Editorial: Three Village Elections Coming Up…Think Before You Run for Office

Three Great Neck villages will see elections in June, including the Village of Great Neck, Kings Point and Lake Success. We sincerely hope that all who choose to run for office have the absolute essential experience needed for the job.

We have made this point several times before in many editorials, but we just can’t say this enough. We support our local governments and work hard to bring all elections and all candidates to the forefront. We respect all candidates’ decisions to run for office. The Great Neck Record does not endorse any candidates, but we do endorse honest, fair elections, and we urge all prospective candidates to think hard, and work hard, before they announce their intentions to run.

Editorial: Vote ‘Yes’ For Our School Budget

Cast your vote for our children, for our future

This coming Tuesday, May 15, is the day to cast your vote for our school budget … the day to cast your vote for our children and for our future. Voting on the 2012-2013 Great Neck Public Schools budget is from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. School district voters living north of the railroad tracks vote at the E.M. Baker Elementary School. Voters living south of the railroad tracks vote at Great Neck South High School.

And along with the school budget you will have the opportunity to further support the Great Neck Public Schools by voting to re-elect board of education Trustee (and current president) Barbara Berkowitz and Trustee Donald Ashkenase, both running unopposed.

Editorial: What Shames Us? What Makes Us Proud?

Last week brought reflections about our inclination as humans to feel a collective shame or pride from the actions of others. Certainly, both Sarah and Emily Hughes have brought great pride to Great Neck. We have watched both young women face challenges in the glare of great media attention, sometimes skating flawlessly and at other times taking a hard fall. It is to their credit that they take their wins gracefully and their falls resiliently, getting up and continuing to skate. It is a life lesson to emulate even if you’ve never put on a pair of skates.

However the park district commissioners decide to honor and recognize the Hughes sisters, their place in our hearts is secure.

Letter: Great Neck And Open Space: Can We Coincide?

I saw a red fox last week. I wasn’t in the Catskill Mountains nor was I out on the East End, but here in Great Neck. Not only did I see it, thanks to today’s technology, I videotaped my sighting. So excited was I, a nature lover with the nickname D Birdman, I told my buddy Mark Schweitzer. He told me he saw a fox three hours earlier in another part of Great Neck. Coincidence? My buddy and I have so much in common, but to see a fox?

Editorial: Public Works Appreciation Week

All across the county, communities will observe National Public Works Week during the third week of May. Thousands of men and women build and maintain the infrastructure and services that make our daily lives safer, more convenient and more beautiful.

This is a gentle reminder to our villages, special districts and town to make a special effort to recognize their efforts, sacrifices and contributions to everyone.

Great Neck Notebook: April 25, 2012

Gym story

A man I met at the gym mentioned that his daughter is a freshman at Ohio State University and plays on the womens lacrosse team. Since my youngest son, Josh, also attended Ohio State and was on the mens lacrosse team, we have a common bond.

When I saw him in the locker room last week I asked Jim how his daughter was doing. He told me that his daughter loves the school and loves being on the team.  The only problem is that she doesn’t like her roommate. I smiled at that and said, “My wife has the same complaint.”

Editorial: Decision-Making Environments Matter

Out in the open or in the closet?

We are struck by the contrast in how Nassau County’s administration makes decisions and how complicated issues are discussed, analyzed and finally determined by some of our local boards. It is a stark contrast.

Take the Great Neck Park District. At last Tuesday’s meeting, a kick-off gambit was begun regarding an important issue, voting places for special district elections. The district had received a letter from a resident suggesting that certain voting locations be changed. That suggestion set into motion a look at the current structure and how it could be improved.

Great Neck Notebook: April 18, 2012

Playing By The Rules

I was in the supermarket last week around 4 p.m. with seven items in my cart.  The lady in front of me had four items. The couple at the front of the line was having their groceries scanned. As the cashier scanned the items on the belt, the woman continued to empty items from her basket. Now I’m not an MIT graduate but I could see at a glance that they had a lot more than the “10 Items or Less” line allows.

I thought about saying something to them, but didn’t. I wasn’t in the mood for a confrontation and certainly didn’t want to start a ruckus over a matter this trivial. But I was annoyed. Everyone else in that line had obeyed the “10 Items or Less” rule. It bothered me that this couple hadn’t. Did they think the rule was for everyone else? Or maybe they had one of those “The rules don’t apply to me” passes that I see routinely used in Great Neck.

Editorial: Great Neck And USMMA: The Ties That Bind

The recent attention and increased funding showered on the United State Merchant Marine Academy is overdue, but nevertheless, gratifying. It is a start. The academy is a unique institution in our community and the over the years, the ties that have bound the community to the academy, have remained intact in spite of the fluctuations in leadership and the decreased level of funding there.

That good relationship has survived in part because of person-to-person contacts and old fashioned give-and-take. Over the years, families in Great Neck have welcomed midshipmen and women into their homes to help ease the transition from home to college in that sometimes stressful freshman year. Many of those relationships have really clicked with friendships continuing long after graduation.

Editorial: No More ‘Pink Slime’ in the Great Neck Public Schools!

With a gracious nod to the Great Neck Record, Great Neck Public Schools Superintendent Tom Dolan announced that the school district no longer serves government issued, free USDA chopped beef containing “pink slime.” The latest flap over the beef filler, which reportedly contained a substance to help prevent e-coli, was reported at length in the March 22 issue of all Anton Newspapers. The Great Neck School District had been serving this free, reportedly safe beef, but immediately stopped serving it after reading the featured article in the Record.