Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jennifer DeSena spoke at the Great Neck Chamber of Commerce’s most recent meeting to discuss the business community and how the town is helping local businesses thrive.
Supervisor DeSena is currently in her second term as town supervisor. During her time in office, she has visited many chambers in the town to learn about the inner workings of these organizations as well as local businesses.
“It never ceases to amaze me how much extra you, business owners and chamber members, are giving to the community,” said Supervisor DeSena on Thursday, June 6 at Atria of Great Neck. “You’ve had your own struggles, you have families, you have your personal life, and you’re still giving all this time to the community to help the other businesses.”
Supervisor DeSena believes she has helped the business community by calling for an audit of the Building Department in 2022. When she first took office she felt that the Building Department had been mismanaged, leading to local businesses having difficulties in getting permits. The Nassau County Comptroller’s office took on the audit in 2022 and completed it in March of this year.
The audit assessed the Building Department’s various functions and found that the high concern to constituents was the efficiency of the permitting process, which is one of the department’s primary responsibilities. Permitting process inefficiencies are also a high concern for local business owners, affecting their ability to grow and improve their businesses.
Since the completion of the audit, the Building Department has been making significant strides in the right direction, instilling hope for a more efficient and business-friendly environment.
“We will be announcing more changes to the department this summer. A lot of people have told me they are finding that department to be more responsible, and I believe it is because this audit confirms some of the things I had believed were not appropriate management going on,” said Supervisor DeSena. “We can do better. We owe our residents better. One of the things that all businesses want is a business-friendly environment. And that’s the direction we’re aiming for. And that’s what our management is bringing us.”
In her first term as Supervisor, DeSena helped businesses by lowering taxes and ensuring that every dollar from taxpayers was used effectively.
Supervisor DeSena and the town are evaluating requests for expenses to ensure money is going toward projects, including business, tourism and infrastructure.
“Taxpayer dollars that go toward the business and tourism have been going to the same businesses year after year. It sort of lost its purpose, which was to develop more tourism and bring more people and foot traffic to your downtown area,” said Supervisor DeSena. “We want to make sure that we are helping all the downtowns around North Hempstead. We want to take a one-town approach. I have been hiring commissioners to focus on the whole town and projects that are efficient and deliver faster at a lower cost.”
Improving its infrastructure to attract more residents to better facilities is a priority for the town. The new Department of Public Works commissioner, Kristin Seleski, is a Port Washington resident and is excited to continue working to improve the community.
Supervisor DeSena shared that the Manhasset Sewer Project and improvements at Michael J. Tully Park in New Hyde Park are examples of infrastructure projects in town to help make the downtowns more attractive to residents and visitors.
“We have 14 pickleball courts at Tully Park for resident use only. And we also have major repairs and rebuilding happening there to increase the use of the park,” said Supervisor DeSena. Projects at Tully Park include a new track, redoing the field that fire departments use for training, adding new lighting and rebuilding the parking lot.
An overarching project Supervisor DeSena focuses on is updating the town’s master plan.
“North Hempstead hasn’t updated its master plan in over 30 years. It’s necessary,” said Supervisor DeSena. “We are going to hire professionals to assist us with the master plan. We want to host community events to hear from residents and have input from our villages. The only way to do this is to have support from the community.”
To stay updated on North Hempstead’s plans for improving the town, visit northhempsteadny.gov
