Business Improvement District in Glen Cove has a new director

After five years as executive director of Glen Cove’s Business Improvement District, Patricia Holman is passing the leadership to Jill Nossa, the BID’s former assistant director. Nossa’s new role is something of a natural progression, given her knowledge of the city, as a former editor at Herald Community Newspapers, and her work with the BID, which began in 2021. The 45-year-old is well prepared to manage one of the city’s most vital organizations.

“I’ve kind of hit the ground running, taking over and continuing what needs to be done,” Nossa said. “Especially right now, with Downtown Sounds” — a free concert series every July and August — “and then every other thing that we do as the BID, which is a lot.”

Part of Nossa’s focus will be determining which businesses still face hardships in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. She plans to continue an outreach effort, she said, to see what businesses need to thrive again, and added that she believes the best solution is to continue networking businesses with one another and the BID.

“Sometimes you learn just having that sense of community, 

knowing your neighbors and helping them to connect — they might find more stability and resources that way,” Nossa said. “That’s our goal. We want our businesses downtown to not just survive, not just hang on. We want them to be doing well. We want them to thrive.”

The BID’s goal is to attract shoppers to Glen Cove’s downtown. It was cofounded by then Mayor Tom Suozzi in 1997. The district is adjacent to Glen Cove’s waterfront, and encompasses part of State Route 107 and Glen Cove Road, Pulaski Street, Glen Cove Avenue, and Brewster, School, Glen and Bridge streets. In addition to Downtown Sounds, the BID hosts Halloween and Christmas festivities downtown, and focuses on beautification as well: Visitors admire landscaping along the public walkways to the municipal lots and garages. 

Nossa left her home in Michigan to attend Humboldt State University in California where she earned a degree in journalism and mass communication. She was not only active in the school’s newspaper and radio station, but was also fascinated with the inner workings of the organizations and communities she reported on as a student. From there she moved to Portland, Oregon, where she began her career in production for broadcast news. 

In 2005 she moved to Manhattan, and became a freelance blogger, writing business reviews. In 2009, she married Rick Nossa, a Mineola native, and they moved to Glen Cove the same year. 

“I loved Glen Cove, and the timing was right for us,” Nossa said. “Morgan Park was one of the selling points for me. It was the first place I ever came to in Glen Cove after being more on the South Shore. I thought this place was beautiful.”

Tapping into her journalistic roots once again, Nossa applied for jobs that would give her a deeper understanding of the North Shore. She became a reporter for the Record Pilot, and worked there for 10 years. 

When she left the Pilot in 2019, she became the editor of the Rockville Centre Herald. She enjoyed the challenge of building relationships in a community she didn’t know well, but she eventually transferred to her hometown Herald. 

“When they moved me to cover Glen Cove, it felt right,” Nossa said. “I felt like I was kind of missing out on some of the stuff that was happening here by not covering it. It’s enriching in a way to have a deeper sense of what our community is about, and to know people from all the different organizations. If you’re going be part of a community, you have to really kind of experience it and be in it.”

Nossa’s extensive reporting on Glen Cove helped her establish local connections, a vital skill the BID needed when she began working there as the assistant director. 

“She is humble, but she’s competent,” Alvin Batista, the BID’s president, said. “She just does what she needs to get done in the background, without a lot of fanfare. She’s a hard worker.”