Serving Williston Park, East Williston, Mineola, Albertson and Searingtown
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Friday, December 10, 2021
Vol. 70, No. 50
HOLIDAY GIFT & PARTY GUIDE
MORGAN PARC SUOZZI TOUTS LI APPLICATION PULLED SOUND FUNDING
PAGES 25-40
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Engel, Cooper vie for GCP water, fire Challenger previously held post in late ‘90s BY B R A N D ON DUFFY Garden City Park Water and Fire Commissioner Chris Engel is being challenged by former Commissioner Alan Cooper in the election on Tuesday. Engel is a former chief of the Fire Department who served two terms. The lifetime Garden City Park resident has been a commissioner for the last 18 years. The incumbent serves on the board alongside Kenneth Borchers and Peter Chimenti.
The Garden City Park Water District covers parts of Garden City Park, Manhasset Hills, parts of New Hyde Park, parts of Mineola, parts of North Hills, parts of Roslyn, parts of Williston Park, parts of Albertson and parts of Garden City. The commissioner will serve a three-year term beginning Jan. 1. District residents vote for one of the three commissioner positions each year. Cooper, a Garden City Park native who served as commissioner in the late 1990s and early 2000s, said that rising water
rates and stagnation drove him to run for his old post. “Since I left office, I feel this progress has stalled and the district is not keeping up with the changing landscape of both fire and water services,” Cooper said in an interview with Blank Slate Media. “The current board has become complacent and it’s time for a change.” If he is elected, Cooper said, his priorities for the water district would be water rates, which he said have risen approximately 60 percent over two years. Continued on Page 50
Hospital sought to build 230-foot tower: Strauss PHOTO COURTESY OF HERRICKS PUBLIC SCHOOLS
First-grade students from Searingtown Elementary School in Herricks participated in a special “Book Tasting” reading celebration on Nov. 24. See story on page 60.
Says officials were ‘shocked’ about due process BY R OB E RT PELAEZ
ment the hospital wanted to make in its facilities. Strauss made the discloVillage of Mineola Mayor sures during a September Scott Strauss said NYU Lan- meeting of the Mineola Chamgone Hospital-Long Island ber of Commerce. In the early months of offered a plan to build a 230-foot-tall building but he 2020, Strauss said, representatives from the hospital disrejected it. He said the building was cussed some of the improvepart of a billion-dollar invest- ments they wanted to make to
the facility with village officials in a virtual meeting. Strauss said he and other village officials informed them that there would be some rules and regulations under the village code the hospital would have to adhere to, which reportedly caught the Langone representatives off guard. Continued on Page 51
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