BETH YOUNG PHOTO | A poster board at Front Street Station in Greenport, where Southold Town Democrats were keeping count of local elections Tuesday night.
Nearly a year after he was appointed to the Southold Town Board of Trustees, Mike Domino has been elected to serve another year.
Mr. Domino of Southold secured 59 percent of the vote over Democratic challenger Jeri Woodhouse of Orient. He received 5,826 votes to Ms. Woodhouse’s 4,083.
Mr. Domino, who was appointed to the seat in January, will serve the year remaining on former Trustee Jill Doherty’s term. She left the Trustees after a winning a seat on the Town Board last November.
Mr. Domino is a retired high school science teacher who owns a deli in Greenport. He also served as president of the North Fork Environmental Council.
A Democrat in a Republican town, Ms. Woodhouse said the odds were stacked against her.
BARBARAELLEN KOCH PHOTO | Candidates for federal, state and local races , including State Senator Kenneth LaValle (standing), had the chance to introduce themselves to voters during the Mattituck Chamber of Commerce’s luncheon Wednesday.
Candidates running for federal, state and local offices answered Southold residents’ questions Wednesday afternoon during the Mattituck Chamber of Commerce’s “meet the candidates” luncheon at the Meetinghouse Creek Inn in Aquebogue.
Jeff Strong, president of Strong’s Marine in Mattituck, moderated the two-hour event where nearly 20 people gathered to listen to each candidate’s platform.
State Senator Ken LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) left after making an opening statement because he had another event to attend to this afternoon on Shelter Island. His Democratic challenger, Bridget Fleming of Noyac, was absent.
Below is an excerpt from a pair of questions asked.
Question to congressional and state candidates: Do you see the local economy getting better or worse and what are your plans to help improve it?
Incumbent Congressman Tim Bishop (D-Southampton): The local economy is struggling from what has been the deepest recession in our nation’s history other than the Great Depression. I think there are signs that we are recovering, but we have a long, long way to go. One of things I’m working on is trying to bring the federal government back to the table in terms of investing in local wastewater infrastructure. The second thing is dealing with environment issues. I think the environment is our economy and the economy is our environment.
Challenger Randy Altshuler (R-St. James): When you speak to people locally, there’s a lot of uncertainty in the air. It’s scaring the daylights out of everybody. You see it from unemployment rates going up over the past decade to people becoming underwater with their mortgages. Some local businesses are seeing a little bit of a pick-up, but a lot of them are saying it’s still doing pretty poorly. I think we need change and the only way I think that will happen is if we have more business people in office.
Incumbent Dan Losquadro (R-Shoreham): I don’t think the economy is doing very well at all. I think, in large part, that’s because of the burden that is placed upon businesses and residential taxes that drive up the overall cost of living. New York State spent $20 billion on Medicaid expenditures last year. We need to control spending in areas where people may not think relate to education funding. But if we save a billion dollars in Medicaid expenditures, that’s a billion dollars we can put back into education funding.
Challenger Nicholas Deegan (D-Mattituck): I think the local economy is starting on an upspring. The bigger thing out here is transportation. If we’re going to be able to sustain the agritourism and wine industries, then I think we have to deal with transportation very quickly so that by next summer we have a plan going into place. The roads can only handle so much. We need to get some of the traffic off the road.
Question to Town Trustee candidates: There are reports stating water quality is affected by stormwater runoff and septic systems. Do you agree and what’s your plan to improve water quality?
Trustee Mike Domino (R-Southold): All the trustees understand the importance mentioned about [water quality]. The problem is funding, as usual. You just don’t throw money at a problem. In many cases, there’s no need to change the [septic] systems we have now. The discussion now is being driven by a company that has a technology that they are pushing. It may or may not work. I’m not advocating a real quick jump on very costly systems. I would take a go-slow approach with something like that.
Challenger Jeri Woodhouse (D-Orient): I agree [stormwater runoff and septic systems] are contributing to what’s happening to our water. There’s a lot of new research that shows there are new kinds of septic systems that can be put in place. The problem is they’re very costly. I believe there’s funding available that can make it possible for people to purchase them. We should see if we can bring some of that money here because it’s vital to our economy to have clean water.
Check back on Election Day for full coverage.
Candidates running for state, federal and local offices will speak during the Mattituck Chamber of Commerce’s “meet the candidates” luncheon on Wed., Oct. 24 at the Meetinghouse Creek Inn in Aquebogue.
This year’s ballot includes the hard-fought contest between incumbent Democratic Congressman Tim Bishop and Republican challenger Randy Altschuler. The North Fork’s representatives in both the State Senate and State Assembly also will be decided.
There’s also a special election in Southold Town this year pitting incumbent Republican Trustee Mike Domino of Southold against Democratic challenger Jeri Woodhouse of Orient.
The chamber’s lunch meeting begins at noon and tickets are $22. Call Pat Patchell at 722-3458.
Psssst. Can you keep a secret?
There’s another political race, other than the ones for president and congressman, up for grabs on Nov. 6. It’s a special election, in fact, for the remaining year in the term of former Southold Town Trustee Jill Doherty, who stepped down from that post when she was elected to the Town Board last year.
Truth be told, I wasn’t tuned in to the special election until Woodhouse signs began popping up around our neighborhood in Orient, which isn’t totally surprising given that Jeri and her husband, John, live about two blocks away from us. And now the ultimate truth: One of those signs popped up in our front yard earlier this week, and the aim of this column is to explain why.
But first, a disclaimer. When the former Joan Giger Walker and I were co-publishers of The Suffolk Times, we did not attend political fundraisers, make contributions to individual candidates or their parties, place political signs in our yard or affix political bumper stickers to our car. But that changed a few years ago when we retired as publishers and when I stopped actively participating in candidate interviews and endorsement decision-making at the paper.
To repeat: Op/ed page columnist Troy Gustavson will not participate in candidate interviews or endorsement decisions at this newspaper, or any other, this year.
So, back to the Domino-Woodhouse race.
I think I’ve known Mike and Jeri for about the same amount of time. And I like them both, and appreciate their various good deeds on behalf of the people of Southold Town.
In addition to his one year with the Trustees, Mike has served on the town’s Anti-Bias Task Force, as a board member with the county’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Conservation and as president of the North Fork Environmental Council. He is a former U.S. Marine and worked 31 years as an earth science teacher in the Rocky Point School District. He and his wife, Joy, operate a delicatessen on the Main Road in Greenport.
Jeri taught high school English; served as co-executive director of folk singer Harry Chapin’s World Hunger Year; was an aide to Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger; served as executive director of The Retreat, the East Hampton women’s shelter; and founded two local businesses, A Taste of the North Fork and the North Fork Specialty Kitchen. She’s also served on the boards of the NFEC, the East End Arts Council and the Oysterponds Historical Society, and her principal public service came during her five-year stint as chair of the Southold Town Planning Board. She’s also run twice unsuccessfully for the Town Board.
So, why a Woodhouse sign and not a Domino sign in the Gustavsons’ front yard? First, although Mike is considered to be nonpartisan, Jeri would bring badly needed balance to the Trustees as the only woman and only Democrat. Second, and most important, it comes down to a question of style and energy.
In my experience, Mike is low-key and unassuming. He’s shown a willingness to dig in his heels when necessary, but the overall impression he left as head of the NFEC lacked definition or distinction, in my opinion. In fact, on his watch the organization pretty much faded from the local consciousness, no longer the forceful voice for environmental protection that it was in the ’80s, ’90s and earlier in the last decade. And that’s not the sort of leadership we need at this point in time on a board charged with the vital task of protecting Southold’s vulnerable bays, creeks and wetlands.
Jeri, on the other hand, is an effective and energetic leader. In fact, she probably has more energy than almost anyone I know, starting with her 6 a.m. daily power walk right through her routinely late nights at her place of business in Cutchogue. Jeri Woodhouse has the energy, vision and will to be an effective advocate for the environment, and I just don’t think Mike Domino has the makeup to match that.
If Mike Domino should happen to prevail on Nov. 6, Southold will not be badly served. But if Jeri Woodhouse wins — and I hope she will — the town will be better served.
COURTESY PHOTO | Heather Domino was a DJ and aspiring music producer.
Family, friends and neighbors of the Greenport woman who died in an apparent drowning Tuesday remember her as a “good person,” beloved by those who knew her.
“She was my whole life and now I’ve lost her,” said a tearful Joy Domino, her mother.
Heather Domino, 23, was found unconscious in her parents’ neighbor’s pool on Old North Road in Southold shortly before 6 p.m. Tuesday evening.
Southold Fire Department rescue personnel and police officers pulled Ms. Domino from the water and attempted to revive her before she was taken to Eastern Long Island Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said.
Southold detectives are still investigating the incident, police said.
The family declined to say anything further.
Ms. Domino was the daughter of Michael Domino, a Southold Town Trustee and environmental advocate.
She was an aspiring DJ and producer who went by the stage name DJ Maestro and who founded Domino Recording in Greenport, near her family’s diner.
A neighbor, Eleanor, who declined to give her last name, said Ms. Domino helped her around the house and was always considerate.
The neighbor said the pool’s owner only used the house on the weekends, and said it was empty at the time of the accident. She said she saw sirens and thought someone’s house was on fire.
Funeral arrangements for Ms. Domino are still pending, and will be posted to suffolktimes.com when they become available.