Full slate of candidates announced for November Town Board election

The Riverhead Democratic Committee nominated Jerry Halpin this week to run for town Supervisor, and Mark Woolley and Kevin Shea for two open council seats. The committee announced in a news release that the three candidates are “ready to realign the Town Board by reducing taxes, increasing our sense of security and looking more closely at development and preservation.”

With his two-year term expiring, Supervisor Tim Hubbard is running for reelection. Council members Kenneth Rothwell and Robert Kern are also running again for four-year terms. All three incumbents were nominated at the Riverhead Republican Committee’s convention on Feb. 5. 

Mr. Kern said in a phone interview that he has dedicated himself to working for Riverhead Town and pointed to remaining work in as his reason for seeking reelection.

“I just want to keep the momentum going because I think we’re doing a lot of great things in Riverhead,” said Mr. Rothwell, who pointed to several accomplishments during his term, including getting clean drinking water to Manorville, securing grants for Downtown Riverhead revitalization and enhancing the police force.

Mr. Hubbard did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.

Mr. Halpin is lead minister at North Shore Christian Church in Riverhead and has worked professionally in nonprofit leadership as a pastor for over 30 years, which he said has demanded “personal and fiscal accountability, and transparency.” Since launching North Shore Christian Church, he said he has gained experience running programs, organizing community outreach, mobilizing volunteers, calculating budgets, strategizing and formulating solutions with church stakeholders in mind. 

“In my experience as a minister, I’ve learned to listen and to know that I don’t have all the answers, but as a community, as you weed through those answers, they’re here, people have them,” Mr. Halpin said. “There’s a lot more strength in community than there is in an individual.”

The current town administration’s decision to pierce the statewide tax cap with a 7.89% hike — the town’s largest increase since the cap was enacted in 2012 — is what motivated Mr. Halpin to run for supervisor, he said.

He claimed in an emailed statement that there is a “clear shuffling” of residents’ tax dollars that are intended to pay for infrastructure and preservation, but have been used for “pet projects of the current administration.” Additionally, he said, even though he is running on the Democratic line, Mr. Halpin deems himself more of an independent. 

“They’re taxing people out of their houses … off the island; there are so many things that our town loses,” Mr. Halpin said. “It’s not personal — people have asked me continually why the Democratic Party specifically, and [it’s because] they were open … they’re willing. For 30 years, I’ve been communicating with people to make a difference in their community, and I think now’s my time.”

Mr. Shea, of Baiting Hollow, is a retired New York City firefighter and 9/11 first responder, as well as the creator of the world’s largest geodesic dome home, where he resides. He is the founder of O Corporation International, the nonprofit OneMust (also known as E.A.R.T.H.) and Long Island Dome Gardens. He is also involved in the Cornell Master Gardeners, the Suffolk Alliance of Pollinators, ReWild and WildOnes and has participated in community theater.

As a 20-year resident, he said he has developed a strong understanding of local needs and priorities. His experiences as a first responder and leader in farm, garden and forest management, he explained, have equipped him with strong leadership, problem-solving and communication skills.

The politics newcomer said maintaining Riverhead’s rural character, enhancing public safety and mitigating community economic and housing issues would be his main priorities if elected to the Town Board. He said he hopes his campaign encourages higher voter turnout and inspires others — especially younger and disenfranchised voters — to be more civically involved. 

Mr. Shea said he remains a champion for the environment and would push for more renewable energy projects, green infrastructure and flood resilience measures to prepare Riverhead Town for potential environmental threats in the future.

“Climate change is a catastrophic risk. It calls on our courage to be resilient as a local community,” he said in an emailed statement. “I advocate building beach, port, highway and agriculture infrastructure to adapt to and mitigate climate change.”

Mr. Woolley recently retired from 30 years of public service working with six different members of Congress, including Congressman Tom Suozzi and former representatives Lee Zeldin and George Santos. Through his experiences at the state and federal level, he aims to bring a “more sensible approach to public service,” he wrote.

He also has experience working with farmers and the Long Island Farm Bureau and, if elected to the Town Board, would like to continue to help sustain Riverhead’s agriculture, as well as protect its bluffs, beaches and groundwater. Mr. Woolley is also Mr. Hubbard’s brother-in-law, but said in a phone interview that he is solely running for a seat on the Town Board, not against Mr. Hubbard himself. 

“I run because our town is threatened by overdevelopment, poor planning and a zeal to grab onto whatever is presented without research, without considerable discussion [and] without public input that is not first ridiculed, chastised, bullied and quashed,” Mr. Woolley said in a written statement. “I do not to run to oppose any one man, but instead to oppose the policies and the procedures under which they are carried out by the current Town Board … it has become obvious over recent years that the future of our town is at risk.”