RiverheadLOCAL will host Facebook Live discussions with the candidates for Riverhead Town Board on Monday and Tuesday evenings next week.
Both live events will begin at 7 p.m. The town council candidates will meet on Monday and the town supervisor candidates will meet on Tuesday.
Have you got questions for the candidates?
Submit them in advance of the debate by email or by sending a private message to the RiverheadLOCAL Facebook page. Please send your questions in by noon Monday for the town council candidates and noon Tuesday for the supervisor candidates. If your question is directed at a particular candidate, please be sure to say who it’s for.
The questions submitted will not be shared with the candidates or their campaigns in advance of the live event.
Every effort will be made to include questions submitted on Facebook during the livestream events, as time allows.
Both sessions will be moderated by RiverheadLOCAL editor and publisher Denise Civiletti and will take place at RiverheadLOCAL’s downtown Riverhead offices.
“These will be lively and unscripted events, aimed at frank discussion by the candidates of the issues voters care about,” Civiletti said.
“Voters deserve to know where the candidates stand and what they will do if elected or re-elected.”
Join the event on the RiverheadLOCAL Facebook page at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 23 and Tuesday, Oct. 24 — or “like” the RiverheadLOCAL Facebook page so that the event will appear in your news feed when it goes live.
Up first: town council candidates
On Monday night, Republicans Frank Beyrodt and Jodi Giglio will meet Democrats Catherine Kent and Michele Lynch.
Beyrodt is part of the third generation of the DeLea Sod Farm family, a large turf grower headquartered on Long Island. He is past-president and an executive board member of the L.I. Farm Bureau. He lives in Baiting Hollow. (Bio)
Giglio, the only incumbent in the race for two open council seats, is seeking a third four-year term on the board. Giglio is a business owner who works in permit expediting and commercial construction. She lives in Baiting Hollow. (Bio)
Kent is a retired teacher who spent her 31-year career teaching in the Riverhead Central School District. A lifelong resident of Riverhead Town, she lives in Baiting Hollow. (Bio)
Lynch recently retired from her job as an organizer and political director for the 1199-SEIU healthcare workers union. She lives in Riverhead. (Bio)
Next up: town supervisor candidates
On Tuesday night, Republican incumbent Sean Walter of Wading River will meet Democratic challenger Laura Jens-Smith of Laurel.
Walter is seeking his fifth two-year term as town supervisor. A lawyer, he served as deputy town attorney in Riverhead from 2000 to 2006. (Bio)
Jens-Smith worked as a clinical nurse for 10 years in NYC hospitals before becoming a clinical research coordinator at the Hospital for Special Surgery. She moved to Laurel in 2002 and has served as a trustee of the Mattituck-Cutchogue Board of Education, which she currently serves as president. (Bio)
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