Sloatsburg’s long-time former mayor, Samuel Abate, died Sunday in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. Abate helped to get rid of the county’s Board of Supervisors and replace that with a 21-member Legislature. He also supported establishing a county executive form of government in the mid-1980s. Rockland GOP Chairman Lawrence Garvey holds the position once held by Abate…
Abate won election to the Sloatsburg Board of Trustees in 1962, then served as mayor from 1963 to 1967. He served again from 1981 to 1985, and then again from 1989 to 2000. In between he also helped run the family flower shop in the village. He is survived by his wife Louise, three children, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held in South Carolina tomorrow. Memorial donations can be made in his name to Roper Hospice Cottage in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. He was 88 years old.