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Absentee ballots are counted at Tuckahoe. DANA SHAW
Incumbent Village Trustee Richard Yastrzemski, a member of the Citizens With Integrity Party, and Planning Board Chairman Michael Irving, of the Patriot Party, are running in an uncontested race for a pair of two-year seats on the Southampton Village Board.
Village Trustee Bonnie Cannon, whose third term expires this year, announced that she will not seek a fourth term on the board.
Voting is from noon to 9 p.m. on Friday, June 15, at the Southampton Cultural Center Levitas Center for the Arts on Pond Lane.
Mr. Yastrzemski, who is an incumbent seeking reelection to a third term on the board, said his experience as a board member has been an enjoyable one. During his six years, he has acted as the village fire commissioner, the liaison between the board and the Southampton Fire Department.
“Since I was elected, I’ve always been pretty hands-on,” the 45-year-old said. “I know people by their faces and names in all the different departments. I’ve been a sounding board to the chiefs and captains.”
While he takes his job as board member seriously, he still tries to keep things in perspective. Mr. Yastrzemski said he often likes to use a little levity in serious situations. “I like using wisecracks to break the tension,” he said. “The mayor said I could make the meetings a lot shorter if I shut my mouth.”
Also happy to be part of the board’s success in keeping under the state-mandated 2 percent tax levy cap in this year’s budgeting process, he said he hopes to keep budget numbers down if reelected.
“One of our biggest goals when working with the budgets was keeping the budget within the cap and working hard with the departments,” he said of the recently adopted $18.7 million spending plan. “In the past, we’ve been able to trim a lot of departments without having to let people go, either through retirement or people leaving on their own volition.”
Mr. Yastrzemski, who is a senior financial advisor at Merrill Lynch in Riverhead, said the board has been able to get rid of the police department’s “top-heaviness” over the past several years and has been able to “tighten things in head count and in numbers.”
As a lifetime village resident, Mr. Yastrzemski said he wants to see the business district become more viable in the near future.
First, he said, the village would need to implement a sewage and waste treatment system that would allow for businesses to thrive.
Mr. Yastrzemski said doing so could be a good way to introduce rental housing on the second stories of some retail storefronts, and in turn foster a vibrant nightlife in the village, similar to that of Sag Harbor, he said. Adding a few “anchors” or retail or civic entities into the business district to entice businesses to move into the village is also something he said he hopes to see happen during his next two-year term.
Mr. Yastrzemski lives in Southampton Village with his wife, Diana, and their two children, Cole and Laine.
Mr. Irving, a longtime Southampton Village resident who has been on the Southampton Village Planning Board for almost five years, will be the second candidate listed on this year’s ballot.
Mr. Irving said his time on the Planning Board, especially this past year as chairman, has been a way for him to help others.
“We’ve accomplished some very good things,” the 58-year-old said. “Overall, I’ve been a pretty big asset in helping people through the application process, which is fairly intense in the village.”
As someone who is involved in the community on multiple levels, from the Southampton Yacht Club to Ducks Unlimited, Mr. Irving has always had an eye on the Village Board.
“I’ve continuously felt that the trustee position is one to be involved with, and this year seemed to be an opportunity to do so,” he said.
Mr. Irving has worked at the New Suffolk Shipyard and the Cutchogue Harbor Marina for 12 years, and said his experience there, in addition to his Planning Board years and his time studying marine science, have prepared him for a seat on the board.
“I can bring a good business sense to the board and I’ve got a very strong environmental background,” he said. “The environmental aspect is more and more important because of the population density increase. Certainly the village, since I’ve been here, has changed over the years. The bays and fields are becoming more and more crucial to us. The reality is that water, beaches, bays and open spaces, is really what makes us.”
Shaye Weaver on Jun 12, 2012