Northport voters to choose two trustees from three candidates

Three candidates are vying for two open trustee seats in next week’s Northport village election, including one incumbent and a former trustee.

Incumbent Ian Milligan is seeking his second term on the village board, while former trustee Thomas Kehoe and challenger Joseph Sabia are also running. Trustee Damon McMullen is running unopposed for village mayor.

Milligan, 48, is an electrician with his own company who grew up in East Northport and has lived in the village since 1997. He is the board’s Commissioner of Sanitation, and Commissioner of Docks and Waterways. He is the incoming Commodore of the Greater Huntington Council of Yacht and Boating Clubs.

Milligan said in his first term he helped restructure the village’s boating fees and increased revenue. He also helped renegotiate the village’s sanitation contract to save money and implemented single-stream recycling.

If re-elected, Milligan said he wants to bring rain gardens to the village as an inexpensive way to clean the runoff into the harbor, adding that he would seek grants for the gardens that he called “very cost effective.” He also plans to continue work on the village’s massive sewer system improvement project.

Kehoe, 68, is a former trustee who served on the board from 2006 to 2014 and was the Northport police commissioner from 2008 to 2014. He ran a wholesale seafood distribution company and an air logistics company, and has lived in the village since 1980. He graduated from the University of Dayton in Ohio with a bachelor’s degree in communications and political science. He is a past board member of the Huntington Chamber of Commerce and the East Northport Chamber of Commerce.

Kehoe is running for trustee again because “I love solving problems,” he said. “I love working on life situations for people. That’s really what government is, to help people get from point A to point B.”

In his first two terms, Kehoe said he acted as the “point person in the village to resolve business problems” and helped institute outdoor dining, pedestrian-friendly summer nights, and improved garbage pickup.

Sabia, 61, owns an automotive repair company. He grew up in North Bellmore and has lived in Northport for 41 years. He received an associate degree from Suffolk County Community College and was a police officer in the Northport Police Department from 1985 through about 1999. He was also a member of the Northport school board from 2011 to 2014. He ran for village mayor in 2014 and for trustee in 2016.

Sabia said he is running for office because he wants to bring more transparency to the village administration.

“I’m looking for transparency and fiscal responsibility,” he said. Sabia pointed to the recently renegotiated 10-year police contract as an example of the need for fiscal responsibility.

Sabia said he also wanted to improve road conditions, clarify the costs of the village’s sewer project, and hire a full-time paramedic for the fire department.