Candidate Profile: Fred Havemeyer For Southampton Town Trustee

SOUTHAMPTON, NY — Suffolk County residents will be hitting the polls soon to elect local representatives.

The race is on in local town and village races leading up to Election Day, which, this year, falls on Tuesday, November 5. Patch asked those running for office to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles in the days leading up to the election.

Fred Havemeyer, 78, of Southampton Town, is running for election as Southampton trustee on the Libertarian line. His opponents include Bill Pell, Ann Welker, David Mayer, Scott Horowitz, Eric Shultz, Andrew Brosnan, Thea Fry, Megan Heckman, Donald Law, and Edward J Warner Jr.

Havemeyer has a daughter, Charlotte, 35, and a son, Freddie, 28. He has a BS degree from NYU and is an investor. He previously served for six terms as a Southampton Town trustee.

Check out Patch's full Q&A with Fred Havemeyer below.

Patch: The single most pressing issue facing our community is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

Fred Havemeyer: Offsetting the environmental effects of our current state of overdevelopment. Focus on remediation of our waters and wetlands.

P: What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

H: I am a long-time resident that has spent a lifetime interacting and advocating for our beaches, bays, lakes and ponds. My record speaks for itself.

P: If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community?

H: Using The Rose Hill Road Park debacle as an example of flawed actions says it all.

P: Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform:

H: As a member of The Southampton Town Board of Trustees, I was directly responsible for creating two waterfront parks, one wildfowl sanctuary, fresh water remediation of three lakes and ponds. Plus, when I stepped down all the financial accounts were in order with surplus balances.

P: What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job

H: Agawam Park, Corwith Park, North Sea Alewife Fish Ladder, removing 5,000 lbs. of invasive carp individually from both Lake Agawam and Mill Pond; water remediation treatments of Silver Brook Pond, Lake Agawam and Mill Pond, Water Mill.

P: The best advice ever shared with me was ...

H: "Work hard, and then try even harder."

P: What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

H: I live full-time in our town and fully appreciate the unique natural resources that we have here because my children and I interact with them almost every day. I was one of the early surfers. I was a professional sport fishing captain that helped to open up the continental shelf marlin and tuna fishing. I am a beach fisherman and spend substantial time on our bays as well — not commercially, for recreation.

I believe that we should give back more than we take.

To that end, years back when the blue fin tuna were threatened with extinction, my name was read into the Congressional Record for having tagged the most tuna in the North Atlantic for science as a private individual.