FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM NOVEMBER 5, 2020 • THE QUEENS COURIER 49
vschneps@gmail.com
Riverhead was a big part
of my life when I was
a young wife married to
my children’s father, Murray
Schneps, who practiced law at
Scheinberg, Schneps, DePetris
& DePetris, at one of the stately,
old brick buildings on Main
Street.
On my return decades later,
I visited with Yvette Aguiar, a
woman whose name you should
remember.
As part of a listening tour
of the neighborhoods that
Dan’s Papers serves, I invited
Yvette, now Riverhead’s Town
Supervisor, to a roundtable with
leaders of that community at the
new Montauk Distilling Co.,
owned by Whitestone resident
Leucio Lacobelli, where she
spoke with great energy and passion
about what’s happening in
town.
I was so impressed with Yvette
and her ideas that I accepted her
invitation to return and tour the
town. I can’t decide what’s more
impressive: the woman or her
beloved town.
Her life is an extraordinary
Horatio Alger story. It all began
in the Bronx, where she was
born to immigrant parents
from Puerto Rico who spoke no
English. When she began school,
she struggled because she knew
no English and it took her years
to learn the language and be
accepted by her classmates.
But she has an indomitable
spirit that pushed her to success.
Aft er high school, she
attended the John Jay College
of Criminal Justice and was
recruited into the New York City
Police Department.
She then decided to pursue
advanced degrees and earned a
PhD in management. But she
wasn’t done. While working at
the NYPD, she lived in a bucolic
community in Riverhead bordering
an enormous farm.
“I love coming home and seeing
kids on the weekends ride
a horse drawn carriage loaded
with pumpkins gathered from
the farm. Th eir smiles warmed
my heart and I felt their joy,”
she shared with me as we drove
to her house to pick up a manual
about the town’s redevelopment
plans.
She journeyed and trekked to
the city until she retired and
became a real estate broker in
her beloved hometown.
When the town supervisor
position became available a year
ago, she decided to jump in and
run for offi ce. She is a woman
who fi ghts for what she believes
in, and people noticed. Needless
to say, she won her race.
When I visited her at the
impressive offi ce of the Town
Supervisor — which with her
small touches, she made her own
— it was clear to me that she was
born for this position.
Along with her deputy, we
drove to see several of the town’s
golf courses and the downtown
area, where the Petrocelli family
has made a big footprint by
building the Aquarium, a catering
hall, hotels and restoring
and reviving the historic Preston
House as a restaurant and they
have more projects coming!
Th e goal is to have the hotels
and restaurants bring tourists
and restore the landmark homes
downtown.
We also passed a buff alo farm
that is open to the public, multiple
pumpkin and farms.
Yvette’s eyes sparkled when she
began talking about her revitalization
project to create a Town
Square, allowing for the view
from Main Street of the peaceful
Peconic River fl owing through
the town.
She pointed with pride at
buildings that are slated to be
demolished to make way for
what she says is “an opportunity
to create varied active and sustainable
spaces that will benefi t
the town and region.”
I like a woman with vision.
And that is Yvette.
We made a date to visit Wilzig
Castle, also known as Sir Ivan’s
Castle, in Water Mill. Stay tuned
for details of our tour of the
weird but wonderfully fanciful
home built on 5 acres of
landscape surrounded by what
appears from his rooft op as a
forest.
Th e East End is certainly a
world evolving and made up of
special people like Yvette Aquiar.
Remember her name!
Victoria’s
DIARY
Victoria
SCHNEPSYUNIS
tweet me @vschneps
Remember her name
As town supervisor, Yvette Aguiar is working hard to
revitalize and develop Riverhead.
The Aquarium overlooks the river, where boats and
kayaks can be rented.
A view of potential new Town Square that would
connect Main Street and the Peconic River.
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