MEET THE 2024 CANDIDATES
Get to know the 2024 BVIA Board of Governors candidates who are dedicated to enhancing Bay View's community.
LOGAN BEIRNE
LAURA HANIFIN
TODD NASS
Logan Beirne
I grew up in Bay View and am proud to be raising my two children here with my wife, Hannah. I teach at Yale Law and have founded two technology companies — one of which I sold to an acquirer in 2023. In addition to the Bay View Board of Governors, I serve on three corporate boards.
How long have you lived in Bay View?
I’ve lived in Bay View my whole life. I’m a third generation Bay Viewian after my grandmother started summering on Orland Street from the Bronx. My parents purchased our property on Bayshore before I was born and I’ve been here ever since. Even
when I was away at school or working in the city, I always came home at every chance.
What is your favorite thing about Bay View?
Our beach. I am thankful every morning when I get to see that gleaming water and our beautiful beach. The people on it are pretty great.
How have you worked to improve Bay View in the past?
Before I was even old enough to drive, I was actively involved in all aspects of Bay View: like many others, I ran in the beach races and enjoyed our fun events, helped clean up the beach on July 5th each year, planted the garden on the green, and lent a hand during those terrible storms. Eventually, I served as a lifeguard for three summers while in high school 1997-1999.
Most recently, I joined the BVIA Board in June 2021. Since then, I’ve worked diligently with the members of the committees and my fellow board members – all great neighbors volunteering their time. I helped lead efforts to install a new garden on the green, worked to preserve our sand and clean up the beach after last winter’s brutal storms, assisted in finding our lifeguards, helped set up for recreation events, worked to get our swim area buoys back, assisted in storing and placing our lifeguard stand, and served on the mat, sign, and garden committees.
I also have strong relationships with Milford’s mayor and police department and have used that to help secure the new red crosswalks at Odell and Warren, and add a new crosswalk at Oakland. We are also working to combat recent car break ins.
I teach law at Yale and have found my legal background valuable as I work to preserve and improve our beach. I serve on the boards of 3 technology companies and previously served on the boards of two nonprofits.
What are your plans for the future?
My goal is to preserve our beautiful beach community and ensure it can be enjoyed by our kids – and their kids! I will work tirelessly to adhere to our Charter and protect our private beach status.
I will preserve our beach’s natural beauty while making sensible improvements to guard against flooding and improve our community in a thoughtful, cost-effective manner. I am eager to ensure Bay View is in a strong financial position so we can weather future storms and have the funds needed to keep the BVIA thriving.
I work hard to cultivate a collegial community of neighbors who can enjoy the beach together. My family has been in Bay View since 1949 so I know our history well, and I also have a young family, so I view our community from multiple perspectives and hope to help bridge divides. My goal is to preserve our beautiful community, keep the area safe, and help keep it on a great path for our next hundred years!
Laura Hanifin
Thanks for this opportunity to introduce myself. I’m an artist and book worm. For many years I worked as a commercial photographer specializing in portraits and fashion. I was based out of NYC and traveled quite a bit. I even lived in Tokyo for 4 years where I was contracted to photograph children’s fashion. I’m also a photo researcher, tracking down copyright owners, and
finding photographs to illustrate book interiors and cover art. I’ve handled rights and permissions for authors and trade publishers for almost 3 decades. Currently, I’m a Rights and Permissions
Manager, and work on a global team sourcing and negotiating image and rich media licensing for educational projects.
I enjoy working on my home, swimming, and taking walks. I love dogs.If you walk your dog around Bay View, well, you have probably met me.
How long have you lived in Bay View?
My family’s connection to Bay View began more than 100 years ago. I now live in the house my great-grandfather bought in 1917 and, like our grandmother and father before us, my siblings and I also grew up spending the summers in Bay View. That‘s me in the photo, my first Bay View swim, June 1961. I learned to swim here. I ran in the races, played Capture the Flag at night, learned to sail, waterski, and walked point to point at low tide. My dad was on the BVIA board and always on the beach! He encouraged all beach activities and taught me to be respectful of the ocean and to love our beach. Though I traveled a good bit over the years, I came home to Bay View, to visit family, see friends, and to swim in the summer. I have lived here year-round since 2020. I became the 4th generation homeowner in 2022.
What is your favorite thing about Bay View?
Without a doubt, the people here in Bay View make our community special. Community members are friendly, take care of their properties, and look out for their neighbors. I also love and cherish our beautiful beach, as I know everyone here in the BVIA does.
How have you worked to improve Bay View in the past?
Since becoming a homeowner, I’ve found small ways to volunteer and be helpful where I can. Last summer, I painted the beach benches with another volunteer and worked with Ahuva Munzer on the landscaping committee. I spruced-up the gates this year which needed repainting. I recently had the pleasure of reattaching a swim line to the buoy with lifeguard Pete. We learned that the lines collect a lot of seaweed and need to be cleared periodically, as they were later that day at low tide. I’m also very grateful we had the buoys back in the water this
summer. Although I couldn’t join the Clean Up beach day -- thank you to everyone who did! -- I regularly collect trash while on beach walks. As a daily swimmer, I remove the trash from the water when I see it.
What are your plans for the future?
Maintenance and storm damage - I’m so appreciative to everyone that has kept our beach healthy, protected and restored from the storms. I want to say a big thank you to the recent beautiful landscaping and plantings at the main gates, on the green, and along Bayshore. I believe we need to keep vigilant about beach erosion and flooding and continue cost effective preventions and solutions. I’ve seen the storm damage over the years, and I think we can all agree that living by the shore, the storms are a constant concern. The past and current board members have done a great job ensuring Bay View’s financial ability to address storm damage quickly. I want to be a part of continuing this important work for our community.
Swim lessons and water safety - Some might remember there were swim lessons once offered on Bay View, even a swim team for the kids! I’d like to investigate if there’s interest in bringing this back to Bay View, and to teach Bay View kids to swim in the sound. I also want to work with other board members to continue to improve water safety. Our lifeguards should be encouraged to be in the water whenever safely possible. We used to have a surfboard, let’s get them a surfboard. Lifeguards should know the tides, if and where there are strong currents, and have a
vantage point of the beach from the water. If there are swimmers in trouble, lifeguards will reach them more quickly on a board.
Car break-ins and speeding cars - I’d like to address what I feel are two issues of growing concern: the alarming rash of car break-ins and speeding cars. I want to work for a solution to help keep our streets safe day and night. Perhaps organize a Neighborhood Watch, and work with the city for vigorous speed enforcement in our beach community where we have so many people walking on the streets.
.Overall - I want to work with our board and the BVIA community to continue to preserve our charter and our beach. My goal is to meet more of the community, be respectful of different perspectives, and to meet challenges together by making mindful, cost-effective improvements that build for the future. I love the history of Bay View and welcome new homeowners, like myself. We have a beautiful beach with our charter that we all enjoy and love; I believe we can agree to work together to keep our beach healthy and our community strong for the next generations.
Todd Nass
I'm a Long Island native, we look at our home town when we look across the sound from our Beach! I worked as an engineer and manager for GE for 35 years and since retiring have worked for a friend distributing automotive maintenance materials. I have a college degree in Marine Engineering and during my GE career I worked in nuclear operations, power plant management and facilities project management. I'm very handy with mechanical, electrical, carpentry and automotive. I am married to Cathy and have two grown kids and very importantly 3 grandkids!
How long have you lived in Bay View?
We bought our house in October 19, renovated and added to it for 7 months and moved in June 20.
What is your favorite thing about Bay View?
Of course the beach; but we have come to appreciate what a great community of people this is. We are blessed to have many neighbors as friends and we enjoy the welcomeness and esprit d' cour of Bayview.
How have you worked to improve Bay View in the past?
So far not so much hence why I would love to assist the board. Even if I am not elected this year I will gladly offer my assistance for any projects that they need me for.
What are your plans for the future?
This place is really great the way it is. I'd like to see the environment we have been given is maintained and where needed enhanced but I really hope things look pretty close to the way things currently do for years to come.