Prior to becoming mayor in 1987, Amityville Village Mayor Emil Pavlik served as a trustee from l977 to l980. But even before that, Pavlik, who was born and raised in Amityville, began to hone his skills in public service. As a youth, he served as a student representative for the Village’s Chief of Police.

"When I was in the 8th grade I remember Rudy Koop who was the Village Clerk," he said. "I was elected as student representative for the chief of police at a board meeting, a program I reinstated when I became mayor. At that meeting, the board was proposing to buy a new police car for $3,000. Today the latest quote I have for a police car is $14,000. Needless to say economics have become a paramount consideration for local municipalities."

The impact of spiraling costs has been compounded by an increase in the Village’s responsibilities, many of which have been hoisted upon the Village by state and local mandates without state and local funding.

"Years ago people in Albany and the other governments didn’t get involved too much in the villages," said Pavlik. "They gave us some aid and that was about it. As lobbying groups became bigger, the state began passing all kinds of legislation, which the villages had to comply with. Some of these mandates are good for the community, like beveling sidewalks for the handicapped, but they carry a tremendous cost to us. The state passes them along to us without funds, and the brunt of these unfunded mandates is heaped on the backs of local taxpayers."

Rising costs are not the only problem the Village has to contend with these days. "The beginning of our business problems was in the mid-1950s when the east side Broadway was widened," said Pavlik. "The stores along that strip were forced to move back about 30 to 40 feet. Many of them struggled to make ends meet and some even went out of business. The old movie theater there, which was a good draw for the Village, tried to make a go of it, but it eventually closed."

Another problem created by the widening was a loss of parking space. "You take an area that size away from the Village and you have a tremendous parking void which has an adverse affect on all of our businesses," the mayor said.

Village Parking Committee Chairman William Shave agreed.

"Many residents have complained bitterly about this situation and the mayor and the board have been trying to find additional parking and we will continue to do so until we solve this problem," said Shave who was elected to the Village Board in l987. "The survival of our merchants depends on it."

According to Shave, a major factor in today’s parking shortage is the increased population. "Also, today you can have a car for each resident of a household whereas years ago there was only one car for an entire family," he added.

Shave, who also chairs the Village Emergency Preparedness Committee, said planning for storms today also been improved by modern technology. "It wasn’t that long ago that we would be hit by a hurricane with little or no warning," he said. "Today we are able to begin tracking it from the moment it take shapes as a tropical storm. This doesn’t lessen the storm’s impact, but it does afford us time to prepare for it and evacuate to higher ground if necessary."

Amityville: Commerce and Caring

Phil Robinson, a member of the Amityville Chamber of Commerce, recalled the widening of Broadway from 1955 to 1958 when the Simpson Church, then located on that thoroughfare, was forced to move to its present location at 30 Locust Avenue. His church activities and concern for the Village led him to become a member of the Amityville Chamber of Commerce.

"I remember when I came to Long Island in the early 1950s," said Robinson. "Amityville was quite a busy, bustling community. The Amityville Community Council, which was interested in seeing things done in the Village like Peterkin Park, the Gazebo, the Triangle and several other projects, was primarily a resident group, which began as the Amityville Activities Council."

For many years the Chamber was involved almost exclusively with the annual Christmas Tree Lighting, according to Robinson. "About seven years ago, the chamber was revitalized at the urging of Mayor Pavlik who had just begun his first term in office in 1987," said Robinson. "He called several merchants and the chamber started to become active in the community." Since that time the chamber has sponsored a variety of events like the annual sidewalk sale, carnivals, and other activities designed to attract people to Amityville.

"The Village needed an active chamber of commerce for a few reasons," said Pavlik. "First of all we are better served with one centralized organization to coordinate our many activities and secondly, having a chamber of commerce per se, we could obtain grant money."

Pavlik pointed out the problems for local merchants that have arisen since the inception of malls. "The increased mobility coupled with the allure of the malls has been harmful to local businesses," he said.

"Malls have had a deleterious effect on local businesses," said Robinson, who remembers the opening of the Sunrise Mall in 1973. "These shopping centers have taken their toll on local merchants here and throughout the country." Robinson noted that while malls pose a problem, they have also inspired creativity by local merchants, which has resulted in several to attract shoppers. "One project in Amityville was ‘Fantastic Fridays’ which the chamber sponsored on Friday evenings during the summer," he said. "We had music and other forms of entertainment and it eventually became very popular."

Robinson, who was drawn to this area by his wife, Jacqueline (nee: Hardgrove), joined Simpson United Methodist Church in 1952 and is presently a member of its Board of Trustees. He has also served as chairman of all of the church’s committees. His late wife was graduate of Amityville Memorial High School who met her husband-to-be when they attended the University of Vermont.

"Today our church has a wider cultural group than in the past," said Robinson. "Mainly they’re people from the Islands like Haitians and Jamaicans and some African Americans. They have been great contributors to the church in both work and ideas."

According to Robinson, in more recent years the Ecumenical Council of Churches was formed in Amityville. "They’re involved in charitable activities like providing meals for residents at the Colonial Motel and helping less fortunate people ," he said. "It’s proven to be a viable cooperative effort of several religious groups that share a common goal."

"The cooperation among churches in Amityville’s Ecumenical Council of Churches is wonderful," said Sister Margaret Althisar, director of the St. Martin of Tours Church Outreach. "One example of people helping people is the response we receive from everyone, including the Amityville High School Key Club and the Amityville PBA, when we have our annual food drive around Thanksgiving." Sister Margaret noted that Key Club members also volunteer their help at the Outreach Soup Kitchen. She also praised Amityville’s civic organizations like the Kiwanis, Rotary and Lions clubs for their support of the Outreach programs. She said many people coming to Outreach for assistance are from the more recent wave of immigrants, largely Hispanic and a few Polish.

"Many of the people who come here are seeking rent relief, help with heating bills or help with their medical problems," she said. "Catholic Charities recently implemented a program in conjunction with community outreach programs that provides people with free physical examinations and medical screenings. A lot of times a disease can go undetected until its too late for medical care and poor people are the major victims because they can’t afford adequate health care."

Sister Margaret said it is not uncommon for people to stop by Outreach with clothing donations. "We don’t have the space here," said Sister Margaret, "but we refer them to the Church Attic at the First United Methodist Church."

Amityville: Unique

Mayor Pavlik pointed out aspects of Amityville’s uniqueness.

"Unlike many other villages, in Amityville people know each other and we are very family oriented. Parents see each other at meetings, Little League games, etc. Every year when the soccer season opens at the village beach fields its like a big family reunion," he said. "We work together in good times and bad. Whether it’s our volunteer fire department quickly responding to an alarm in the middle of the night in the dead of winter or a group of residents helping with a community project, we work together for the betterment of our village."

Another significant difference in Amityville was the retention of its own police force. "As a result, our police are able to respond to emergencies anywhere in the village within a minute or two. The Suffolk County Police are good, but they’re just too undermanned and overburdened by the drug problem to respond immediately to all of the calls they receive."

Amityville Police Chief Kenneth Greguski, a veteran of more than 27 years as a law enforcement officer, addressed another situation. "Years ago we had a policeman walking the beat who knew everyone on his beat and they knew him which resulted in mutual respect," he said. This was a very important part of police work in those days that we don’t have today." Greguski added a note of optimism, however. "We’re hoping to put an officer back on the sidewalk within the next few months," he said.

Amityville: Pretty

Part of Amityville’s pride stems from its appearance. "By enhancing our appearance, we not only help instill pride in the merchants and the residents, but we are better able to attract shoppers from outside the village," said Pavlik.

In the mid-1960s, then Mayor Lou Howard, known as the "Beautification Mayor", began the Memorial Tree project in which a tree was planted with a accompanying inscribed plaque dedicated to a deceased villager. Howard played a variety of roles in Amityville’s rich history beginning with 16 years as a teacher at the school from which he graduated, Amityville Memorial High School. As coach of the AMHS football team in the 50s and 60s, Howard led his charges to nine consecutive league championships and five Rutgers trophies. The present AMHS football field was renamed Lou Howard Field in 1991, the same year in which he was among the initial inductees into the Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame. Howard also founded the Amityville-LeBourget Alliance in 1977. A veteran of World War II, he has also served as a Suffolk County Legislator, NYS Assemblyman and Village Trustee.

"Lou Howard and I were in kindergarten together," said Amityville Highway Superintendent Kendall Muncy, a village resident for nearly 69 years. "Years ago we didn’t have any kind of tree program. When a tree was knocked down by a storm, it was hauled away. Sometimes they planted trees and sometimes they didn’t. All the work was done by hand as there were no power saws then." The soon-to-be septuagenarian Muncy said a lot of effort goes into maintaining the Village’s positive appearance along with the tree plantings. "We do all of the signs and meters and each morning every waste basket in the Village is emptied," he said. "They didn’t do that years ago because there were no waste baskets."

Muncy recalled his youth when the streets of Amityville were unpaved and lightly trafficked.

"My father had an excavating business in the mid-30s and he had one truck with a snow plow which was one of only two snow plows in the Village," he said. "These two trucks did all of the snow plowing in the Village. In 1934 we had a big blizzard and my father had a Caterpillar bulldozer he bought in 1929 or 1930. Nobody could move after that storm and my father took the dozer and began plowing paths through the Village on his own. While he was doing this, a policeman drove up and told him the village officials said they would pay him for his work." Muncy, whose father, Donald, later became the supervisor for the Town of Babylon, said his father worked three or four days and nights plowing Amityville’s streets.

"Road maintenance was a lot different in those days," said Muncy. "We had narrower roads and fewer vehicles. I doubt that half the residents owned cars back then." He pointed out that the problems in the 20s and 30s were largely due to the poor quality of the streets. "They were just roads that had been shaped up with top soil thrown on them. They created a lot of repair problems because the street tops were not durable. It wasn’t until the 1970s when the sewers were installed that our roads were blacktopped." According to Muncy, today’s roads hold up better, but they require drainage and curbing maintenance. "Sidewalk ramps for the handicapped are one of our most recent major projects," said Muncy. "A lot of projects we’re capable of doing today would be very expensive if we put them out to bid."

He recalled the years prior to the mid-50s when the fire house and police station were on Greene Avenue where today’s police headquarters and Village Courtroom are located. "The courtroom was above Village Hall then and when the fire house on Oak Street was built in the late 70s, they revamped the old fire house for the police station and courthouse.

Amityville: The broader community

Edmond Larsen, president of the North Amityville Taxpayers Association, remembers when he came to the area in 1957 following retirement from the New York City Board of Education. "At that time the area now known as North Amityville was mostly woods and was sparsely populated," he said. "Since then, not only has the face of North Amityville changed, but the Village of Amityville as well."

Larsen was recently selected to receive the Rita Webb Smith Citizen Drug Fighter of the Year Award by the Governor’s Anti-Drug Abuse Council for his organization’s efforts to combat the drug problem which has become a major cause of crime. "Years ago the economics of Amityville were pretty much in place and there were no African American shops to be found," he said. Today a lot of our residents not only shop in Amityville, but several have opened businesses in the Village, which is good for everyone."

"When I was a boy, I remember going to North Amityville to shop at the vegetable markets there and that’s about all there was," said Pavlik, in recalling his high school years. "I also remember a student named Clara Leftenant from one of North Amityville’s five original families who had one of the best singing voices I’ve ever heard." He said the interaction between Amityville and North Amityville today is great. "It proves that cultural diversity is an asset. It’s another aspect of Amityville that sets it apart from most other villages."

Central NAACP Branch President Sharon Davis reflected on the origin of North Amityville which is largely rooted in Amityville. "In the 1920s a lot of people had summer homes on the bay in Amityville and they brought along domestic help," she said. "These domestics became so attached to their employers that they took on a proprietorial relationship with them. Those summer homes eventually became permanent residences." According to Davis, the summer domestics, and the African American whalers from Long Island’s north shore were the original settlers in what is now North Amityville.