After being reelected on March 19 for another four-year term as Patchogue mayor, Paul Pontieri is starting to think about life after Village Hall.
“You’ve got to get to the point where you have to hand it off to somebody else, someone with different ideas, better ideas, hopefully,” said Pointieri, who has been mayor for 20 years and a Village Trustee for 10 years before that.
He will have been mayor for 24 years when his current term ends in 2028.
There’s “nothing imminent,” Pontieri said but he expects he’ll reassess things in about two years, which would be halfway through his current term.
“It all depends on where we’re at in two years,” Pontieri said Saturday at the Village’s annual Easter Egg Hunt at Farther Tortora Park.
“My wife said to me the other day, ‘You have to find a hobby,’” Pontieri said. “The village can no longer be your hobby.”
“I don’t make widgets in the basement. I don’t play golf,” said Pontieri, who grew up two blocks from Village Hall. “I’m not a real hobby person. I go to work everyday.”
Family considerations will play a part, according to Pontieri, who said he and his wife would like to be able to spend more time with their son and his family who live in Colorado. Their two daughters live closer to home, one in Patchogue and the other in Connecticut.
Pontieri, who was first elected mayor in 2000, pointed to accomplishments like the 291-unit New Village apartments, new restaurants and a thriving Patchogue Centre for the Performing Arts, as well as the number of families with young children who have moved into the village.
He said he wants to see completed a planned hotel, the 262-unit Carriage House apartments planned for West Main Street and NYU Langone moving to the former Burlington Coat Factory building on Main Street.
Pontieri said there’s a deep bench of talented officials on the Village Board who help him guide the village.
“They’ve all been on different boards, Planning, Zoning, Community Development.” Pontieri said. “That strength is what will carry us forward.”
Pontieri said that when he was first elected in 2000, the Long Island Advance ran an editorial laying out a to-do list for him to tackle as mayor.
He still has the article framed in his office at Village Hall.
“I checked off the challenges the Advance gave me 20 years ago,” he said.
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