I have had the opportunity to attend a few of the village meetings.
After only a couple of presentations of bringing in lawyers, engineers, architects and owners of the proposed property changes and projects, the same people who harass the mayor and his board, started their act. Without being recognized by the mayor, they started to shout from the areas where they were sitting.
The mayor then recognized the hecklers one at a time after the presentations. One of the regulars thought she was smarter than the lawyers, engineers and architects. She thought that there were areas they neglected to incorporate in their plans.
She did not recognize the outstanding lawyers representing the village, our building superintendent, the extensive experience of the lawyers representing the newly proposed project and the outstanding work of the architects designing the projects. Furthermore, she also did not know that, in many instances, the presenters had previously consulted with officials in Nassau County.
When she got up to speak, she did not mention the technical issues of the proposed projects. She attempted, as she has at many previous meetings, to present the mayor with numerous idiotic and redundant statements that all of us have heard before. In addition, she added negative remarks about the mayor.
Prior to that meeting, the same person got up and stated that the initial proposal was a “Band-Aid” and the Village needs a “consultant” to come in and perform a study on the stop sign problem.
The more you hear the same person make ridiculous, recommendations at each meeting, the more she presents evidence of an uneducated and inexperienced person concerning all of the issues presented by the board in conjunction with the experts making presentations.
The same person has no experience in traffic safety, safety engineering, risk analysis, warnings and instructions, automobile accident reconstruction and safety. Yet she opined that the mayor’s proposal was a “Band-Aid.”
It was obvious to the undersigned that she did not know the difference between a “Band-Aid” and a “Pilot” program.
Mayor Bral was able to grant and study an initial pilot program after receiving an expert report for the three areas. The changes were to see if at each of the three intersections there would be a reduction of the risks of foreseeable accidents that have been reported on a continuous basis over the years. One of the intersections was a dangerous cross street for pedestrians.
In the first two weeks of the pilot program, a significant change in driver behavior was observed. Even if the cars did not come to a “full” stop, they slowed down and looked to make sure it was safe to continue.
The dissidents attending the meeting state that they have over 1,000 signatures opposing the new projects. They would rather have the empty stores continue and the owners of those stores lose money on their investments. No one knows where the 1,000 signatures came from – whether or not the signatures were from people who resided in the Village or were registered voters.
With reference to the proposed new building projects, the dissidents forgot that they backed a candidate with fraudulent credentials. Dr. Bral won the election overwhelmingly, with over a 2 to 1 margin. The 1,800 plus votes he received were by residents of the village who wanted Dr. Bral’s plans for rejuvenation to come to fruition.
Even with the notice and observations of the proposed project presented by a variety of highly qualified professionals, the same group continued to harass the board and the mayor.
The mayor is a medical professional and, in my opinion, extremely intelligent. He understands all of the issues presented to him on any subject. He consults with experts on issues that require input by others and is tolerant by allowing the dissidents to come before him and have their objections heard when it is their time to comment.
Dr. Bral is, in my opinion, the best mayor we have had in decades. I have had contact and experience with all of them for the last 50 years and strongly support Dr. Bral.
Lastly, if the schools, the water district, or the Great Neck fire department had any problems with the new proposals, they would have attended the meeting or met with Mayor Bral beforehand.
In spite of that, the dissidents continued to come forward and brought up all of those non-issues even though their statements offered little relating to the proposals before the board. All of those issues were previously considered by presenters.
The most ridiculous objection was when a dissident objected to having a 30,000-gallon pool on the roof of an apartment project because she thought that was too much water. The dissident had no idea that the filling of a pool was initially the 30,000-gallons and had no experience or knowledge about the required periodic maintenance without refilling the pool. Without the knowledge of Great Neck residents and businesses consuming over 10-million gallons of water per day, she thought that, for a pool, 30,000-gallons was too much. Utter nonsense!
Another dissident, whose children graduated from high school 15-20-years ago, got up and was concerned about the overcrowding of the schools with their $250 million budget!
Many of us who take the time to attend the village meetings do not appreciate the constant redundant remarks that dissidents make against the mayor while obfuscating the important issues. Their lack of knowledge of the real issues is obvious.
What is worse than being stubborn, is being both stupid and stubborn.
Perhaps with the New Year, the dissidents will resolve to think before they start objecting to almost everything presented by the mayor and the board.
Dr. C. J. Abraham
Great Neck
