Widow, educator face off in Malverne race

Malverne is holding a special election this month to fill a vacancy created by the death last year of one of the village's trustees. And one of the two candidates running is the deceased official's widow.

Patricia M. Canzoneri-Callahan is running to finish the unexpired three-year term of her late husband, Deputy Mayor James Callahan III. Callahan died last May after he suffered a stroke, several weeks after he was diagnosed with cancer. Canzoneri-Callahan, 46, was appointed to the seat by Mayor Patricia Norris-McDonald in July.

Canzoneri-Callahan's opponent is Carol A. Hassett, of the Common Sense Party.

Canzoneri-Callahan, an attorney and lifelong Malverne resident who is running on the Independent Party of Malverne line, said she could help the village affordably build a community center and organize local groups interested in the project. She said she also plans to work with the rest of the village board to develop a budget that continues to provide essential services while avoiding unnecessary spending.

Canzoneri-Callahan said she has been working on drafting a new contract with the Malverne Volunteer Ambulance Corps and finalizing the lease for a newly completed ambulance facility. She wants to work to provide residents with high-quality and affordable emergency services despite difficulty in recruiting volunteers, she said.

Hassett, a psychologist and adjunct assistant professor at Hofstra University, said the volunteer group needs the building at the village Department of Public Works site on Hempstead Avenue immediately.

The ambulance corps -- Hassett has been a volunteer member since 1972 -- has been losing members who do not live in Malverne because regulations in some places outside the village do not allow for ambulances to be stored at private homes overnight, she said. The members need to charge equipment overnight and the new building would allow for that, she added.

The group, contracted by the village and paid through taxes, is not an agency of the village like the Malverne Volunteer Fire Department.

Hassett, who declined to give her age but said she has lived in the village for 40 years, said she also wants to reduce the number of village regulation affecting small businesses and volunteer organizations.

Voting will be on March 20 from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the Malverne Fire House, 30 Broadway, just off Franklin Avenue.