Franklin Square Civic Association holds inaugural meeting

Residents and locals show their support for the new group

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The meeting room in Franklin Square’s Public Library was filled with citizens from different areas of the community as the Franklin Square Civic Association held its first public meeting. President of the civic association, Christy McKenna opened the meeting by going over their mission statement.

“Our mission is to help maintain and enhance the quality of life in the Franklin Square community,” McKenna said. “We plan to do this by organizing events for all ages that unify our community.”

McKenna, co-leader for Franklin Square Girl Scout Troop 1257, has waited for this moment since January when residents began filing paperwork to New York State to officially make them a civic association.

“We had a lot of people come and I was really happy with the turnout,” McKenna said. “I really think that everyone is excited for what we’re doing. We’re going to roll with that excitement and hopefully we put it into action to make the community what we want it to be.”

The inguinal meeting included notable groups and people like Judge Joseph C. Calabrese from Nassau County, members from the Franklin Square and Munson Fire Department, the Franklin Square Historical Society, and several local businesses.

“We wanted to reach out to the community and we saw that the room was packed,” Bill Youngfert said, treasurer for the civic association. “It was a great groundswell of support so I think we have a great thing going. It’s only going to get better from here on end.”

Youngfert later explained that their next public meeting will not be until September so as for now, they will be in the process of setting up by-laws and regulations for the board members. McKenna pointed out that they’re mainly focused on figuring out what concerns the town has.

“Right now, we’re looking at what the issues are,” McKenna said. “We have to assess what they are, we have to get a pulse of the community and then once we gather that information, we’ll move forward and delegate which avenue that needs to be addressed.”

One of the common issues that was mentioned at the meeting is the overall coverage of the civic association. People from places like Garden City explained that they have received very little information about the civic association itself.

“We heard tonight that there are a number of facets of our community that are not being reached,” Youngfert said. “We really have to address reaching out to those people, letting them know that they can be a part of this group and we’ll do that in lots of different ways. Our website is up so hopefully people will start hearing about us through that too.”

McKenna hopes that people who attended the inaugural meeting will spread the news to their friends and neighbors by word of mouth and through the use of social media.

“I’m hoping that a lot of people are going to be heading home after this meeting and talking about it with their neighbors, families and friends and that the word will just spread,” McKenna said. “We’re also going to look at having some of the troops go out and actually put applications for memberships in people’s mailboxes and continue to put it in the newspaper. It’s on Facebook and it went through all three elementary schools. We’re really just trying to figure out what’s the best way to get the information out.”

Nancy Youngfert, board member for the civic association hopes that they can make it easier for residents to communicate with town officials.

“I want to be able to take these young people to interact with the government,” Youngfert said. “That’s the way we’re going to get stuff done.”

Pat Galaskas, member of the Franklin Square Historical Society has lived in Franklin Square since 1942. She also feels that the civic association can bridge the gap between the town officials and residents of the community.

“We have so many people that are doing great things in the community,” Galaskas said. “We have groups like the fire department, the historical society, and the library but they have never had an outlet to connect with. This organization can be the connector.”