Islip foreign trade zone gets new leader

Islip's foreign trade zone has a new head, as the Croci administration Tuesday formalized the appointment of a registered Republican from Brightwaters.

The appointment of Tracey Lange Krut, 45, was presented as a coup by the new town leadership, owing to Lange Krut's background in sales, marketing and business development.

But Phil Ramos (D-Brentwood) described the firing of executive director Astrid Fidelia, 44, as "a loss," noting she had "worked diligently" to try to expand foreign trade zone business, bringing representations from Taiwan, China and Korea "of the kind I've never seen this entity attract to this point."

Lange Krut's most recent job was national sales manager for Bohemia-based Bags On The Net, an online bag supplier, but she had worked for a decade for asset management firm OppenheimerFunds Inc., in Manhattan and financial firms UBS and Prudential Securities before that.

Councilman John Cochrane, a fellow Brightwaters Republican who described Lange Krut as a friend, said she would bring "the breath of fresh air we need to reinvent the foreign trade zone."

The zone is a 52-acre parcel of town-owned land adjacent to Long Island MacArthur Airport, run by the town under contract from Suffolk County. U.S.-based companies that reside in it can defer, reduce or eliminate customs duties on products they bring in from overseas, and the town also extends property-tax breaks to businesses based there. Currently, 18 companies reside within the Islip zone, but just one uses the program, officials said.

Supervisor Tom Croci said that, if marketed correctly, the zone could be an effective tool for economic development. "We have a lot of manufacturing both within the Town of Islip and on Long Island. I'd like to get businesses here to make use of it, at the same time as marketing it better to companies outside to come in," he said.

Fidelia, who is president of the nonpartisan Haitian American Political Action Committee, was not considered politically active as a Democrat during her tenure, according to several people she served with. The role, for which she earned $75,000 annually, has historically been seen as a patronage job.

In a separate development, Joseph Doscher replaces William Stenger, an Islip fire chief, as deputy at the town public works department. Doscher is president and chief executive of a construction firm, Suffolk County Decks Inc., of St. James and lives in Ronkonkoma where he has been active as a Republican committeeman.