Candidates announce challenge to mayor, two village trustees

With the village election just two months away, three residents officially announced their candidacies on Monday for mayor and trustee. Marty Zirpolo, Johanna David-Young and Ingrid Izaguirre will challenge Mayor Ed Fare and Trustees Vincent Grasso and Dermond Thomas.

“People who are living in our town, they’re upset the way the issues are,” Zirpolo said, “and they’re saying, ‘Please tell me how you’re gonna fix this,’ you know? They don’t want to hear political B.S. anymore. ‘Solve my problems. Protect my investment.’ That’s what they really want to hear.”

The proposed slate of candidates must collect at least 100 signatures from registered voters in the village and present them at Village Hall by February 11 to make it on the ballot.

Zirpolo, a security consultant for high-profile buildings in Manhattan, is a longtime Valley Stream resident who spent 17 years working in the village’s Recreation Department. That’s one of the areas of life in Valley Stream he said he would like to improve.

“There’s no bowling alley, no movie theater. Parents say they have to leave Valley Stream to find recreation for their kids,” said Zirpolo, who touts his experience creating a roller hockey league and other programs during his years with the department.

Sitting in the dining room of Ellen Ingber and Larry Fox, their campaign organizers, the candidates — a Democratic ticket opposing Fare, a Republican, and Democrats Grasso and Thomas — voiced their concerns about the direction in which the village seems to be headed. Development of Valley Stream’s downtown, and the construction of what they described as out-of-place and unviable apartment buildings on Sunrise Highway and proposed for North Central Avenue, are a focal point of their campaign.

“I’ve seen how the area is changing, and it’s not a good change,” said Izaguirre, an eight-year resident of Valley Stream’s West End. Having had a friend in the village before she moved here, she said she has been familiar with the area since 1992, and has noticed a decline.