Crab Meadow Beach Renamed For Former Town Supervisor

NORTHPORT, NY — The Town of Huntington unveiled a new sign renaming Crab Meadow Beach as Frank P. Petrone Crab Meadow Beach, honoring the former town supervisor on Friday, Councilwoman Joan Cergol's Office announced.

Cergol introduced the resolution to rename Crab Meadow Beach in Petrone’s honor at the July 12 town board meeting, where it was co-sponsored by Councilmembers Eugene Cook, Dave Bennardo, and Salvatore Ferro and unanimously approved.

Board members were joined by more than 100 attendees, including numerous elected officials both past and present, to pay tribute to Frank Petrone, whose tenure as supervisor is the longest in the town’s history.

Numerous speakers lauded Petrone for his thoughtfulness, love of community, and ability to work across the aisle to build bipartisan consensus on projects.

Petrone was first elected as Huntington town supervisor in 1993 and served 24 years in office before retiring at the end of 2017.

He previously served as assistant Suffolk County executive, chief of staff to the Suffolk County Legislature, and regional director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, where he helped develop a Hurricane Preparedness Program and various other disaster mitigation plans.

Under Petrone, the Town of Huntington took measures to preserve the Crab Meadow Beach coastal wetland system and the Crab Meadow Watershed, both of which provide flood protection, water quality improvement, and reduced shoreline erosion.

In 1996, the Town of Huntington and its Crab Meadow Citizens Advisory Committee developed a master plan to maintain the Crab Meadow Beach and the Jerome Ambro Memorial Wetlands Preserve and uphold their status as a public beach, park preserve, and wildlife habitat.

In 2010, the Town of Huntington established a Crab Meadow Watershed Advisory Committee to bring local experts and community members together to guide watershed management strategies, secure funding for improvements to Crab Meadow Beach and its surrounding areas, and develop a Crab Meadow Watershed Hydrology Study and Stewardship Plan. The final draft of the plan was
adopted with unanimous Town Board approval earlier this year.

Petrone’s other accomplishments include the establishment of the first affordable housing developments in the Town of Huntington; the creation of the Environmental Open Space and Park Fund; beginning the ongoing revitalization of Huntington Station; and the improvement of the town’s near junk bond status to its highest Triple-A bond rating, according to Cergol's office.

In his closing remarks, Petrone reminisced on his decades of service to the Town and to those he served. He said the Town of Huntington will always be his home no matter where he lives.