Meet your new councilwoman

Republican candidate Karen Dunne took Dan Panico’s District 6 vacated seat with overwhelming numbers. She won with over 68 percent of the votes (9,075) to Democratic candidate Dr. Kerry Spooner’s just over 4,200 votes.

Dunne is from Manorville, currently serves on the town’s planning board, and is the president of the Manorville Chamber of Commerce.

“I am humbled and grateful for the tremendous support I have received from the voters in the Sixth Council District and looking forward to January when I can begin to work with supervisor Panico and the entire Brookhaven Town Board.

She will take office in the new year, January 2024. Current councilman and deputy supervisor Dan Panico will take over as Brookhaven Town supervisor; and supervisor Ed Romaine will move on to fill the Suffolk County executive Seat.

“Karen possesses all of the requisite skills necessary to be a great member of the town board,” Panico said, confident in his successor. “She’s intelligent, caring, and has a decade of experience on the planning. I look forward to working with her in the coming year.”

Dunne said her first goal is to learn as much as she possibly can about the most important issues she needs to deal with.

“From the inside—not just from the residents who have educated me a lot over these past several months,” she said.

She also mentioned the Neighborhood Road redevelopment in Mastic Beach, noting it will be a top priority for her. Townwide, she said, she plans to help determine how to replace the revenue lost when the landfill closes and how to deal with the town’s waste. Overall, she added, a top priority is preservation of open space whenever possible and moving toward the use of more clean energy.

MORE ABOUT DUNNE

Dunne was also a member of the Eastport-South Manor School District Board of Education for 22 years, where she served as president. She is married and has four children and three grandchildren.

During her candidacy, she said she plans to also deal with coastal flooding in the Mastic Beach area and to help plan for more sit-down restaurants rather than fast-food chains in the tri-hamlet region.

The district includes Calverton, Center Moriches, East Moriches, Eastport, Manorville, Mastic, Mastic Beach, Smith Point and parts of Brookhaven Hamlet, East Yaphank, Ridge and Shirley.