Voters make Mastic Beach a village

Mastic Beach residents voted Tuesday to incorporate the 11,500-resident South Shore hamlet as the ninth village in Brookhaven Town.

Residents will vote on a mayor and four trustees within 40 days, and the village will spend the next 18 months developing its own departments and services, said members of the Mastic Beach Village Exploratory Committee, which pushed for incorporation.

Residents approved the new government by a count of 1,797 to 1,385.

Supporters of the village trumpeted the passage as a victory for residents who want to take back their community from absentee landlords and code violators. The village government will crack down on quality of life issues and help re-establish pride in the community, said resident Walt Meshenberg.

"We need local representation," said Meshenberg. "Local folks, local representation to enforce the rules on the books."

Others weren't so positive.

Opponents of the village, including Larry Tellefsen of Mastic Beach Property Owners Association, said the new village will merely raise taxes and increase the size of government.

"Families will be forced out, senior citizens will be forced out, low-income people will be forced out," he said. "We have a lot of working-class poor."

Voting took place from noon to 9 p.m. at the Mastic Beach firehouse on Neighborhood Road.

The streets around the firehouse became an arena for debate, as dozens of residents held signs and shouted slogans as voters filed toward the polling place. Some residents placed a banner on the side of a building that read: "Vote No - It's Your Dough." Others chanted "Vote yes, clean up the mess."

Brookhaven Supervisor Mark Lesko, who spent the day working as an inspector at the polling place, said he is "neutral" on the issue of incorporation.

"It's a good day for democracy in Mastic Beach," he said, adding that voting "went smoothly."

Councilman Daniel Panico, who represents the area and has also declined to take a side on the issue, said voting was "steady all day."

Lesko ruled in March that voters should be allowed to vote on the issue of incorporation after members of the exploratory committee submitted a petition.