Bellones expand family with baby boy

Suffolk's fiscal crisis was put on hold Wednesday as Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone took his wife, Tracey, to the hospital to deliver their first son -- Michael Jack Bellone.

The newest Bellone was born at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore at 9:55 a.m., two hours after his mother arrived at the hospital. He weighed 7 pounds, 12 ounces. Mother and child are in good condition.

Michael Jack is named for Bellone's late father, Michael, a former city police and correction officer, and his father-in-law, Jack Scala, a retired Con Edison worker. He is the couple's third child. The boy joins sisters Katie, 4, and Mollie, 2, both of whom were also born on the 21st of a month -- Mollie in August and Katie in January.

The delivery postponed a planned news conference where Bellone had been scheduled to formally name Tom Melito as the head of his project management team, which is aiming to save $25 million this year in various initiatives. Melito will make a presentation Thursday to a legislature's government operations committee at 1 p.m.

The delivery came after Tracey Bellone, 38, who is deputy county parks commissioner, had twice earlier gone to the hospital for what turned out to be false alarms. "He was delivered by the best doctor on Long Island," Bellone said of physician Gary Kasten, who practices in Oakdale and has delivered all three Bellone children.