450 to attend Bellone's early inauguration

Babylon's Democratic Supervisor Steve Bellone will be sworn in Friday as Suffolk's sixth elected county executive in an inaugural scheduled 36 hours before he officially takes office.

More than 450 guests are scheduled to attend the inauguration that will begin at 11 a.m. at Suffolk Community College's Grant campus in Brentwood. The event is by invitation but will be shown live on News 12 Long Island starting at 11:15 a.m.

Bellone, 42, and his wife, Tracey, will be led into the Van Nostrand Theatre in the Sagtikos Building by a Suffolk Police Emerald Society pipe band. The event is scheduled to be emceed by Rep. Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills).

The new county executive will be sworn in by retired state Supreme Court Justice Patrick Henry, a former Suffolk district attorney and father of one of Bellone's Babylon town board members, Lindsay Henry. His chief deputy aide, Regina Calcaterra and Deputy County executive Jon Schneider will be sworn in by former boss Rep. Timothy Bishop (D-Southampton). Gospel music will come from the Cornerstone Church of God Choir in Medford and the salute to the flag will be led by Marine Cpl. Michael Mansell, who was wounded in the Iraq War. The national anthem will be sung by Rachel Hankers, a Centereach High School junior.

Transition officials say the swearing in will be official, but it will not take effect until the term of County Executive Steve Levy officially ends at midnight Dec. 31. The ceremony was scheduled early to avoid the overtime costs of an event on New Year's Day, which is a county holiday.

Aides say Bellone officially submitted his letter of resignation to the Babylon town clerk Thursday, to take effect at 11:59 p.m. Saturday.

Town Deputy Supervisor Tony Martinez will take over until the board meets Tuesday. At that time they are expected to appoint Suffolk Democratic chairman Richard Schaffer supervisor, the job he held before Bellone.Bellone, a town supervisor for a decade, waged a yearlong campaign and raised a record $5.7 million to win the county executive job against Republican Suffolk Treasurer Angie Carpenter, the first woman to run for the county's top post. Originally an underdog, Bellone became the front-runner when two-term incumbent Steve Levy decided last March not to seek re-election and turn over his $4 million campaign fund to District Attorney Thomas Spota to end a probe into his fundraising activities.

Levy, who is stepping down after eight years, said he "probably won't" attend Bellone's inauguration. "It's Steve's day and the cameras should be on him and not looking at my reaction," said Levy, "especially since there's likely to be a lot of attacks on my administration -- to lower the bar for the new one."

Richard Schaffer, Suffolk Democratic chairman, dismissed Levy's remarks as a parting partisan shot.