Linda Fairgrieve recaptured her seat and Jack Martins was elected to a two-year term on the Village of Mineola Board of Trustees in last week's election. Martins captured the most votes with 1,336 with Fairgrieve winning 1,260 votes. Village Party candidate Kevin Reilly received 928 votes.

Martins, who will take office on Monday, April 1, during re-organization night, ran a rigorous campaign. When Fairgrieve and Reilly announced their candidacy, it looked as though Mineola may have an uncontested election for the second straight year. However, saying that no one should be able to walk into an office uncontested, Martins threw his hat in the ring and will now serve a two-year term on the village board.

For Martins, his second attempt at claiming a seat on the village board turned out to be successful. He failed to win a seat in his first attempt in 1997.

"I would like to thank Linda and Kevin for running a great campaign. I want to thank everyone who helped our efforts. It took a lot of work by a lot of people and I want to thank all the people who voted," Martins said. "I look forward to working with the other four members of the board, but providing an independent perspective on village issues."

The village board is now comprised of trustees from three different parties - Mayor John P. Colbert and Deputy Mayor Lou Santosus from the Village Party, Elizabeth Conlon and Fairgrieve from the Hometown Party and Martins from the New Line Party. Martins created his own party for this election.

With Fairgrieve being re-elected, Martins, in essence, takes the seat of trustee Maryanne Warnecke, who decided not to run for re-election. However, all indications are that Warnecke will run for mayor next year as she said in a recent letter that she would refocus her energies on the 2003 election.

Fairgrieve, originally elected in 2000, will serve her second consecutive term as village trustee. Her first term was memorable for personal reasons. During that past two years, Fairgrieve underwent heart surgery. However, she made a remarkable recovery and continued serving on a village board that opened a new firehouse and library, set up an historical preservation law and architectural review board, passed a commercial vehicle law and initiated an amendment to expand notification for commercial hearings for residents within a 400-foot radius of the business that is the subject of the hearing.

"I'd like to thank the Mineola residents for granting me the honor and the privilege of being their trustee on the village board for another two years," Mrs. Fairgrieve said. "We conducted a very hardworking campaign and I want to thank all the volunteers who made it successful. I pledge to the residents that I will try to keep the tax rate as low as possible while maintaining and improving our suburban quality of life. All of my decisions will be based on what I feel is best for Mineola."

Trustee-elect Martins, an attorney with a practice in Mineola, said he would have to give up some of his practice to avoid any conflicts with being a trustee. In addition, the mayor said he would appoint a new member to the library board since Martins served as its president and will have to resign. The appointment would have to be ratified by the board of trustees.

Village Court Justice John O'Shea was re-elected for another four-year term. O'Shea ran unopposed and collected 1,395 votes.