By JEFF LIPTON
“I was quite pleased,” said Manning of his 196-86 victory at the polls on Dec. 9 over his opponent, Bruce Frumer. “The voters realized that I was the person with more experience, and they had the confidence in me to re-elect me.
“I'm very happy with what I got,” he said of his vote total. The board of commissioners is responsible for handling all finances for the fire district, as well as setting policy and establishing regulations.
Manning, 66, of Point Lookout, will begin serving his second five-year term on the board on Jan. 1. But he has already begun to roll up his sleeves and get to work.
“The first thing the organization needs is to restructure the committees and restructure the people working for the district,” said Manning, who has been serving as board chairman.
He added that salaries will be adjusted for some of the employees in the district, but would not elaborate. Manning said he “wouldn't mind” remaining as board chairman, adding, “I'm certainly not campaigning for it.”
As a local general contractor in the community, Manning said he is readily accessible and capable of handling “any situation that may arise. I can be reached right away, in 10 or 15 minutes. That's advantageous to the district. The flexibility in my work schedule allows for it.” He said one of his main goals remains to try to increase and retain the volunteer firefighters. He said many families can't afford to rent or buy a home in the community and end up leaving, reducing the fire department's ranks.
“The young adults can't afford the rent even though they are working two or three jobs and their wives are working while raising a family,” said Manning, whose daughter attends Hofstra University and son attends Long Beach High School.
“A big problem is that we don't have much of a blue-collar working-class down here,” he added. Another priority in his next term will be to fix up the fire stations, hopefully doing it with government grants rather than taxpayer money. “We already pay high taxes down here,” he said.
Since he won re-election, several residents have called to congratulate him. “It's a very warm community,” he said.
Frumer, 53, of Lido Beach, who ran for elected office for the first time, said he carried Lido but lost big in Manning's home turf of Point Lookout.
“I wasn't able to break his hold in that area,” he said, calling the turnout ”significant.”
“Twice as many people [from Point Lookout] showed up to vote,” Frumer said.
He said if he could change one thing during the election process, he would probably have started his campaign much earlier.
“I don't know if I will run again a year from now,” Frumer said. “I will worry about it then.”
In December 2009, one-term incumbent Steven Weitz is up for re-election.
Terri Ryan, the district secretary, said a total of 302 people voted, adding that some ballots were disregarded because they were not filled out correctly. Those, she said, would not have made a difference in deciding a winner. Even though there are about 4,000 registered voters in the district, Ryan said, “it was a pretty good turnout” for that election.
“When people think that an incumbent is doing a good job, they just don't bother to come out and vote,” Ryan said. “I'm just glad that everything ran smoothly.”
Manning's term on the five-member board will run through Dec. 31, 2013.
Comments about this story? Jlipton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
