Mastic Beach ambulance company to start construction on new HQ

Brookhaven Town and Mastic Beach Village officials will break ground Wednesday on the long-awaited $9.5 million Mastic Beach Ambulance Company headquarters.

Officials said the new building will help boost the downtown district, while improving response times for emergency personnel.

“It’s going to jump-start revitalization downtown,” Mastic Beach Mayor Robert Miller said. “It’s going to be good.”

He said he hopes the headquarters at the intersection of Neighborhood Road and Diana Drive will inspire more residents to get involved with the volunteer department.

Ambulance companies are special districts governed by Brookhaven Town.

Last year, town board members approved an $11 million bond resolution to finance the building. The costs for construction, engineering and purchase of land came in at $9.5 million, 20 percent of which is a required New York State comptroller contingency plan, town officials said.

Property taxes for Mastic Beach residents are expected to increase between $89.25 and $97.14 annually with the bonding, officials said.

Construction is expected to be complete in July or August, officials said Monday.

“The building is a key cornerstone to the revitalization of Mastic Beach. It will be an anchor for the community,” Brookhaven Town Chief of Operations Matt Miner said.

Ambulance company officials said they outgrew their facility on Whittier Drive years ago.

Emergency response time would improve by as much as three minutes with the new facility, officials said. The company responded to roughly 2,500 emergency calls in 2015.

The groundbreaking ceremony starts at 11 a.m. at the building site, where a grocery store had been torn down.