Dougherty headed for 4th term?

Unless there’s a surprise by the end of business Thursday when party-affiliated candidates must file or an independent jumps into the race, Supervisor Jim Dougherty will have a free ride for another two years in office.

Republicans and Conservatives have announced slates that don’t include candidates for the supervisors’ post.

And there are only three candidates — two of them incumbents — seeking Town Board seats. Council members Ed Brown and Chris Lewis — he’s running on the Conservative ticket and Ms. Lewis has endorsements from both the Republican and Conservative parties — face a challenge from Democrat Robert Reylek. He’s a former Board of Education president. His wife, Heather Reylek, chairs the Shelter Island Democratic Party.

Ms. Reylek said she thought a three-way battle for two seats would make for a “more decisive” race, adding that the Democrats wanted a strong candidate.

Republican Party Chairman Bob DeStefano Jr. said that there were initially several people the party identified as possible candidates for supervisor. But of those who might have a decent chance to win, there were personal reasons why they chose not to make the race this year.
Several town Republicans, asked why the party wasn’t running a candidate against Mr. Dougherty, didn’t want to be identified, but said they thought Mr. Dougherty was doing a good job and couldn’t be defeated. One pointed out that the incumbent supervisor has managed to keep taxes in line.

The only person nipping at the heels of Mr. Dougherty appears to be his former Conservative Party challenger, Glenn Waddington Jr., who, despite running a close race in 2011, has opted not to run in 2013. But don’t count out Mr. Waddington. He said he plans to seek the post in 2015.

As a non-candidate, he’s still raising issues he wants Mr. Dougherty to address. Where does the supervisor stand on the ban due to take effect on September 1 prohibiting underground automatic irrigation systems? Mr. Waddington asked. And what does he plan to do to decrease the deer population on Shelter Island?

Mr. Dougherty said the Town Board will discuss the irrigation system ban at its next work session, Tuesday, July 16. Barring an unforeseen event, it appears the ban will go into effect in September as planned.

On the issue of a recent report showing an increased incidence of deer ticks, Mr. Dougherty said he thinks the problem is money constraints causing fewer 4-poster units  to be deployed this year than during previous seasons. Given the town’s limited budget to deploy the units, he said he’s exploring agreements with private residents to fund deployment of additional units on their properties.