Asharoken, New York

Historically Asharoken was part of the Eatons Neck hamlet. Asharoken broke off and incorporated as a village in 1925, so as to have a greater ability to control local beaches and roadways through home rule. The Village of Asharoken is named after Chief Asharoken, head of the Matinecock Native American tribe which inhabited the area prior to English settlements. Chief Asharoken sold the land that is now Asharoken, Eatons Neck, and Northport to European settlers in 1656.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 6.5 square miles (17 km2), of which 1.4 square miles (3.6 km2) is land and 5.1 square miles (13 km2), or 78.92%, is water. The village limits enclose part of Eatons Neck and a long, low, narrow isthmus (itself referred to as Asharoken) connecting Northport in the southeast to Eaton's Neck in the northwest, and separating Northport Bay from Long Island Sound.

Imagem: DanTD · BY-SA · Openverse

As of the census of 2000, there were 625 people, 254 households, and 184 families residing in the village. The population density was 457.4 inhabitants per square mile (176.6/km2). There were 307 housing units at an average density of 224.7 per square mile (86.8/km2). The racial makeup of the village was 96.64% White Caucasian, 0.16% Black African American, 2.72% Asian, 0.16% Pacific Islander, 0.32% from other races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.92% of the population. There were 254 households, out of which 22.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 66.5% were married couples living together, 4.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.2% were non-families. 22.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 2.87.

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The Village of Asharoken maintains its own police force, paid for predominantly by property taxes on village residents. Over the years Asharoken has earned a reputation for being tough on speeders. In 2003 the four-man Asharoken Police Department issued 1,000 tickets for speeding violations, a rate over 40 times greater than neighboring towns with significantly greater populations. Though the population of Asharoken has changed little in recent years, as of 2009 the police force increased to 11 officers, a supervising officer-in-charge, five cars and a boat patrolling land and water. The police department took possession of a new marine vessel in December 2010.