After several months of negotiations, the East Williston School Board has reached a settlement with the school district’s teachers association on a four-year contract that will hold teachers’ salaries to an average 1.1 percent increase over the duration of the deal.

Board president Mark Kamberg announced Monday night that the teachers agreed to accept a wage freeze in the first year of the contract, and a freeze on auxiliary salaries and stipends for the first two years of the contract. Teachers will continue to contribute 20 percent to the cost of their health insurance coverage.

“The goal of the district was to significantly reduce costs, and with this contract we have made a giant step forward in containing cost over the next four years,” Kamberg said in a statement he read at Monday night’s special budget meeting. “Our teachers union realized the district’s challenges and responded to our challenges in order to preserve the educational integrity of our programs.”

Kamberg said the board appreciated the union’s acceptance of a salary freeze for the 2011-12 school year along with pay freezes in incremental steps in the third and fourth years of the contract. Pay raises of 1.6 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively, will be delayed for the first six months in both years. The teachers will receive a 1.25 percent salary increase in the third year of the contract.

The school board still faces contract negotiations with the administrative, clerical and custodial employee units in the district, with all contracts expiring in June. But teachers’ salaries represent 76 percent of the salaries in the school district, according to Kamberg. So settling the teachers contract figures to give the school board breathing room in finalizing the school budget for a May 17 vote.

The initial school budget proposed by the East Williston district administration represents a 2.85 percent over the current year’s budget to $51.9 million. That would push the tax levy up by 6.19 percent.

Settling the contract ends several months of “difficult negotiations” begun last fall, according to John Coyne, president of the East Williston Teachers Association. Coyne said the teachers recognized the need to cooperate with the district in holding down costs in light of the current state fiscal crisis.

“It was very clear there were needs in the districts that needed to be addressed and we felt it was necessary to meet those needs,” Coyne said.

Asked whether the prospect of layoffs was a motivating factor in reaching the agreement with the board, Coyne said the teachers viewed the wage freeze as a way to potentially save jobs. But he said the school board had not offered any assurance that there would be no teacher layoffs in the district.

“Every time we begin the budget process, there’s always some concern that there would be layoffs.” Coyne said.

Apart from the implicit prospect of layoffs, Kamberg said the teachers recognized the financial bind the school board was facing with the anticipated loss of $324,000 in state aid among other factors in the current fiscal crunch.

“We have a union that understands the time that we’re in. What we saw was a cooperative effort,” Kamberg said, adding that the board is hoping for similar cooperation from the other employee bargaining units.

Coyne recalled that reaching the last contract agreement with the board had created an “uncomfortable” situation in which the teachers worked without a new contract for two years before striking a five-year deal.

‘It’s very comforting that we were able to reach a deal that both sides that we can live with,” he said. “We have a long road ahead of us.”

Coyne said he felt reassured by the shape of the initial budget presentation.

“It comes down to numbers and funding,” Coyne said. “Once again I have to trust that the board will do what it can to maintain the programs.”

In his statement on the settlement, Kamberg said the school board and the teachers share a “common bond” in “protecting the education of the youngsters we are sworn to serve.”

A 50th high school reunion directory entry apparently filled out by Oscar-winning screen writer David Seidler, formerly of Great Neck, reveals a life of adventure and a glimpse back to the former handicap he turned into gold.

Before Seidler’s Academy Award-winning interpretation of “The Kings Speech,” the story of a British Monarch who overcomes a stammering problem, he wrote a telling description of his most vivid memories of high school.

“The fuzzy angora sweaters that the girls wore and getting over stuttering and then auditioning for the school play the next week and getting a role,” wrote Seidler, in a Great Neck High School directory entry provided to Blank Slate Media by classmate Charles Harris of Middletown, N.J.

“Live each day to the fullest, there are no refunds,” said Seidler, now 73, of his most important lessons from his life filled with travel and adventure.

A graduate of Cornell, Seidler completed graduate school at the University of Washington then joined the U.S. Army.

“Whoopie,” wrote Seidler, of his military time.

After getting married, he said he worked on “Madison Avenue” and became a forest fire lookout in the Williamette National Forest before becoming a playwright in residence at the San Francisco Actor’s Workshop.

After getting divorced, Seidler went back to Madison Avenue and wrote dubbing scripts for “Godzilla The Monster” movies, according to Seidler’s directory entry.

Seidler said he then went to Fiji, New Zealand and Australia and worked as an assistant director on a TV series before becoming “a semi-hermit” on an undisclosed tropical isle.

After getting married a second time, he lived in Woodstock and in an Oregon forest before becoming a political advisor to the prime minister of Fiji.

He also lived in New Zealand and worked in advertising before getting divorced a second time.

Seidler “returned to America, became a Hollywood screenwriter and got married for the third time,” wrote Seidler. “That about sums it up.”

Another 1955 classmate remembered Seidler’s adroitness.

“I do recall one situation that impressed me in a biology class in high school. David grew tomatoes using toxic ingredients in the soil versus another group grown in natural soil,” said C.J. Abraham, a Great Neck doctor and former classmate of Seidler. “The poisoned tomatoes were distorted and irregular. Although a simple experiment, I thought it was very clever at that time and a very good demonstration.”

Abraham said he also sat next to 1956 Great Neck High School graduate Francis Ford Coppola in English, but “nothing rubbed off.”

Seidler listed two children, Marc and Maya, and his wife Jacqueline on the directory entry which was filled out in 2005.

He said the one thing he would still like to do “is to see a liberal in the White House,” obviously written before the 2008 presidential election.

And it might surprise you to know, said Seidler, “I have some pleasant memories of high school. That, of course, may be a side benefit of early onset of senility.”

Seidler became the oldest writer to win an Oscar for best original screenplay when he received the Academy Award during the 83rd Academy Awards Ceremony in Hollywood Feb. 28.

Former Great Neck resident David Seidler became the oldest writer to win an Oscar for best original screenplay when he received the award for “The Kings Speech” during the 83rd Academy Awards Ceremony Sunday night.

“My father always said to me I would be a late bloomer,” said Seidler, 73, in his acceptance speech.

“The Kings Speech” not only showed the story of a British Monarch overcoming his stammering problem to rally his people for war, but reflected on an infliction Seidler himself had suffered as a child.

After relocating to the U.S. with his parents from England, Seidler grew up in Long Island and graduated from Great Neck High School in 1955 – one year ahead of Academy Award-winning director Francis Ford Coppola, also from the pennisnsula.

Seidler’s stuttering as a child sparked his interest in the story of King George VI, the King who beat his stammer with the help of speech therapist Lionel Logue. He began to research the king’s story in the 1970s when a friend in London helped him located Valentine Logue, the only surviving son of Lionel Logue.

The younger Logue offered Seidler access to his father’s notebooks on one condition: approval from the Queen Mother, George’s widow. However, the Queen refused, arguing that the story was too painful to revisit during her lifetime. Seidler did not access the notebooks until after the Queen’s death in 2002, Newsweek reported.

According to Newsweek, Seidler had long wanted to make “The King’s Speech.” Seidler said he was inspired to overcome his own stutter by King George, portrayed by Colin Firth in the film.

Accepting the award, Seidler reflected on what it represented to him, and to the others who shared his affliction.

“I say this on behalf of all the stutterers in the world, we have a voice, we have been heard,” Seidler said during his acceptance speech Sunday night. He also thanked his family including his daughter Maya and son Mark who grew up in Great Neck.

Seidler was originally fled with his family to America during world war II. It wasn’t until adolescence that Seidler was able to overcome his stuttering problem, going through some of the same speech therapies shown in “The Kings speech,” even stuffing marbles in his mouth while he recited words.

Seidler had no trouble giving his acceptance speech Sunday, using it to inspire others out there with speech difficulties. “People still have the archaic notion that we stutters are feebleminded simply because it is difficult for us to articulate our thoughts,” Seidler was reported saying backstage.

“I’m very proud of David, and wish him my sincerest congratulations,” said Seidler’s high school classmate, Richard Meyers.

As they go from door to door seeking support from their neighbors in the election for East Williston Village Board, the Community Party candidates say they are consistently encountering two issues at the top of most voters’ lists: rising taxes and restless teenagers.

“The biggest concern that we’ve heard is about the budget problems with New York State and the grant money that wasn’t delivered,” said Bobby Shannon, making his first run for village trustee. “The other concern I keep hearing is about the children out on the Village Green.”

Shannon, one of three Community Party candidates in the race, said he and his running mates are interested in developing ideas for safe activities for teens on the East Williston Village Green, such as a band night where local musicians might perform for free.

“We need a soft hand,” Shannon said. “You can’t have a heavy hand because they’ll just do what kids do. But at the same time, you can’t encourage situations where the village incurs liability.”

Issues about teenagers congregating on the Village Green or in the nearby Long Island Rail Road station plaza became the focal point of a series of village board meetings last summer and fall.

The independent candidate in the race for a trustee seat, Caroline DeBenedittis, said the primary concern among residents she has spoken to is the election process itself.

“The only concern some residents have brought up to me is the voting,” she said. “They are under the impression that they must vote the whole party ticket.”

DeBenedittis, who has a high profile in the village as chairperson of the East Williston Recreation Committee for the past seven years, was an unanticipated late entrant into the race.

Her primary focus is on developing new recreation programs for teenagers and improving the timeliness of information the village provides to the residents. DeBenedittis helped to create game and movie nights at the East Williston Village Hall, a program that she notes has met with middling success among village teens.

She has said she believes in “transparency in village government and acting as a steward for the residents, ensuring fiscal responsibility and accountability.”

Deputy Mayor James Daw Jr. proposed several local laws to curb the activities of teens around the Village Green, including one that would have prompted a summons for sitting on the war memorial. Ultimately, only one of Daw’s proposed statutes was enacted: a prohibition against skate boarders riding on village property, which was intended to prevent them from defacing wrought iron railings around the new East Williston Village Hall.

But residents at the meetings also criticized the behavior of police officers from the Nassau County Police Department’s 3rd Precinct. Residents said police officers were rousting their children from the train plaza for no reason and frequently using profane language in the process of ordering them to disperse.

“The treatment of teens is an issue,” said Bonnie Parente, a candidate for trustee also running on the Community Party ticket. “I am very aware that the issue needs to be further addressed. It’s not an issue that can be ignored.”

Parente, an attorney with the New York Racing Association, said there needs to be “significant improvements” on how the situation between teenagers and police officers is addressed in the future. She said she had some ideas she was ready to propose when she was in a position to do so, but declined to enumerate them.

“I find that there as many people who feel one way as do feel another,” she said. “There are very divergent opinions on this topic. It will be difficult to find a middle ground and difficult, if not impossible, to please everyone.”

David Tanner, who is running unopposed for mayor on the Community Party ticket, said he didn’t see a great deal of concern among residents about the issues that seemed to spark emotional exchanges at the village board meetings last year. However, he did indicate that he was hearing divergent opinions about the situation.

“There are quite a few residents looking to provide services to the kids when they’re out of the house for the evening and there’s also a significant group of residents who think the kids shouldn’t be hanging out,” Tanner said.

He said he believes that the primary concerns of residents in the village are predominantly financial ones.

“There are two issues,” he said. “People are really concerned about high taxes and the challenge of doing more with less.”

Tanner has touted his own record in working to improve the village’s financial profile in his 13 years of service as a trustee, noting that Moody’s had given village bonds an “A” rating when he was first on the board, while Standard & Poor’s recently fated the bonds at “AA+.”

Tanner ran for mayor after East Williston Mayor Nancy Zolezzi decided not to seek another term in office. Daw also decided not to run and Tanner’s term as trustee was up, providing two open seats Shannon, Parente and DeBenedittis to seek.

Marshalls is opening a new shoe store at the Lake Success Shopping Plaza in New Hyde Park on Thursday.

The 9,024-square foot store is the fifth of its kind that the discount retail chain has opened in New York over the past two years, according to a Marshalls spokeswoman.

The store brings approximately 60 full-time and part-time jobs to the area.

The shoe store will carry designer footwear, along with a selection of handbags, accessories, such as sunglasses and wallets, and hair and beauty products.

The design of the store itself presents a departure from the Marshalls stores most shoppers have visited. The shoe store has displays of shoes organized by sizes as other stores do, but it also features flat screen televisions, oversized mirrors and ottomans for sitting, implicitly inviting shoppers to remain in the store for longer periods of time.

The store will open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on March 3, its grand opening day. Regular store hours will be 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday.

As part of its community relations initiative, Marshalls has created national and local partnerships with charitable organizations around the country by supporting Domestic Violence Prevention and The Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.

The New Hyde Park Fire Department is receiving $6,000 in community revitalization funds from Nassau County to buy the latest generation of multi-gas detection meters.

The funds, secured through Nassau County Legislator Richard Nicollelo (R-NHP), will cover all but $2,000 of the cost for 10 multi-gas meters the department already ordered, according to New Hyde Park Fire Department Chief John Willers.

“We’re just trying to get more equipment to help us do our job,” Willers said. “The department will start to put money toward the meters.”

The county funds help replace a $10,000 state grant the fire department had secured through state Sen. Craig Johnson that was lost – although never officially rescinded – after Johnson lost his seat in the 7th state Senate District to Jack Martins last year. It was simply left in an unfunded limbo along with grants for fire departments throughout the senate district that Johnson and his staff had promised to provide.

Originally, the fire department had planned to purchase two new meters for $3,500 for two new meters and the requisite calibration and recharging equipment, according to Willers, who said the funding shortfall doesn’t really leave the department at a loss.

But he said the fire department is putting plans to purchase a new thermal-imaging camera on hold. The $10,000 state grant would have covered the cost of that camera and the new gas meters, Willers said.

“The thermal imaging camera is put to the side for now” said Willers, noting that the fire department does have two thermal-imaging cameras in use now.

Thermal imaging cameras are used to detect the presence of people in a house fire.

On the state grant front, the New Hyde Park Fire Department still has a $150,000 grant in process with the state Dormitory Authority of the State of New York to cover the cost of repairs to the parking lot of its departmental headquarters on Jericho Turnpike.

That grant was secured through Johnson, but Willers said paperwork with the state authority has been going back and forth and the department has not received notification that the grant has been rescinded.

“The parking lot repair had to be done anyway. We still have hopes,” Willers said.

The cost of the parking lot repair was approximately $100,000, according to Willers, who said the remaining $50,000 is intended for improvements to the department’s headquarters.

The New Hyde Park Village Board is making “substantial cuts” and “getting close” to presenting its annual budget for the village without laying off employees, according to Mayor Daniel Petruccio.

At Tuesday night’s board meeting, Petruccio said the board has been examining “key areas,” including personnel costs in the $5 million annual budget. After the meeting, Petruccio said the board is seeking to reduce the number of hours for some village employees as an alternative to implementing layoffs.

“We’re trying to avoid that,” Petruccio said.

The tentative budget is due to be formulated by March 20, with a budget hearing slated for April 5.

On another financial front, Petruccio criticized Gov. Andrew Cuomo for his recent remarks about capping school district superintendents’ salaries.

“The [state] government taking authority in telling school boards what to do is one step from interfering with local governments,” Petruccio said.

In his report on the building department, Trustee Lawrence Montreuil said the department is investigating “several illegal apartments” in the village.

The Herricks School District administration has been engaged in a similar effort in cooperation with the Town of North Hempstead over the past year, and Montreuil said the village and the school district occasionally share information about suspected illegal rentals in the area.

Thomas Gannon, who oversees both the building department and the village Department of Public Works, said that the DPW has been in “full swing” to repair potholes in streets throughout the village.

Gannon said the DPW has repaired more than 100 potholes over the last two weeks. He estimated that the number of potholes increased by 25 percent over last season due to this season’s heavy snowfalls and the extreme variation in temperatures during the winter season.

“It’s a rough year for the streets,” Gannon said, adding that the DPW tries to repair the potholes properly, using “hot patch” for better results.

He noted that the village’s ongoing program to repave village streets has helped to mitigate the problem.

Petruccio said that the village is close to hiring a new village clerk to replace Pat Farrell, who left to take the position of village administrator in Floral Park.

Trustee Donald Barbieri publicly thanked Farrell for his service to the village, saying that hiring Farrell was “one of the good choices we’ve been fortunate to make on this board.”

Barbieri said the board is planning to hold a day to introduce different community groups to the renovated William Gil Theater in the New Hyde Park Village Hall, a project that Farrell oversaw.

Barbieri also said auditions for youngsters age nine to 18 years old will be held on Saturday, March 12, 2:30 to 4 p.m. for a production of “The Prince Who Wouldn’t Talk” to be directed by local theater veteran Marilyn McClean.

Barbieri also noted that a state-funded Jobs Club is holding its next workshop in the Hillside Public Library on March 30 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

One of the operative theories in encouraging students to learn foreign languages is that it improves their overall reasoning ability.

That’s a point that Patricia Lennon, who directs the foreign languages program in the Sewanhaka Central High School District, emphasized in her presentation on the program at the last Sewanhaka School Board meeting.

“It improves their ability to reason and higher level thinking skills,” Lennons said, adding that the impact on students’ ability on English language exams improves measurably as a result of learning one of the romance languages.

“Research shows that score improve by 15 percent on ELA exams once a student has studied a second language because the roots of so many words come from Spanish, French and Italian,” she said.

Lennon noted that research also demonstrates SAT and AP exam scores are typically higher among students who study a second language.

Students in the respective high schools of the Sewanhaka district have the opportunity to begin learning a second language in seventh grade, and earn one high school credit upon successful completion of two years in studying that language in eighth grade. A Sewanhaka district student who starts learning a second foreign language in eighth grade gains one high-school credit when he or she completes a second year of study in ninth grade.

It’s also possible for students to fulfill their college requirement for foreign language study during the course of their high school studies.

But apart from earning credits, Lennon said that learning other languages improves students’ chances for success in the business world in the burgeoning global economy.

On an interpersonal level, Lennon said that learning other languages fosters a greater sense of acceptance and understanding about people of other cultures.

“Having tolerance for others is something that we have in our curriculum,” she said. “It helps to build understanding.”

Concluding the presentation before the school board, seventh-grade students demonstrated the progress they had made in learning the languages they were studying. A group of students spoke in French on the problems currently confronting Haiti, where French is the common language. Two 7th graders acted out a skit in Italian with their teacher. And a trio of Floral Park 7th graders sang “La Bamba,” a popular Hispanic folk song.

“Our students only began a few months ago, and they’re already to make presentations and role play,” Lennon said.

She also noted that students in Elmont now have an opportunity to starting learning Spanish at an earlier age. Elmont’s Gotham Avenue School is running a two-hour program on Saturdays for students in grades one through six.

When he started competing in the Sam Ash guitar contest last fall, New Hyde Park resident John-Joe Michael Roarty was playing an Ibanez electric guitar.

Now, after playing his way through a regional competition and winning the finals in Los Angeles in January, he owns four of them – one of them a custom Ibanez electric guitar worth more than $5,000.

“I stretch pretty far. I cover all styles,” said the 41-year-old Roarty, who started playing 30 years ago, listening to everything from Sam Cooke to Led Zeppelin.

It all happened as a matter of coincidence, to hear Roarty tell it. He was shopping in the Sam Ash store in Carle Place last September when he saw signs for the national guitar playoff contest featuring Steve Vai, a solo guitarist who happens to be Roarty’s personal favorite.

“I didn’t know that just by chance, there was a contest going on,” he said.

At a playoff in October, each of the half dozen guitarists competing had to plug in and play riffs over several Steve Vai tracks.

Roarty did his thing, won a limited edition Ibanez and a Spider IV amplifier and advanced to the regional phase at the Sam Ash store on 48th Street in Manhattan. On that stage, Roarty again triumphed over the other seven players in the competition.

“You had to perform to five or six original pieces of Steve Vai over his tracks ,” he recalled.

He won an Iabenez RG series guitar in the regional competition, and brought it with him to play in the finals in Los Angeles.

In Los Angeles on Jan. 12, he played over a Vai tune called “Juice” in a competition that he vividly recalled, both because he won and because he and his competitors were a source of mutual encouragement for one another.

“It’s amazing. I’ve been the most popular musician in my head for the past 25 years,” Roarty said. “It was really fun. All the guys were really nice. They were really very supportive.”

Now that he’s won the competition, Roarty – who works full-time as a studio producer – foresees more opportunities to work outside the studio as a musician. He also sings and has played several Christian music venues over the past several years, including Samantha’s Little Bit of Heaven, a Christian coffeehouse in East Northport.

“Now the plate is open to do a lot of stuff,” he said. “Hopefully this competition will open more doors. Mostly I’ve been cacooned in the

studio.”

Winning the competition also means promotional opportunities – perhaps with Ibanez guitars, he said.

Samples of his guitar licks can be heard online at www.soulandemotion.com.

Ironically, he might not have developed his ability on the guitar if his mother had permitted him to follow his initial percussive instincts when he wanted to learn to play the drums instead.

He did start to diversify musically when he started attending New Hyde Park Memorial High School in his sophomore year, playing drums and bass in bands there under the tutelage of Robert Evans, who is now retired.

Now, Roarty is excited about what his musical future may hold.

“I’m a solo artist. I could be in any situation,” he said.

For The Great Neck News Editorial Page

“It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good.” – Sir Walter Scott

To call Mr. Glickman a windbag for his continued rants tearing down the Village of Great Neck Plaza and its officials does not suffice.

In this week’s letter (February 25), Mr. Glickman attempted to play with the “Experienced, Dedicated, Effective” tagline on the posters of the currently running VGNP officials. Let me turn the tables a bit, as Mr. Glickman is also “Experienced, Dedicated, Effective.”

Experienced: Mr. Glickman is clearly experienced at writing weekly tirades, endeavoring to pit folks in our village against one another.

Dedicated: Mr. Glickman is dedicated to negativity. His persistence in spewing this negativity is monumental.

Effective: Mr. Glickman is effective in displaying pettiness and mockery against both the process and the officials who work for the betterment of the Village of Great Neck Plaza and its residents.

Mr. Glickman clearly wants to “talk the talk,” but where is he when it’s time to “walk the walk”? Our village has numerous committees that work to address many of the issues that Mr. Glickman harps on, but when those committees meet, paralysis sets in, as he is nowhere to be seen. Government by name-calling. Vitriol on demand. Invective and vituperation. That’s Mr. Glickman’s game.

Frankly, I remain nonplussed that The Great Neck News continues to give weekly coverage to Mr. Glickman’s negative advertising campaign. Rather, they should charge him for advertising space! Maybe they print Mr. Glickman’s petty and insulting pieces because they have excess space to fill.

So, dear readers, if you’ve read enough of Mr. Glickman’s invective and have something of value to say, please write to The Great Neck News in droves so Mr. Blank won’t have space to publish anything further of Mr. Glickman’s sensationalist journalism approach to good government.

Muriel Pfeifer

Great Neck

Running unopposed and heading for his eighth term, Village of Thomaston Mayor Robert Stern said a tax increase is not likely for residents in the near future and a tax cut is even a possibility before his time in office comes to an end.

“I think they won’t see a tax increase for the next five years,” said Stern. “With any luck, I don’t think they will ever see a tax increase again unless it costs a lot by normal inflation.”

In the near future, the longtime Thomaston mayor said he hopes to eliminate $1.3 million in village debt and $150,000 in annual interest payments – regardless of how bad the economy outside the village might become.

“In two years we will wipe it out,” said Stern. “That’s going to happen.”

Currently serving as Great Neck’s second-oldest mayor to Saddle Rock’s Mayor J. Leonard Samansky, Stern, 85, said his time in office has been a learning process that has provided him with an opportunity to make a difference in the community he has called home since serving overseas in the U.S. Army during World War II.

After retiring as a retail businessman, Stern worked part-time as a teacher with Great Neck schools before turning his full attention to public service.

“I decided I was going to succeed at this job and that required all of my effort,” said Stern, who has been happy to serve. “I haven’t got the ability to change the world or Nassau County, but in Thomaston I’m lucky, I get my dreams fulfilled here.”

Stern said he decided to run for mayor in 1996 at the request of a relative with a small child who was concerned that a proposed village ordinance might eliminate some sidewalks from Thomaston streets.

In recent months, Stern has battled the Long Island Railroad against proposed construction of a pocket track extension which would run through a part of the village. The mayor said in the coming months he will continue to stand with residents concerned about the affects of the track on the community.

“We’re going it fight it as hard as we can,” said Stern. “It ought to be built in a sensible way.”

Later this year Stern plan’s to expand the village road crew by adding one full-time and one part-time employee. With the extra help, Stern said a village beautification project will be completed in the spring.

The recruitment of new businesses to the village is also a top priority of the Stern’s. “I’ll help them every way I can help them.”

Now 15 years since first assuming office in Thomaston, the once-targeted sidewalks remain and Stern said he has become wiser.

“It has taken me many, many years to find out what the village needs and where the money needs to be spent,” said Stern, who got involved because he thought he could outperform his predecessor.

“It’s not real exciting stuff that we do. However, we serve a purpose and I thought I could do better and that’s why I did it.”

Polls will be open March 15 from noon to 9 p.m. in Thomaston.

Also running unopposed in Thomaston are current village board trustees Gary Noren and Steven Weinberg.

With three candidates running unopposed, this year’s election in Great Neck Plaza promises to offer more of the same in terms of village representation.

Long-time Trustee Gerry Schneiderman and recently-appointed Trustee Marion Green, each running without opposition, have offered few new ideas as they head for what appears to be certain re-election.

“I kind of feel it’s a continuation of my volunteer service that I have done my whole life,” said Green, who like Schneiderman, earns $10,000 per year as a trustee.

Unlike some Great Neck villages, where elected officials serve without pay, Great Neck Plaza features some of the highest paid, non-volunteer board positions on the peninsula. In the Plaza, the deputy mayor is paid $12,500 and the mayor takes home $40,000 annually for their part-time positons.

Elected officials in Thomaston, Kings Point and Great Neck Estates take home no pay.

A former Great Neck school teacher for 33 years, Green was appointed to the board of trustees in March by Village of Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender after the resignation of former Trustee Rafe Lieber.

“I see democracy working and it’s wonderful,” said Green, who has never faced an opponent in a board of trustees race.

The lack of candidates, which Green said is not good for the village, could be due to the time constraints of the job.

“I think the reason, in my mind, is that the younger people don’t have time [to run],” she said.

Green is a proponent of mixed-use zoning and she said village revitalization is one of the major issues facing the Plaza in the coming years.

A resident of the Plaza for two decades after moving from Queens, Green has served on the village Board of Zoning Appeals and the Historic Preservation Commission, the Great Neck Coop Condo Council and she is a 10-year member of the Institutional Review Board at North Shore-LIJ hospital.

Green said she and the other members of the Plaza board of trustees, all members of the United Residents Party, work well together.

“We are of one mind in trying to address the needs of the village,” Green said.

Also running uncontested this year is Schneiderman, a village resident for 40 years and a board of trustees member since 2000.

Schneiderman, a retired businessman, said he is also in favor of mixed-use zoning, which he said would help revitalize the village.

“You want people to be active and moving around in the downtown in the evening,” Schneiderman said.

When pressed by Blank Slate Media on his position regarding the proposed Thomaston pocket track extension by the Long Island Railroad, which could impact the Plaza, Schneiderman deflected the question at first.

“I think I would differ to Mayor Celender on it,” he said. “It’s too deep a topic.”

After some prodding, the candidate expounded on the issue further, stating that the pocket track would be good for the region, but further discussion is needed before a final decision is made.

“I think it would benefit the entire peninsula,” said Schneiderman.

Schneiderman served as chairman of the board of zoning appeals from 1982 to 2000. He is currently the village representative to the Nassau County Village Officers Association and the Great Neck Business Circle and is the liaison to the Great Neck Village Officials Association.

According to Schneiderman, being a trustee is the “best job” he’s ever had but it’s “time consuming.”

“People with young families can’t do it,” Schneiderman said. “Conservatively, I’m out six to eight evenings per month.”

Schneiderman is currently researching a project which he said could reduce residential gas bills by 8 percent in the village and an additional 12 to 13 percent for commercial users.

No decision has been made by the board of trustees regarding the gas proposal, which was briefly introduced by Schneiderman at a public meeting Feb. 16.

Uncontested races are not the norm for the Plaza. In the last five years, there has been only one uncontested race – that being in 2009.

Last March, three United Residents Party members defeated three Citizens For Plaza Reform Party members in contested races for trustee and mayoral spots.

In the 2010 village trustee race, Ted Rosen received 604 votes. Pamela Marsksheid’s received 600 votes. Michael Glickman received 402 votes and Scott Schwartz tallied the least number of votes at 394.

Celender defeated mayoral candidate Stu Hochron by 189 votes last March.

After being soundly defeated last year, Glickman, a sharp critic of the current administration, and Schartz each did not enter the race this year.

Incumbent Plaza Justice Neil Finkston of the United Residents Party will also be running unopposed.

Finkston, a village justice since April of last year, is a partner with the law firm of Hertzfeld & Rubin, P.C., specializing in appellate litigation.