Longtime civic group leader steps down

For the first time in more than a decade, the Mill Brook Civic Association will have new leadership, as longtime President Marc Tenzer will be stepping down on April 1.

“I really enjoyed living in the community and working to make it a better place,” said Tenzer, who is moving to Cedarhurst. “It gave me a lot of pleasure to solve the problems of our community. It didn’t matter if it was crime, street or road conditions, responding to a hardship, what have you — it was always rewarding to work for the residents of Mill Brook.”

Tenzer joined the group’s board in 1995. He said that some of the hardest, and most educational, times of his tenure came in the fall of 2001, after the terror attacks that shook New York to its core.

“After Sept. 11, in which we lost a few members of our own community, I really thought it was important for us all to come together,” said Tenzer, who moved to the community in the early 1980s. “I wanted everyone to know that we were still here, and we wanted to help. We had a prayer service, a memorial service, and over 400 people showed up. It showed me that people really do need to grieve after an event impacts their community, regardless of whether they or their family was directly involved.”

In his time at the helm, Tenzer said, he worked to improve the small, 811-home community in as many ways as he could. He worked with Nassau County police to ensure that the community would remain safe after the 5th Precinct closed in 2012, and with the Town of Hempstead to get streets repaved and tennis courts repaired at Brooks Road Park.

Linda Kettering, who worked closely with Tenzer after joining the board shortly after he did, said that his ability to forge relationships was key to the progress he made in Mill Brook. “He was always someone who was focused on advocating for our community by working with local representatives in county or state or even national government,” she said. “He was excellent at developing and maintaining relationships with residents and politicians alike. By keeping a relationship with those representatives, he was able to make sure that so many of those positive changes he wanted to make landed on their agenda.”