Mr. Zaleski played Santa for the fifth straight year with the hope of helping every student in need receive a gift during the holiday season. As a 31-year member of Riverhead’s highway department, Mr. Zaleski said he is happy to use his longtime municipal status as a platform to give back to those in need. He was reelected highway superintendent this November.

“It’s really a good thing,” Mr. Zaleski said. “And I’m very humbled, because every year it grows more and more.”

His son Ryan attended school in Riverhead, and Roanoke Avenue Elementary principal Thomas Payton left an indelible mark on Mr. Zaleski as an attentive school administrator. 

“Mr. Payton would literally wait for my son and walk him in to school every day,” Mr. Zaleski said. “So I never forgot something like that.”

The principal keeps a list of local children in need throughout Riverhead’s grade schools—including Aquebogue, Riley Avenue, Roanoke Avenue and Phillips Avenue—and helps distribute the toys throughout the district. 

“[They] make sure all of the children in need get something,” Mr. Zaleski said. 

Roanoke Avenue Elementary School assistant principal Andrea Lopez told the Riverhead News-Review the school is “extremely grateful” for Mr. Zaleski’s generosity. When dropping off toys Monday afternoon, Ms. Lopez couldn’t help but notice the big smile on Mr. Zaleski’s face.

“Receiving all of this for our families and our parents, it really makes their holiday,” she said. “It’s the most gracious thing that he could do. You know things are tight nowadays, and it lifts up the spirits of everybody and makes that bridge between our school and the community that much tighter.”

When collecting the toys, Mr. Zaleski asks that people donate a variety of toys for students in grades 1 through 4—dolls, trucks, board games, paint sets, you name it. This year, roughly 500 toys were donated by community members with the help of Riverhead Moose Lodge 1742, All Suffolk Car Clubs and Fink’s Country Farm.

The toy donation is accompanied by an annual 5K that Mr. Zaleski runs—something residents are likely familiar with from his years of running in town. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Zaleski ran a 5K to support healthcare workers and has run several others in support of local food banks since. 

Mr. Zaleski consistently goes above and beyond for his community, with over a decade of educational, interactive elementary school visits displaying highway department equipment like snow plows and dump trucks. His efforts earned him and the Riverhead Highway Department the Riverhead News-Review’s 2024 Public Servant of the Year award. 

“It’s just all ‘do good to feel good,’” Mr. Zaleski said of his efforts. “That’s basically my motto.”

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For nearly 15 years, Highway Superintendent Mike Zaleski and his crew have visited local elementary schools to give them a close-up view of the vehicles, offer insight on the responsibilities of the highway department and teach them the importance of road safety.

“My son had separation anxiety when he was a kid, and when he used to go to [this] school, the principal Mr. [Thomas] Payton used to come out and walk my son into school every single morning,” said Mr. Zaleski, the Riverhead News-Review’s 2024 Public Servants of the Year partly for his outreach. “I never forgot something like that, so I always wanted to give back when I’m able to. What a better way than bringing these trucks for show-and-tell — the kids love it.”

Over the last week, members of the department visited Roanoke and three other schools: Pine Tree Day Nursery, Aquebogue Elementary School and Riley Avenue Elementary School.

The two stars of the show-and-tell at Roanoke were the department’s bright yellow payloader and snow plow.

After the presentation, Mr. Zaleski and staffers gave safety-oriented coloring books to the children.

Check out the photos and video of the Riverhead Highway Department truck show-and-tell below.

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As an assessor, she is responsible for the valuation of almost 17,000 parcels of property with an estimated worth of approximately $13 billion.

Her other duties include exemption administration, deed transfers, property splits and assemblages, oversight of the state’s assessment software system, preparation of assessment rolls and staff training. 

One of Ms. Tennenberg’s areas of concentration is the manufactured home community, a group of almost 1,900 properties, ensuring that assessed values and exemptions are maintained fairly and equitably. 

In 1996, Ms. Tennenberg was admitted to the Institute of Assessing Officers and awarded the designation of Professional Assessor, the highest rank for assessors in New York State. Additionally, she previously served as president and treasurer of the Suffolk County Assessors’ Association and is treasurer of the New York State Assessors’ Association, a position she has held since 1998.

Mike Zaleski, Highway Superintendent

Mike Zaleski has over 31 years with the highway department — four of them as superintendent, six as deputy and 21 as shop foreman and in various operator roles.

During his tenure, he has improved many drainage issues, including Cranberry Street, where he also added and fixed sidewalks. He coordinated paving of major roads like Sound Avenue, Middle Road, Creek Road and North Wading River Road.

He also has implemented Snow Plow safety for first-graders, the Truck Show for children and the annual holiday toy drive. 

Mr. Zaleski won the 2024 AAA Traffic Safety award, took the first-place 2025 state innovative award and the 2024 civic department of the year award.

He advocated for the Long Island Rail Road to repair their crossings and for the state DOT to repave Route 25 in Calverton. He continues to update the town’s vehicle fleet and highway buildings.

“I would like to continue improving our roads and fleet to provide safety and reliability for the people of Riverhead,” Mr. Zaleski said.

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“He’s one of the hardest working elected officials on the East End of Long Island. He genuinely cares about his town, loves where he works and lives, and he wholeheartedly deserves this recognition,” he said. “But I know that Mike would not accept this alone. He would tell you that it belongs to all the employees that work with him.”

Riverhead Town Supervisor Tim Hubbard said the town’s highway department is exemplary.

“They really bust their chops out there,” he said of the staff. “I give those guys a lot of credit. They are out there in all conditions and everything else. And Mike does a lot with the few people he’s got.”

Mr. Hubbard said the highway department is constantly assisting other departments. “It’s very refreshing to see — whether it’s loaning equipment to another department or just going out and doing work for them that would make it a lot easier than if they tried to do it themselves with their own equipment,” he said.

Trisha Yakaboski, Mr. Zaleski’s friend and campaign treasurer, said his love for Riverhead is evident in everything he does.

“He treats every street in this town like it’s the road that he or his parents live on,” she said. “When he goes running, he picks up trash. He’ll move branches out of the street.”           

The son of a Riverhead cop, Mr. Zaleski has been working for the highway department for 30 years — the last three of them, he’s been the superintendent. With a team of 40, it’s second only to the police department in size.

Riverhead Police Chief Ed Frost works frequently with the highway superintendent. 

“He’s a great person,” he said. “He does a lot of things for the town, and a lot on his own. He really goes out of his way.”

Mr. Rothwell said Mr. Zaleski is both a leader who empowers his employees and an innovator.

“Every single highway worker in the town of Riverhead brings knowledge to the table, and Mike understands that. He’s like, ‘Hey, if you guys can do this, show everybody, show me your forte, or what you can do,’” Mr. Rothwell said. “Mike gives people the opportunity to excel in that highway department as a group under his leadership, and his staff likes it … because it allows them to excel on their own.”

In one staff-driven department project, Mr. Zaleski worked with David Arteaga — a highway department worker, professional photographer and drone pilot — to create an innovative video showcasing the highway department’s equipment.

Mr. Rothwell said Mr. Zaleski has been “phenomenal” in managing his limited department budgeting.

“The man was left with a lot of long overdue, dilapidated equipment, some of it that really, quite frankly, looked like it should be put on a flatbed and hauled out of there,” the councilman said. “He has restored a lot of it, put a lot of it back to work, and repurposed a lot of equipment. He basically took all the leftover equipment around the highway yard and built his own striping truck.”

Mr. Rothwell is most impressed with Mr. Zaleski’s problem-solving skills.

“He built an overhead wash system to wash all the trucks,” he said. “That’s a major safety issue completely resolved by Mike. You had guys trying to climb on top of vehicles in the wintertime, trying to spray out salt with ice conditions and so forth, or … let it sit and then the equipment rusts. It rots, it gets damaged. So Mike and the highway department workers as a team built this whole overhead wash station … and they won a statewide award for it.”

Last fall, the Riverhead Highway Department won a state Department of Transportation ‘Build a Better Mousetrap’ Award for designing and constructing the new washing station. Previously, Mr. Zaleski’s department won a Northeast AAA Community Traffic Safety Award, among others.

He also developed a policy to strengthen filled potholes, according to colleagues. Previously, the highway department would “patch” potholes by filling them with asphalt material to repair localized damage. Under the current administration, potholes are “milled,” meaning a machine is used to grind down a larger section of the road to a specific depth, before applying a whole new layer of asphalt to the area, strengthening the damaged section of road. 

Ms. Yakaboski said Mr. Zaleski is as fastidious at home as he is at work.

“You should see his yard. It’s a meticulous yard. You could play golf on his yard. His grass is amazing — it’s almost obnoxious,” she said, laughing.

She said the highway superintendent has a soft spot in his heart for kids and cats, and that every year, he looks forward to his department’s massive toy drive for underprivileged Riverhead kids. “Truly, he would do anything to make any child smile,” she said. “He buys [McDonald’s] Happy Meals for himself for lunch, and I swear it’s so he can give away the toy. I’ve seen him hop back in his truck because he ran into somebody who might have their kid in the backseat, and it’s ‘Oh, I have something for him.’”

She said when he stops by her daycare facility, “it’s the same thing: ‘How many kids do you have?’ And he is going to count out his stockpile of McDonald’s toys. He’ll tell you he gets Happy Meals because it’s the perfect amount of food. I will tell you, it’s because he wants the toy so he can give it to a kid.”

For more than a decade, Mr. Zaleski has been representing the department in visits to local elementary schools. He and staffers bring equipment like snow plows and dump trucks to teach first graders about the highway department. The visit includes safety-oriented coloring books on topics like snow safety.   

“He’s definitely Riverhead, through and through” said Roanoke Avenue Elementary School principal Thomas Payton. “And you can see it when he’s talking with the kids. They’re in awe, and they’re listening to what he’s got to say, and they’re so excited that he’s here … You could just see how much he loves what he does.”

Over the summer, Mr. Zaleski decided to expand his annual school presentation into a full-blown highway department event.

“We had well over 100 kids here this year, and next year he wants to make it bigger and better,” said Joan Mottern, Mr. Zaleski’s administrative assistant. “He’s going to have a sand pile for the kids to play in.”

Ms. Yakaboski said that several years ago, Mr. Zaleski began running 5k races — and quickly became addicted, both to the racing itself and the fundraising.

“He does probably close to 20 [races] every year — all over the island. He does breast cancer races. He does the [Run for] Briggs race, the Run for Ridley. And God forbid he hears of a race for a child with cancer. If there’s a spaghetti dinner somewhere supporting somebody, he’s there.”

She said he’s less a Good Samaritan, more a great one.

“You know those bumper stickers, ‘I break for’ this or that? Mike’s would be too big for a bumper because he literally stops for anybody. There was a[n injured] baby deer he came upon once and he was calling up all the wildlife centers. He stops for turtles. He stops for injured birds … He always stops to help.”

For all these reasons, Mr. Zaleski and his team are The Riverhead News-Review’s People of the Year.

Previous Winners
2023: Diane Wilhelm
2022: Steve Shauger & Kristy Verity
2021: Dawn Thomas
2019: Allen Smith
2018: Dashan Briggs
2017: Richard Ligon
2016: Tom Lateulere
2015: Susan Wilk
2014: Carl James
2013: Dennis Cavanagh
2012: Ed Romaine
2011: George Woodson
2010: Robert Brown
2009: Barbara Grattan
2008: Liz Stokes
2007: Michael Reichel
2006: Gary Pendzick
2005: The Riverhead Ambulance Corps
2004: Richard Wines
2003: Ken Testa
2002: “KeySpan Coalition”
2001: Ed Densieski
2000: Judge Richard Ehlers
1999: Barbara Blass
1998: Vicki Staciwo
1997: Lenard Makowski
1996: Buildings & Grounds
1995: Jack Hansen
1994: Jim Stark
1993: Rick Hanley
1992: Lawyer Jackson
1991: Andrea Lohneiss
1990: Monique Gablenz
1989: George Bartunek
1988: Patricia Tormey

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This fall, Southold Highway Dept. workers are picking up an average of one dead deer a day, “and some days we’ll do pickups throughout the day,” said highway superintendent Dan Goodwin, describing that pace as consistent with previous autumns. Mr. Goodwin said that through the beginning of November, 523 deer carcasses had been brought to the town landfill, either by highway dept. staffers or residents.

On Shelter Island at this time of year, “we’re good for three to four a week, at least,” said Ken Lewis Jr., the island’s superintendent of highways and commissioner of public works.

In Riverhead, Mike Zaleski’s highway department staff averages between five and 15 — and sometimes as many as 20 — dead deer a week.

“During hunting season, they get flushed out more, so we definitely pick up more dead deer,” said Mr. Zaleski, a 30-year veteran of the Riverhead Highway Dept.

October through December is the most dangerous season for deer strikes on the North Fork, and across Suffolk County — which last year ranked third out of 62 New York counties for the most annual animal-involved collisions, according to AAA, up from sixth place in 2022. In 2021, Suffolk county had the second most animal collisions statewide.

It’s a perfect storm combo each fall when deer mating season and hunting season coincide with diminished food sources and days where dusk falls around 5 p.m. — when many drivers are commuting home from work.

During mating season, hormone-packed bucks are racing around chasing does.

In their mating season, “they’re more active, they’re up on their feet more often,” said Mr. Goodwin. “There’s less sources of food out there. What’s left of our farms have got cover crop in the fields, so they’re out searching for food and moving around. There’s also not as much camouflage because the trees have dropped their leaves.”

The Riverhead and Southold figures don’t include state and county roads, officials said. 

“We don’t do anything on [Route] 25 and we don’t do anything on Route 48,” Mr. Goodwin said. “Those are all picked up by the state or the county.”

In Riverhead, Mr. Zaleski said that deer pickups don’t include the Long Island Expressway or county roads like Route 58.

On Shelter Island, Mr. Lewis’ highway department handles everything, including Route 114.

“The majority take place on the state road [Route 114], which is probably the busiest thoroughfare for us, because it connects the two ferries,” he said. “And we’ve become a busier place for trade traffic that crosses over from the North Fork to the South Fork, using us as a sort of bridge. So that state road deals with quite a bit.”

If a deer does run out in front of a car, the best thing for a driver to do is not to swerve, experts said. Instead, hit the brakes and honk the horn, which may be enough to startle the animal out of the way. If a crash is inevitable, the best course is to steer into the deer. 

“Drivers should never swerve to avoid any animal, especially on country roads,” AAA Northeast spokesman Robert Sinclair Jr. said in a statement last fall.  

The reason is simple: Swerving to the right could send the car into a ditch, tree or telephone pole, while swerving left could result in a deadly head-on crash with an oncoming vehicle. 

“While it’s not desirable, hitting a deer is better than hitting a tree,” Mr. Sinclair said.

In Shelter Island, the carcasses are compacted and trucked away by waste management services, while Riverhead and Southold bury their own.

“We have a deer pit on town property, in a brush yard of ours,” Mr. Zaleski said. “It’s a hole in the ground, and we fill that up. As they decompose, we put a layer of mulch over them, to keep the smell down and help with quicker decomposition. When the pit fills up, we simply dig another hole.”

Town highway workers also pick up and discard of other animal roadkill, from squirrels and turtles to possums and raccoons.

“It’s not one of the more glamorous parts of the job, that’s for sure,” Mr. Goodwin said.

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The Town Board and Highway Superintendent Mike Zaleski have agreed to a plan that will allow the highway department to collect loose leaves from the roadside for the remainder of 2022 and the entirety of 2023. 

The Town Board will pay for the leaf pickup through the general fund, rather than the highway department’s budget.

The debate over who should pay for leaf pickup goes back several years, as former highway superintendent George Woodson was involved in the same debate with the Town Board when he was in office. 

The two sides had agreed to seek an opinion from the state Attorney General’s office, which in turn contacted the state comptroller’s office. 

The comptroller’s office found a 1976 case involving Brookhaven Town that stated: “A town board may direct the highway department to collect on a regular basis leaves and brush placed on a town highway right of way by property owners, with the highway department’s expenses chargeable not to the highway fund, but to the general fund appropriation for refuse collection.”

The comptroller’s opinion states that the Riverhead Town Board “shall create general fund budget line(s) for expenses related to loose leaf pickup in the amount of $219,018.88 for the year 2022.” That was the number the town and Mr. Zaleski agreed was the annual cost of leaf pickup.

Problem solved? Not exactly. 

The Town Board said the $219,018 payment doesn’t begin until 2023, and Mr. Zaleski sought to use the funds during the remainder of 2022. 

An agreement reached before Tuesday’s Town Board meeting finally solved the dispute by transferring $194,100 from the general fund to the highway fund to cover the cost of leaf pickup for the rest of 2022.

The 2023 budget adopted this week by the Town Board for 2023 already includes funding for leaf pickup.

“They finally agreed to pay me the amount, so we can do leaf pickup in 2022,” Mr. Zaleski said Wednesday. 

“I’m allowing them to shave off the $25,000 that’s in the only leaf line in my budget,”he said. “I’m glad they finally came together and decided to do this. Now we can all just move on.” 

The $25,000 was in the department’s budget for paper leaf collection bags.

“I’m happy the Town Board is continuing this courtesy for the residents,” Mr. Zaleski said. “As far as my feelings? I’ve got leaves to pick up.”

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“Now kids can be on this road safely,” said Highway Superintendent Mike Zaleski. 

Mr. Zaleski said the road has been on his priority list for several years. He recalled seeing kids walking on the narrow road, where school bus tires “were just a couple inches from them.” There was previously no sidewalk on the south part of the road. 

Cranberry Street is the road that connects Roanoke Avenue with North Griffing Avenue, and it’s used by both kids going to and come from school, and drivers looking for shortcuts. 

“It’s finished as of today,” Mr. Zaleski said Thursday. 

He said the project cost about $230,000, and that Dawn Thomas, the town’s community development director, will look for a grant to offset the cost of the project. 

Mr. Zaleski, who took office in January, said Ms. Thomas, deputy town engineer Ken Testa and Councilman Ken Rothwell were all supportive. 

“Everything we did worked,” Mr. Zaleski said. “Even after the heavy rain a few days ago, this road was bone dry.”

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