Government of, by and for the people is back. The original spirit of the town hall and local government is alive.
Immediately after the hurricane passed, Mayor Giovanna Giunta was visibly out and about. She mobilized the village crew and the clean up began expeditiously. The hurricane befell trees and tore off big limbs and heavy branches. It looked like every block in our village had serious debris.
Then word on the street was out. If you put your big branches and tree parts in the street in front of your house, the village crew would pick up it up. I must have blinked because that very day the big debris was gone and our village looked tidy again.
Mayor Giunta could not fix the power outage. But Giunta must enjoy problem-solving because she opened up Manorhaven Village Hall, had coffee going, milk, sugar, cookies, and even Halloween treats for the kids. She shared the power of the village hall with the people, literally. We were encouraged to share the generator power and recharge our cells even as we were fueling up.
Village Hall belonged to us. Chairs got rearranged. People sat down, exchanged hurricane stories, read a book, knitted, played board games with their kids. Village Hall became our village hall, our makeshift community center. And there was Mayor Giunta with her sleeves rolled up, wearing a compassionate smile.
Thank you, Madam Mayor!
Jackie Becker, the author of this post, is a Manorhaven resident. The expressions posted here are solely that of the author.
