Village officials in Williston Park and Mineola will seek reelection on Wednesday, March 18.
In every case, incumbent mayors, trustees and village judges are running unopposed.
In Williston Park, Mayor Paul Ehrbar, Trustee Kevin Rynne, who serves as deputy mayor, Trustee William O’Brien and Village Justice Kevin Kiley are seeking reelection unopposed.
In Mineola, Mayor Paul Pereira, Trustee Janine Sartori, who serves as deputy mayor, and Trustee Jeffrey Clark are seeking reelection unopposed.
According to Pereira, all village board candidates are running with the New Line Party. Village Justice Scott Fairgreave is also running unopposed.
Ehrbar has been mayor since 2010, and from 2000 to 2006, his wife, Doreen Ehrbar, was Williston Park’s mayor.
He said he values his open-office approach to the role, hopes residents will contact him with any problems, and looks forward to celebrating the village’s centennial as a community. He said the job is challenging but rewarding, and he’s proud of the village’s thriving business community and is always looking for ways to support it.
“I think over the years, myself and the board have accomplished a lot in the village, and we hope to continue to do so,” Ehrbar said, emphasizing infrastructure, village operations and working to keep taxes low. “We have a very dedicated, committed board. We all work together well.”
Rynne served as Hempstead’s postmaster for the U.S. Postal Service from 2006 until the appointment of Trina Wilson in 2019. According to a letter of support from his 2010 election, he has also served as president of the Williston Park Little League and as a leader of Scouting America Troop 201.
In Mineola, Pereira was first elected mayor in 2022 and served as a trustee from 2008 to 2011, and deputy mayor from 2011 to 2022. He said he plans to retire from his 33-year career as a teacher at Mineola High School after this school year, but that does not change his role as mayor.
“It frees up more time, but the position continues to be part-time,” he said, saying he will likely be searching for more working opportunities in the future. “I’m looking forward to working with the team that we have. Including the board, our wonderful staff and department heads. We’re all focused on taking this village further in the direction that we’re going.”
Pereira said he looks forward to using the village’s NY Forward $4.5 million grant for business district development and is proud of the progress the board has made in providing housing during his administration.
“I think we’ve accomplished a tremendous amount, but we all know the wheels of government move slowly, so I still feel that there’s work to be done,” Pereira said. “I want to focus more on making Mineola, and our downtown especially, into more of a destination.”
He said he thinks that continuity in village government is important to allow long-term development projects to come to fruition.
“I would like to see businesses [downtown,] destinations, arts and music, and things of that nature,” he said. “We’ll also focus on our infrastructure, predominantly water and sewer, to make sure they are meeting the demands and expectations of our residents and our business community.”
