Full Transcript
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Greg. Thank you.
Okay, I have a couple announcements before we get started. Announcement number one is we currently have a new supply of COVID-19 tests. They're available for pickup here at Town Hall and at the Riverhead Senior Center on Shade Tree Lane in Ackervoort. If you need the test kits, they can be picked up at either location between the hours of 8.30 and 4, Monday through Friday. And each test kit contains two tests and the limit is two test kits per person. We want to thank our partners at Suffolk County for the resupply of those tests so that we have them available for our residents. So if you want to test, come down Monday through Friday 8.30 to 4 o'clock, either here at Town Hall or on Shade Tree Lane at the Senior Center. And an important item here. Lastly, this past Monday, January 22nd was an important day. It was Councilwoman Joanne Waski's 35th birthday. So Diane Tucci provided cake and party hats and we had a little gathering and so as our tradition is on the town board, we always go and sing happy birthday to the Council people. Diane Tucci is going to bring up a nice little birthday sash. Apparently I've been tasked with embarrassing you, which actually I love. That is really the sole purpose of why I'm here. I may adorn you. With your... Oh, wait, hold on, it's upside down. Because it is Joannuary. Still. Okay. Well, thank you. And if you would all help me in singing happy birthday to Joanne. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Joanne. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday Joanne. Happy birthday Joanne. Happy birthday Joanne. Had I known that this was part of the job, I might have rethought the election. Thank you everybody. Thank you very much, town board. Or at least show them the link this morning. Okay. We're going to get on with our open session. We have one, two, three, four, five matters on for open session. And we have two matters on for executive session at the end of the meeting. First matter up today, is matters surrounding possible change to Wading River, Manneville, and Riphead Volunteer Ambulance Corps District lines and related regions of responsibility. And I'm going to turn it over to Councilman Rothwell, who is our liaison to these fine agencies. And at this point in time, I would ask each agency, if you want to send a couple people up to the table, for the discussion that you would do that now. Unfortunately, we can't fit everybody up here, but... Hi, Chief. How are you? Good. How are you? Good. How are you? Great. So, three more seats if anybody from any of the agencies want to jump up. If one of our fire marshals want to come forward?
Got an open seat here, Andrew. Andrew, there's an open seat. So just so that everybody else is aware of this, okay, just... We have Kenneth here from the Manneville Fire District Commissioners. We have members of ARVAC here. We have members of the Wading River Fire Department here as well, and our fire commissioners. So we really have four different life-saving entities here sitting at the table today. Could we just go around and have everybody announce your name and your affiliation, please? I'm Kenneth McLean. I'm a Manneville Fire District Commission. I'm Garrett Lake, Riverhead Ambulance, Board of Director. James Alford. James Alford. Andrew Smith-Tano, Chief of Riverhead Ambulance. Pat Cugliotta, Riverhead District Manager. Andrew Smith-Tano, Riverhead Fire Marshal. Greg Zitick, Riverhead Town Chief Fire Marshal. Kevin McQueenie, a Wading River Fire Commissioner. Greg Meyer, Wading River Fire Commissioner. Okay. Okay? So I greatly appreciate you guys coming here today to have this discussion. What has changed and what has led to this discussion is that if we probably remind ourselves six months ago we really we didn't have anything in the area we're specifically talking about route 25 in Calverton and there was really no major infrastructure that was to the south side of route 25 and so over the past few months in approximately in October Island Water Park now known as Scotts Point opened up for business and so in addition to the activities that they have their rock climbing walls lake outback and restaurant then next door we've since opened up our ice rink as well and so we have two major gathering points where I think we're gonna find a lot of population gathering especially as we go into the summer months and so there's a in the slight confusion of who's responding and and who's ultimately responsible for those calls and so I appreciate everybody coming here today and it's it's does this doesn't have to be a discussion to say where I want to change fire district lines but maybe it could be by means of an intermissible agreement between everybody you just we just want to know that if there is a choking victim in a restaurant at Scotts Point if somebody gets hit in the head with a puck at our ice rink we just want to have a game in place and to specifically know whose responsibility and who it is that's going to be responding to the scene what's very unique about this so for the general public is that route 25 is not necessarily dividing line it goes 500 feet into the Veterans Memorial Park line as well as Scots Point and so we're going to have a discussion about that and then we'll get back to you in a minute. So the first 500 feet for example are handled by the waiting River Fire Department as you go deeper into the complex which means that if there was an accident on route 25 somebody pulling out of the intersection it would be waiting River Fire Department that's responding however if there is a fire response inside the building then it's Manitou Fire Department that's responding and the reason RVAC is here is that RVAC is in a contractual agreement I presume with the Manitou Fire Department so Manitou doesn't have an ambulance on the riverhead side so their ambulance specifically responds to the Brookhaven sign so we have RVAC and waiting river has the dual roles of the fire response as well as the ambulance so we just really wanted to have a discussion about how we can set up protocols that if somebody you know god forbid you know somebody a drowning victim or somebody's pulled out of the lake what is going to be the realistic response times and that's where we want to just put put the fireside lines down for a little bit put the financial costs down but god forbid it was my son or somebody being pulled out of that lake, who's going to get there the fastest, and how do we set up a proper protocol to make sure that we as a town municipality has done everything we can to clarify any potential confusion in the site? Because I know that FREZ at some point has dispatched Waiting River to the ice rink as first response, and they've also dispatched Mattaville. But looking at the fire lines, it is Mattaville's fire district, as well as Scott's point. But if there's an accident in the front, again, on Route 25, that's Waiting River Fire District. But Waiting River is two traffic lights away, and Aurovac is 13 traffic lights away, and I think there would be clearly a significant difference in response times. So I just wanted to have that discussion and kind of go around and just get everybody's personal feelings on what they think or your ideas. You guys are the professionals, and first I'll even say I didn't say in the opening, because I thank you all for your service. Everybody sitting here is volunteers. I thank you all very much for your service and the time that you give on a regular basis, day and night, so thank you for that. And so I just wanted to kind of hear, talk, so we kind of go around. If you don't mind. Just a couple questions. Obviously, the water park is a pool facility, so I would expect that the health code requires them to have not only a pool operator, but a lifeguard on duty. That would be your immediate response. So that part of it is nice. There's somebody on site. I imagine there's a similar requirement for the ice rink, same as at any of your school functions. If you have a sporting event, they have to have a trainer. They have to have EMS on staff. They have to hire their own if you're a school district. Is it any different in town? Riverhead, Fort McGill properties? I would expect that they were there to start. I think in the... I just want to... So to clarify, I believe at the current time, inside there is, because there is a minimal, so the surf pool doesn't like pool water in itself. It's something that's typically one to two inches of water at any given time. I think that would change. Like right now, the lake is not opened yet for the general public, so maybe that will change in the general public, and they'll certainly have lifeguards on duty. As for the ice rink, we know of no requirements. They have any type of EMT on staff. They have reached out, and they are asking for, you know, to anybody that's interested in a job opportunity. So if you are an EMT out there and you would like an opportunity to work at the ice rink, they are looking to hire EMTs to be there. Just because I know those are a requirement for schools and also even right down to a hot tub, you have to have a pool operator and a lifeguard. So that's just a question. Yep. You had something? Yeah, you know, as we all know, that Riverhead Ambulance is one of the biggest EMS, districts in the state of New York. We do 51, we did 5,100 last year. We threw about 5,100 calls last year. I did look at our response times to the area in question last night after my phone call with Ken Rothwell, and we had two calls there so far. Both of them, I believe both of them were broken bones, and our response time was seven minutes on one and was nine minutes on the other. To me, that is well within our, response time for any agency. I don't believe any agency would beat that response time. We are capable at this time, now that we have brought Stony Brook University Hospital on board, they now provide us an additional ambulance from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and an additional paramedic flight car from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. We are now in discussion moving our schedules around, so we have 24-hour paramedic on all the time. I just don't see how anybody would be faster than us having the capability of putting four ambulances on the road 24 hours a day at this point. I agree with everything. I don't, I, you know, we don't see it. We're not in any contract with any department. We cover, we have always covered all of EpCal. That has always been our district. We've been covering it from day one, and we hope to continue covering it, you know, we've, we were always under the impression that when building was allowed to occur at EpCal, you know, there is land designated there for first response building. It has not been utilized at this point. I believe there's two or three acres there designated for us. You know, I think the conversation needs to happen to put a building there. You know, there's a lot of commercial activity going on there 24 hours a day. You know, we, we as an ambulance had no idea that the skate rink was open 24 hours. I found that out yesterday. None of us knew that if you left the emergency exit door open that the whole place would collapse on itself. That was never told to us. So there's a lot going on here that none of us really knew about. And, you know, we as a district have our board meeting tonight, and we're going to have to move some resources and figure out how we can, you know, make our times there a little faster. But I think seven minutes is pretty reasonable. You know, I do know that there's a lot going on there. I think there's a lot going know, EpCal itself is a little, little different, you know, those times go up another five, five minutes because EpCal is huge. There's only one or two really good entrances into the place. You know, I brought to the board that going to the drug rehab, we have to go well into the next district to get into the entrance. When there's a fire road that is about a mile closer, then we're probably going to stay a lot faster. So, you know, there's other things that I think need to be done here first before, you know, district lines are moved. I think there needs to be more accessibility to this location first. You want to talk about anything? The only thing that I'm going to say is the same thing. I would have expected the plans prior to building. So the water park was built and surprise, you have a water park built. The skate rink was built. Surprise, you have a skate rink built. I have no idea the chemicals they're using, how they're chilling the ice. Any of that. I believe our chief has seen it. It's been in place for a while. It's open. Same as the water park. We first saw it on a soft opening. So the plans came late. You know, I would expect that. I would prefer to be at the front. You know, we've tried to make those arrangements to meet with the EpCal folks. A lot of things have gone up on up there that haven't benefited us. We haven't even been involved in the process. So that's mostly why my cohorts and I are here, just to make sure that you understand we're here. We have expectations. It's great that we finally get to sit with you all. We do have an inter municipal agreement already existing with Riverhead ambulance. So where our members train with them, they ride on the ambulance to benefit. It's mutually beneficial because our training gets handled by them. We get to turn out EMTs that are on our fire trucks. So, you know, that's part of what we've been doing to address this long before we realized the building was starting. You know, the first we had heard was that last group that is no longer going to be part of. The Calverton building plans, I would imagine. So that's when we just, you know, we had noticed a lot of things going on that we had no idea what's happening up there. We've been responsible for that region for about 75 years, you know. So just please don't forget we're here prior to all this. But thank you for the opportunity to come meet everybody. Thank you. So what is unique is that on Route 25, though, when when Narvac is responding, when Manorill's writing that part of the reason why we're here is because of the fire department. Yeah, I mean, the reason for this discussion is that you guys are actually coming into Waiting River Fire District to then go back south, you know, into the complex, which which then goes back into the Manorill Fire District. And that was one of the discussion was that if you're entering another fire, you know, you're coming lights and sirens in somebody else's fire district. So to at least have this discussion here and that I mean, obviously it's been the way it's been for years. But to have that open comment period towards I want I want the Waiting River Fire Commissioners to know that they've got no different agencies with lights on. It's the only way you can get in. And I think that's a really good point. I think that's a really good point. I think that's a really good point. I think that's a really good point. Because if you're in a space that has a lot of space, there might be a lot of space coming through waiting river fire district and as well as the um scott's point as well so yeah we you know no there's not yeah we we can we can come in off a river road there's a back entrance there but the problem is we have not into scott's point that's not on the scott's point and not into the ice rink because you'd have to go up on the runway yeah but like you know switching this we it doesn't change the response for any of the other people that are there the tax paying citizens that wait for an ambulance because there's no other road in you know changing the lines you're not going to be able to change them that much to protect the entire like we i don't know how if you guys know how far we actually cover but we cover from the back of the cavern all the way to the long island expressway we have to get on the long island expressway i don't know if you guys know this we have to go to exit 69 on the expressway to cover the other part of our district so this is a bigger issue than just these two uh specific um location you know we have to actually get on the expressway and we have to go to exit 69 on the expressway and we have to go to the long island expressway drive through maderville ambulance district to get to our other part of our district and that's still you know a 13 minute drive you know so it again i want to i want to focus on the lake you're going to have hundreds of hundreds of people in that lake on a regular basis on a daily basis at scott's point that i want to know who's going to get there the fastest well they're they're the medical personnel on the medical personnel on scene if they're going to have that many people there they clearly have to have a plan in place and they're going to have to have a plan in place and they're going to have to have a plan in place in place and they're going to have to have a plan in place and then we're going to be an emergency and then we're going to be an emergency backup so when they have an issue they're going to backup so when they have an issue they're going to call us and we're going to show up and take the call us and we're going to show up and take the people to the hospital otherwise just like people to the hospital otherwise just like splish flesh has they have a whole first aid splish flesh has they have a whole first aid station there for all the people that they station there for all the people that they have so i would imagine this place has a they do. For some sort of caring for their own customers that way. So we need to make sure that that's in place. I spoke with their manager. I've been there twice for calls. Both times there was two EMTs employed there off-site treating the patient before we got there. Yeah, I mean we go to, you know, Splish Splash multiple times a weekend. A day. A day during the weekend. So, you know, we have the capability of handling multiple calls, you know, and I'm not criticizing any of the fire districts here, but most fire districts only have one, two ambulances and can adequately staff one ambulance with their paid staff. You know, we can staff four calls at this time. So, you know, we are completely open to starting an agreement between the two to get a first responder car going right away to a beat there. But, you know, with the stuff that we've been looking into and, you know, we get the call immediately. And I don't know if you guys know all this, but we get the call immediately. from the police dispatcher. Wading River gets it from FREZ, right? So by the time we're already activated and already on the road, Wading River still hasn't been activated yet. And that's not going to change unless we use the same dispatcher, which is not going to happen, but we've already tried that. So there's still going to be a two-minute, three-minute delay in dispatch. It's just inevitable. So while we're already on the road, it makes up for that little bit of time going through four or five more traffic lights. So, you know, we've done the research on this long before. You know, we've had multiple calls there. We have had the the stats to look back and, you know, I'm more concerned about the center of EPCAL than these two places because the response times are well within the county standards for response. Wading River. What do we have? I'll go first. You know, it puts us in a real odd spot with our neighboring districts, you know, Manorville and Auerbach. And this is just casual gentleman conversation. This is not like, you know. You know, so, you know, the bottom line is these guys are fighting for their territory and here we are as Wading River just sitting here. We're at the table and as I agree with Auerbach, if their response times are six, seven minutes, yeah, that's well within the county standards. And I agree with the ambiguities. There's nobody beating us to this area even with your three four minute head start. But like I said I don't want to sit here and start bantering back and forth who can get there the fastest or not. I think just putting things on the side where we have the population to support the volunteers, we have paid staff. We might not have four ambulances counting you know Stony Brook but we have two and we're getting ready to buy a third. You know we run 24-hour medics that stay right at our station too. You know bunk rooms are in there and everything. Greg what was your call volume last year? We do about 1400. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we we have 24 hours we have a medic and then 12 hours a day from 7 to 7 we have a second medic and then also we have from 7 to 7 a EMT slash driver. That's paid. You know my thing is is you know EpiCal or the center of EpiCal what they're talking about but we're here really to talk about the Scotts Point and
Yeah. And the ice rink. You know my whole thought here and I'll just throw it out there is that I think that if anything is solely coming off of 25 as the only entrance and exit you know it really makes sense for Waiting River to to be responding there. You know yeah of course you know RVAC can drive through our district to get I mean I wouldn't I wouldn't expect them to go down the expressway or the expressway or the expressway. Really if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if you just if You know, it's, we're at a four or five minute response time too, you know, so that's really, that's up to you guys or whatever we sit down as districts and, you know, put egos aside and all that and actually say, you know, what is the best thing for if somebody is in need of any of our services. You know, I just want to point out that, you know, there's also one other piece of property for us that would make sense for you guys to talk about is the one or two blocks in Calvington Meadows East. You know, we have the first block in Arvac and Riverhead Fire District have the next two blocks and, you know, once again, the only way to get there is through Wading River. You know, I know many years back in the 80s, there were some, the lines were redrawn on our west side with the Rocky Point Fire District. So, just to the west of William Floyd, you have two roads, Black, Huck Finn and Blackfoot. How the lines were drawn then, there was a second part of development added in the back, which fell under our lines, but in reality, it didn't make sense for us to have to drive into, you know, Rocky Point and, you know, things were changed. So, you know, we're here just to listen. We got nothing else to bring to the table other than, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, to get to these properties, you're coming into our district. So wherever this goes, we're willing to do whatever and open ears and, you know, try and come up with solutions. That's only because these lines were drawn prior to any development. So, you know, in terms of, you know, you were looking at large lots of essentially grasslands, you know, of the Yaukose. So as they begin to develop and as we do things, that's why. And again, this is not a hardship conversation between anything. Every single person here is appreciated. I just want to truly be able to have your commitment to tell us that I'm the one. I'm the person that's going to be there the fastest. And so if there's an urgent matter and somebody's unconscious and coming out of the water, you know, who's getting there the fastest? And that's really the answer. And I think that agency should be the one responding on a regular basis. Craig, you were on. You were on. I would just like to, if I can just point one other thing out. I think the chief mentioned it about your dispatch from Riverhead PD. I know I can tell you for years, excuse me, us in Waiting River have had multiple conversations with the chief of police. And what they also do a lot is, and I don't know if it's changed, but they'll dispatch the area car first to see if it's actually, if it's actually an emergency they think. So when it comes to, you know, dispatching and yeah, you guys are on right on the same channel as a dispatcher. I, you know, that could be debated back and forth too, if you actually look at numbers. We're going to have a dedicated dispatcher just for that. That is awesome. Yeah, we, I actually just brought this up to Ken Rothwell last night and he promised me a meeting with the chief and himself this week or next week. So that's, that's going to be taken care of. And, you know, as per our contract that we just signed with the new town board here, you know, they're, they have to dedicate a dispatcher to us. You know, they're having problems. I know finding people off the civil service list right now. Volume warrants. Yeah. It's a no brainer. It has to be done. So I know that's being worked on. And I just want to confirm, we, we do not have an issue. As I told Ken Rothwell last night of doing some sort of agreement until we can figure out, I mean, listen, district lines are not going to change overnight. Right. And there's obviously a problem now. I've talked to the chief. I've talked to some of the board members. We don't have an issue right now today, having you dispatched with us. And if you guys are there first, cancel us. We don't have an issue with that, but you know, we're not prepared right now to talk about district lines and all that stuff. And that's going to be a year process. So we do not have an issue with it. Or, you know, all we can do is back you guys up. And, and, you know, we always have people on staff, you know, you may need a paramedic or someone, you know, we have that stuff. We have the narcotic. We have all that. So, so I don't think there's an issue right now coming up to, with an agreement to get somebody there, you know, as the Manorville commissioner said, you know, we've already been working with them and we've been taking their members as auxiliary members to our department so they can get the training. Cause at some point they want to start a first response at it with one of their engines. So, you know, we're, we've already been in the process of this long before because we have other areas in the district that we can't get to fast enough. So. We're open to it. There's no egos here at all. We're just, you know, we're just not prepared to talk about moving our district lines that we're, you know, we haven't done any research on it. This is, this came out of nowhere to us. So, um, I think, you know, we have no issue having some sort of agreement today to start dispatching you guys. And then my understanding is we all have mutual aid agreements. I mean, you know, mutually aid each other anyway. Um, so that shouldn't be an issue. You know, the one thing that, like I said, I want to remind everyone in, in the event that we're building there. We are supposed to be afforded the opportunity to review the plans, have our expert make some recommendations if necessary. Chief, in both respects, your chief has been on scene and our, our fire. No, I know that. But, but we didn't receive the plans until it was built. That's that's backwards. We were supposed to get them in the front. Even that's why when it was five star or whoever is, they would have to pay our expert to review it. So, you know, we're supposed to know what's happening in the lead up and decide what is the best course. Um, so, you know, just please be reminded we're involved and, and, uh, you know, we're looking for a CFR program. We're looking, our members are taking it upon themselves to get trained as the empties, so we're affording them the opportunity to do that, to act as that they'll be on our trucks and they're out there. So this is about better than two years in the making at this point, I guess, just to get this thing off the ground. Um, you know, there was nobody asked. We just got together and put it together and wanted to start moving in that direction because it makes sense. As we all know, membership is always an issue and I'm sure that your ambulance, uh, guys could pick up three or four or five members that would just jump in and help out. They would like it. So it was mutually beneficial. Have no problem with it. The municipal agreements. It makes sense for our residents, your residents, everybody. So once again, but thank you for your efforts. Gary, just thinking in the whole scope of, of Riverhead, uh, bar back is Flanders operational or going to be operational or I had heard that at some point. Time maybe they weren't going to be and you might have to kind of cover that area too on a regular basis or yeah, there now I spoke with, um, um, the supervisor over at the South Hifton town planners and they got some issues going on internally, but it has nothing to do with their operations. So as far as anyone is concerned over there, Flanders is solvent. And then, okay, well, my concern was if you had to take that over now, you're really spreading yourself thin and it might be a better idea to say, let's turn over to waiting river because now we're covering over. There. Yeah. To, but that's why I asked that question. I just wasn't sure I heard rumblings. Yeah. I think everybody's heard those from. Yeah. So, yeah. But right now there's no validity to those. Good. I'm glad to hear that because I would hate to see that go under for them. Yeah, I really would. Okay. Fire marshals. Any comments? Well, I, I think really good. Garrett was talking about
to come that close because they've changed the, uh, it's now on the directional. Not so you should be okay. Well, Garrett was speaking to before. I think if we did some type of an automatic mutual aid between riverhead ambulance and waiting river, whoever gets there first could either cancel or they could work together and then, you know, decide who's transporting and so on in this way. No, excuse me. Patient care comes first. Absolutely. That's gotta be the bottom line. Who's, who's gonna be able to serve fastest for the patient. And then, you know, as time goes on, you can work out the bigger question of whether we need to shift district lines or not. Right. Okay. Tell board members, you know. Well, I think it's great. Very productive. You guys are amazing today. You know, really all of you. So thank you. Would everybody be careful? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. dual response? Yeah, we'll come up with a plan. Yeah, I mean, that could be implemented tomorrow. I mean, it's not, it's just calling Riverhead Police Department saying, hey, any call in this location, you're, you're, you know, you're turning out both departments. The mutual aid agreements are already existing. We don't have to remake the wheel. What we have to do is tell Riverhead Police, hey, at this location and this location and our chief can send a notice to FREZ and saying at these two locations in our district, you will automatic mutual aid. Whoever gets there first will take it. And I believe Windy River's billing now too. So, you know, they'll be able to collect whatever income from those billings if they take the call. So it should work out. So it's interesting you just said that because we're on duty assumption that any mutual aid calls we go on that state law does not allow us to bill. For us, we can bill anywhere we go. Yeah, I don't know about the fire district. So, you guys might have to buy us a few extra dinners somewhere. But for us, if we're mutual aided in as a fire district, we can't bill a mutual aid resident. Okay. Well, we may, you know, between us, we can talk about that and maybe there can be some reimbursement or something in the future. So we can discuss that amongst ourselves. Well, I appreciate everybody coming to the table. I think this was a great conversation to have. I also want to say we are blessed in this community to have the best EMS, the best fire, and the best police services available for our money. We are very, very lucky and we thank you for all the work that you do and all the volunteer time that's put in. It's just another thing that it's another stake saying, hey, Riverhead's on top of things. So thank you for all that you do. We appreciate it. Don't get up because you're part of the next discussion briefly. So don't run away yet. But I follow up with the supervisor's comments as well. I mean, I appreciate everybody coming here and this was not about fire lines, not about moving money or this. It's just going to bed at night. We've got two incredible projects that are new up on Route 25. I think the entire board is super proud of both of them. And we just want to go to bed at night knowing that we've done everything we can to ensure the safety and the fastest response. Thank you. And so that's all. And I appreciate you guys just having a discussion about that. And I know I'm certain that you guys will continue to talk and address it with each other. But that's really what we want to achieve today is to open up the dialogue. So thank you for participating. Okay. All right. Our second matter is matters surrounding discussion regarding possible incentives aimed at bolstering volunteer first responders. And again, Ken? So two things and also Councilman Kern wanted to bring this up as well. But two things we just briefly wanted to touch on is one, LOSAP wanted to make sure that our departments, you know, the four departments are, you know, everyone within our town is equal in getting their LOSAP points and the pay and things like that. And where we at with everybody and the town, we want to basically open up our arms and say, what can we do to, you know, to help to make sure that we're there and that we're doing our part as a town. And also we got notification from the state of New York. We wanted to really ask for you guys are the leaders in this. Really fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist are we in fact helping anybody within that age range? But if you sat here and be like, no, it's really important. We need the town to do this. So we really wanted to get your feedback towards what you think is beneficial to reduce from that five to two and are in fact, are we doing everything we can or simply just a simple question, is the town of Riverhead doing everything we can to bolster the volunteerism? We're here to help. So Riverhead Ambulance is the only municipality or agency that does not have LOSAP. We are unable to have LOSAP unless the town board nominates us for it because you're the municipality. We are not. So you will have to back that up. But we are currently, we give our members nothing. They get a dollar a call right now. That's it. They get nothing. They barely have enough money. We don't have enough money to give them a life insurance policy for when they die. So, you know, we don't fund their funerals like all the fire districts do. There's no payout at the end of their term. And going back to, you know, we were meaning to call you actually about this because we also heard that with this new legislation, the possibility that I know like if you've had a certain amount of years in, you get life of that benefit of getting the money off your thing. And I believe they're taking that away. So unless the municipality, they agree to it. So I, you know, I'm not too versed in this, but I know this just came about and Keith Lewin had a ton of questions for you about it because there were some things that you guys had to vote on as a board. So I am a little unprepared to answer a lot of those. But I know there's, we have a lot of questions about it. Well, I think answering your question, moving it from five years to two years would be beneficial because you're not getting the 18-year-old members anymore. Brand new members. You're getting. The people who are older in life. I'm sorry. The people who are already older in life and somewhat established before they can find the time to actually come out and volunteer. When you're 18 years old, you either have no inclination to volunteer or you're working multiple jobs and you don't have the time. So the older members that are coming in, it would be much more beneficial for them to move it from the five years to the two years. So ARVAC sees older members coming in? Yes. Does Manable and Weyden River see that? We have. We have a number of members. We have a number of members. We have a number of members. We have a number of members. We have a number of members. This is a hot topic with us in Weyden River right now. Our attorneys, you know, when it came down from the state, we had like two years to act on it. I still think there's probably another year where it officially has to be brought up. Our attorney brought it to us and said, hey, you know, let's just act on this now to get in a book. So we went and approved, you know, kept it at the five year. And right about the time that we had that on our meeting agenda was the, you know, the big topic and everybody talking about it. So we had, let's say what, about six, eight members come down to our meeting. We had a really good discussion about things. And it was all still kind of new to us. So what we did is we kept it at five years. But at the same time, we said that we'll revisit it as we're learning a little bit more about the five years to the two year. If it was reduced to two, does it have an impact to your membership? Are there going to be, and I'm just curious, are you talking about two, five, 20, 30? Like what is, how many, what's the impact? So the whole thing is, is we're, it's just focusing on the people that are there from two years to five years. For us, we had 18 year olds, 20 year olds, retired, you know, 40, 50, 60 year olds that would all fall into that. I think for us, it's probably maybe eight, maybe eight or nine members total that it would help them. How many members do you have in the fire department? We're about 60, 65. What about you, Manitou? We're approximately 100 members. They vest for the LOSAP at five years, $30 for every year of service. We're about $30, $30 for every year of service for up to 40 years. They cannot collect until age of 62. I know we did sign that latest agreement from the state, but that was also that everybody had to sign to continue, including the school districts for the 10% tax abatement. So I know we did sign that. I'm not sure if it was for two. We may have left it at five at the time. Which is what we did. It was very early on. Do you think it would affect you or bolster in any way by going down to two? Right. We have a very good feeder program. We have a pretty good feeder program from the junior. So we do pick them up at 17, 18, 19. We have kids in college that can actually keep their numbers up pretty good all the time. They spend it home. And then we also get those 30 and 40 year olds that own a home that somehow have found the time to join. So we have a good mix. It wouldn't hurt. And for the handful of people it would affect, it's a nice carrot on a stick just to something. I don't think that's the deciding factor, but I think it definitely sweetens things. I just want to point out too, I believe there was discussion at Riverhead School District about this topic at their last meeting. And I believe they're getting ready to drop from the five years to the two years and take that on also. So we started talking about it like it's brand new for us. And us in Waiting River, I think that we're probably going to change it to two years because we can see some of our members as a benefit. If it's just six, seven, or eight of them, it's still a benefit. Yeah, we have low SACP and there's really not much more we can offer other than t-shirts and jackets and winter hats and spring hats. But I'm along with these guys. Anything is going to help us. That was like where Councilman Kern and I were having a conversation and we were wondering, like, are the new members coming in, are they 18 and 19? And if they're not, potential homeowners during that first two years, three years, five years of their career in a volunteer farm, by doing something like this, is it helpful? I mean, we can say, oh, it doesn't affect anybody. We're going to pass it. It doesn't have an effect. But that's not what we're looking for. We're looking to see what we can do to actually help volunteers. It would help us in Waiting River with a handful of members. Because like I said, we have brought in the new members. We have brought in the young. And we have brought in some older mentors, you know, retired police officers now are joining because, you know, they're seeing it's much cooler to be a firefighter in EMT. Oh, boy. That was said by Greg Brown, Waiting River Fire Commissioner to all my fellow sisters and brothers in blue. Just joking. Just joking. We're all having fun. I know. I know. And we have one then, yes, once again. It would benefit us because we're in a little different thing. A lot of our members aren't necessarily Riverhead residents. They're Brookhaven Town, South Old Town. So we allow anybody to join. So we have people from Brentwood. We have people from all over Suffolk County and Nassau County. So the burnout rate in an ambulance that does as many calls as we do is high. So a lot of our members will never see the benefit of the five-year. So we function on the kids coming out of high school, getting ready to go to college. We get them for three years and then they're gone. But we can only offer it for the Riverhead. Yeah. Obviously our property. Yeah. So whoever else has it, like, you know, honestly, the Brookhaven, South Hampton Town, they're very good. They allow our members to collect that benefit in other townships. Well, we want you to say that we're very good. Yeah. That's why we're here. Well, we're here. Yeah. That's why we're here. Yeah. We're here. Well, to me, it's a no-brainer to go from five to two. And for the services that we receive, it's money very well spent. I mean, I, and what it's actually going to cost the average taxpayer is minuscule compared to the services that we get. So to me, I have no problem going down to two for all involved. Yeah, me either. I just have one question. You said something like Brookhaven has members and they're RBAC from other towns, and they're getting, what benefit do they get? You said you mentioned that. You get the same tax relief that you would in another town. So, like, I live in Center Reach. I think Bob might be, they're paid, Bob. So they're paid employees. Who? The people that come from other towns. No, no, no, no, no, no. Are you saying the others just come and stay and volunteer? Other townships will honor the volunteerism in a different town. Right. And they'll give you a tax break in that town. Yeah, there's one town that doesn't, I don't remember, that doesn't do it. But most of the town, the five towns around us here honor it. So people that live in Southwell, they're getting the tax break for being a volunteer. So it's a new to me. So there's a lot of people from Brookhaven that come there and don't get paid and just volunteer. Where is the agency they like to go on? We're completely volunteer from 6 p.m. to midnight. We're completely volunteer right now. So that's, you know, and we have people that come all over the county, Nassau County. We, you know, we usually come from Nassau. What's your membership number? About? We have 124. Okay, cool. Active, those are like people going on hold. Right. And we have more that are, you know, active. Life members. Life members, right. The Keith Lowens. Yeah, yeah. So another question. So you're saying you don't have LOSAP in Riverhead, correct? Right. We don't, and that's the biggest downfall to us right now because the members who do 10 years, like I'm a 10-year member. I really don't have any incentive to stay. Okay, so I want to further that question with, does Brookhaven, must have LOSAP if people are getting these benefits? I believe all Brookhaven, Islip, all those towns, all supply. Okay, so we need to address that. Is it just because you're a town agency? No, no, because they are as well. Yeah. So all the other ambulance corps in Suffolk County. All have LOSAP. You have to be a municipality to sign up for the LOSAP program. Riverhead Ambulance is not a municipality. Riverhead Ambulance District is. So the town board has to say, okay, we're going to guarantee, because you still have to pay. If Riverhead Ambulance becomes no more, you still have to guarantee all the benefits to the people that are retired. That's a sponsorship. You guys would have to sponsor the LOSAP program. And guarantee that you're going to fund it for life. Or for whatever the end person is, so. Manable. I do. We have volunteers from Manable Fire Department, right? I'm not a volunteer. I'm Mr. Jason Orrick. I'm actually one of the commissioners. Any incentive program as you have three agencies here? You might need to go to the mic. Go to the mic over here at the podium, please. People at home need to hear you. Sorry. Oh, okay. You're a celebrity now. I'm a big celebrity. All right, again, I'm Jason Orrick. I'm one of the commissioners for Manable. And you have three different agencies here. You know, you have us at Manable Fire District. You have Manable Ambulance. You have Wade and River here. And I'm sure they all can agree. Manable Fire District is a big thing of getting members, right? There's a big revolving turning door. Any incentive that you can put into place to hold the members is always beneficial. Giving a dollar per call, moving the LOSAP from five to two years. And that probably would hold more members or get more members, attract more members to come to join the departments. I know in Manable, we were just, I was just talking to another commissioner sitting next to me, Charlie. We have young guys that move to Manable that own homes. And they're not getting a tax break. And can't receive that tax break because of the five years. They do get a tax break that as soon as you become a member, there's some type of $250 that you get as you become a member for the first five years before the LOSAP kicks in. But, you know, we all do a great job. We're here to service the community. You know, as far as you see Manable, we have Wade and River here. You know, we all look to work together on things like this, on these situations like this. And, you know, we do appreciate that you held this. And I appreciate that you did. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. get us here to talk and discuss about this. And things like this should be done more often because, like, you know, Ken was explaining, you had things that were being billed in our district that we never got plans on. And then we get hit, well, this is getting billed. Then we get hit that, you know, this district is reporting to calls there, but it's our district and we're not getting it. And then we go down and we speak to these gentlemen and they go, well, we don't even know who you are because we weren't told. And that's a problem that's an issue in itself. Communication is a big key, right? So we're here now, we're discussing this, and hopefully from now on we can move on and have more discussions like this because you have, like I said, three different agencies here protecting Riverhead. And I understand your concerns and everyone else's concerns also. But I appreciate you having us here and having us, and hopefully we can move along and have other discussions on this. I just wanted to make one comment. Is that, look, this went off. Don't worry. They don't want to hear you. They don't want to hear you. So I just do want to make one comment, is that the reason we have these three agencies was specifically because we were discussing, you know, the parcels that encompass you. So I also want Riverhead Fire Department to absolutely know that we're open here and I'll reach out to Commissioner Ed Carey to make sure I get his insight on what he feels. I don't want to feel left out. Just because we had three departments here, we just said, why not just ask the question why you guys are in the room. But by all means, Riverhead Fire Department, it is equally important to us and we want to hear from them and get their insight and we want to do anything we can to bolster their volunteers as well. So I just don't want to feel like I'm leaving. You're getting ahead of me and then I got to say the same thing? No, correct. We want to make sure that Riverhead is here. And then exactly the same thing. And so we want Riverhead to reach out and then we'll reach out to Janesport volunteers. Just because the three of you were in the room to discuss this one project, you know, our four fire departments in Auerbach, all equally important, Janesport, Riverhead, Manitoba, Weyand River. So Auerbach. But just because you were here, we just decided to ask that question. I just don't want Janesport, Riverhead to feel left out. That's all. Correct. And I just want to address about the situation where you haven't received plans and what's coming up. That's on us. We will correct that immediately and we will make sure that anything that involves any agency. We ran into this a couple of years ago with Riverhead in particular. And I just assumed that, and I shouldn't have assumed, but that everybody was getting the same information, but we will take care of that. That's an easy fix. No, I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Well, you know, there's five of us on the board. We're pretty much active. Kenny's active. You know, he works for a school board also. I work for a school board also. You have Charlie. Charlie's a cop for Southampton. So we're pretty much all active. We have Billy in the back. He also works for Riverhead School District. So we're all pretty much active. And, you know, we like to keep informed with everything to let our members know, because at the end of the day, the biggest key is safety, right? So safety to our members. We don't want our members to go in a taxi or fire. And we don't know what the structure is. Absolutely. And someone goes and gets hurt, because at the end of the day, who's responsible and liable is going to be Riverhead. Or Worship. What's in that structure? Correct. What are they going to build there? What are they going to manufacture? Correct. So that's a big concern. You know, we're here to save lives, but we're also here to protect our own also. Right. Understood. And we'll open up the ice rink to you guys at any time on any availability. You know, all three inches. Anytime you guys want to do a tour, just let us know. We'll take you up there. We'll explain. The ice rink is not going to collapse. When the door opens, Garrett. But there is a time frame that you do. We don't want to keep the doors open for longer than 10 minutes. It does put a little, you know, test on the durability of the structure. And so it puts stress on it, I guess. But it's not going to collapse, Garrett. Don't worry. But, you know, we want to make sure that you guys know what's around there. And, you know, I think one of your chiefs had concern what was stored on site and things like that. And they're all environmentally safe, like old things like that. It's all good. But you're welcome anytime. And I'll coordinate that. Just reach out to me and say, want to take the whole department? I'll go in there and we should get you on skates too. I just say one thing, Garrett. I'm not going to speak for the rest of the board, but I'm really interested on what the other towns are doing with LOSAP, right? And I would really like to follow up, like ASAP on this and get a better understanding of what we need to do. I mean, it's very, very clear to me. I know you guys are answering like 5,000 calls a year. And the service you're doing to this community is extremely important. And, but, sooner is better. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all for coming in. We appreciate it. And I agree. Let's do this again sometime soon. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, Pat. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, we'll see you around. Thank you. Thank you very much. We'll just come down the runway, right? Because it is an open. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Yes. Yes. All right.
Thank you.
Right in the middle. Now we have to change some blown out speakers. So let's see if this works. And we can adjust it. Yes. They're here, Rich. Come to the table. Can I speak from up here? Because I can use the PowerPoint for a little bit. Then I'll join you.
Okay, we're going to move on to item number one. Item number three. Item number three is matters surrounding possible demolition of LIPA-owned structure located at 1129 West Main Street, Riverhead. Richard, I would ask you to come up. Can I stay here for a few minutes? You've got a PowerPoint, I understand. George, would you like to come up? I know George has been I've been in contact over the years with George about this property. So we want to get as informed as we can. Thank you, Tim. I thought it might be useful just to take a couple of minutes to show you some pictures and talk about the significance of the property. I think you all know what it is. This is a Perkins Generating plant on West Main Street. If you need to refresh around the location, it's right by the bend in West Main Street. Shows up a little bit better here in the satellite image. It's right across the street from Snow Lake. Now everybody knows. That's the landmark, right? But everybody knows. I can tell you I've been by it many times and not even noticed it. It's kind of overgrown, you don't see it. But George has done a good job in bringing it to our attention. It turns out to be something that's really quite significant in Riverhead's history. So I want to just tell you a little bit about that and then we'll talk about what happens next. The story is the story goes back to a guy named John Perkins who came from Bath, England ended up in Riverhead in 1828 bought a couple of old mills on the Peconic River right there and set up a woolen mill. His first mill burned down and he replaced it with the one you see in this picture in 1859. It became locally famous. Here's an advertisement from the Sag Harbor Express in 1863. You can see Perkins gray mixed cloth, also red, white, and blue, and wool flannels. He was known for his flannel cloth. He was known for producing waterproof kinds of cloth that was could be used in the Navy, it was used during the Civil War, it was favored by mariners. This was by far the biggest industry in Riverhead for many years. The Perkins family went on to John's sons John R. and J. Henry, became leaders in Riverhead. One of Tim's predecessors was a supervisor, town treasurer during the Civil War, financing all the town efforts during that and so forth. They also branched out and ran a clothing store, which is originally in the old courthouse. When that burned down, this building, you probably don't know the name, but it's called the Perkins and Benjamin building because the Perkins store was there in the middle. I even bought my first suit in the Perkins store. The family was also significant in many other ways, so much so that when Riverhead built their beautiful new hotel in 1929, they named it after J. Henry Perkins. The dances that were held there back in the day and the galas and the functions were incredible. I've seen pictures of it. I mean, I wasn't there, but I've seen pictures and talked to your relatives. My parents' wedding reception was there. When the Suffolk County Historical Society needed a new location, it was the Perkins family who donated the building. And then John Perkins' daughters when the library needed a new facility. When they died, they donated that property, deeded it to the library. One surviving building. Was the Historical Society built or was it already there? No, they donated, the Perkins family donated the property for the Historical Society. So it's been the Historical Society forever. Right. And then the historical society used to be in a smaller building that had been built in the corner of Griffin Avenue. So that happened in the 1920s. And of course the library, that again is a result of the Perkins family donation. And the one surviving, they had a huge mansion there, but their carriage house still survives. It's a little yellow barn that you can see behind. So just a little bit of history. And then, so they were running this mill using water power. And in 1887, Edison had just started the whole idea of generating electricity in New York about 10 years before. And the Perkins brothers decided what they could do is they weren't using their water power at night because the mill wasn't operating. So they could use it to put in a generator and provide electricity. And originally it was going to power a few street lights in downtown Riverhead because things were kind of dark. So what they did was they installed a generator. They actually ended up in competition because the Hallett family, which had a mill downtown, did the same thing. And the two companies both ran lines all around downtown Riverhead. You could choose which company you wanted to have electricity from. You got alternating... Can you imagine? And you got alternating current from the Hallett company. You got direct current, which is Edison's thing, from the Perkins company. So you had two different systems. Let me test your knowledge. The first house to receive electricity was on Griffin Avenue. Supposedly the Hallett house, right? Oh, so it was from the Hallett. I was going to ask you which company it served. Right, right. It's right next to the house that the town owns. And it's still a beautiful house, by the way. It is. The... So the two companies competed for a while. And while they were competing, the Perkins brothers decided they needed more power when the plant wasn't operating, when there wasn't enough water in the river, or they got more customers and so forth. So what they ended up doing is building a building, and that's the building we're looking at now, to put in a steam engine and a much more powerful 150 horsepower engine so they could provide electricity. I mean, demand was booming. In the past, the problem was when the water power petered out, electricity petered out, which wasn't a good situation. In 1911, I believe it was, or 12, the two companies merged and became the electric generating the energy and they ended up using the Westinghouse system, which is what everyone uses now. And you can see the plant on this 1909 map, and you can see the factory was still there, by the way. The Woolen factory stopped operating around 1902, I think. And then in 1922, they sold the company to the Long Island Lighting Company, which then connected Riverhead to the Lilco grid. And at that point, they were using this to generate electricity, although it became a facility that LIPA used, LICO then, sorry. They used the mill for their offices, actually, for a while until they burned down in 1914, 1944. And they apparently used this building for logistics and things like that. This is a picture, I believe, from the 1930s. You can see the generating building in the front. The smokestack had already been torn down. There had been a tall smokestack there. Next to it is probably the two buildings there were where the actual generators were, because that was over the water power. And in the distance, you can still see the Perkins Woolen Mill in that picture. So, anyway, that brings us to where we are today. Just a quick history lesson. Just wanted to show you a couple more pictures here. You can see what we're facing now is the building obviously is not in great shape. It has a lot of historic significance. It's in immediate need. There could be a cleanup and stabilization. Especially, I mean, the roof, the stuff up on the roof that needs to come off, you can see. But we really need to be thinking about it's a great historic resource for the town. What could it be used for? And there's already, of course, the boat launching site that the DEC launches. This is right on the property, which includes the dam. The road goes across the dam. It's right there on the river. I know it's been town's goal to acquire as much riverfront property as they can. But the kinds of things, it seems like it's appropriate for some river-related use. It could be a recreational use. It could be environmental education of some sort. Certainly it needs some historic interpretation, some signage. We don't know what the ultimate use is, but it seems like we should be reaching out to organizations, especially things like maybe the aquarium, or maybe the science center, or maybe some of the environmental groups that are around. This could be a facility with assistance from LIPA that could be put to really excellent public use and at the same time could provide some interpretation of this really important part of Riverhead's history. I've had conversations with the Gardner Foundation and they would be very interested in helping fund something like that. So, as I said, we're brainstorming now. Hopefully all of you will help in this process, but our goal is to what could be done with this? How can LIPA help? What can the town do? What should we do? How do we find financing? But it seems like something that is definitely worth preserving and worth keeping for the future. I think that's an important part of Riverhead's history. I have to say, Richard, I could listen to you all day long. Every time you speak, I learn something and it's just more about our wonderful town. I really appreciate it. I don't want to put you to bed. I've got to play the bad guy now. Fair enough. PSEG owns the property. Owns the building, obviously. They have it slated for demolition next month. So, what we need, obviously, the biggest thing comes in is going to be financial assistance. The town does not have money to buy this property or preserve this property or put money into it. The Gardner Foundation was an interesting piece that I wasn't aware of. So, they have sent their engineers to look at the building and they say it's in a state of disrepair and a redirection and they're going to have to do something about it. The building is unsafe, posing a risk and liability to PSEG Long Island, LIPA and the larger Riverhead community. The demolition of the building mitigates any risk for unauthorized access, trespass and or encroachment on the property by third parties. Demolition is scheduled to begin in early February 2024. And they have no plans to replace the building. It said they'll clean up the corner of the property and the construction is planned. So, that's where we're at. We did, I will note, we did invite somebody from PSEG to be here today. They were unable to make it. So, in lieu of that, we kind of have to play the PSEG role and say this is what they're saying. It's not what we're saying as a board, I want to make that clear, but this is what they're saying and that's their plans for the property. So it's kind of imminent if they're going to do it. And I think that's what we're going to do. And I think that's what we're going to do in February for demolition. So we need to put our thinking hats on and figure out what or if anything can be done here to preserve it or whether it's just going to be a sad piece of history that leaves us. Can I say one thing? Because I've been working with George and Richard for the last couple of months, actually maybe longer on this. And I just want you, both of you to know, and your committee didn't know, that they were planning to demolish it. The one thing they were clear about, because they did clean up around it, and they were very, very clear that the roof was totally unsafe. Also, I've made it very clear to both of you that they own the property and there was no way they were going to donate any of the property because if they wanted to expand their substation, they would then be looking for property. So, and you know, I do know with the Gardner Foundation, it's a 50% match. And I agree with Tim. I mean, we have so many projects going on in the town. I don't know, I wouldn't ask Tim to find the money because we don't know where to look anymore. I would also like to say that when we met the other day along with Denise Merrifield, I know that I received this yesterday. I don't know if you received it earlier, but I did not know about this when I met with you. I would have had the courtesy to let you know that at the time. So, I'm sorry. Joanne, speaking of, this is on the agenda for the Landmarks Preservation Commission on Monday. And we were not aware of that. We just received this ourselves yesterday, I believe. We knew about it, but we had been asking about it and we just finally received it. And I'd just like to say that it was a wonderful presentation that I sat in on on Monday and I know there could be something wonderful done to it. And I just find it very disingenuous of PSE&G to sit here and say the building's in disrepair, the property's in disrepair, well that's due to their own neglect. They own that property and they didn't do anything to help maintain it in any way. So I find it very disingenuous of them to say because it's in this state now we have to tear it down. When they cause that, I don't know if there's any litigation that could be instituted as a result of that, if they're the ones that brought about the neglect of that structure. I don't know. The thing is Denise... They put it in that situation. The building was on a piece of property that they own. And they did use it, as Richard has said, at one point, it was Long Island Lighting Company that used it. They abandoned it, they put a substation in it. I would not suggest on myself to go after that. They've been very, very good about working with us and trying to see if that building was eligible. They were not, no, we're not doing it. You're absolutely correct. I'm sorry, I did not know. Like I said, we met them Monday for the first time. I understand, but I just want you to know they've been really amenable. I've been on this for, God knows, at least about four months, maybe longer, back and forth. And they've been really working with us a lot. This is their determination at this point. And to the point that you made earlier, that the electric company had to expand and we're facing that now as well. And they are a provider of electricity. And they own that land. And I have to respect their rights to that land. Now with their permission, we had our engineer crew go down and take a look at the property and I would like to hear from you gentlemen. So we went down on Tuesday. Weren't able to get inside. The outside, they took a full tour around the outside and really the only things that we could find wrong were some surficial cracking on the front of the building. Nothing that some minor repair couldn't take care of. And of course the roof. And then there was a just like a structure in the back of the building. Maybe a machine room. Again, we couldn't get in. That was for a water tank. Water tank? Okay. That building either needs to come down or needs repair because the bricks are all all needs pointing or replacement. Looks like that was added at a later date. And ironically that's the only part that's really failing. The original building was pretty sound. But the new apartment is. They are critical to historical integrity. They cut corners and use key products. They really came to the table. Right. And I noticed this building has a slate roof. And from the outside that roof looks very intact. We couldn't get in the inside to see what the roof sub-subterfuge looked like. But BSC&G and their document. Yeah, they were adamant about that. That's why they didn't go up and clean it. I mean they cleaned around the outside. And then, you know, George was adamant about getting the roof done. And I worked with them on that. And they said, you're not sending their guys to do it because it's just way too unsafe. Thank you. Which surprised me because they have bucket trucks. They can take debris off a roof without even setting foot on it. So that kind of surprised me. They may have been dealing with a storm at the time. Right. This could be between storms. I understand. In many ways I think BSC&G should be part of the solution here. They have, for instance, on Jones Beach, they have actually funded a major science center. A couple million dollars, whatever it costs there. I would think this would be an opportunity for BSC&G or for LIPA, I can never remember. Who's doing which part of this? To do something really nice out here on the East End. And there would need to be another organization that would become an operating entity to do something in that building. As I said, this is happening very quick. At the very least, I think the first thing is we should ask BSC&G to simply delay and allow Town & Riverhead to see if there are some other solutions, other possible uses here and ways of working with them. But this could be some really good public relations for the company. Probably not a huge expenditure. It's not a huge building. It's only, I think, 30 by 40 feet, George. Something like that. So it's a modest building. Because it was built to house a steam engine, it is very soundly built with thick brick walls and so forth. I haven't seen the report on the roof, but replacing the roof on a building that size, even that wouldn't be terrible. So it's a great thing for BSC&G to do. I also note that, in talking to, was it Tom? Yeah, Casio, yeah. He said, well they're always reluctant to part with property because they never know if they're going to need it for something. But they own 30 acres right across the river. On the Southampton side. And given where this is right on the river, I can't imagine they'd ever be allowed to do anything industrial there anyway. Because of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. So it could be a chance for them to do something good for the community. I don't know quite what the ownership structure would be. And then scenarios like this. But I think we need some time to explore and talk to some other organizations. Come up with a possible game plan or two for the reuse of the building. What would be a reasonable time period you would request for... Go ahead, George. No, when you're talking about the question, I'd like to jump in on that. Yeah, just a reasonable time period. What would you need to... I'm going to think something like maybe nine months. I mean, it's not an imminent danger of falling down. It's not an imminent danger of falling down. It's not a... Maybe even a year would be more reasonable to at least come up with some preliminary things. It's not something that can happen very quickly. But the building itself, as long as they keep it stabilized, as long as they keep it boarded up, it's no more danger to anybody than it has been. And so I don't see that this is a pressing matter to tear it down next month. That's something that they've surprised us with. They need to work with the town. They need goodwill from the town. Something that they could trade for that. There are definitely things they're always looking for in easements and things like that from the town. So being able to do something from the river head or do something... I don't think there's anything else on the east end that matches what they did in Jones Beach, for instance. So this is an opportunity for them, too. We will reach out to them. We will ask them and request nine months to a year. And we will certainly let you know what their answer is. Great. The one thing, first of all, on shop, when I saw this on the agenda and you telling me they're talking about knocking it down even next month, that's really kind of an incredible shock. If you go down to the basement of the Historical Society, there's a display, if you've been down there, of all the different businesses and industries that developed along the river because of the power. I mean, that was the original power for why the river had developed as it did. There's two buildings left of all the different businesses that were along the river and there's only two buildings left. That's the power station, the pump station down in Grangeville Park and this building. And they're both also rather remotely related to the water power of the river because it wasn't that efficient over time. The pump station, by the way, was the Hallett family. So they were the competing electric company. Oh, that was from the Hallett. The pump station was for the Grangeville Tower. Right, but that was the Hallett family. That wasn't it? I think you're wrong. The water company, they were all involved in it too. That was the Grangeville Tower. Right, it was the pump tower. That building downtown is ten years newer than this building by ten years. One thing that I would like you to consider, first of all, if they were to knock that building down, you have to wonder if they're going to even maintain the site any better than they've maintained it over the last 35 years. And it seems to me that it would be prudent that if they actually came to the town with a viable plan for what they were going to replace on that property, that would be one thing for them to have a reason to knock the building down. And actually, they would only have about a half acre to work on because the other half acre of the rest of the property is used for the parking space by the DEC. So they're really going to be very limited. I'm certain that they're not going to want to build anything on a half acre of property. They just want to be done with this. This is the most expedient and careless approach to dealing with a building like this. Well, you can understand if it's somewhat unsafe, they're worried about liability should somebody go in there and get hurt or injured. And I can understand that. But there is also a huge historical factor that needs to be looked at. It's actually part of the local's history. Or the C&J's history if you want to look at it. I passed out to you a small petition that I collected from people maybe a year back in October sometime. And also a letter from the town historian about the site. Great. We didn't see any evidence of anybody trying to get into the building. Other than you two. If it became an issue, other than us two. I'd love to too actually. There was prior to George had there was prior to them boarding it up and that was at the request of George. That was your work. I mean that was one Oh, did I do that? I'm giving you the credit. It had broken windows. That is a violation of the town maintenance code. So that had to be done. The windows were broken and people probably then it was a liability. Two things that are interesting and this has been mentioned a number of times and I'm kind of curious about the actual original generation of power by water. And I was told about 40 years ago We need everybody to move closer to the table that's why we're having the feedback because they have to turn the mics up. And you've got to turn the mic to the side not directly to somebody. There you go. The original building for the generation and Richard maybe we should have this discussion some other place but I think probably. It's interesting that this building was probably the original building for the generation of electricity using water power and I was told by I think it was by Elliot Young when I was working on the telescope his recollection at that time that there were two paddles that ran down through the floorboards of the building and they used water power to generate the electricity. And this is actually a picture that he gave to me that actually shows that the two I guess you would call them axles going down below the floorboards of the building and then they run to a generator. You can still see that's another part that should be interpreted as the location of the site but if you go there you can still see the old sluiceway there's two pieces of concrete and they put a different sluiceway into generated electricity from what the Wollan Mill had. The Wollan Mill is on the other end of the dam so they put a sluiceway in there and they would have used a rotary turbine like this by the 1890s to generate electricity so it would have been in that so this stuff for anyone interested in industrial archaeology would be a good idea. There are two big concrete apartments on the south side. That's the old sluiceway probably the turbine generator is probably down in there. That's another discussion the town board doesn't need to get into the weeds here if I can use the term. So thank you Tim I think we should ask them for more time. I'd be happy to meet with them. That's a very valid point. There is no imminent danger of the building collapsing what's your hurry to take it down and they're not going to use it for anything else by their own admission so let's see what we can do. With your help we'll look for an entity that would find an appropriate use there. What I'm going to suggest Tim is if it becomes a concern of the Aspaw liability ask them to fence it in if worse came to worse. They could temporarily put some type of chain-link fence around it and then they could put a chain-link fence around it. I know but I mean if you're worried about liability if they have lawyers come back you sign off on the liability. The first thing that we should do and this is my main interest in this is just cleaning up the property cleaning up the site around the area and if I could make a suggestion to you is to send somebody from code enforcement up there and I mean the engineering has already given you a report on the condition of the building and then forward a letter to PSEG really all we want to do at this point in time is just clean up the site make it presentable make it make make LIFA, PSEG proud to have a structure like that in the town of Riverhead. That would be the first thing that I think would be worth a visit. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. As always it's a pleasure and I love these educational Happy Birthday. George, is that an old post card picture? I've seen that picture before. This is, this is and this is the old sluice way and you can still see that where the water still trickles down into the Thanks, George. Enjoy the rest of your day. Okay, next up we have Dr. Richard Morgan for University of Northern Iowa University. Dr. Morgan, what's your name? I'm George, And Richard is our, the chair of our, anywhere you want, is the chair of our Senior Citizen Advisory Committee. And I used to be the liaison to that. Yes. I enjoyed it immensely, and I appreciate all the work they do for the seniors in our community. And Richard's going to talk to us about the Senior Citizen Resource Guide and Committee Affairs. So, Richard. Hello, everyone. We'll turn it over to you. Thank you for having me here today. Is that? Yep. Perfect. Okay. Go ahead. So, the Riverhead Senior Citizens Advisory Council, that's our formal name, has been working. We meet every two months, once every two months, as a group. There are nine members, nine seats on the council. Right now, we have some, have seats to fill, which we're working on right now. We'll be getting that, some names to you, hopefully. But a lot of our work has been... over the last couple of years, has been working on updating both the Town of Riverhead Senior Citizens Resource Guide, and I think everybody has copies, right? Yep. Resource Guide, which had been out before in other editions. So, this is an update. And what's called the My Aging Plan, which is referred to as MAP. So, this is the MAP, and this is the Resource Guide. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, with the updates been going on for a while, we were slowed down by COVID quite a bit. COVID definitely put a dent in our progress. And missing members, and that sort of thing. But the members of the council have done all the work on this. So, it's pretty extensive, if you had a chance to look at the table of contents. It covers a lot of different areas that we think are, you know, provide a lot of important information for seniors. In Riverhead, emergency numbers, everything from, you know, emergency preparedness, including pets, things like that, to all sorts of health services, mental health services, hospice, government names and numbers for them to reach out to if they need to. Thank you. Thank you. And I... Animal shelters, all sorts of things. We've, the members of the council essentially divided up all these different pieces. And we each took a part, and we checked every... Phone numbers change all the time. Phone numbers, addresses, nature. New businesses come in. Sometimes things have gone out of business. It's a men's task. It was huge. That's part of the reason why it took so long. If you go through the resource guide alone, and I love the map. Yeah. But the resource guide is so valuable for seniors to use because anything that they could need, whether it's help with heating oil with the heat program or whatever the case may be, that information is in this guide. And this guide is spread out all over town at different locations. Right. There's a whole distribution list. Libraries, senior citizen center, some of the senior communities have them in their lobbies. Exactly. And the work that's done on it, and I know because I've taken part in it and done this. And Denise, by the way, Denise Merrifield is the new liaison to the seniors. Oh, great. I didn't know that. Thanks. That's wonderful. She will be working with you in the future. And you're going to enjoy it as much as I did. Yeah, that's great. And there's some really good people on it. And we also are looking for more people, right, Richard? We are. We are. Right now, we have nine seats and at least four, I think, have to be filled. Our last meeting was in January. And we looked at all of that and we came up with possible names. So we're reaching. Actually, we do have two people who have come forward who would like to be on the council. So we'll be getting those names. But we were hoping, we've had representatives from certain groups, like a veterans member. Right. And a clergy member. And both of those are now open and missing. So we have people reaching out to try to find people who would be willing to serve. And the meetings are quarterly? Every two months. Every two months. Right. Right. All through the year. Yes. Because the meeting is summer. And the next meeting is March. March? What's the date in March? It's always the second Wednesday of every month. So I think it's the 13th. I'm remembering off the top of my head. March 13th. We have to change that. So. And that's at 10 a.m.? 10 a.m. 10 a.m. Right here? Right here. Yep. And if this isn't available, it can be upstairs in the other meeting room. So we have plenty of space. So we have plenty of space. And we're going to be able to get people to come in. Yes. I also just towards the end as I was looking through too there's some great in the appendices at the end there's some great information emergency preparedness information but what I think is valuable here for people is that they can actually at least for the Riverhead Fire Department put themselves on an emergency contact list in case there is an emergency emergency they could be one of the first ones contacted or called. There's also information for the Suffolk County version of that. There's a Suffolk County emergency list as well for people with special needs who would be they could reach out to them in case of evacuations or something like that. So that's the resource guide. I should say for both documents the town attorney has reviewed both and cleared both so that's part of the process we go through. And I think there's one little edit I found that after your copies were made that I have to make so we'll make that right after this, a change in one of the government offices. The map is another piece that the county council had worked on quite a while ago and put out before so this is again another new edition of it. It's been updated, new cover on it. One of our former members who was the, we also have a library representative as the norm and now we have a new library representative. She will have to be presented as well because the last one left and the one before that one did all this updating. She did it on the computer and did a great job. So I think that's a good thing. But it's you know it's a plan for people to look at in terms of as they're aging. You know what to think about in different years. So there's some definitions in the beginning. You know what's a health care proxy and a living will and these now trusts and power of attorney and all of that sort of thing. And then it has a section for people in different age groups. So people in 20s to 30s, we start that young. What should they be thinking of in terms of as they're looking ahead at the future? And then 40s to 50s, 60s to 70s, and then 80s and above. And consistent categories like housing and transportation and various, caregiving is another category. But what they should be looking at changes as you move along. So I think it's also a great thing for people to have. At the very end, there's also an emergency contact sheet that they can have. For instance, it lists all of their medications, their physician, that sort of thing. And as it says here, and we also have the Riverhead Senior Center name and address and phone number here. But the recommendation is that you, you share your map with people who care about you, you know, so that they have it and they have the emergency information, that sort of thing. The last sheet with the list of medications is so important because should you ever need an ambulance to come to your house or you go to the hospital, if you have that information, that's used a lot of times in helping to determine what your ailment might be. And it's very important for them to know quantities and what you're on. So even anybody. Make a list. If you're on medications, know what they are. Yeah. You never know. I personally, I carry a thing in my wallet listing what medications I'm on because I can't remember half the names of them. So you have it. You have that information available. Absolutely. That is very important. Especially the grayer my hair gets, the more I need these things. So it's just important. It's also important to put it on your refrigerator. Yes. Because the EMTs know. Right. So look there. Look there. Yep. Yep. Great point, Joe. Great point. Sure. So, you know, our plan. It is, well, obviously, we came to the board because it, to be approved by the board before we are able to publish it and distribute it. So that's what this step is. It was approved by the town attorney. How will it be distributed? Well, we have two ways. One is electronically. So we do have electronic versions of all of this. As I understand from Diane, I believe the electronic version of the draft of the guide is already on the website. No problem. We have some available at the town clerk's office. Yeah. Sure. There is a person who was the chair before me did the distribution for the last. We have a list of, a distribution list. I believe it includes the clerk's office. It's definitely the senior center, but also a lot of the senior communities in Riverhead, churches. It's a question of cost to some extent. We have a certain amount of budget to be able to do printing and all, but printing is very expensive. And you separate some of them where you have it electronically. People could read through the whole book and access it. But maybe the medical stuff, the stuff that, as Councilman Mosky said, be pinned on the refrigerator. Can we have the town clerk just have that portion separately printed and more cost effective where seniors can simply stop in and just obtain that portion to personally fill out and put on the fridge? Yeah, I would think so. We could do that. Absolutely. Through the town we could do that. Sure. So no job printing the whole book for the town clerk. Right. For those that are using it electronically, you can have some copies available. Sure. But the form is perfect to use and fill out. Right. One of the challenges we discuss at the Council all the time in terms of electronic versions is that some of our seniors are, you know, computer, computers are still a challenge in some ways in terms of the- It's a challenge to me. Yeah. Right. And it's not just seniors. But as you get older into the years, you're going to have to do a lot of things. Right. And so, you know, the older age groups, they sometimes either don't have computers or smartphones or anything like that. And so printing at least some copies and making those available, getting them out maybe to the back of churches and things like that. But even to add, just in the book, you know, this section is available printed. Yes. At the town clerk's office. So you're not at the police. Sure. At the town clerk's office. Okay. Yeah. They could just come in, senior senate, they're stopping at something else. Let me get that. No, that's a good idea. Those last few pages that are pre-printed. Right. Right. That sounds great. So, you know, we could do that. Yeah. So, you know, we could do that. Right.
We did a great job with that. I have one question concerning the map portion. Sure. Because I ran into a situation with somebody. A pool trust covered in there? I'm just curious. A pool trust? Yeah, a pool trust. So that's. I don't believe so. I don't. We have. We can all go to Bob's house and use this pool. Yeah. So, yeah. If you guys need swimming lessons. Yeah. No, that has to do with it. I don't want to, you know. I haven't heard of that. So what happens is if somebody comes in and they have a pool, they can go to the pool. They can go to the pool. Yeah. And they can go to the pool. And they can go to the pool. So what happens is if somebody, let's say somebody is 100 years old, right, and they're getting social security payments, plus they're getting a pension, but it's over the limit for them to receive certain Medicare, Medicaid, right? So what happens is you set up with the state for a pool trust. You give all that money to the pool trust, and then you pay out from there. So they still qualify for, for, for the pool. Yeah. So, yeah. So, yeah. for different health services, et cetera. But I can go over that with you. I ran into that in a situation when I was consulting with somebody and we set that up for somebody. Okay. But it was, you know, like, how to be done. Sure. Okay. So I just bring it up. We could possibly add it to either this version. These can be updated because they are electronic. We can update them as we go along, you know, so. The other thing that I've come across, because I've gone to senior center a couple of times, talked about fraud, and it keeps changing. Right. I mean, it's a fluid situation. Yes. And I've gotten calls from people to help them. You know, hey, this happened to me, that happened to me. Where do I go? We do have a section in here on fraud and who to turn to or who they can call. And passwords now, you know how things are. Yeah, and as you said, it gets worse as you go along. Well, the latest one is now a company will send you, like American Express. Yes. It seems like it. We owe you a dollar. And they give, there's a printed check for a dollar. Once you deposit that, now you're getting, that fake company is getting some banking information, what the routing number is, you know, when it goes through. Okay. And then they're going after people's bank accounts, which is a new one. Yeah. Anyway. It could be, because there's so many changes that happen, so issues like that. It's crazy. It might be a good idea to somehow use the towns, the town website, maybe under the recreation section of it, to have updates around fraud or something like that. Yeah. Because this can only happen so often. Right. It takes us a while. No question. I'm not. No, no, no. I think it's a great idea. This really needs to be addressed like every six months at the senior center one on one. Yeah, but if we could update a website quickly about new. But to your point, how many of them are using it. Well, that is, that's the problem. Yeah, we run up against, yeah. We're going to be reviewing our own town website coming up. Yeah. Okay. Because quite honestly, I think it's not very good. It's not all that user friendly. Yeah. So that's part of our mission that we're going to do also. We had talked at the last meeting about maybe looking to see if we could have a tab or something for the advisory council. Yep. Just. And we can link them. And we can age the issues. Right up on the website. So we're going to continue to talk about that. Good. I just want to give a shout out to Jill Packard. Yes. I know she's not here today. Right. But I know she's been instrumental in a lot. She has. She has. All of this work for years in the past. She's awesome. She's been a great wealth of information. And still a member. And still a member of the council. Yep. And I appreciate everything she's done. So. Sure. This is great. I'm going to miss being on the committee. Yeah. We're going to miss having you. Not having you. Keep up the good work. Promise to be very. This is invaluable. This is invaluable to us. Yeah. I think it's great help. So. So. However the approval process goes. Yeah. That's what we're. We'll approve it quickly through the board. And we'll get back to you with it. And then I can. Good. Go to print and get it. That's great. Thank you all very much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. For your work. Thank you. Thank you.
Okay. Does anybody have any questions or any comments you want to make on anything today so far? And we're at the bottom of our open session. Okay. That concludes our open session for today's work session. Really thank you all for all the space and space that you all have for today. Really thank you all for all the space and space that you all have for today. Really thank you all for all the space and space that you all have for today. Really thank you all for all the space and space that you all have for today. Really thank you all for all the space and space that you all have for today. Really thank you all for all the space and space I second motion yes I'm sorry I should need a second all in favor aye aye okay can we just hang out for a while no work session open work session is closed and we will be moving on to our executive session everybody have a great week and a great weekend out there thank you yes
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