Serving New Hyde Park, Floral Park, Garden City Park, North Hills, Manhasset Hills and North New Hyde Park
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Friday, February 12, 2021
Vol. 70, No. 7
N E W H Y D E PA R K
TOP BUSINESS LEADERS OF NASSAU COUNTY 2020 PAGES 23-58
Floral Park’s Citizens Party unopposed
TWO ARRESTED IN NHP CRASH
SCHNIRMAN TO NOT RUN FOR RE-ELECTION
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C R A S H O N N . S TAT E
Deputy Mayor Kevin Fitzgerald seeks to fill mayoral seat in village BY R OB E RT PE L A E Z No petitions were filed to challenge members of Floral Park’s Citizens Party in the village’s March 16 elections. Officials said Trustee Kevin Fitzgerald is running unopposed for mayor to succeed Dominick Longobardi, who was first elected as mayor in 2017 and decided not to run again. Trustees Lynn Pombonyo and Frank Chiara are running unopposed for two-year terms. Pombonyo, who was first elected to the board in 2014, served as the superintendent for the Floral Park-Bellerose school district. She also holds a doctorate in educational leadership from Seton Hall University. Chiara, a chief investigator in the Bronx district attorney’s office, was elected to his first term as a trustee in 2017 and has been a Floral Park resident for 19 years. Fitzgerald was appointed to the village board in 2011 and was
made deputy mayor in 2016 after James 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 mid2000s. Though a trustee seat will remain vacant with Fitzgerald running for mayor, village officials said, a third trustee seat will not be up for grabs in the coming election and the mayor will appoint someone to that position. Longobardi said stepping down after two terms is a longstanding tradition of the Citizens Party, of which he and Fitzgerald are members. “There are no term limits in the village, but it is a [party] tradition carried on for many years, and it’s just my time to pass the torch,” he said in a phone interview. “Kevin is a great guy and I Continued on Page 67
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MANHASSET-LAKEVILLE FIRE DEPARTMENT
Icy roads on Sunday led to a motor vehicle accident when a car overturned on the Northern State Parkway near Lake Success.
Hearing set for lawsuit on toxic plume cleanup BY R OB E RT PELAEZ
Lockheed Martin for allegedly failing to pay more than $10 million owed to the water auA preliminary conference thority to clean up a groundwahas been scheduled in a law- ter plume, according to court suit filed by the Water Author- documents. State Supreme Court Jusity of Great Neck North against
tice Timothy S. Driscoll set a conference on Feb. 24 at 11:30 a.m. to discuss the lawsuit filed by the water authority in state Supreme Court in Mineola on Oct. 30. The lawsuit claims Continued on Page 68
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