1:10
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart has resigned after three years on the job. She leaves for a higher paying job that will also likely be less political.
Hart was the first woman to lead Suffolk’s 2,400-member police department. A former FBI agent, she took over as Suffolk law enforcement was embroiled in corruption and misconduct scandals. Hart then led the department through an eight-month-long, state-mandated “reform and reinvention” process.
She also found herself having to defend political decisions made by Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone.
“She’s had it. There’s a lot of political pressure being put on commissioners,” said Rob Trotta, a Republican legislator and former police detective. “I think she’s a professional, and she stood up as long as she could, and it got to her.”
Photo by: Suffolk County Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone has announced that 67 small businesses located across the County have received a total of nearly $500,000 in grant funding through the County’s COVID-19 Small Business Assistance Program. Awardees include gyms, salons, restaurants, and bars. The pre-application period for the second round of available funding opened on April 9, with the goal of providing over $500,000 in additional grants by the end of May. “The success of our downtowns is reliant on the success of our small businesses,” said Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone. “Recovery doesn’t happen overnight, and while we have made progress, these grants provide our hard-hit businesses with a much needed financial life-line as we build towards the full reopening of our economy.”
Get our free LIBN e-alerts & breaking news notifications!
Scott Eisen/CVS Health via AP Images
In Suffolk, workforce vaccination effort is underway By: Adina Genn April 8, 2021 Comments Off on In Suffolk, workforce vaccination effort is underway
A three-day COVID-19 vaccination effort to immunize industrial and manufacturing workers is underway on Long Island.
This effort is part of the “Give Your Health A Shot” initiative. HIA-LI and IgniteLI are partnering with Suffolk County to ensure that the region’s manufacturers and other critical industry sectors have access to the vaccine during the first week of expanded eligibility.
The effort aims to promote worker health and sustain workforce productivity in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
In recent days, Bellone has been speaking with “some of the top national consultants who are here in New York,” along with “bigtime donors,” said a source close to the Democratic politician.
A microscopic image of an isolate from the first U.S. case of COVID-19. (Credit: CDC/Hannah Bullock; Azaibi Tamin)
It’s almost hard to believe it’s been just one year since COVID-19 arrived on the North Fork. When you think back to those early days, when there were only a few dozen confirmed local cases and the world around us began to shut down, it feels like a lifetime ago.
The reality is that as of the printing of this newspaper on Thursday, March 11, 2021, it’s been just 368 days since the first confirmed coronavirus case was announced via a statement from Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone.