Election 2025: Highway Superintendent

Southold residents will elect a highway superintendent this year, set to serve a four-year term. Voters have the choice between Democrat incumbent Dan Goodwin and Republican Greg Schlachter this fall. 

The elected superintendent will manage the department’s $8.3 million budget, its 35 employees and 402 lane miles throughout the Town of Southold, including Fishers Island. 

Dan Goodwin

Mr. Goodwin said his track record managing Southold roads since being elected in 2022 speaks for itself.

In the last four years, the department has completed 45 miles of paving and comprehensive road rebuilds, trimmed trees hanging over roads, expanded its fleet to 75 vehicles, and installed drainage systems at more than 150 locations throughout town, among other accomplishments. 

Interacting with residents and solving what he refers to as “legacy problems” in town are the lifelong Cutchogue resident’s favorite parts of the job. 

“In my first year, I kind of took a thousand-foot view of the place and said, ‘Where are we spending time over and over and over again?’” Mr. Goodwin said. “Because time and personnel resources [are] your number one asset.”

Mr. Goodwin said he has traveled 45,000 miles on Southold roads since being elected, noting where problems areas are to revisit.

“This is a constant and ongoing maintenance project, and if you kind of rest on your laurels and sit on the sidelines or in the office, you’re gonna fall so far behind you’ll never catch up,” he said. 

As sitting vice president of the Suffolk County Highway Superintendent’s Association, he interfaces with other highway superintendents and the state Transportation Department. 

“The bulk of our paving budget, resurfacing budget … comes in the way of state aid,” Mr. Goodwin said. “So, it’s important that we advocate not only locally with our town boards, but also with folks up in Albany to get some dollars down this way for us.”

In managing the department’s budget, Mr. Goodwin said he’s the candidate who knows “how to stretch a dollar.”

He presents the Town Board with a five-year plan on an annual basis to proactively budget, he added.

“I don’t feel that we should have a tremendous amount left over at the end of the year, because if we did that means we took too much in in taxes versus the services that we provided,” Mr. Goodwin said.

Greg Schlachter

The first thing Mr. Schlachter points out when meeting him is that he’s not a politician. He’s a worker.

Mr. Schlachter has spent over four decades as a mechanic and heavy equipment operator. He got his start with Latham Sand and Gravel in Peconic after graduating from Southold High School. That’s where he first learned about road construction, drainage and soil management. He then progressed to Half Hollow Nursery, where he managed the shop, built and bought equipment and ran crews.

For the last decade or so, he’s been a mechanic for Southold’s highway department.

“I feel all [my experience] molds into a good thing for the highway, because it’s basically what the highway is. It’s more than just fixing potholes,” he said.

Mr. Schlachter said the highway department could use more workers. A big part of the struggle with that, he said, is the starting salaries for new employees. A lot of the newer people coming in can’t afford to live in the area or buy a home, he said.

From his time both in the department and campaigning, he hears constantly about broken roads and sidewalks, and that the department sometimes takes too long to return messages. He said from day one, he’d work to make sure all of those issues are met.

“I want to make it safe for our first responders and our public, so I’m going to look at sidewalks and roads, which is everybody’s complaint,” he said. “So, that’s going to be a priority.”

Mr. Schlachter acknowledged that there would be some challenges with the role, including finding new workers and managing the budget. He has experience budgeting, like with Half Hollow, but now it may on a much larger scale. He said he has friends in the banking industry that could assist him as he gets his feet wet.

On the flip side, there are things that he knows he’d excel at right off the bat, such as building morale.

“[I want to] make it a good place to work, where what they do means something,” he said.