he is not looking for many changes in the future.
“I think maintaining the status quo is an accomplishment,” he said, and that residents were happy.
“We keep it pretty low key.”
Kensington trustees Linda Cheung and Andrew Bloom are each running for re-election to two-year terms as well, but efforts to contact them were unavailing.
In the Village of Saddle Rock, Mayor Dan Levy, Village Justice Julia Gavriel, and trustees Dan Chadow, Alex Kishinevsky, and Robert Kraus are all running for reelection to four-year terms.
Village Clerk/Treasurer Carmela Speciale said she is still waiting to hear back from the Board of Elections on who else is running, but she said that there will be contested elections.
