Serving New Hyde Park, Floral Park, Garden City Park, North Hills, Manhasset Hills and North New Hyde Park
$1
Friday, February 14, 2020
Vol. 69, No. 7
N E W H Y D E PA R K
LIVING 50 PLUS
DYING MADOFF SEEKS EARLY RELEASE
CALL TO TRACK BAIL REFORM EFFECTS
PAGES 27-38
PAGE 3
PAGE 6
F.P. trustees uncontested in March election
ART EXPRESSION
Deputy Mayor Fitzgerald, Trustee Cheng to run on Citizens Party line BY R OB E RT PE L A E Z Village of Floral Park Trustees Kevin M. Fitzgerald and Archie T. Cheng are running unopposed in the village elections in March. Fitzgerald is running for his fifth two-year term and Cheng for his third, both on the Citizens Party line. The election will be held Wednesday, March 18. Cheng, who has been a Floral Park resident since 1978, was appointed as a trustee in February 2016 after the death of Trustee James Rhatigan. Cheng was previously the president of both the Floral ParkBellerose and Sewanhaka school boards. Fitzgerald was appointed to the village board in 2011 and was made deputy mayor following Rhatigan’s death. He first got involved in village government as a member of the Third Track Task Force, fighting
the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s plan for a third Long Island Rail Road track in the first decade of this century. The village later reactivated the committee when the MTA revived the third-track proposal and tapped Cheng to lead it. Recently, Fitzgerald has been vocal about what he calls a lack of transparency about the redevelopment project at Belmont Park. “I, and I think all residents of Floral Park, the surrounding communities and the entire state should be extremely disappointed in how this entire process has unfolded and continues to unfold,” Fitzgerald wrote in a news release on Jan. 22. Fitzgerald also said the village had obtained documents showing that state officials had no intention of taking local concerns into account in the Belmont Park development project. He closed his statement by Continued on Page 51
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SEWANHAKA CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT
Ashley Hernandez, an 11th-grader, and Juliana Kenna, a 12th-grader with their artwork. See story on page 20.
Civic group seeks to double supe’s term BY R OB E RT PELAEZ
The association’s president, Bill Cutrone, said the organization filed the petition to North The Lakeville Estates Civic Hempstead Councilwoman Lee Association has petitioned to Seeman on Jan. 30. According double the term length of a to Cutrone, the petition outTown of North Hempstead su- lined several reasons for the pervisor from two years to four. desired extension, mainly cen-
tered on efficiency on the town council. “Four-year terms allow the Supervisor to initiate more difficult projects that would require a longer time for completion and see the project Continued on Page 61
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