The general village election in Garden City will be held Tuesday, March 19. The polls will open at noon and close at 9 p.m. at Village Hall, 351 Stewart Avenue. The following are biographies of the four uncontested candidates running for village trustee.

Sitting trustee Barbara Miller was renominated by the Central Property Owners Association and cross-endorsed at the Jan. 23 resident electors' meeting. Miller has been a resident of Garden City for over 20 years and resides on Tenth Street with her husband, Dr. Russell Miller, an orthopedic surgeon. They have two grown children, Nadia and Randy, and a grandchild, Amber Miller, a freshman at Garden City High School.

Miller has been a nurse for almost 40 years and an educator and advanced practice nurse for 30 years. She has a private psychotherapy practice and is a visiting professor at New York University, School of Education's Graduate Psychiatric-Mental Health Program. She remains involved with various professional organizations. Miller chairs a task force on practice for the American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA). In April, she will be receiving NANDA's Unique Contribution Award at their conference in Chicago.

During her first year as trustee, then mayor Hal Hecken Jr. appointed her fire commissioner and a member of the village's Traffic Commission. In addition, Miller was appointed a member of the Public Information and Human Services Committee.

At the beginning of her second year, Mayor Robert Lewis appointed her deputy mayor, commissioner of Public Works, chair of the Traffic Commission, chair of the Environmental Advisory Board, member of the Audit Committee, chair of the Committee on Public Information, chair of the Board of Ethics and member of the Executive Staff Compensation Committee.

Miller takes on assignments as directed by the mayor. For example, she chaired the first Volunteer Recognition event held at the Casino last November as well as this past January's trustees' testimonial dinner to honor immediate past mayor Hal Hecken Jr. and the central section's former trustee Bruce Torino. In addition, she has attended several functions representing the mayor and the board of trustees.

She regularly attends Central Property Owners Association (CPOA) meetings in order to update them on the major issues/projects that are before the board of trustees. She remains committed to enhancing the communication process between trustees and residents as well as among the property owners associations (POAs), the Chamber of Commerce and other organizations in order to maintain and improve the delivery of high quality services to the community.

Miller is a strong advocate of residents joining their POAs. She recognizes the essential role that the POAs play in implementing Garden City's unique Community Agreement form of government as well as keeping the residents in their section informed of the issues/projects that impact their quality of life. She believes volunteerism on their POA board and/or on the village's boards and commissions is truly what makes Garden City a special place.

In a long career with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, current village trustee John Mauk, a licensed attorney, has held a number of responsible positions and managed a variety of assignments, programs and units for the agency. Until Sept. 11, Mauk was involved in the management of the World Trade Center as the manager of Contract and Consultant Services. Since Sept. 11 though, he has operated in a related capacity as manager of Emergency Contract Services. In this assignment, he has a primary responsibility for planning, overseeing and otherwise participating in the development of replacement office space to house the 2,300 Port Authority employees who were displaced from the terrorist attack. A major part of Mauk's tasks in this regard is to oversee the selection and use of professional architects and engineers and construction contractors who are providing millions of dollars in services needed to develop replacement office space in Manhattan and New Jersey.

Prior to becoming trustee, Mauk was a member of the Village Planning Commission for nine years, serving the last two as deputy chairman. He received some prominence on the village in the mid-1990s as one of the people who questioned the soundness of a proposed $50 million school bond issue that was eventually defeated by voters. Subsequently, Mauk worked as a member of the Ad Hoc Committee and its legal subcommittee that developed a new bond issue and school construction program that is now being implemented. He continues to provide periodic assistance as the construction moves forward. For his service in connection with the construction, Mauk and other members of the Ad Hoc Committee were named Citizens of the Year in 1999 by the Garden City Chamber of Commerce and received other recognition from the PTA and the school board.

As a village trustee over nearly two years, Mauk has been assigned at one time or another as liaison to the Planning Commission, the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Architectural Design Review Committee, the Chamber of Commerce and the Committee Studying the Future of St. Paul's. He also chaired a trustee committee to consider the desirability of establishing a Business Improvement District (BID) in the village. Currently he sits on the Traffic Commission and is liaison to the library board.

Mauk has two children, Daniel, a freshman at the University of Vermont, and Stephanie, a Garden City High School sophomore. When his children were younger, Mauk was extensively involved in the village youth soccer and basketball programs. He served as a volunteer coach with a boys traveling soccer team for a number of years and, by his estimation, both before and afterwards, coached over 22 boys and girls intramural and tournament teams over a period of nine years. Mauk and his wife Ellen, a professor of English at Suffolk Community College, have lived in the village since 1978.

Sitting trustee and lifelong resident of Garden City's eastern section, Peter Bee has served the village as board trustee since April of 1993. In this capacity, he has served as fire commissioner (1993-1995), police commissioner (1995-1996), recreation commissioner (1996-1997), building and planning commissioner (1997-1999) and commissioner of finance (1999-2000).

Furthermore, Bee served as Environmental Advisory Board chairperson from 2000-2001; and is currently serving again as police commissioner. He has been a past director and officer of the Garden City Kiwanis and the Eastern Property Owners Association (EPOA); a past chairman of the Garden City Joint Conference of Property Owners; and a past member of the Garden City school board.

He is a senior partner in the Mineola law firm of Bee, Eisman & Ready, L.L.C., a general practice form within which Bee concentrates on management-side labor/employment law. He and his wife, Marianne, have three children, Elizabeth (23), Katherine (22) and Victoria (8). Bee graduated Garden City High School in 1969.

John Watras is seeking the position of trustee at the upcoming March 19 village election. He will be replacing trustee Brian Murray, who chose not to run for another two-year term. Therefore, the Western Property Owners Association (WPOA) nominated Watras. He has been a member of the WPOA since 1995 and said he'd be honored to receive board consideration for the position.

Watras is currently senior vice president for sales and marketing for Sanders Morris Harris, a NASDAQ member firm that has offices in both New York City and Garden City.

Watras lives with his wife, Beth, an occupational therapist, and two children, Jonathan, a Garden City High School senior, and Melissa, an eighth-grader at the Garden City Middle School.

His activities include being involved with Security Traders of New York, particularly working on the Security Traders of New York Charity Committee. He is also chairman of the Little Village School Building Committee, a member of the Men's Association of Garden City, a former president of the WPOA and an usher at St. Anne's Church.

Compiled by Carisa Keane