Election near, Sani2 candidates talk trash

Vote to choose 2 commissioners is July 31

Posted

Following the death of Dennis Meekins in January, Carl DeHaney Jr. was appointed to Sanitary District No. 2’s Board of Commissioners in April. Three months later, DeHaney is seeking to win the seat outright, but is being challenged by two longtime Baldwin residents, Mike Guerriere and Ralph Rose, in the commissioners’ election on July 31.

The winner will serve the remaining four years in the seat Meekins won last summer. Brian O’Connor, who has been a commissioner for 12 years, is seeking re-election to a five-year term and is running unopposed.

Carl DeHaney
DeHaney, a Roosevelt resident who is active in the community, said his name initially came up in the spring, mentioned as someone who might take over Meekins’s seat to give the Roosevelt community a voice on the board. Now, DeHaney said, he is running to finsh what he started.

“I think it brings an integrity to the board,” he said of having a Roosevelt resident as a commissioner. “I want to represent the community. I think it’s long overdue to have a Roosevelt resident on the board.”

DeHaney said he would like to broaden the scope of Sani2’s programs, like Operation Shed the Meds and Big Sweep, to more fully involve the other communities the district serves — parts of Roosevelt, Uniondale, Freeport, South Hempstead, Rockville Centre and Oceanside.

It is important for a Roosevelt resident to be elected, he added, “just to show that the commission is willing to be equal and inclusive of the other communities that pay taxes to the district.”

Mike Guerriere
A Baldwin resident since 1986, Guerriere (pronouned gary-air) said he has made a connection with the community and wants to further his service to it. His home was hit hard by both Tropical Storm Irene and Hurricane Sandy, and each time he and his family had to gut its lower level. But Guerriere said the workers of Sani2 made the job easier by quickly taking away the home’s contents. “When they came and took all that stuff away, it was an amazing feeling,” he said.

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