His mom ran for vice president of the United States, but John Zaccaro Jr. has his sights set a little lower.
Zaccaro, 52, is running for mayor of Saltaire, LI, a vacation village on Fire Island with just 400 homes. His father, John Zaccaro, also has a home in the village. His mother, Geraldine Ferraro, died in 2011.
Zaccaro, who has been a trustee in the beach town since 2000, said he was seeking higher office, in part, because of a flap over the village’s only business, a grocery store.
The Saltaire Market was damaged during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The village tried to take the property through eminent domain despite its owner saying he wanted to renovate the wooden structure and reopen. The village eventually reached an agreement to buy the property, demolished the existing market and rebuilt it.
The new store, which will be operated by a concessionaire, is supposed to open this month. The operator is paying the village $20,000 a year plus a percentage of sales.
Zaccaro said the official cost of rebuilding was $5.6 million, but he said he believed it could reach $6 million when factors such as debt service and electricity were factored in. “I believe that the store was mismanaged and that we overbuilt and overspent,” he said.