Newly elected Sag Harbor Mayor Thomas Gardella said this week that Jeanne Kane, at present the chairwoman of the village’s Zoning Board of Appeals, will fill his vacant village board seat. She will be sworn in on Monday.
“She’s familiar with the boards and working with the building department,” said Mayor Gardella via text, on Tuesday. “She’s a very intelligent and knowledgeable person who works tirelessly.”
Before she was named to the Z.B.A., Ms. Kane chaired the village’s historic preservation and architectural review board. Leveraging her experience, she will act as the trustees’ liaison to the Building Department and other boards, as well as working with the harbormaster. Mr. Gardella has said water quality, along with affordable housing, will be two focal points of his administration.
“I’m happy to provide my services,” Ms. Kane said by phone. “The boards I worked on are very different, but you’re still working with the same code, just from a different vantage point.”
Ms. Kane and her husband, Paul Zaykowski, bought their first house in the village in 1993, and later bought Mr. Zaykowski’s childhood home as well. “So, we have two houses in the village, one in the historic district,” said Ms. Kane. She is retired from a Wall Street career that spanned three-plus decades, and now keeps busy managing one of the two properties. She has four children and two grandchildren.
“When people own property, they do have the right to expand, or bring it up to speed, especially with older homes,” she said. “I’ve worked with them to help find compromises that are win-win and help maintain the character of the historic village. We can’t simply say to people, ‘No, you can’t do this.’ That’s not the way to have a vibrant village that people are going to be attracted to. I’m a believer in finding solutions.”