MEET THE CANDIDATE: Paul Breschard

The election for Mayor and Trustees for the Village of Mastic Beach is coming up, and I have reached out to the many candidates running for various positions. For the next couple of weeks I hope to get responses from them so I could feature them here, and have everyone become familiar with the candidates. This is the fifth installment of "Meet The Candidate", featuring Paul Breschard who is running for Village Mayor.

1)Tell us a bit about yourself. How long have you lived in the area?
I was born on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1949, at St. Mary’s Hospital in Brooklyn, NY. We were summer residents until 1953 when my family moved into my aunt’s converted summer bungalow on Alder Drive in Mastic Beach and became year-round residents.

I began school in 1955 in the first grade at the William Floyd Annex in Moriches (today called The Little Red Schoolhouse, directly in front of Moriches Elementary).

I graduated from the new William Floyd Junior-Senior High School and was in its first graduating class of 1967. I graduated valedictorian of my class, thanks to “ the dedicated teaching of the best faculty on Long Island.” Their dedication would inspire my choice of my life’s work five years later.

I attended C. W. Post College, majoring in English Education and graduating in February 1972. I immediately got a position at William Floyd. Earning a Master’s Degree at Hofstra University in 1978, I taught English at both the William Paca Middle School and William Floyd High School. I married Paca’s Nurse Jerri Weir in August of 1974. Jerri and I built our home in Mastic Beach, where we raised our children Jayme and David. During my teaching years, I also served as adult education director, chaperone, alternative school instructor, home instructor, newspaper and yearbook advisor, summer school instructor, and sundry other extra-time positions.

During my years of raising a family, I served as a Mastic Sports coach in boys’ baseball and girls’ softball. I also served as a Boy Scout leader and scout master. I worked summers as a dock master and as docks and marinas manager for the Town of Brookhaven for over 20 years.

Retiring in 2005, I continued to serve part-time as adult education director. I have also provided services as SAT Prep, home, and academic intervention services instructor when needed. In 2008, I was honored with the Distinguished Alumni Award by the Wm. Floyd School District.

My new avocation, however, is local civic work. I serve as a director of both the Pattersquash Creek Civic Ass’n. and the Wm. Floyd Alumni Ass’n. I have also served as the Chairperson of the Mastic Beach Village Exploratory Committee for the past three years, the organization responsible for the successful incorporation of the Village of Mastic Beach.

2) Why did you decide to run and were you for or against the village?
I am running with the encouragement of the more than 300 residents of Mastic Beach who comprised the Village Exploratory Committee. They understand that the very existence of our new village depends on the outcome of this election. My opponent and his Alliance are supported by the very people who first tried to prevent the village referendum with their Article 78 and then waged a campaign of misinformation and scare tactics to try to defeat the referendum. Even though 57% of the voters approved the village, our opposition is still fighting to destroy what we have fought so hard for. Putting my opponent into office would render the new government ineffective by maintaining the status quo in Mastic Beach -- a community controlled by special interests.

3) What do you believe your responsibilities are as a mayor?
The mayor is the CEO of the village. My first job will be to find the very best people to staff the new government: a village clerk, treasurer, attorney and office secretary; a code enforcement department and officers; a building department with planning board; a zoning commission and zoning board of appeals; and a village court and justice. Then it will be my responsibility to insure that the new government is better than what it is replacing. It must be a government that is both accountable and accessible to the residents of Mastic Beach. All records of the decisions and actions of the mayor and trustees must be available in a timely fashion to all residents. A Citizens Advisory Council must be appointed to advise the mayor and trustees. And, village meetings must serve as a community dialogue of all issues affecting our residents. The mayor must guarantee this!

4) What outside experience do you bring that can be applicable to the position?
As adult education director at Wm. Floyd, I managed a professional staff of more than 40 while providing academic, recreational, and self-improvement programs to the residents of the district. As Brookhaven Town’s Director of Docks and Marinas, I supervised a staff of over 300 workers at seven marinas on Fire Island, and on both north and south shores. And, during the last three years, I successfully led more than 300 dedicated volunteers in the establishment of this village. I have educated myself in New York State Village Law and have studied the structure and operation of successful village governments around the State.

5) What do you see as the positives of Mastic Beach, and what are the negatives?
That’s easy! The positives of Mastic Beach are her people and the geography of the community in which they live. The negatives are the special interest groups that would destroy the quality of life of their neighbors for their own profit.

6) How do you envision the Village of Mastic Beach in 5 years?
I envision a safe and nurturing community for families, for young and for old. I envision a community of narrow tree-lined roads where the proximity of the front door to the road brings neighbors together. I see a village filled with people who want to walk down a road and talk to their neighbors, smell a roast cooking for dinner, and hear a children asking their mom if they can go out to play after homework.

I see families wanting to buy a home where a dirt road runs parallel to the shore, and seagulls sit atop telephone poles, by a bay that is quiet but for the drone of a lone boat sailing into the sun that is setting beyond the drawbridge. That was the Mastic Beach of my yesterday, of my youth fifty years ago. That is also the Mastic Beach of my future!


THE ELECTION IS ON NOVEMBER 22nd, 2010 AT THE MASTIC BEACH FIRE DEPARTMENT (ON NEIGHBORHOOD RD) FROM 12-9PM.