Michael Fragin looks back as a trustee on the Lawrence board

On the Lawrence village board since 2008, as a trustee appointed by then mayor C. Simon Felder, to serving as a deputy mayor for a few years under current municipal leader Alex Edelman, Michael Fragin has helped navigate Lawrence through a few challenges.

“I believe in volunteerism, public service,” Fragin said, about why he wanted to be a trustee. “It’s an opportunity to make your community better.”

After serving nearly eight two-year terms, Fragin, who is term limited, attended his last board meeting as a trustee on June 8, where received accolades and a plaque for his service.

Fragin, 49, has lived in Lawrence since 1999, where he and his wife raised half a dozen children. Other family members also moved to Lawrence and neighboring Cedarhurst. He is a real estate investor and political consultant.

“I look back on the 16 years,” Fragin said, of being a trustee, “still an incredible demand to live in the village of Lawrence.”

He called Lawrence a “premier community” and noted that the primarily Orthodox Jewish community has “access to excellent yeshivas, a diversity of synagogues.”

Touting the summer weather, he said he “doesn’t decamp for the summer.” “I think summer is delightful in the village,” said Fragin, who is a golf-playing member of the village owned and operated Lawrence Yacht & Country Club.

Challenges overcome

Not long into his tenure on the board, Fragin and his fellow trustees were thrust into a debate over the decommissioning of the village’s sewage treatment plant.

“Incredibly controversial at the time,” he said, adding that “people were very vociferous,” about it thinking there was a “underhanded deal with the county.”

Nassau County wanted Lawrence and Cedarhurst to shutdown their plants and send the villages’ effluent by pipe to the Bay Park Treatment Plant.

“That has literally saved the village millions of dollars,” Fragin said. “Not just on an operating basis, but also we got a very advantageous bond. It’s paid incredible dividends to the taxpayers.”

The nearly 4 acres Lawrence retained was sold for $8.5 million and it is expected that several one-family homes will be built after the deal is finalized.

Oct. 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy struck.

“Lived through Sandy, easily the most trying time. Without a doubt,” Fragin said, noting that it is difficult to be an elected official with people constantly registering many types of complaints and concerns, and there are times you can help and other you cannot.

“With Sandy we were powerless, literally, there was no power,” he said. “There was no communications. Nothing was functioning. There were no lights in the village. There were no traffic lights. Every municipality was competing for resources. It was an incredible challenge. I was in Village Hall every day, we had a generator set up, trying to get resources.”

He credits then Mayor Martin Oliner for doing a tremendous job of addressing the issue of Lawrence and the Five Towns being forgotten. Fragin recounted the protests at the Long Island Power Authority offices and recalled that the antiquated dispatching slowed the restoration of power.    

Calling it “depressing,” he said the village bounced back strongly, which included a makeover of the country club’s clubhouse, the installation of a new heating system and replacing, at no cost to village taxpayers, its fleet of  damaged golf carts.

In March of 2020, Lawrence like the entire world faced the Covid-19 pandemic. With less control, village officials dealt with the issues. Fragin called the mandates to stay out of houses of worship “arbitrary” and noted that a lesson learned is Lawrence should webcast its meetings as the public should be aware of village business that impacts their lives.

Governing a village

Having run for re-election several times, Fragin, like many politicians, run on a platform of aiming to improve services. At times it could appear that the Lawrence village board could be at odd ends and other times in sync.

“The thing with a five-person board is you try, especially in a small village, you try to achieve consensus, and I think sometimes it’s hard to achieve consensus,” Fragin said.

He noted that Felder, a Holocaust survivor, was a Five Towns pioneer, becoming the first Orthodox Jewish person to get involved with Lawrence village government. As well as Oliner who was born in a displaced persons camp after the Holocaust. Fragin listed the many people he has served with as well.

“I’ve had the opportunity over the years to serve with really great people,” he said. “People whop really want to give back. There were significant disagreements on different issues. I think everybody should be commended for the hard work they have done over the years.”

Looking back at his first years on the board, Fragin said that before that there was a tradition of “never disagreeing” and that is not health for democracy, he noted. Adding that he is an advocate for transparency, Fragin agrees with the point of a question that both the public and even elected officials need to be more fully versed in how certain government department and related laws work.

“I take the idea of spending the people’s money extremely seriously,” he said. “I’m frugal with the people’s money. There are no perks. No free golf even.”

Governing is about balance, Fragin said.

“Like with every decision you make in government there are going to be people who are really happy with it and there are going top be some people who’ll be less happy,” Fragin said, noting that with other issues the village has to deal with, such as building developments, that having multiple layers of government that don’t act together is a problem. 

On the flip side, as a point of political pride, he noted that Lawrence is the most Republican municipality in the state and supported the candidacies of Rep. Anthony D’Espositio, County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Town of Hempstead Supervisor Don Clavin.

Now taking a step back, how does he wants to be remembered?

“I want to be remembered as the kind of person you called up if you need help, I’m there to help you,” said the 26-year member of Hatzalah of the Rockaways & Nassau, a volunteer ambulance corps.