New engineer primed to take on Shelter Island post

Joe Finora is proving you can go home again. The man who is about to take the helm of the Shelter Island Engineering Department after Thanksgiving has long ties to the East End.

While education, life and love took him to New Jersey and New York City, he and his wife Elizabeth have just bought a house in Southold, close to his family roots in Laurel and Mattituck.

Growing up, he said, this area was “paradise on earth” and he wants to raise his son Joey, born on Oct. 14, to experience the same childhood he had — fishing, working at area farms and being out on the water.

The 32-year old professional engineer started visiting the North Fork as a young boy and his family moved to Laurel early in his life. He’s a 2006 graduate of Mattituck High School who was drawn to New Jersey by the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, where he earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees.

It’s the same school where retiring engineer John Cronin studied.

What he carried with him from his upbringing on Long Island was his love of water, which is what led him to specialize in marine engineering.

He met his wife in New Jersey and became a consultant with her family’s engineering firm, Kaufmann Consultants in Madison, N.J.  He’s also consulted on other marine engineering projects in New Jersey and New York.

When he learned of the opening on Shelter Island, he said he and his wife were excited at the prospect of making the East End home. She had grown up at the Jersey Shore, he said, explaining her love of the water.

“It’s such a family area,” he said about coming back.

As for the challenges facing Shelter Island, he thought it was an ideal job for a person specializing in marine engineering.

“I’m a problem solver,” Mr. Finora said. Every community has its challenges, he added, and the Island, he said, has too much demand on too few resources.

The fact that in a normal year the Island sees its population grow in warm months by thousands contributes to the challenges.

Throw in the COVID-19 pandemic and he knows his work challenges will be major.

But with the work he’s done so far with Mr. Cronin and the information the retiring engineer has shared with him, he believes he’s the man for the job.