Saltaire Summery
Volume 49, Issue 2
By Hugh O’Brien

Thankfully, the 2000 election has now receded far enough into the past so that we can at last be (largely) spared all the endless “jokes” about close elections that have circulated interminably since the GOP’s theft of that presidential race. This became clear in the aftermath of Saltaire’s May 27 exercise in a form of democracy, when surprisingly, and mercifully, one heard almost none of those stale mutterings about “Florida” and “hanging chads,” though there was plenty of talk about hanging something else that day, most popularly from the nearest lamppost. Vote challenges and other pointless exercises in political annoyances aside, it was the voters themselves who in the end created the tightest race and the biggest uncertainty in the village’s collective memory.
THE Finals
Final results gave victories in the Trustee contest to incumbent Bob Cox and challenger Pia Notaro Carroll by a margin of one vote: Pia and Bob tied at 110 each, with former trustee Frank Wolf a heartbreakingly close second/third, at 109. (The remaining incumbent, John Zaccaro, Jr., trailed far behind with 67 votes.) It has been decades, if ever, since two candidates tied, let alone that another lost by only a single ballot, so that in itself was pretty remarkable. The process worked, of course, but we can hope this puts to rest once and for all the notion so many people have that their one vote doesn’t count, especially (even!) in a place as small as Saltaire
As Examples
At least two voters, both registered and voting out here for many years, arrived Saturday, the day after the election, to vote--despite our elections’ being held on a Friday for over a quarter-century now. Two others mailed in their absentee ballots, properly filled out but for one incidental detail – they neglected to vote for any candidate. Another individual voted for two of the candidates; but then, seemingly as a joke, wrote in a third name, thereby invalidating his entire ballot.
There were reports of absentee ballot applications vanishing somewhere along the election trail, and absentee ballots themselves sent out but never returned, and people who just decided not to bother to come out because they didn’t think their one vote would make any difference. One hopeful sign, as Village Administrator Mario Posillico noted, was that the number of write-in votes, often huge in VOS elections, was exceptionally tiny this year: just two (on valid ballots), one for our great (albeit misspelled) former Village Justice Jerry Leitner (“Lightner” by his admirer’s reckoning), and the other for A-Rod.
It has been widely remarked that at long last Pal did not receive any such honorable mention, which at least has the merit of confining the votes cast to homo sapiens, but still, even those two write-ins might have affected, if not the outcome, certainly the vote totals, in this election. (And, I mean, “A-Rod”? At least Jerry Leitner is a defendable alternative – would be a great Trustee, in fact – if he only were on the ballot!) We’ve had years when as many as a third of the votes tallied were for write-ins, usually when there were no contests.
It’s true that, when faced with a real choice in a real election, most Saltairians spurn the idea of wasting their votes on write-ins and take the actual candidates seriously. Now, the importance of every vote should be crystal clear.

Win-Win-Win
Fortunately, the near three-way tie, and delay in the final results pending receipt of any valid absentee ballots (none), was a win-win-win situation for the village, as any two of the three would do justice to the Board. Pia has been involved in various civic activities around town for several years now (SCAA, SYC, etc.), has grown up here, is smart and able and brings a fresh perspective to village government: she’ll be more than fine.
Bob has shown himself to be an exceedingly able, thoughtful member in his first two years, an independent voice who took his duties seriously and has acted responsibly and with great consideration to each issue before the board.
Both will continue to bring credit to Saltaire as the new board gets underway. Saltaire’s newly liberated barbecuers, by the way, owe an enormous debt to Bob, who was the single greatest force behind the passage of the new outdoor grilling laws now in effect, after years of endless dodging and yammering by earlier boards. Bob single-mindedly pushed the issue to ultimate resolution, accomplishing in half his term (well, maybe 2/3 of his term) what previous lawmakers had declined, danced around and/or dallied about for years without resolving the matter one way or the other. The final law was a joint effort, of course, but it is to Bob that the lion’s share of the credit belongs for his persistence in getting this business put to bed. You can thank Bob by inviting him and Joan to your newly-grilled premises for a complimentary dinner, which should keep them socially active enough to relieve Joan of having to use their own new grill for the duration of the summer.
A word, too, about destiny’s stepchild, at least insofar as VOS elections go, Frank Wolf. Elected to a term in 2000, Frank has lost reelection bids by three, nine and now one vote(s), respectively, which has got to be frustrating in the extreme; yet I doubt anyone could take such news in better spirits, or with greater grace and equanimity, than Frank.
Ralph Perlberger — known in certain circles as the best Trustee Saltaire never had (he forever refused all entreaties to run) – spoke very kindly at the board’s May 30 meeting, as to how much he (and the populace at large) appreciate, or should, those individuals who put their names and reputations on the line by running for election in a community as little as ours, since they risk (and some will always incur) rejection by their neighbors at the ballot box. This was a typically thoughtful and generous thing for Ralph to observe, and it’s true that if you’re not prepared to cope with defeat, you shouldn’t be in this line, but sympathy for candidates’ (admittedly, self-imposed) vulnerabilities in this regard is welcome. Having been on both sides of the win/lose divide, I can state that the former may be best, but the latter isn’t a calamity, if you have a balanced attitude and care primarily for the community. Luckily, most people who run possess just such characteristics, and with friends and public-spirited men of good will like Ralph, losing – and even winning, since it’s often harder to be a good winner – isn’t so bad. Frank Wolf, whether or not he chooses to run again someday, is as good an example as one could find of the truly dedicated Saltairian. And there’s a bunch of others just like him on the board now too.
While we’re on such a responsible civic kick, some responsible civic notes as the season starts in near-earnest…
Twice-a-week trash pick-up hits the road beginning the week of June 13 (I know, the sign says the 12th, but that’s a Sunday, and I prefer to begin with the day of actual collection, Monday, so there). Regular and recyclable garbage will be collected Mondays and Thursdays (Tuesdays if Monday is a holiday), while brush and junk will be picked up Thursdays only (and be sure all stuff is properly bound, gagged, tied and sealed, in accordance with village regulations – yes, we’re aware there are nuclear disarmament treaties that go into less detail than our refuse disposal procedures, but blame Islip and keep on separating).
The Post Office opens June 24, a Friday as usual (never did understand that), and operates six days per week till Sept. 8 (a Thursday, also unexplained, if not downright inexplicable).
Full-time lifeguard protection starts June 25, through Sept. 5, under the skilled life-saving aegis of Rich Wilde & crew.
Oh, Doctor Bob will be in residence most weekends (but not this one, 11-12), but it will not be until July 1 that the Village docs will be here on a daily basis, so try to suck it up until then.
Um, and them new SCAA directories you’ve heard so much about? Okay, supposedly they’ll be ready on or about June 7, which means, if all goes well, as of course it always does in Saltaire, they’ll be available for pick-up this weekend. Breath-holding is not, however, recommended. Same with the new Village information placards. If everything’s ducky, SCAA Chair Clare Briody says she’ll set up a directory distribution table around the front of the Village Hall Saturday (dues-paying members, please), and Village officialdom might piggy-back on this to help hand out the placards, though every home will get them one way or another. Keep posted, well, you know, figuratively speaking. (Coming the last weekend in June: both SCAA and FIA annual meetings, the latter in O.B. Watch for signs and mailings, e- and otherwise.)
Now, the long-delayed but never almost-lost results from two of 2004’s most electrifying athletic contests, held too late for publication when they actually occurred and people were interested, but hot off the wire now, by God. First, Ralph P.’s soccer cup results, reprinted approximately verbatim from Ralph’s e-mail via carrier pigeon of August 30:
“Qualifying games played on 8/14/04, play-offs and finals rained out on 8/15/04. Play-offs played on 8/21/04, finals rained out. Championship played on 8/28/04.
“Champions: Red – J.D. Butler, Dave Hirshey, Keith Johnson (finals) Ralph Perlberger, Mark Rosen, Don Taffner, Jr., Dave Wolfe (finals) John Wolfe (finals) Michael Zabar (finals). (On original team but unable to make adjourned date for championship: Keith Miller, Ginnie Taft, Dan Zabar.)
“Runners up: White – Brian Biers (finals), Andy McAllister (finals), Lauren Shepland, Joey Rappaport (finals), Michael Valente, Tiffer Valente, Arnold Weisman. (On original team but unable to make adjourned date for championship: Dan and Eli Cantor, Adam Cox, Charles Wirene.)
“Special thanks for success of tournament go to J.R. Rieger (professional referee), Don Taffner, Jr., Keith Miller, Chuck Jones and all the patient participants.”
Patient?! I’ll say! All that rain and no water casualties, not to mention suffering the delay in reportage. Just glad we got it in before they all retired. On to Cup 2005, in, what, about three days?
Finally, the Sept. 11 ’04 10K Race results have likewise been sitting quietly folded in my out basket since that balmy evening, only to see daylight halfway into the new year. But glory, like our runners, is fleeting, so here’s belated tribute to Those Who Survived, if not the grueling run, then the gruel organizers insisted on serving prior to the race, and I only hope I can read my notes, which I’m sure made so much more sense nine months ago:
First male, Masters and overall winner, Dan Gonzalez (hey, I didn’t promise you surprises, did I?). First female, 25-49 and overall, Susan Burns (see previous parenthetical aside). Others: ages 25-29: males, Lee Mallett, Scott Schultz, Michael Murphy, Steve Voulteill; females, Bridget Dunn. Masters, males: Ed Lipinsky, Mitch Kronerfeld, Paul Ehrman, David Erlij, Jerry Noonan; female, Karen Glanternik.
I believe that’s pretty much everyone who raced, and no under-25s either. One of the fun things about this race is to see each year how the awards can get screwed up somehow (everybody gets a trophy that says the same thing; the trophy plaques aren’t in English or any other known language, though one year they did look suspiciously Basque; there are no trophies at all; people disappear from the route, which seems to have happened to one of the above participants but we’re remaining mum on just who, as we have no record of his/her having finished the race); and so forth. Still, if we advertise, some will come. And relax! It’s fun. Big deal!
Two things: advisories herein notwithstanding, the hinted-at presentation of a thank-you plaque to former Commodore Frank Kahn was not handled at the SYC’s opening cocktail party last weekend, but sort of incognito a bit earlier, per Mr. Kahn’s wishes, as he was, characteristically, embarrassed by any fuss made on his behalf.
Well, the hell with him, we’re going to make a little fuss here and now: Frank is great, a sweetheart, a gentleman, an indefatigable worker, thoroughly self-effacing, always self-deprecating, filled with a bottomless reservoir of stories and jokes (the best ones only semi-intelligible), completely and honestly and solely dedicated to helping everyone else, be it the Club, this community or his friends, who are countless. We’re damn lucky to have him around, and active for all those years on our behalf, and what an irreplaceable force he is.
Frank said he was a bit uncomfortable about the plaque business because it seemed a little premature (i.e., he’s still around to see it), but no one wanted to wait another 30 years and anyway they needed some piece of bric-a-brac to post on that vacant space by the doors to the deck. Frank told me that a hundred years from now no one’ll know who Frank Kahn was! True, I told him, but at least there’ll be a piece of metal showing there was such a Frank, which is more than most of us will have – or deserve.
Surprisingly, he nodded in agreement at that, so the rest of us decided to take the plaque down then and there. No, no, we didn’t, we joked with FK about it. (Nor will we use it as a doorstop, as he recommended [really; really!] , nor screw coat hangers into it for other utilitarian purposes.) Accept the compliment, Frank – and our thanks, and love.
Next thing: I have no idea of if, whether or when any Fire Company public soiree will be held, so stay on your toes for banners and posters and midnight sirens blaring any word to that effect. Again, reference that breath-holding note above, re directories/placards.
Lastly….It’s the time of the season to recall the friends and family members who are no longer present to enjoy another summer out here, making our own that much less enjoyable — and one year it’d be nice not to have anything along these lines to have to go into. Still, memories are nice things, too, and indeed, they can’t be taken away, not really.
Curiously, most of the people to write about were former Saltairians, each with lots of friends, even relatives, still in residence, but who themselves had been gone from the village for some years.
Former Village Clerk Mary Keane devoted nearly 30 years of her life in service to the community, keeping the then part-time Village government running smoothly and efficiently – a part-time task for everyone but Mary, who labored year-round to make life and work easier for elected officials; Saltaire’s collective institutional memory for many decades. Ann Connolly, two of whose children (John and Ann) are homeowners here, brought warmth, kindness, formidable intelligence and a wicked (but uncruel) sense of humor in making herself an indispensable part of the lives of decades of villagers (of all ages) who could not fail to love this unique and wonderful woman. (And thank you for keeping the refrigerator well-stocked!)
George Bernstein served as a trustee in the late 60s and early 70s and was noted not only for his completely unselfish devotion to that job, but for his kind, almost avuncular demeanor and graciousness. Especially sad news came last November of the death of David Standard in Hawaii, of apparent heart failure at age 49; Dave was a good pal and one of those originals God seems to have blessed Saltaire with in abundance. (Well some of us remember David’s plan to escape calamity during Hurricane Gloria in 1976 – going to sleep on his front porch outfitted in flippers, mask and snorkel, so that when the wave hit he could swim, untroubled, to safety while the rest of us sank into the briny.)
We also confirmed over the winter a rumor circulating but unverified (by me, anyway) last summer of the death of another 40-something old Saltaire friend, Bruce Monath, who died in unhappy circumstances last spring.
Former SYC Vice Commodore Allen Scott, who passed away in March, one week after his 87th birthday, was Saltaire’s answer to Errol Flynn – dashing, irreverent, a real war hero, unmatched raconteur, sharp and enormous fun to be around. The stories surrounding Allen are literally without number; one of the funniest men you’d ever meet, and the nicest, too.
And just this past week we lost George Fontanals, long a fixture in Saltaire, a big guy with a big and generous heart, with humor and a sense of mischief rarely equaled. Also the cause of two of my four worst hangovers, in my younger days – the ones where I fell in with bad company (including Allen, and Larry Marcus) on a Saturday night and was still feeling the effects the following Tuesday. Plus, how many people can you say you knew who walked around barefoot – in winter – in Brooklyn? George, who’d been ill for some time, managed the exceedingly rare feat of dying on his birthday, June 1, the day he turned 70. Only George would manage a symmetry like that.
But perhaps our deepest grief came with the passing last fall, first of Jean Veronese, then little over a month later, of Joan DiCostanzo, the loss of each of whom was all the more devastating to us as a community because of the suddenness with which these happened.
Jean was a Saltaire veteran, grew up here (her father once owned the market), then later with Dino continued to come out and raise their own family here. She was a woman of devotion to her husband and children, loved and respected by everyone, knowledgeable and filled with great good sense and sensitivity, a bit shy but vastly worth knowing, and a real loss to the village.
Joan was, not to be too repetitive, everybody’s sweetheart, bouncy, smiling, sassy, popular because she was the real deal, not because she tried to act or be something she was not. Definitely not the shy type. But both Joan and Jean shared a love of life, of this community, and for their friends and families; both stood firmly for what they thought was right, sympathized with people they saw were being picked on, and had no patience with pretensions or people full of themselves.
Epitomes of what we’d like to think the best of this Saltaire are – as Jean and Joan were among our very best. Summer will go on being summer, but never again quite the same. But it’s great – and maybe even instructive – to recall the good times, and the good people, and the good they showed us, and shared with us, over the years.
Meanwhile, Treevail, Sarah and Mandu are trying to get their paws on the keyboard, a surefire indicator time’s up. Cost a fortune in Pounce, this bunch. But I promised them a mention at the tail-end of the column.