The Garden City Park Fire and Water district commissioner race appears to have been won by 1 vote, with Rob Mirabile defeating Joe Wendling in the Tuesday election, the district said.
The numbers are unofficial and will be finalized at the Tuesday commissioner meeting, the district said. A total of 303 votes were submitted in the race, according to the district.
Janell Giordano was elected commissioner for the Albertson Water District in a race she was unopposed.
Mirabile first became chief of the Garden City Park Fire Department in 1991 when he joined Hillside Heights Engine Co. 3.
Professionally, he works with the department of public safety at Adelphi University, operates the food truck Roscoe’s Roadside serving old-fashioned hot dogs and is a content creator on YouTube for Axle’s Garage.
The Garden City Park Fire and 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.
“I’ve held every rank over the years including chief of the department,” said Mirabile in a previous interview with Blank Slate Media. “I have intimate knowledge of how the board of commissioners interacts with the chiefs and rest of the department.”
The New Hyde Park native said he wants to give the department the space and resources necessary to do its job.
“Sometimes I saw that the board would overstep and run the department instead of the chiefs,” Mirabile said. “I feel that the chief who’s elected by the members of the department should be running it and have the board provide resources he or she needs.”
Mirabile defeated Wendling, a resident of the district for 52 years, who said he’s running with the main priorities of safety and responsible spending.
“I will do our best to serve our community, keep our water safe and healthy and prevent both unnecessary expenditures and building in our district,” Wendling said.
Professionally, Wendling is a private investigator for the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District, the same role he held for Herricks over a decade ago.
Wendling is a former NYPD detective, a position he retired from in 1987 after over 18 years on the police force after having enlisted in the Marines in 1966. On top of his police service, Wendling was previously the director of operations of Mount St. Michael’s Academy in the Bronx.
Giordano is new to the position and she will replace Kenneth Vey. She works as a real estate salesperson for Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
The Albertson Water District serves a diverse community and provides water to both residential and commercial sites, with a daily capacity of 7.7 million gallons. About 4.5% of their 4,069 connections are commercial in nature.
