Skelos Field sign comes down

Village of Rockville Centre not changing name yet, if at all

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Months after his conviction, and days before his sentencing, the Village of Rockville Centre removed Dean Skelos’s name from the park that bore it for years.

Last week, village workers quietly removed the sign that stood at the entrance to the Dean Skelos Sports Complex on Peninsula Boulevard. There is no new sign in its place, just an empty post.

According to village spokeswoman Julie Scully, though the sign has come down, the village has not changed the name of the park.

“[The Board of Trustees] is not making any decisions yet,” she said. “They’re going to let the appeals process take its course. And then the board will meet to decide if to rename [the park] and what to rename it to.”

The name on the park has been in contention since Skelos and his son, Adam, were arrested last year and charged with corruption. When the two were convicted in December, calls to change the name of the park grew.

Some residents have called for renaming the park after one of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks that was from Rockville Centre. Also suggested was naming the field after Lt. Ronald Winchester, a Rockville Centre resident who was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2004. An online petition to rename the park after Winchester earned 878 signatures.

But the Board of Trustees is going to wait until Skelos completes his appeals process before making a decision.

“They want to do the right thing and leave [the name] right now,” said Scully. “And then the board will discuss it.”