Board members in Riverhead and Southold are backing Assemblyman Dan Losquadro in attempting to keep the towns tied together in their representation at the state level.

A current redistricting proposal, proposed by the New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment, would separate the two towns and loop Southold and Shelter Island's representation in with the South Fork. Riverhead's A.D., meanwhile, would spread northwest toward Mt. Sinai.

Legislators on the North Fork are saying the proposal would unfairly affect North Fork constituients, whose voices they say would be drowned out by the more populous, "mightier" Hamptons. The entire Southold town board expressed opposition to the redistricting proposal on Wednesday.

"The South Fork has always had a mightier voice than the North Fork in Albany," said Southold Supervisor Scott Russell on Wednesday. "I'd rather the region continue to have two voices in the assembly. The East End has historically been represented by good people — why cut it down to one?"

Losquadro, R-Shoreham, encouraged residents on Wednesday to attend a public hearing next Thursday, Feb. 9, to voice disapproval of splitting the two towns up. The hearing will take place at the W.H. Rogers Legislative Office Building in Smithtown, starting at 11:00 a.m.

Riverhead Councilwoman Jodi Giglio said Wednesday she was "very much against it," and suggested possibly moving the town board's regularly scheduled work session on Thursday morning to the afternoon so the board could go to Hauppauge to express their disapproval.

Supervisor Sean Walter echoed Giglio's thoughts about the proposal, calling it "silly."

"It pains me to see the North Fork split up in the new redistricting plan put forward by the Majority,” said Losquadro in a press release. “The North Fork and the South Fork are very different districts, with the North Fork having a large winery and agricultural base and the majority of its homeowners acting as primary residents.

Assemblyman Fred Thiele, I-Sag Harbor, has represented the South Fork since 1996, and said that in choosing to come up with the districts, legislators likely determined that coupling Southold and Shelter Island with Southampton and East Hampton was a lesser of the evils afforded them. Had the second A.D. stayed closer to its current form on the south side of Long Island, he said it would have split up the Shirley/Mastic area.

"What does Southold and Shelter Island have more in common with, the rest of the East End, or Brookhaven?" he asked. "And what does Mastic/Shirley have more in common with? This doesn't split any existing communities."

The two forks had been represented by the same assembly member up until 1980, a fact Thiele also pointed to. He added that other representatives, such as Rep. Tim Bishop, D-Southampton, and state Sen. Ken LaValle, R- Port Jefferson, represent the two forks, so common representatives are not so uncommon.

"If I could keep the districts the way they are now, I would be more than willing to do that," he said. "Unfortunately the districts have to get smaller and lines have to be modified, and our population out here is only sufficient for one district."