By Jason Scheer
One resident is up for the challenge.
Laura Mallay, president of the South Hempstead Civic Association, has thrown her hat into the political arena. She will challenge Gerard Brown, the incumbent, whose first five-year term expires on July 31.
Mallay, 34, is campaigning on a platform of dissolving the district and incorporating it into the Town of Hempstead Refuse and Garbage District. Thus, her goal is to get rid of the very position she is running for.
Mallay said that Sanitary District No. 2, which collects $9 million in taxes and encompasses Baldwin, Roosevelt, South Hempstead and parts of Uniondale, north Rockville Centre, Oceanside and Freeport, is just too expensive for the residents. "This is not a personal issue," she said. "This is a survival issue. People are getting taxed out of their homes."
A petition signed by a majority of the residents served by the district is needed in order to move ahead with the dissolution process. The petition is being put together, Mallay said, and she will be distributing it soon.
Mallay's discontent with Sanitary District No. 2 stems from a March 31 meeting with Nassau County Assessor Harvey Levinson, who recently launched his campaign for town supervisor on a platform of dissolving sanitary districts. During the meeting, which included representatives of various civic associations, Levinson explained the disparity in sanitary district taxes throughout the Town of Hempstead.
"He let us know how much we were paying and how we were paying practically double compared with what residents in the Town Of Hempstead [Refuse and Garbage District] are paying," Mallay said.
An owner of a $350,000 house in Sanitary District No. 2 pays $612 in taxes. The owner of the same house, if it were located in the Town of Hempstead's garbage district, would pay $311. With that knowledge in hand, Mallay and other South Hempstead residents began delving deeper into the situation. "We did as much investigating as we possibly could," she said. "We spoke to union leaders, to workers and reached out to politicians. Anybody that we've approached, the only solution that they have given us [to reduce taxes] is to dissolve the district."
If the petition falls short, Mallay said she is prepared to work as a commissioner to reduce taxes. She says it is just a matter of having a concerned resident in the position to make a change. "Maybe there is another alternative," she said. "Maybe there is something that we could do to reduce the taxes. But we don't know, because we're on the outside."
Mallay added that she feels that Roosevelt and South Hempstead are not adequately represented. All five current commissioners -- Brown, John A. Cools, Dennis J. Meekins, LeRoy W. Roberts and Brian F. O'Connor -- are Baldwin residents.
Brown is a lifelong Baldwinite who began his first term as commissioner in August 2000. He is also a commissioner of the Baldwin Fire Department and a volunteer emergency medical technician, and lives in the village with his wife, Cheryl, and daughters Tara and Lindsey. He participated in the highly successful alternate-side-of-the-street parking pilot program and the district's soon-to-be-commenced anti-litter campaign.
The election will be held on Thursday, July 28, between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m., at three polling places: the district office building, at 2090 Grand Ave. in Baldwin; the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary's gymnasium, at 169 Centennial Ave. in Roosevelt; and the Covert Avenue School, at Long Beach Road and Willow Street in South Hempstead.
Comments about this story? JScheer@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 282.
