North Fork Patch Best-Of News Stories 2010

With its laid-back lifestyles, focus on tourism, family life, and comfortable retirement communities, the North Fork might not be the biggest producer of Pulitzer-worthy hard news material. But since launching at the end of September, North Fork Patch covered several hot-button issues that affected tax levels, employment rates and local quality of life in general. Here's a look back at 10 important North Fork news stories of 2010:

1. And the winner is ... . Finally. After 36 days since the , court challenges, a recanvassing of new electronic voting machines and 17 stories covering the drama by Riverhead Patch editor Joe Pinciaro, Republican challenger conceded to incumbent U.S. Rep. Tim Bishop for a seat in the First Congressional District on Dec. 8. Though Altschuler initially wanted a hand recount of contested votes, he later said that he did not support such an action as "its cost will place an unnecessary burden on the taxpayers of Suffolk County." According to Altschuler's numbers, the St. James Republican was down 263 votes with approximately 977 ballots remaining to be counted.

2. The race for a seat in New York's First Assembly District was also too close to call after Republican challengerappeared to be the winner with 40 votes over incumbent Assemblyman Marc Alessi after polls closed on Nov. 2. Alessi called for a recanvassing of electronic voting machines, and after a call for athat never materialized, Alessi conceded the seat on Nov. 24 to the county legislator from Shoreham.

Mattituck will finally get a 7-Eleven on the corner of Route 25 and Factory Avenue where a vacant Citgo gas station now stands, so said members of the Southold Town Planning Board. The decision came on Dec. 13 — well over a year since the project was first proposed and much to the chagrin of several Mattituck residents who often protested the construction of the 24-hour mini-mart.

4. Fires happen on the North Fork — sometimes in a big way. After a huge pile of commercial mulch literally exploded into flames in the early morning hours of Dec. 6 behind North Fork Self Storage on Route 48, we and later posted a short video of the fire's containment. The footage depicted about 75 firefighters from five local fire departments doing what they do best.

5. From an early — which threatened to be much worse than it was — to the great of late December — which was everything it threatened to be — North Fork Patch reporters, photographers and readers braved the elements to capture some of the most extreme weather conditions the area has experienced in quite some time.

6. Though the rest of the country and the state ended the year in the red, Southold Town came out with a $5.6 million surplus due to successful negotiations with the local labor union and town and state retirement incentives. Town employees and Board members also decided to , which did not add to the surplus but the money will be used to re-install trash cans at local beaches, according to

It had been two years since Southold Free Library Trustees first proposed an elaborate $6 million expansion to the hamlet's historic library. The board of directors shelved the project due to the poor economy in 2009, but putting the proposal to the public again in 2010 didn't work — 59 percent of votersin a vote of 582 - 402 on Oct. 16.

8. Unlike Southold library voters, Greenport School District residents voted overwhelmingly to pass the school's proposed $7.4 million capital improvement and $1.2 million wind and solar projects on Dec. 7. Work on the 1930 school building and the alternative energy installations will begin this summer.

9. Representatives from Southold Town, New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation and the Long Island Farm Bureau gathered at the Southold Town Recreation Center in Peconic on Sept. 28 for an informative discussion on how to control the ever-growing and often-sickly North Fork deer herd. The session was also caught on video.

10. For the first time, Southold Town residents looking for career advice didn't have to leave town. Southold Town joined forces with Suffolk County's Department of labor this fall to organize two job assistance counseling sessions at the Human Resource Center in Mattituck. Turnout was high at the Sept. 27 session but wasn't so much on . Another session is tentativelynonetheless.