Biography
Councilman Stuart Besen is a 1982 graduate of Northport High School. Elected to the Huntington Town Board in 2005, Councilman Besen has distinguished himself as a leading advocate for environmental conservation, enhancing parks and recreational facilities and spearheading numerous initiatives to protect and enhance Huntington's outstanding quality of life.
Councilman Besen has led efforts to renovate and rehabilitate our Town's park systems, including Veterans Park in East Northport, to greatly expand recreational opportunities for children and adults. Thanks to his leadership, Veterans Park this year will be home to two lighted synthetic fields and a boundless playground especially designed for children of all abilities.
Open space preservation is also a high priority for Besen. He played an instrumental role in purchasing and preserving the historic Lewis-Oliver Dairy Farm in Northport Village, the MTA transfer of the Rails to Trails, the Mohlenhoff Nursery property and preserving the natural apple/fruit farming heritage of Richter's Orchard in East Northport.
Councilman Besen established a Huntington Greenway Trails Citizen Advisory Committee and appointed members to this voluntary advisory organization to implement specific trail identification, mapping, planning and programming functions. The Huntington Greenway Trails Citizens Advisory Committee meets with Town departmental staff in mapping and marking trails, leading hikes, monitoring trails for maintenance purposes, and creating a trails guide defining trails uses/designations.
The councilman has also made it a priority to protect Huntington's bays and harbors. He has secured three lit buoy channel markers and hosts campaigns to stow your trash, annual clean beaches events and recently began a recycling program for Huntington's beaches.
Throughout his tenure on the Town Board, Councilman Besen has been a champion of safeguarding the health and welfare of Huntington's children. He has passed legislation to prohibit sexual offenders from living near schools, playgrounds, parks and day camps. He took this law one step further by establishing a landmark computer-mapping program that enables police and public safety personnel to closely monitor established sensitive areas.
Additional youth-oriented programs created by Councilman Besen include teen driving workshops, babysitting education workshops, internet safety training workshops, marine educational programs including high school aged intern opportunities and a school recycling presentation that has been enjoyed by more than 8,500 students to date.
Thanks to Besen, many families will find it easier to make their homes more energy-efficient under a unique partnership between the Town of Huntington and the private, not-for-profit Community Development Corporation of Long Island. Besen authorized the joint venture, under which the CDC will provide $300,000 from the New York State Weatherization Program to help homeowners meeting certain income requirements undertake home improvements including energy efficiency, emergency repairs, structural improvements and handicapped accessibility.
Besen has also hosted several Identity Theft Workshops. Although identity theft can happen to anyone, this seminar was geared towards senior citizens due to the staggering statistics that show how susceptible seniors are to the creative criminals that prey on their personal information and steal their identities.
Because of his continuing work with our veterans and legionnaires, thanks to Stuart Besen the Elwood-Commack VFW Post now has a newly renovated meeting room they can call home. This facility has also become the meeting place for other local groups including the Huntington Marine Detachment Division.
Additional programs include the Solar Fast Track Program, the Hybrid Incentive Program, Energy Star, Tree Legislation for the protection of endangered trees and in honor of Earth Day, the annual E-Cycling and Touch a Truck Event.
Mr. Besen and his wife, Margaret, are the proud parents of two children, Stephanie and Alex. Both children are students at Fifth Avenue School. During his free time, the councilman volunteers as a coach with the Northport Youth Center Soccer and Larkfield Little League.