Riverhead Town Supervisor Yvette Aguiar held a live Zoom meeting with members of her staff and various supporters on the night of February 3 to announce that she will not seek a third term.
Aguiar was first elected in 2019, making her the first Latina town supervisor in Suffolk County. She was re-elected in 2021.
In her speech, she talked about how she led the town through the state-imposed lockdown due to COVID-19. “Two months after taking office in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic essentially closed our country for two years,” Aguiar said. “The pandemic did not prevent me from securing our town and overcoming the challenges we faced.”
Aguiar spoke about her accomplishments, including the creation of a new Town Square, the demolition of two blighted buildings on Main Street and the purchase of the former Entenmann campus from Peconic Bay Medical Center which will be the site of the new Town Hall. She also noted that Forbes magazine named Riverhead as one of the “Best Places to Travel” for this year.
“As a result, Riverhead is unequivocally on the map,” Aguiar said. “In three short years, we have moved our town forward in a quantum leap. There are no longer rumors, plans, studies, and empty promises.”
As Town Supervisor, she said, she “never devoted an hour or even a day of my time to personal partisan causes or to any duties, other than the awesome duties of my office as Riverhead Town Supervisor.”
She added that she will “continue enhancing our town’s quality of life and remain intensely focused on continuing the important work vital to improving the lives of our residents. …I am committed to continue building our future foundation. I will leave you then with a deep-rooted foundation for progress, which will afford all our residents to prosper, with an enhanced quality of life for many years to come.”