Signing off
A plaque showing George W. Bush and Thomas Suozzi is on permanent display at Nassau County's 9/11 Memorial in Eisenhower Park in East Meadow on Wednesday. Credit: Howard Schnapp
This originally appeared in The Point, the editorial board's newsletter for insiders. To subscribe, click here.
Nassau County Executive Laura Curran may have started something with her quest to rid Long Island of signs and homages to politicians. Now, Tom Suozzi and George W. Bush are getting their due.
Curran vowed not to put her name on new signs. Instead, she is taping over the name of her predecessor rather than spend money on new signs. She targeted the cost and type of self-promotion that proliferated under Edward Mangano.
Curran’s campaign inspired a crusade by Richard Siegelman of Plainview. He has always been bothered that the Nassau County 9/11 memorial at Eisenhower Park lists the names of Nassau County residents who died in the attack, but also displays photos of a smiling Suozzi, who championed the monument’s creation, and President George W. Bush, who attended its 2004 groundbreaking.
Siegelman started a letter-writing campaign to Suozzi, now representing the North Shore in Congress, and convinced him the photos should be removed. Suozzi in turn asked Curran to remove the photos, and her office wrote to Seigelman in March that the removal process has started.
But the photos are still there.
A county spokesman told The Point that the plaques containing the photos of Suozzi and Bush are glued to the memorial, making attempts by the parks department to remove them without damage difficult and expensive — but that it will happen.
Meanwhile, Siegelman cherishes his letter from Curran’s chief of staff, Victoria Kaso, that says, “Thank you for being vocal in this matter and reaching out to the office.”
