On July 7, the Greenlawn Water District marks 90 years of service to the community. The District has served residents day in day out since 1927 by delivering the highest quality water in appropriate quantities virtually without interruption by hurricanes, hard winters and even Superstorm Sandy! Given the dozens of commissioners and hundreds of workers through the years, that’s a statement very few organizations of any type can match.
Ninety years is a long time. When the Greenlawn Water District was formed to serve Greenlawn residents (then numbering in the hundreds) the town and the world were vastly different. Greenlawn was a bucolic farming community, not unlike scores of such communities on Long Island. 1927 was a year of change for the world as well as Greenlawn. In 1927 “Lucky Lindy” Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic (leaving from Roosevelt Field when it was an airstrip), the Bambino, Babe Ruth slugged a record 60 homers, and the Holland Tunnel opened. The first feature length talking motion picture (The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson) hit the silver screen, Sonja Henie put ice skating on the map, and 100,000 fans watched in person as Gene Tunney dethroned Jack Dempsey for the heavyweight boxing championship in a bout forever known as “The Long Count”. 1927 was also the height of the Roaring Twenties and Prohibition, famously complete with flappers, speakeasies, bootleggers and mobsters. “Silent” Calvin Coolidge was President, Al Smith governor of New York, and dapper Jimmy Walker was NYC’s mayor.
Through all the ensuing decades, the people of the Greenlawn Water District did their jobs on behalf of the community. Congratulations are due to the entire staff of the GWD, present and past, as well as Commissioners Bill Wieck, John McLaughlin and Jim Logan, and Superintendent Bob Santoriello on a job well done!
