By Jonann Brady
For the five-year seat the candidates are Tom Forte, the incumbent from South Hempstead, John Cools of Baldwin, and Teri George Thar of South Hempstead.
For the two-year seat the candidates are Ron Gilchrist, the incumbent from Roosevelt, Linda Degen of Baldwin, Brian O'Connor of Baldwin, Wilbert Payne of Roosevelt, and Ralph Rose of Baldwin.
Voting will take place on Thursday, May 25 between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. at the District Office at 2080 Grand Ave. in Baldwin, the Centennial Avenue School in Roosevelt, and the May Street Firehouse in South Hempstead.
Teri George Thar
Teri George Thar, a 30-year resident of South Hempstead, has also announced her candidacy for the Sanitary District No. 2 five-year seat. Thar works as director of school safety at World Wide Security, a fire and burglar alarm company. She is also member of the South Hempstead Civic Association and was chairperson of the committee that brought welcome banners to South Hempstead. She and her husband have two children and five grandchildren.
Thar says that she was saved her own company hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years and believes with her management experience, she would be an asset to the board.
"I don't stop until [a project] is completed," said Thar, 62. "There are always obstacles, but I'm able to deal with all the personalities and accomplish the mission."
Like other candidates, Thar wants to institute more quality-of-life initiatives, such as the Keep America Beautiful program, and would especially like to create similar programs to help senior citizens and handicapped residents.
"There are a lot of senior citizens in the area and they need help getting rid of things. There should be a program to allow them a special pick-up, say, once a year," said Thar.
Thar also believes that code enforcement needs to be beefed up, especially for businesses.
"There's a lot of motivating to be done," said Thar, who calls herself a "great motivator."
When asked how she would light a fire under business owners to keep their properties clean, Thar said that she would use local media to highlight businesses that do both a good job and poor job with sanitation issues. If that didn't work, Thar said she would pay a personal visit to the business to talk to the owner.
Thar also said that after looking at past minutes of sanitation board meetings, she believes that the board needs to do a better job of carrying projects to fruition.
"The board needs better follow up on issues raised by the public and other municipalities," said Thar.
Though she admits she is relatively new to sanitation issues, Thar says she is energetic and will listen to district residents, research their problems and be "part of the solution."
Wilbert C. Payne
Wilbert C. Payne of Roosevelt has announced he will run for the two-year seat. Before his retirement three years ago, Payne was contract administrator with the Department of Defense, where he negotiated contracts valued at $221 million.
Payne is vice chairman of the Roosevelt Assistance Corporation, and as a Vietnam veteran, he is active in the American Legion. He has also been active in a number of Roosevelt community groups such as the Lions Club, the Town of Hempstead Roosevelt Economic Development Task Force, and the Coalition of Roosevelt Civic Organizations.
Payne, 65, agrees with the incumbent, Ron Gilchrist, that Roosevelt needs representation on the sanitation board, and his mission is to restore a better quality of life to the entire district.
"As far a trash pick up, there's not a heck of a lot you can improve," he said. "My goal is to improve the quality of life. Thirty years ago, it was a different environment both environmentally as well as pride in the community. I want to reintroduce that pride."
Payne believes the sanitation needs to reach out to new businesses, especially owners of bodegas in Roosevelt, and introduce the store owners to the rules and regulations of sanitation.
"Streets don't get themselves dirty, people do," said Payne.
Payne says he is very visible in the community and would like to make people more aware of what the sanitation commission does.
Though he says he needs to do more research on personnel policies, Payne would also like to see more open recruitment for sanitation jobs and investigate which part-time jobs turn into full-time jobs.
Payne says he is aware of "some unhappy employees" within the department and would like to open the lines of communication to see that change.
Calling himself a fiscal conservative, Payne says that his experience negotiating multi-million dollar contracts would serve the commission well.
"I've dealt with budgets, I understand how municipalities work, and I've supervised a lot of people," said Payne.
