Politics & Government

Nancy Howard Running for Village Board on RVC United Ticket

Parking and downtown growth are her biggest concerns.

As a resident of Rockville Centre for the past 18 years, Nancy Howard has been an active member of the community, contributing her time and efforts to school PTA's, booster clubs and the RVC Education Foundation. Howard will now throw her hat into the political arena and run for a seat on the village board alongside Michael Sepe and mayoral candidate Francis Murray on the Rockville Centre United Party ticket in the June election.

"I'm not one to sit home and complain," Howard said of why she's running. "There's been a decline in the appearance of the village and morale of the community."

As a mother of four children and an active participant in the school district, Howard said she speaks to Rockville Centre parents regularly and many have the same gripe about the village: parking in the downtown is a problem. She said it's become punitive and is discouraging to merchants and customers.

Find out what's happening in Rockville Centrewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"The health of the downtown is imperative to the value of our homes," she said. "If there's no parking, people will find other places to shop and then businesses won't come here."

Howard said more time should be added to the quarter for parking meters. As of now, one quarter buys 25 minutes. "Why are we penalizing merchants?" Howard said. "We need to find another way to solve our financial problems. I'm positive there is a more creative solution than slapping fines on people."

Find out what's happening in Rockville Centrewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Other items Howard said she'd like to focus on if elected is the condition of the village's athletic fields and the general disrepair of the village. "When I first moved here, it was a throwback village," she said. "It was quaint and warm. Now it's not the same."

She added that there are resources available, at no cost to the taxpayers, to repair village fields. "It's a tremendous problem," Howard said of the condition of fields. "Go down to Barasch Field. It's in such disrepair and kids can hurt themselves."

Before having children, Howard said she worked at Salomon Brothers and handled conflict resolution cases. She said she would bring those skills to the board and use them to strengthen the strained relationship between the village and school district.

Though this is her first time in politics, Howard said her passion to fix the problems in the village have driven her to run. "I'm fired up enough to jump in it," she said.


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