Rockville Centre Dean Skelos field complex still named for disgraced senator a year later

On Dec. 11, 2015, the village was rocked by the news that lifelong Rockville Centre resident and then State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, along with his son Adam, had been convicted on federal corruption charges, ending his more than three decades of public service to the state.

While the Skeloses remain free pending their appeal, the Rockville Centre athletic complex on Peninsula Boulevard is still called the Dean G. Skelos Sports Complex, despite its lack of signage. This week marks the one-year anniversary of the removal of the entrance sign displaying his name, days before the Skeloses’ sentencing last May 12. At the time, the village’s official stance on the matter was to wait and see. The board of trustees “is not making any decisions yet,” village spokeswoman Julie Grilli 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.”

A year later, the village’s position is the same. “At this time, there is no change in the complex name,” Grilli wrote in an email responding to a request for an update.

Despite the village’s stance, others have come forward with alternative names. Responding to the Herald’s request for suggestions on social media, 17 people had responded as of Monday.

Eight suggested longtime Recreation Superintendent Anthony Brunetta’s name. Known around the village as Mr. B, he headed the Recreation Department for more than 35 years. Brunetta died last August. “No one, and I mean no one, associated with RVC now or at any time in the village’s history ever devoted as much time, energy, passion and dedication to RVC recreational pursuits than Mr. Brunetta,” wrote Peter Devine.

“His entire life was about Rockville Centre,” Robin Bucher Kelly submitted. “He loved this village. I worked 20 years for the village, and my husband worked 35 years for the RVC police. We both agree that Tony lived and breathed this town. Ask anybody on the street and they all know him. Is there anyone else that fits that bill? I think not!”

An inclusive playground in the works for Hickey Field is slated to carry Brunetta’s name.

Another eight people proposed Ronald Winchester’s name. The lifelong village resident was a Marine lieutenant who was killed in 2004 by a roadside bomb in Iraq. Winchester was the Herald’s 2004 Person of the Year.

James Coll, an adjunct history professor at Nassau Community College and Hofstra University and a New York City police detective, began a change.org petition in May 2015 — around the same time federal prosecutors submitted a formal criminal complaint against Skelos — seeking a name change for the field.

He said the campaign was unrelated to the case against the senator, and was instead a protest against naming public property for sitting politicians. “My real beef was not who it was named after,” Coll said in a recent phone interview. “It was basically a taxpayer-funded campaign ad for everyone who took that road, which is a main thoroughfare.” He said such conventions created an unfair landscape that favored incumbent politicians. “How is anyone else going to compete with that?”

Coll’s first thought was to suggest changing the field’s name to honor New York City police officer Brian Moore, who was killed while on duty on May 2, 2015. “I always thought it was strange the indictment came down the same day Brian Moore was killed,” Coll recalled.

He admitted, however, that he knew little about the history of the fields. When he found out it was village property, he began searching for another name to suggest. After some looking, he stumbled upon Winchester’s story and added his name to the petition. To date, it has garnered more than 900 signatures.

One resident, Paul Tessitore, suggested the name be “anything but Dean Skelos Field.” Other village residents had advocated renaming the field in honor of one of the village’s 48 residents killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Ultimately, the village will decide what to do with the complex’s name. “They want to do the right thing and leave [the name] right now,” Grilli said following the conviction. “And then the board will discuss it.”