Vincent Grasso, Valley Stream village trustee candidate

A member of the Valley Stream Board of Trustees for the past 14 months, Vincent Grasso says he has always wanted to make a difference in his community. After unsuccessful bids for the Hempstead Town Council, Nassau County Legislature and New York State Assembly, Grasso finally got his chance when he was appointed to the village board by then-Mayor Ed Cahill to fill a vacancy last year.

Now Grasso, a Valley Stream residents for 12 years, is hoping to win a full four-year term. He said he wants to run for re-election because “the work we’ve started isn’t done.”

Grasso said he wants to look at ways to better utilize the village’s recreational facilities. For example, he said, the pool complex is only open a few months out of the year but perhaps there are other uses that could make it a year-round facility, he said. Grasso said he would want to explore the possibility of public-private partnerships to expand opportunities for residents without having to turn to them for more tax dollars.

Edward Cahill Park at Mill Road and Sunrise Highway is a great piece of land, Grasso said, but is not utilized to its full potential. And there is also open space near the train station that could be used for recreational opportunities, or to expand non-resident parking which is a money-maker for the village.

No idea should be ever be dismissed because “we’ve never done it before,” a concept Grasso lives by at his day job as executive director of the Nassau County Bridge Authority. He led the implementation of automated toll collection, which reduced the workforce and saved money, and also restructured debt to avoid a toll increase.

Grasso said he wants to continue the village government’s tradition of fiscal responsibility and freeze taxes for residents. He said he also wants to improve the downtown. People shouldn’t have to go to Rockville Centre or Long Beach to find something to do at night, he explained.

He noted that the village government has been criticized for adopting the new flood maps, but said that anger is misdirected. Grasso said that even Sen. Chuck Schumer has noted that local municipalities, including Valley Stream, did not get the full story from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The village board has been proactive in trying to solve this problem for the residents, he explained. Even if the village did challenge the maps, it would have unlikely been successful, Grasso said pointing to neighboring East Rockaway. He also noted that he lives in the high-risk flood zone himself.