By:Jeff Lipton
Harry Taubenfeld, who has served in Village of Cedarhurst government for almost three decades, the last 12 as trustee, has announced that he will step down in the summer.
Taubenfeld said he will retire as trustee either July 1 or Aug. 1, when he moves to Westchester, which is closer to his grandchildren.
"Besides, I've held the office of trustee a long-enough time. It's time for me to step aside for a younger person [on the board]," said Taubenfeld, who turns 72 this month. He said he will commute from his new home to his Cedarhurst law practice, Zuckerbrod and Taubenfeld, which has been operating for 42 years.
Taubenfeld's decision to leave the board marks the second time in two months that a village trustee has decided to move out of the area. At the end of April, John Teramo, a trustee since 1995, stepped down because he, too, changed his address. He will maintain a home in Georgia and upstate New York.
Cedarhurst Mayor Andrew Parise filled Teramo's unexpired term with Ron Lanzilotta, an architect who has worked in different departments in village government, including as a longtime member of the Board of Zoning Appeals.
The mayor also will appoint a replacement for Taubenfeld, whose four-year term expires in 2003. The mayor said it will not be easy to fill Taubenfeld's shoes after relying on him for so many years for his legal expertise.
"For municipal affairs, I've leaned on him many times," Parise said. "I'm not an attorney and I used his knowledge in the municipal field.
"Harry has been one of the pillars of this community for many, many years," Parise also said. "I'm saddened to see him leave. He'll be a tough guy to replace."
Parise said it is fortunate that another trustee, Benjamin Weinstock, has law expertise and he will count on Weinstock for that knowledge.
Taubenfeld started out almost 30 years ago as a village prosecutor and then became a village attorney for about a dozen years before winning a seat as a trustee. He was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Julius Schneider and subsequently won re-election three times.
"It's an emotional thing," Taubenfeld said of his leaving the village, where he has lived for more than 36 years. "I really do love the village and I love serving it in all capacities."
Besides his duties in Cedarhurst, he also served as the village's representative to TVASNAC (Town-Village Aircraft Safety and Noise Abatement Committee), which has guarded against excessive jets flying over the Five Towns and surrounding communities. In addition, he was on the Nassau County Village Officials Association, including a stint as its president, the first trustee to be elected to the post.
During his tenure, he was instrumental in helping to rejuvenate the business district and converting it from a six- to a seven-day-a-week village with many more stores open on Sunday. Also, village parking has been increased in the past decade to help promote the business community and he helped push for free parking in the municipal lots on weekends.
"We went through and are going through a transition in the type of community that Cedarhurst is," Taubenfeld said. "If anything, our best achievement was keeping taxes quite low.
"We really have had a good board," he said. "We worked together to see that problems were solved properly. We have maintained a very desirable community for people to live in."
Parise said he will be accepting resumes from trustee applicants. "It's going to be hard to find a guy like [Harry], with that kind of dedication to the community and his experience. Where could you get that today?"
To be considered as a trustee, one's qualifications should include some knowledge of different facets of government, such as legal and architectural, with a familiarity of the village building code.
