Mayor’s Message

Welcome to the Incorporated Village of Freeport on Long Island’s beautiful South Shore. Freeport Village, recognized as the “Boating and Fishing Capital of the East," is also known for its diversity, beautiful waterfront, Nautical Mile, magnificent Victorian homes, affordable electric and water rates, and so much more.

Many national and international companies have brought their businesses to Freeport. We also boast a thriving small business community, with friendly merchants, an industrial park, mom-and-pop stores, restaurants and vibrant, walkable areas. Since 2013, residents and businesses have enjoyed nine straight years of no village tax increases, while Freeport remains one of Long Island’s most desirable places to live, own a home, operate a business and raise a family.

Law enforcement and village safety remain a top priority for Freeport. Ours was the first police department in New York State to institute the use of body cameras by every officer. In the last eight months, 10 new police officers have been sworn in, and a state grant brought 11 new state-ofthe-art police vehicles into the department’s fleet. Together with the implementation of Operation Safe Streets, the remarkable result has been a 56 percent decrease in crime since 2020.

Freeport is also doing its part to create a safe and sustainable future for Long Island by fortifying our shores with storm-preparedness measures, in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The pumping station and backflow valves installed under the streets of Freeport’s waterfront community a year ago have eliminated inconvenient storm flooding for more than a thousand homes.

Freeport’s electric power plant allows

businesses and residents to purchase power with a 43 percent savings compared to the surrounding communities. Additionally, Freeport’s Water Department affords a 37 percent savings to our residents and businesses. Freeport also prides itself as the “Boating and Fishing Capital of the East,” beginning with the world-famous Nautical Mile that welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors to Freeport’s shores each year. Along the strip, you will find Robert T. Kennedy dozens of friendly merchants, mom-and-pop shops, renowned waterfront dining, family fun, and a beautiful view of the sunset over the placid Randall Bay. Festivals and celebrations happen there throughout the year, and experienced boat captains take fishing enthusiasts, whale lovers, and seal-watchers to our marine waters in all four seasons. The newest jewel in our village crown is 36-acre Cow Meadow Park, which we acquired from Nassau County in January. In addition to the enhanced safety our police and fire departments will provide, we are renewing the current ball and tennis fields, bettering the park's walkable nature preserve, creating a beach with lifeguards, and adding other recreational facilities too numerous to mention here. Our schools and social life have largely returned to normal as we emerge from the coronavirus pandemic. The majority of residents are vaccinated, and our businesses have reopened. Economic development, stable taxes and the continued increase in property values makes Freeport a great place to live, work and invest in New York State. I am honored to serve as the mayor of this wonderful village and take pride in the tremendous progress we have made. On behalf of the board of trustees, thank you for visiting us. You are always welcome in the wonderful village of Freeport.

Sincerely, Robert T. Kennedy

The secret of Freeport Cemetery

By Reine Bethany

Aspiritual secret lies beneath the grounds of John W. Dodd Middle School.

Freeport Cemetery (sometimes referred to as the Presbyterian Cemetery) was located on what is now the school’s running track and green playing field. This burial ground was established sometime between 1856 and 1859 by Willet Smith.

Freeport’s Presbyterian Church stood next to the cemetery on Church Street, in the building now occupied by the Salvation Army Freeport Corps Community Center.

By the second decade of the 20th century, burials slowed to about one per year. In 1918, vandals pushed over one hundred tombstones. The last recorded burial at the Freeport Cemetery occurred in June 1920 (Alonzo Raynor). In February 1921, New York State Assemblyman Thomas A. McWhinney, who was chairman of Affairs of Villages, introduced a bill that gave the Freeport School District permission to purchase the Freeport Cemetery. The cost included exhumation of remains, re-interment, new grave plots, and mapping and recording the locations of the new graves, as well as removing tombstones, monuments, and markers from the original graves and placing them at their new graves.

The disinterment and reinterment were accomplished during June of 1922. Of the 944 bodies disinterred from the Freeport Cemetery, 856 were reinterred in “district plots” within Greenfield Cemetery, while 88 went to private plots at Greenfield Cemetery and Rockville Cemetery.

Today, the seventh- and eighth-grade children who dash around the track, or kick a ball into a goal on the field, carry on the tradition of the builders and champions who once lay there.

Information courtesy of the Freeport Memorial Library.

from findagrave.com

Photo: Map of Freeport Cemetery.