Suffolk Lawmaker Sets Sight On Areas That Need 'A Lot Of Love'

PATCHOGUE, NY — When Suffolk lawmaker Dominick Thorne hoped to tackle issues close to his heart like public safety when he took up his new office on the Legislature in January.

He took his oath of office on Jan. 3 at the Legislature's annual housekeeping meeting in Hauppauge, and received his committee assignments, including a new post as the vice-chair of Fire, Rescue, Emergency Services and Preparedness Committee. Everything was going as planned until the former volunteer emergency medical technician arrived at his new office in Patchogue where he had an ironic baptism by fire, kind of.

His introduction to the Legislature, his first day at his new desk also started off similarly, complete with all the bells and whistles. The elevator became stuck while his wife, two young children, and an aide were riding inside, but the four ended up being freed in no time by the Patchogue Fire Department.

Thorne praised the fire department for their quick response, saying, "They did a great job."

He went straight to work right after.

"There are so many things to do," said Thorne, adding, "I am focused on all of the distict's communities, including Patchogue Village, but certainly the Gordon Heights community and Middle Island. The North end of Medford — it has been ignored for far too long and we certainly want to improve quality-of-life over there."

Thorne said he has plans to focus on all of this district's communities, including Patchogue Village, the north end of Medford, Gordon Heights, and Middle Island.

Thorne will be working with faith leaders in north Medford, Gordon Heights, and the south end of Middle Island to help the homeless population.

"The whole corridor has a really bad homeless population, as well as a significant drug market going on there," he said, adding, "so the area needs a lot of love."

Thorne said he has been working with Bishop Robinson from the Breakthrough Chapel in Medford to tackle those issues since just right after his election.

"We were already working with him to improve that community. Now we are going to have some little bit of meat behind the potatoes to be able to get stuff done up there," Thorne said.

There are numerous homeless camps that are a concern to the community.

That's concerning because people are people," Thorne said, noting his office wants to help alleviate the issue by getting the people off the street into shelters and set in the right direction. "We're going to work tirelessly to help get those folks off the street, especially now in the cold weather as a former critical care technician cold weather affects every part of your body, especially cardiac muscles, so we want to get them off the streets as soon as possible and get them into shelters."

The county's social services have been out in the corridor twice trying to get the people some help and Thorne said he plans to increase attention there. He also plans to have a bus shelter placed in Medford near Target, work with the county on the South Patchogue Sewer District, and work to clean up the site of the old Blue Point laundromat, so that it can be turned into a park.

He plans to meet soon with community members in East Patchogue to hear their concerns.

Thorne feels he has some big shoes to fill as the first Republican to be elected to the 7th Legislative District since 1976. He plans to be a full-time legislator, and has hired three staff to help him run the office. Maria Farley will serve as Chief of Staff; Stephanie Becker and Chris Brown as aides.

"We want to just make sure that we concentrate all of our energies on the promises we have made," he said.

All, including the legislator, plan to pick up the phone and handle constituent services.

"There's not one person doing it because we want to make sure that constituents are gotten back to and, you know, we have a cradle-to-grave policy already established at our office. So what that means is, from the inception of the problem that flutters into the office, we will follow that from cradle-to-grave until it's resolved in some sort, including a fix with another office.

"So if they call our office and it's actually a town or a state issue it will certainly be referred, but we'll follow up and make sure that the issue got handled," he said.

Thorne said there's a lot of good stuff coming up in his district.

"What we plan to do is also talk about the positive; build up all the good things that are happening, whether they be religious entities doing the good things or people in the community, we want to build that up," he said. "We want to build up all the great things that are happening in the Senate and then deal with the bad ones as well.