Marty Mitchell is the newest face on the North Shore Towers Board of Directors, and is now serving as chair of the Country Club Committee.
Born in Brooklyn, Mitchell spent a couple years there before his family moved to the Bronx, remaining there until he was six. After that time, they moved to Fresh Meadows, where Mitchell lived until moving to North Shore Towers with his wife Linda about two years ago.
Mitchell explained that the two were recently married and had been talking about moving to Manhattan, although that was further than Mitchell wanted to go since he works on Long Island. He said that they realized the Towers gave them the high-end living with beautiful views that they were looking for, making it a good compromise.
Between the two of them, the couple has four children and eight grandchildren.
A food scientist, Mitchell is the managing director of Certified Laboratories, which has three locations. He explained that they work for food importers, manufacturers, distributors and fast foot chains. They test food for safety, nutritional quality and compliance with government regulations.
“My family was in the food business so I’ve always grown up being a food guy,” Mitchell said.
Having “always been an involved sort of guy,” Mitchell said that when he moved into the Towers he wanted to eventually get involved in the community. He also ran for the Board of Directors during the last election because, he said, a few people approached him and said that they could use some young people on the Board.
Mitchell said that he had organizational skills, business skills and a different outlook that he felt would be beneficial to the Board. During the elections over the summer, three incumbents won re-election and Mitchell was voted into the other seat.
“I think it’s a great Board,” Mitchell said. “We really work well together and I think they’ve done an excellent job of moving us forward.”
Mitchell is now serving as the chair of the Country Club Committee. He said that, although he does not play tennis or golf, he feels that is an advantage since he has no biases or prejudices.
The Country Club Committee has been divided into several different working committees, which Mitchell said enables them to tackle more issues. He also said his committee has already accomplished a lot and has a tremendous amount of energy.
When the committee met and began talking about its vision, Mitchell said that everyone had the same one – to make North Shore Towers a better place to live.
“We’re planning to do wonderful things to have that happen,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said that one of the biggest challenges of being a Board member is needing to “look at things more strategically and with a longer time horizon.” He also said that some sort of process should be put in place so that when the Board changes hands visions for long-term projects could be maintained while remaining reactive.
So far, Mitchell said that his experience as a Board member has been great and that he is making a difference. He said he is having a good time and hopes that others will also feel that he is making a difference and leaving areas he is working in better than they were when he started.
Mitchell said he loves living at North Shore Towers and thinks it is a wonderful community, and that he wants it to remain a wonderful, leading community.
“I think we should all work together to get there,” he said.
