Letters

Sarah Anker’s record is pretty amazing, I believe. The Mount Sinai mother of three is running for the New York State Senate this year, and in a long spell of public service she’s done just about everything.

Twenty years ago, Sarah founded the Community Health and Environmental Coalition to show how the environment affects our health, thus advancing the New York State Health Department’s important cancer cluster investigation.

Ms. Anker joined neighbors to create Heritage Park in Mount Sinai, and was the director of Brookhaven Town’s first Energy Department, which she was a force in creating. There, she implemented the Green Homes Go Solar program, providing renewable energy sources for the town’s 500,000 residents.

Later, Sarah served 12 years in the Suffolk County Legislature, chairing the committees on Education and Information Technology, Health, and Seniors and Human Services, and heading the School Traffic Safety Commission and the Addiction Prevention and Support Advisory Panel.

She also sat on the legislature’s committees on Budget and Finance, Veterans, Ways and Means, Public Safety, Environment, Parks and Agriculture, and Public Works and Energy.

Among her legislative accomplishments are: the SAVE Hotline (School Active Violence Emergency), which is a notification system to enhance school safety; the scam alert website SCPDscamalert.org, to protect Suffolk residents from scams; a dedicated web page for addiction and mental health; the Jobs Opportunity Board, to connect graduating seniors with local jobs; Planned Young Adult Communities, to build housing on or near college campuses; safeguarding marine life and beaches by banning the intentional release of balloons; the Veterans Resource Guide; and supporting the county’s acquisition of thousands of acres of open space and farmland preservation.

In addition to all this work in the legislature, she has served on Congressman Tim Bishop’s Breast Cancer Advisory Board, State Senator Ken LaValle’s Environmental Roundtable, Suffolk County’s Cancer Awareness and Support Task Force, the Brookhaven National Laboratory Legislative Roundtable, and the Mount Sinai School Board and Civic Association.

And that’s not even the whole list. How can we not send someone like this to the State Senate? As the saying goes, her record speaks for itself.

I will be enthusiastically voting for Sarah Anker for the New York State Senate on November 5. Please join me.

George Lynch

Quiogue

Lynch is communications chair for the Southampton Town Democratic Committee — Ed.