‘Termers’ Get a New Boss

The officer overseeing labor crews from Suffolk County’s Riverhead and Yaphank correctional facilities has made his last work-related visit to the South Fork.

Sgt. John Whitehead, who established the program with Sheriff Vincent F. DeMarco, retired from the County Sheriff’s Department yesterday, three weeks shy of 35 years’ service. While he plans to take it easy for the next two months, his replacement, Sgt. Owen O’Neill, was already on the job at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett on Tuesday, as a crew performed landscaping work and washed the building’s cedar shingles.

Under Sergeant Whitehead’s watchful eye, the “working termers,” those serving sentences in county correctional facilities, have also performed work at the Springs Firehouse, Second House Museum in Montauk, the Amagansett Farmers Market, the Montauk Lighthouse, and the Amagansett Life Saving and Coast Guard Station.

“The termers usually get one-third off their sentence right from the get-go for good behavior,” said Sergeant Whitehead. “This is not any perk for them as far as getting released early, but they love it because they’re outside five days a week. We go all over Suffolk County, they eat a little better, receive a few benefits here and there.”

The crews, which typically perform such work as painting, building repair, and landscaping, have saved the American Legion thousands of dollars, Lee O’Toole, a legionnaire, said this week. Michael Cinque, the co-director of the committee charged with restoring the 1902 coast guard station, was similarly grateful for the crews, which he said brought surprisingly strong skills and enthusiasm to that project. Last summer, Mr. Cinque told The Star they had done “an absolutely amazing job” in twice-weekly visits. “There’s a guy on the crew who restores houses,” he said. “He has been coming up with some brilliant ideas, and a lot of these guys are pretty handy.”

Looking forward to retirement, Sergeant Whitehead, who lives in Shoreham, will nonetheless miss work-related visits to the South Fork now that Sergeant O’Neill has assumed his role. “I love it,” he said, standing in the sunshine outside Legion Hall. “This is the place to be.”