Moving from behind the dais to the 18-member legislative horseshoe was an easy transition for Suffolk’s new lawmaker, Catherine Stark, the North Fork representative who spent 10 years working for her predecessor.
The Riverhead resident said she is picking up from where former Legislator Al Krupski, now Southold Town Supervisor, left off. Stark’s priorities in her Eastern Suffolk district include open space preservation, groundwater protection, and making sure the area gets a fair share of Suffolk’s hotel/motel tax, of which the North Fork tourist mecca generates a significant amount.
Scion of a political family that includes a past Town Supervisor and GOP leader, Stark has also worked with former County Executive Bob Gaffney and Jay Schneiderman when he was a Legislator.
Coming off a spell of some very rainy weather, Stark said she’s focused on keeping local waters free from road runoff and pollutants coming off the land. She’s on four legislative committees that have a lot to say about drainage projects and sewers. “I know a lot about dirt and poop,” Stark said of her work in government, noting that beach closures are very damaging to the local economy. She was a “yes” vote in calling for a public referendum on raising the sales tax to generate funds for sewers and private cesspool upgrades and considers herself a watchdog over the area’s shellfish and other natural resources.
“There’s so much going on,” the newly minted legislator said. “I'm very happy with the committees I've been chosen to serve on. They allow me to focus on the environmental needs of the East End and the entirety of Suffolk, for that matter.” Stark’s assignments include Economic Development, Planning and Housing, Environment, Parks and Agriculture, Public Works, Transportation and Energy, and Veterans.
Preserving farmland is “near and dear” to the legislator’s heart, as well as the aquaculture industry that’s taking root in local waters. “Kelp is not the only thing that we can grow out here. There are other types of seaweed, which is a broader category,” she said. “There are aquaculture farmers who are currently doing oysters that would like to get either into kelp or growing different types of seaweed.” Plant and shellfish projects not only produce revenue but also contribute dramatically to water quality due to their filtering capability, Stark noted. “This type of farming is a win-win all the way around.”
With her various committee assignments and community activities, the freshman lawmaker says she relies on her staff to make sure every meeting and event in her district is covered. One face the community sees a lot of is Dean Gandley, a former aide to Assemblyman Joe DeStefano. “I can’t be in two places at once, so I’m fortunate to have staff members who are as devoted to the district as l am,” Stark said.
“I love county government; I love public service,” the Legislator went on. “My family has a long history not just in the elected arena but throughout the county. “My mother was one of the few ladies that started the country fair in Riverhead and was involved in many other activities. We were just brought along wherever our family went. We were planting bulbs or flowers in the community or taking down names for applications. We didn't even know we were doing public service. We were just doing what we were told. So it comes very naturally to me.”
A lifelong Riverhead resident and a fifth-generation native of the First District, Stark traces her roots back to her great-great-grandfather, John C. Stark, who came to Southold in 1840 and lived there until the 1860s, when he started a farm in Baiting Hollow. “Since then, our family has planted roots and grown throughout the East End,” Stark said.
Stark, whose father, Jim Stark, was a Riverhead Supervisor, and her uncle, a past town GOP Chairman, started her public service career in 1996 as Clerk of the Legislature and then with Suffolk’s Real Property Tax Services under County Executive Gaffney. “I’m very comfortable being on the dais after so many years behind it,” the legislator said. Her district covers Riverhead, Shelter Island, and Southold towns, and parts of Eastport, Manorville, Northampton, Remsenburg-Speonk, Riverside, Flanders, and Westhampton.