Village effort gets boost from mayor of Islandia

By Bryan Finlayson, Press of Manorville, Nov 7, 2008

Encouraging the residents of Mastic Beach to create an incorporated village, Islandia Village Mayor Allan Dorman said that to do so would give residents better control over their collective destiny.

Mr. Dorman made his remarks at a meeting of the the Pattersquash Creek Civic Association Monday night at the Mastic Beach Firehouse. The meeting was the latest in an effort to encourage residents to support an effort to create a village, an idea that has gained momentum in recent years.

Residents have promoted the creation of a village in Mastic Beach in order to “clean up” illegal rentals, prosecute code violators and address zoning issues, civic association member Victor Zeleny said. Property taxes for residents living in Mastic Beach are not projected to increase if incorporation occurs, he noted.

As of Monday, the civic association had raised $17,000 toward incorporation efforts, but estimates that a total of $30,000 will be needed to place the incorporation proposal on a public ballot.

“In the beginning, unless down the road the public feels different, we are doing it for planning, zoning, building, apartments and code enforcement,” Mr. Zeleny said, noting that by not seeking to provide significant services, the creation of the village wouldn’t result in high costs to residents. “We’re not going to be doing plowing in the beginning. We’re not asphalting, we’re not picking up garbage. In the beginning, to keep it where it’s not going to cost the public anything, we’re going to keeping with these small entities. We’re going to concern ourselves with cleaning up the housing issues and the code violations and the things of that nature.”

At the meeting, Mr. Dorman shared his own experiences of how incorporation changed a community. Islandia incorporated as a village in 1985. Mr. Dorman, who has been mayor of Islandia for three years, said incorporation improved the quality of life of residents.

The average homeowner in Islandia pays about $500 in property taxes. The Village of Islandia, which is located within Islip Town, provides services including garbage pick-up, code enforcement, road repair and street cleaning.

An advantage of stronger local control is that controversial issues—Mr. Dorman highlighted day laborers waiting for work and congregating on street corners as one such issue—will be addressed quicker.

He expounded on a situation where day laborers were gathering to be picked up by employers at a 7-Eleven in Islandia. “You notice the bicycles. You notice them hanging out there in the morning, all of that stuff,” Mr. Dorman said.

The issue was handled by Islandia’s code endorsement team. Code enforcement—there are five full- and part-time officers—responded by placing obstacles on the property to deter employers from picking up the workers in the parking lot, he said. “I don’t have anything against these people who want to work, I just think it has to be done in the right way. But we have to stay on top of things like that,” Mr. Dorman said. “They could be renting apartments. People like that could be renting houses, 14 or 15 of them in there, and then they go out and work their jobs in the morning—and then it creates a whole different feeling. It wasn’t the reason why I moved to Long Island.”

Another instance where village status helped root out perceived problems was when a homeless shelter opened up right across the street from his own home, Mr. Dorman said.

According to Mr. Dorman, his neighbor couldn’t sell his property, so he began to “run a business in a residential community, a homeless shelter.” Mr. Dorman, who was mayor at the time, took immediate action to oust the “14 people living across the street from me, living in a one-story ranch.” He did so by calling Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy.

According to Mr. Dorman, within a week, Suffolk County code enforcement officers shut down the home and evicted the tenants.

“I have to be honest with you,” Mr. Dorman said. “The fact that I am the mayor, and the fact that I do live across the street from the house, and the fact that I picked up the phone and called Steve Levy, all kinda helped.”

Throughout his 90-minute talk, Mr. Dorman came back his belief that the reason for incorporation was to increase local control and use that control to improve quality of life for property owners.

“A village government is not another layer of government. I’m here to tell you it is the layer of government,” Mr. Dorman said. “There isn’t anybody in Suffolk County or anyone in the towns that are going to help you. When you’re in a village, you help yourself.

“You control your destiny. You control everything in your neighborhood,” Mr. Dorman continued. “You don’t want to incorporate for any other reason than the fact that you want to control your destiny. If you have some other reason—you don’t want to be part of something or you hate somebody or whatever—that’s not the reason to do it. The reason is you want to control your destiny.”