Community News

Franklin Square residents start civic association

Posted

Over the course of a few months, starting in January, several Franklin Square residents filed paperwork with New York state to become incorporated as a civic association. On April 9, the state approved the papers, and the Franklin Square Civic Association was born.

The group’s goal is to help maintain the quality of life in Franklin Square. It plans to host a variety of community events and meetings, and to urge residents to participate in activities including family movie nights in Rath Park, similar to those in Manhattan’s Central Park. The organization will also have a booth at the Kiwanis Street Fair on June 5.

West Hempstead/Franklin Square Girl Scout Troop 1257 co-leader Christy McKenna, along with other troop leaders, began the Adopt the Pike project in 2015. It has grown into an ongoing effort to clean up and beautify Franklin Square’s downtown area, along Hempstead Turnpike. As the project expanded, McKenna and her fellow troop leaders were inundated with inquiries from residents asking how they could help. They, too, had noticed that despite the troops’ efforts, some local officials and business owners didn’t seem to pay much attention to the appearance of storefronts and sidewalks on the turnpike.

The level of interest led McKenna to believe that the time had come to form a civic association, and the feedback she has gotten from the community has been overwhelmingly positive. She has two children who attend John Street Elementary, a daughter in fifth grade and a son in third grade. At a recent school event, other parents approached her and asked how they could get involved in the new organization.

“Overall, they just seemed happy that there’s a place for them to go to, because so many people want to do things for the town and they want to get involved and bring the town together,” she said. “By having this avenue, it’s a way for them to be able to do that.”

With only the Morton Civic Association operating in the Dogwood section of Franklin Square, McKenna saw the need to create a more expansive group that could assess the needs of every resident in the community. Localized civic associations are common in the area: Elmont has no fewer than five, each one focused on a neighborhood.

In Franklin Square, they are not as prevalent, but that is changing, McKenna said. “You started seeing the outpouring of support from residents, business owners, local organizations that were all excited about us doing it, and it led us to wanting to do more,” said McKenna, who is now president of the Franklin Square Civic Association. “With the Girl Scouts, we could only go so far, and now the residents wanted to get involved.”

McKenna connected with Bill Youngfert, fourth vice president of the Franklin Square Chamber of Commerce. Youngfert, who has experience dealing with businesses and an expertise in finance, worked with McKenna to found the new organization. Over the course of several meetings, they and other residents worked on writing bylaws for the group as well as securing insurance.

Youngfert, who is also a member of the Franklin Square Library board and works at Nassau Educators Federal Credit Union, now serves as the civic association’s treasurer. “It seems to be an idea that everybody was ready for,” he said. “People signed up already just from hearing word of mouth from neighbors … It’s been really great. Everyone’s embracing the idea that we’re going to work together and try to make this great town an even greater town.”

The association will hold its first official meeting on June 13, at 7 p.m., at the library. Officers will be sworn in by Judge Joseph Calabrese. For more information, visit www.franklinsquarecivicassociation.com.