Village Trustee Caravella Steps Aside

After eight years and a record of public service in the Village of Lindenhurst that she’s proud to call her own, Trustee is calling it a day.

“I’m a single mom now with a 13-year-old daughter,” she told Lindenhurst Patch at the Village Board .

“I've served eight years, and I still want to be involved, but I have to pay attention to my family and my full-time work. I've had a good run, but things change," she said.

Caravella’s name was conspicuously absent last week when came in for Village on , .

While Lindenhurst and Village Trustee Mike Lavorata were nominated by the Village's Republican Party at the , Lou Dietz, GOP Party chairman for the Village, told Lindenhurst Patch that Caravella wouldn't be running to retain her seat.

Instead, he said, the GOP nominated Joan M. Masterson, a long-time Lindy resident and a member of the Village's Two-Family Review Board.

The newly nominated trio also got the endorsement of the Conservative, Independent and Democratic parties in Lindenhurst.

“I hate to see her go,“ said Mayor Brennan. "She’s done a great job while she was here, particularly with the .”

Caravella, a 20-year resident who was elected Village trustee in March 2004, has served the community in a number of capacities. She’s been president of the PTA and the PTA, served as vice president of the Lindenhurst Council of PTAs and on the Alleghany Avenue Parents As Reading Partners (PARP) Committee, and was coordinator of the Allegheny Avenue Pre-School Program for seven years.

Her service in the schools resulted in her receipt of the New York State Honorary Life Award given for distinguished service to children and youth.

With the Village Caravella has become well-known for her role with the - but looking over her years of service, she said, there’s a range of accomplishments she’s going to remember.

“I’m proud to have worked on a lot of the things we’ve done to keep residents safe in the Village,” she said. “We worked hard to control illegal apartments, and keep crowding down. I’m proud of how we addressed the blighted home on South Bay Street, getting Suffolk County to purchase the property and demolish it. Now we have beautiful open land down there.”

She’s also pleased with the way downtown Lindenhurst has bounced back, and the progress the Village has made toward replacing the in - which is just about now.

“It’s beautiful how downtown has become,“ she said. "Businesses are opening up; I love to see people’s reaction to the way things are going.”

Despite these and other satisfactions, family responsibilities have become front and center for Caravella.

“It’s a big commitment to do this job right,” she said. “The federal government mandates 40 hours per month, but with all of the projects, events and other activities we’re involved in, you put in more than that. If you're going to vote on a project like a road improvement, you can’t just vote - you have to go out and look at the roads.”

“I don’t know how she was able to do it," the mayor said of Caravella's service on the board. "I know if I wasn’t the boss of my own company, and if it wasn’t right next to the village hall, then I couldn’t."