Incumbents Run Unopposed in Quogue Village

The race for Village Board in Quogue next month will see two incumbents running unopposed to retain their seats. One, Randy Cardo, is a longtime servant on the board, having begun some 28 years ago. The second, Edward “Ted” Necarsulmer III, is a comparative newcomer, if you consider a tenure dating back to 2010 new.

Appointed to the Village Board to fill the seat left vacant when Peter Sartorius became mayor, Necarsulmer was a summer and weekend visitor to the village since the 1980s. When he retired from the investment business — “when it was still an honorable profession” — in 2000, he moved to Quogue full time. He joined the fire department as “an investment guy in his 50s,” and served as president of the Quogue Firefighters Benevolent Association. He’s on the board of the Quogue Wildlife Refuge and the Cemetery Association.

That village officials and residents have “managed to keep Quogue Quogue,” amid the development and changes to other communities in Southampton Town is a source of satisfaction for the candidate. Maintaining the village’s unique spirit, he said, has been his most important accomplishment. Plus, “We kept the taxes down and we tried to keep the quality of life up.”

Looking ahead, he sees the most important issue facing Quogue — as it’s being faced by all of Long Island — is water quality. The village has “dodged that bullet” of water bodies suffering from such degradation as harmful algal blooms, but he feels “We have to be mindful as we try to push people to have these advanced septic systems and that kind of stuff.”

Necarsulmer takes pride in the constituent services village officials and staff provide. Public servants in Quogue are “very attuned” to the needs of the residents. “If we’re not, we hear about it immediately,” he joked. “No one in Quogue is bashful.”

The candidate believes progressing the Fire Island to Montauk Point Reformulation Study project in Quogue is important. Known as FIMP, the federal program looks to restore the profile of beaches along Long Island’s South Shore. First conceived in 1960, Congress agreed to fund the infamously delay-plagued project as part of the response to Superstorm Sandy’s impacts on Long Island’s southern coastline. “It’s not that it won’t get done, the question is when?” he concluded.

Necarsulmer’s running mate, Cardo, also sees FIMP’s progress as a key undertaking to follow and collaborate on in the coming years. “I’m excited about FIMP moving forward,” the third generation village native said.

Cardo noted that the village already implements a beach scraping program. Each year as summer sand builds up along the shoreline, the village gets permission from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to take some of the sand and place it on the dunes as reserves to combat winter erosion. Cardo’s been overseeing that project since the late 1990s.

With a professional background in the construction industry, Cardo believes he has the skill set to oversee capital projects in Quogue. “That’s my greatest value add to the village,” he opined. From the creation of pocket parks throughout the community, to upgrades to public buildings, to road improvements, like the recent overhaul of Jessup Avenue, Cardo has been at the helm for them. “My primary role has been to oversee the highway department,” he explained.

Before joining the board in 1995, he served five years on the village Planning Board.

His background in public service dates beyond that, if tangentially. His father, Carl Cardo, was a village trustee for decades. When he chose not to run for reelection in 1995, “I said, ‘I’d kinda like to do that.’”

And, like his father and grandfather before him, Cardo was a member of the local fire department. Again, serving for decades. He’s also served on the local school board.

Humble about his years of service, Cardo said, “I think, when you live in a small village, where you have roots, you tend to get involved and be a part of it.”

Election Day is June 16. Voting will take place from noon to 9 p.m. at the firehouse.