Town

Joe Schramm is an active, committed community leader and an experienced, marketing business owner who will bring budget management expertise, people skills and friendly energy to Huntington Town Hall. Schramm believes homeowners are the key investors in the Town. For nearly 30 years, Schramm’s business clients have trusted him with their money, and he is determined to protect the financial investment of homeowners with the same careful attention.

I've spent my professional career as an educator and administrator, working as a public school teacher, a nursery school director and currently as the program director of Kerber's Farm School, located in Huntington. Since I took over as director of the school, I've built the program to include innovative classes, field trips for local school districts and scout programs, internship opportunities, and a weekly work-study program for life-skills students.

I served nine years on the Huntington School Board, the last two years as the president. I enjoyed working collaboratively with my fellow trustees, and became known as a team player and consensus builder. I was an accessible resource for the district families, staff and community members. My time on the board also gave me insight into the issues that matter to the community.

Given the opportunity to represent Huntington as a council member, I'll be ready to get to work on day one. It would be a great honor to represent the Huntington community.

A deeply devoted community leader, Rebecca worked for County Executive Bellone, playing a leading role in the Superstorm Sandy relief and recovery effort. Today, she’s the President/CEO of the Health and Welfare Council of Long Island (HWCLI) where she manages a nonprofit business which works for everyday Long Islanders to get the help they need, including feeding thousands of our neighbors, providing resources for hundreds of families, and assisting small businesses all across our region. Rebecca is always putting people first, and that’s what she will do in Town Hall.

Oyster farmer Will Peckham is a North Sea resident, commercial shellfish farmer and President of West Robins Oyster Company. Will moved to Southampton in 2016 and started a local farm with the mission of improving its community through water-quality enhancement while providing consumers with high quality locally-grown shellfish. Today, the company employs four and distributes shellfish to the public and restaurants on the East End and in Manhattan. Will grew up on the water, fishing, diving and boating in tight-knit communities in Maine and Florida and understands the benefits of local governance of our crucial waterways.

From 2014-2016, Mr. Peckham worked in New York on behalf of companies conducting early-stage healthcare research, helping them to secure funds and position their products in clinical trials to bring new treatments to patients.

He graduated from Middlebury College (VT) with a B.A. in Economics, summa cum laude, in 2014.

Martha Reichert is a Hampton Bays resident who has spent her much of her life on or in the water. She grew up in Montauk as part of a boat building and marina owning family, where she gained valuable knowledge of the needs of a waterfront community. An ardent environmentalist since her youth and an avid waterperson, Martha is deeply committed to the development of sustainable practices and policies for the Trustees that will balance the needs of our local maritime traditions with countering the effects of sea level rise, climate change, and other interconnected threats to water quality, such as harmful algal blooms, pollution and surface water runoff, and eutrophication. You can find her in her free time with her family, hiking, fishing, clamming, paddle boarding, snorkeling, and generally exploring the natural beauty of the Town of Southampton. She is also fluent in Spanish.

Shari Oster has almost 30 years of experience practicing law in Suffolk County. After being admitted to the Second Department of the State of New York in 1985, she practiced privately, representing clients in Family Court and District Court and ruling on cases in Small Claims Court. Ms. Oster was then employed as an attorney for the Mental Hygiene Legal Service of the Appellate Division of the State of New York , where she worked for 22 years. As an Associate Attorney in that agency, she represented some of the most vulnerable and marginalized people in New York, providing legal representation in the Supreme, County and Surrogate’s courts in both Nassau and Suffolk County. Ultimately she became a lead counsel in Guardianship cases for the Agency, serving as Counsel or Court Evaluator in hundreds of cases in the Guardianship parts of the Supreme Court.

Traffic expert Tom Neely was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pa. After attending college in Ohio and working for several years in New York City and Boston, he moved to the South Fork in 1987.

From 1987 to 2004, Tom was a Vice President at Hampton Jitney, a multi-faceted transportation company serving Long Island, New York City, and markets all along the east coast. While working at the Jitney, Tom served as President of the Southampton Chamber of Commerce and on the Sag Harbor Chamber Board; was appointed by the Town Board to the Southampton Town Comprehensive Plan Committee, Transportation Advisory Task Force; and Town Business Advisory Council. During his free time he coached his sons in soccer and Little League in Sag Harbor.

I have always believed in public service and am grateful that the beginning of my career afforded me invaluable training in the workings of government on the community, city and state level. As a member of the Southampton Planning Board for the last five years, I have carefully weighed the delicate balance between development and environment, economy and community. When I sat as Chair of the Suffolk County Board of Ethics, I lead the way in ethics in government.

As a owner of a local real estate law firm, I am living the demands and challenges facing our business community. Working with clients from throughout Southampton Township, I have gained valuable insight into the commonalities and differences within our hamlets and villages.