Rossi to fill vacant Village Board seat
RHINEBECK, N.Y. » The Village Board has returned to full strength after the appointment of John Rossi to fill the remaining eight months of a vacant seat.
Rossi, 60, was sworn in as trustee last week and takes over the seat formerly held by Scott Cruikshank, who decided to step down because employment obligations were taking too much time away from municipal obligations.
Mayor Gary Bassett said there were five applicants for the position, with Rossi chosen based on previous experience as North Merrick school board member and a condominium board member responsible for seeking funding for repairs following Superstorm Sandy.
“He worked really hard at applying for grants,” he said. “I thought that was a key thing for us to have somebody that had that strength, to have somebody who was really successful in getting grants through the state.”
Rossi, of 5 Violet Place, is owner of Teletech Associates and was on the North Merrick Board of Education from 2004 to 2010. He previously ran unsuccessfully for the Nassau County Legislature in 2007.
Rossi has lived in the village for 15 months and with wife May has three children. He graduated from Mepham High School in North Bellmore in 1975, earned a bachelors degree in communications from St. John’s University in 1979, and received a masters degree in telecommunications from New York University in 1990.
Rossi is a member of the Rhinebeck Community Garden.
Among priorities for Rossi will be looking for ways to work with other municipalities for budget savings.
“I’m kind of curious ... what benefits there might be in consolidating some work efforts with the town,” he said. “Are there any areas that could provide some sort of cost benefit if we collaborated.”