TONH to Host 2nd Redistricting Meeting

The 's redistricting group is having a public meeting to take input on Monday at Town hall at 7:30 p.m.

This would be the second public meeting of the group; the previous one was two weeks prior and was attended by about a dozen people, including three Town councilpeople -- Angelo Ferrara, Dina DeGiorgio and Lee Seeman.

The last meeting's attendees expressed frustrations about the lack of attendance as well as the seeming absence of a plan or ideas coming from the board. Several members of the board, including Dr. Irene Hylton representing Councilwoman Viviana Russell's district, said that she wanted to take input from the public to help inform her decision.

"If you want the committee to make decisions, present your concerns," Hylton said.

One suggestion from the crowd came from Marianna Wohlgemuth of New Hyde Park. She asked that the board review notes from the last redistricting meetings as there were many issues that were discussed and that information might prove to be helpful. She also mentioned that New Hyde Park is split up into more than one district and perhaps keeping it together is something to revisit during this round of redistricting.Wohlgemuth noted that New Hyde Park and Garden City Park are in separate districts though they share one school district -- the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park district.

The board's head, John Riordan, said that in the 2003 redistricting that one guideline that was kept in mind was to try not to split up villages.

"Everyone's not going to be happy not matter how hard we work," Claire Weinberg said. "All we can do is the best we can do."