6 vie, 3 will win in Southold Town Trustee race
The full slate of candidates running for the Southold Town Trustees in November has been announced.
Made up of five members, Southold Town Trustees administer all activity within 100 feet of the town’s wetlands as well as the underwater lands owned by the Trustees for Southold’s citizens. Trustee jurisdiction encompasses more than 2,000 acres of underwater lands. They are essentially responsible for safeguarding and managing Southold’s diverse ecosystems, according to the town website. Each trustee serves a four-year term.
Three spots will be vacant by December, including the seats of current trustees Liz Gillooly, Eric Sepenoski and Elizabeth Peeples. Ms. Gillooly and Mr. Sepenoski are both running for reelection, while Ms. Peeples is not seeking another term.
Alongside the two incumbents, the Southold Town Democratic Committee has also selected Shelter Island town engineer Joe Finora to run for Ms. Peeples’ available seat. The Southold Town Republican Committee has nominated Terri Boyle Romanelli, Nathan Andruski and Pindar Damianos to run on the GOP line.
The Southold Town Trustee Candidates
During her past four years as trustee, Ms. Gillooly said she has worked to improve transparency, accessibility and environmental responsibility among the trustees. She has taken a proactive role in updating codes, improving relationships between the Conservation Advisory Council, the Peconic Estuary partnership, and the Southold Town Board.
She said the most rewarding part of being a trustee is continuing to broaden the Trustees’ relationship with local community groups and leaning into their expertise when making decisions.
In addition to being a trustee, Ms. Gillooly serves as operations director for the North Fork Arts Center, is a USCG-licensed sailboat captain and runs the women-led boat charter business Layla Sailing in Greenport.
“I believe my record shows that I’m committed to fairness, transparency and environmental responsibility,” Ms. Gillooly said. “I’ve worked hard to make our [trustee] board more accessible and effective, and I’d be honored to continue working for another term for the people of Southold, and to ensure that our community and environment are protected for generations to come.”
As a fourth-generation owner of Sep’s Farm in East Marion, Mr. Sepenoski grew up as a firsthand witness to the changes in Southold’s lands, waters and way of life. His agricultural roots have aided him in making decisions with his fellow trustees to continue to protect the town’s waters, marshes and public lands. He has used his position as an educator to teach North Fork youth about the importance of Southold’s ecosystems.
The product of the work he and the other trustees have accomplished — including keeping the shorelines open to all, working with neighbors to protect natural buffers along the waters and ensuring that fees serve the public good, not private interests — has allowed for a recognizable shoreline for Southold’s oldest and youngest generations “at the same moment.”
“It’s both personal and a sense of civic duty to stewarding the land and the underwater lands of our town have been really central to our colonial history, but also to our present. It’s what we all identify with,” Mr. Sepenoski said. “[It’s] just really about teaching people and inviting them in to partnership with the town that says government can be a force of good.”
Mr. Finora is a North Fork native raising a young family in Southold and said accessibility to the Peconic Bay shoreline growing up had a significant influence on his career pursuits as an adult. He has 15 years’ experience as a professional marine and waterfront engineer, and currently serves as town engineer for Shelter Island. He also co-founded the Hampton Oyster Company with his brother in 2016, which operates out of Peconic Bay.
Mr. FInora said his Shelter Island role cultivated his understanding of local municipal procedures and processes, including passing resolutions and holding public hearings. He also has experience engaging with community groups and civic associations through this position.
His small oyster farming business is Mr. Finora’s “direct connection to the water,” he said. His farm relies on clean water quality to function and gives back to the Peconic Bay in terms of the environmental benefits of raising shellfish. He believes his professional expertise would serve as an advantage to the town Trustees.
“I want the community to know that that’s the kind of apolitical logic, technical-based strategy that I would bring toward this local governing structure,” Mr. Finora said. “I want to be clear about the advantages of having somebody with the professional know-how on these environmental matters, because they do impact many parts of our community.”
Ms. Boyle Romanelli has always been drawn to the water: Growing up in Miller Place, she said she has fond memories of crabbing with her grandfather as a child and swimming in Long Island Sound. When looking for a place to raise a family, she chose Southold because of its rural character, appreciation for clean water and its rich agricultural ties — a “unique” environment for her kids to grow up in.
She became real estate professional in 2006, served on the board of The Long Island Farm Bureau and got involved with the North Fork Environmental Council. Prior to all this, she owned a charter fishing business in Montauk. She currently works as a sales manager at DocuSign and has an extensive background in technology. Her professional and personal experiences have allowed her to understand the complexities of waterfront regulations and challenges faced by local homeowners, she said.
“[Being a steward] is protecting, curating, actively seeking solutions to better protect the environment, and finding ways to make sure that we are not doing anything to further damage what’s gone on,” Ms. Boyle Romanelli said. “I think it’s also being a responsible community member, educating the community so they understand why we’re trying to protect the water lands — there’s an educational component to it [and] a diligence to really understanding the code.”
Mr. Andruski is a lifelong bayman who has witnessed firsthand the critical environmental challenges facing Southold’s waters. He said he felt compelled to run for Trustee after seeing the decline in shellfish beds and hundreds of acres downgraded to uncertified status in the last decade.
“I’ve made my living off the water the last 30 years, and I’ve seen the decline in everything out here, as far as the marine waters are concerned,” Mr. Andruski said. “Shellfish reproduction, habitat loss, erosion, eel grass … all the thicker grasses and algae, it’s all just disappearing and over the last few years. The pace has really accelerated.”
If elected as trustee, Mr. Andruski said he would be committed to investigating and mitigating water quality issues affecting shellfish lands, as well as working with the Cornell Cooperative Extension to implement shellfish restoration projects.
He is also interested in utilizing the Cornell Cooperative facility at Cedar Beach to advance marine conservation. Additionally, Mr. Andruski would advocate for and require cesspools to reduce nitrogen and protect Southold’s waterways.
“I don’t care what your political affiliation is, these issues are not political issues … these are true grassroots environmental issues, and they should not have any sort of political issue to them. When you do that, we’re just not going anywhere,” Mr. Andruski said. “We just keep losing habitat — we keep losing this, we keep losing that — instead of having real conversations about what the real issues are in actual environmental conservation.”
In his early days out of college studying agriculture, Mr. Damianos said he helped grow grapes for his family’s business, Pindar Vineyard. Now its owner, the longtime Southold resident and first assistant chief with the Southold Fire Department said he understands the importance of conservation as a small business owner and farmer.
If elected as a trustee, his vision for Southold includes protecting the town’s shorelines from overdevelopment, preserving the town’s agricultural and maritime heritage, ensuring responsible growth that benefits both residents and the environment and advocating for polices that respect property rights, while maintaining the town’s rural character.
“I know the importance of balancing property rights with conservation and environmental protections, [and] I believe there is a place for government oversight and not government overreach,” Mr. Damianos said. “I will bring a common sense approach while protecting our shorelines and wetlands from overdevelopment.”
