Full Transcript

Thank you. Thank you. Would you mind leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Wow, where is that picture of? I want to go there. That's beautiful. I think it came out of the Forbes book. Very pretty picture. Okay, I have, before we get started, I have just a couple little things I want to address. We have an unusually short work session agenda this morning, but I want to take a moment to address publicly an article that was posted by a local reporter that implies a proposed code revision, currently under consideration, came about improperly. To be clear, the proposals to amend the code can and frequently are advanced by some combination of staff members, residents, developers, or the public. The proposals are not always approved by the public, but are often approved by the public. The proposals are often approved by the public, or business owners. Code amendment suggestions are also sometimes brought about through the Code Revision Committee. In all cases, it is the job of town staff and officials to consider these ideas and proposals and determine whether they have merit, and that analysis always includes evaluation for consistency with the comprehensive plan and needs of the community. Once we review them, if they are worthy of further consideration, the public will hear about them and have multiple opportunities to comment at public meetings and hearings. Zoning changes to accommodate possible development projects are not new or unusual. Case in point, Tangra outlets in 1992 and proposed update code in 2024. The town's business F zoning use district was literally created to accommodate that project and to accommodate the development of the district. After the developer came to the town with a unique proposal. Given the fact that none of the town planners at the time knew how to zone what was needed for an outlet center, Tangra staff made significant contributions to the zoning text. Turns out Tangra outlets is now our town's largest taxpayer, and those taxes are a tremendous help to our school district and our residents. In 2016, the town board met with the president and countless staff members of Peconic Bay Medical Center to draft a code with accessory uses deemed necessary to accommodate the hospital use and cardiac catheterization unit. The town board moved this zoning forward swiftly as Peconic Bay Medical Center was racing to get New York State approval and had a short window to do so for the cardiac catheterization unit. In 2012, the town was approached by the city of Tangra, which was approached by a developer owner of an assisted living facility seeking to locate a facility here in Riverhead. After months of evaluation by planning, legal, and town board, the resident's RC retirement community was amended to perform such uses, despite the changes to the zoning that the project did not move forward. Like Tangra, proponents of a proposal to allow agritourism resorts had a promising idea, and we did not ignore them. We listened and discussed, a process that took over two years. The most notable consideration from the town's point of view was the significant potential for farmland preservation that would be generated by it. Land in the RA80 zoning district may be developed for residential use, and as it stands now, the property is under consideration for this new zoning on East Avenue, and the town's plan is to provide farmers with additional opportunities to market their products, highlight Riverhead's amazing farmland, and not add a single child to the school district. It is not only consistent with the existing comprehensive plan, it is exactly the type of zoning we are recommending in the updated comprehensive plan. For all of those reasons, town staff felt it was an important proposal to advance. One of the most important things we are doing in our comprehensive plan update is figuring out how to transfer more development rights from farmland to commercial projects so that we can better leverage private dollars to buy farmland and that taxpayers cannot afford this proposed zoning is a good example of just that. At the end of the day, we bring forward ideas we think would benefit the town. Where it goes from here, we will have to wait and see. I want to thank all the townspeople and staff who worked on this proposed amendment. The time and effort that goes into any possible code amendment is tremendous. We thank you for your commitment and willingness to continually pursue the betterment of the town of Riverhead. Lastly, the staff depicted in this article are some of the hardest working staff this town has. It is a disservice not only to them, but also to the residents of this town to portray them in any other way. Thank you. Okay. One other note I have. Today, February 1st, I still can't believe it's February, marks the beginning of Black History Month. We have a wonderfully diverse makeup within the town of Riverhead, and we join the nation in celebrating the countless achievements and contributions of the African American community. And I suggest that if you look through the local media and on social media, you will see that there are many events scheduled if you're interested in attending some. I know the library has a few scheduled up. If you go on to the community events sections, you'll be able to find where these are happening, and I advise you to go ahead and check some out. Okay? All right. We are going to get started on our work session. We have one item on for open session today, and I apologize to the public about that in a sense that that's all we have, but honestly, that's all we have today. And we tried to put a lot of other stuff on, but it just wasn't quite ready, so our work sessions in the near future will be pretty loaded up and very busy. Okay, our open session, and we have no closed session today. Our one open session item is matters surrounding the update on progress with the town square and the TOD, and I would ask Dawn Thomas and crew to come on up and give us an update. This is always exciting for me to hear where we are and what's happening and what's going on. So this is a huge, huge project, and we're all waiting with bated breath for this to happen. Good morning. Ready to go? Yeah, we are ready to go. Okay. So... It's built. Yes. I would love nothing more, trust me. Well, as you can see, you know, the work is now spreading fully. We have a lot of work from our department throughout planning, law, and it'll be in building hopefully soon, and so that's great news because it's getting closer. And just an update on the... I guess we could do the town square first. We just finished, through the law department, negotiating and getting signed up the two agreements for the design. One is with LVF, which was the one selected from the RFP, and they will be working on the actual playground project, and the other is Skolnick, and that project will be... The amphitheater. On the amphitheater. And both of those projects are going to have public engagement. So in the next... We're going to have a kickoff meeting probably next week with both companies. Those kickoff meetings will lay out the, you know, the scheduling for what's going to happen next. There will be public engagement in both projects, and so, you know, stay tuned, and we'll see how that goes. Particularly with the playground, we're looking to get a lot of young people involved and mobility challenge people, because it is a playground. You know, we call it a children's playground, but it really is for anybody who's mobility challenged, and it will really be for families. So, you know, we're looking forward to seeing those projects evolve and also seeing how those people who have input in them can see those... That input come to fruition. So that's... It might be something we want our liaison, and I think it might be Denise, for the Inclusive Task Force? Yes. Yes. Because we have that task force, and they are very well aware of what's needed and what would be nice, and so that would be a good avenue to discuss that with. One of the key components of all of the projects, which are, you know, there's multiple projects now in the downtown area, is making it accessible. So the parking garage, there's probably close to a 15-foot grade change between the parking garage and the riverfront, and so all of these projects are going to be designed to make a smooth transition for anybody with mobility issues to make it down to the riverfront. So those are exciting pieces of the project. It's great because the Recreation Department gets continuing requests throughout all of our parks throughout the town to have, you know, handicap-accessible swing sets and places. Yes, and so we're looking, really looking forward to seeing LVF, when we start to engage with them, I think you'll see a pretty amazing company, really have done fantastic projects all over the country, and they're related to the region, so we're, you know, we're hoping that the playground relates to our region, our agricultural and maritime heritage, so those things are, you know, super exciting. So we're really getting down to it now, so that's good stuff. And we have the grant money. Yes. So you secure it to pay for it. Yes. So we have, just in terms of the playground, in addition to the design money, we have about a million and fifty, a million and fifty thousand dollars to actually construct the project. So that project, in addition to the grant funding that's coming to it, which is three different, there's two different grants, this is one private funding, but it really does lend itself to philanthropy and private funding. If a person wants to name a piece of playground equipment or a section of the playground, after a loved one, or an entity wants to have input, any kind of corporate entity could do that, sponsor those pieces, and make them part of that project, which will really, I mean, I think that's ready to go once it's designed. And if you remember when Barry worked on the activation plan, each of these projects is a separate phase, and they're not dependent on one another, so while we're hoping they all go at once, because we don't want to have downtown look like a mass for a decade. Instruction zone for a decade, yeah. So that's what we're really sort of aiming towards, getting everything in the chute at the same time. In terms of the amphitheater, that design is going, both the amphitheater and the playground are going to incorporate the flooding that happens on Main Street. Everything is getting lifted up, but it still will potentially flood occasionally, so those designs will be made so that the flood water can weave throughout them and receive, quickly so it's pretty neat stuff that we've been looking at in terms of, you know. It could be designed architecturally that it would be an interest on the public to come down. Exactly, exactly. Not a safety concern, but like to actually see the water flowing. Yeah, and it's educational too. There's, you know, why is the water here? How did it get here? How do we make it dissipate? What, you know, what are the things we can do to make it an asset rather than a detriment? Yeah. So, and just to remind everyone, the town square we've built, we've built it in the city, and we've built it in the city. And the town square, the town square, the upper town square, and the, there's street improvements. And if you, if you've been to West Hampton recently, you'll see they've done street traffic calming, complete, they call it complete streets improvements to really narrow the streets and slow down traffic to make it safer. We have a grant for that for $750,000. We also have $340 million for the actual construction of the square. So, we are working to, to build a, to sign LVF to design the square and those road improvements. It's part of their specialty. Sorry. Got a little bit closer. Oh, sorry. It's part of their, their, right in their design wheelhouse. So, they're excited about that. Danielle and Amory are working on those agreements with them. And so, we'll have one company working on the playground, the upper square and the street, another company working on the amphitheater. And then all of those companies together are working with master developers, designers, and also we have Barry Long, who we're retaining, who's been our consultant on this town square project since day one. Kind of like overseeing the whole thing and all of that is paid for with grant money. It's not taxpayer money. So, so that's all moving along nicely. And then, in addition, we have the parking garage project. So, that's cooking along. We're working with accounting to make sure that those, we know all the potential realities of that project, what it could cost, how it could be paid for, and how it works for us. And again, where our office right now is grinding on a grant called RAISE. We've submitted multiple times. We're hoping this is our year. That's 25 million. If we are able to secure that funding, the garage will have, have very little left to, it'll be built really. That, that's the goal. So, we're working on that. And then, we're also working on the, we're working on financing for the space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space Okay. No. And then, is there any questions? I do. I don't have a question. Sure. I know in the last work session, I talked about the Army Corps of Engineers and they're going to take the bulkhead up two feet. Yes. Okay. So my question is, if the bulkhead goes up two feet and we're also doing something where water is going to come into the upper town square. Not the upper town square. I'm sorry. Or the lower town square. Yeah. So we're still concerned about water coming into the lower town square. That two feet design will lift up Heidi Bear Way and the boardwalk. It'll make it a pedestrianized street, so there'll be curbless street in that area. But we're still going to use Heidi Bear Way. Yeah. It's still going to be. Okay. It's not going to be as attractive for through traffic, but it'll still be definitely used and will remain open for access. So, but the... So, but the... Those designs we'll see when the designers get really familiar with all of the Army Corps studies and with what the work that Barry did with the Army Corps. And we'll see what develops. We don't know yet. That's all part of the design. So we'll see. But that area is still meant to be occasionally floodable, like in a Sandy event. And so that water would be retained potentially for a small period of time and then drain off. So it's not... And also, part of that stormwater... It's good to manage it so that it doesn't immediately then drain back into the river. So stormwater management is also part of the resiliency of all these projects, you know, to protect flood attacks. But also manage water that's coming from the streets, you know, north down that 15-foot grade change into the... But also stormwater that comes up can get percolated through and be cleaned and not just dumped right now. Pick up dirt from... From... From... From... From... From public areas and put it into the river. No, I'm happy to see this going to be... You know, that's why I see the lower town square, you know, having a lot of grass for that reason. And also the upper town square for the same reason. Because both places have been impervious surfaces forever. And it's just been a drain to the river. One other question on the pileup. Can you go into that a little bit? Pileup payment in lieu of parking. So we drafted that, I want to say, three, four years ago, maybe more. We're going to amend that and we'll roll it out clean and fresh and new. Because we have to design it and include language that certain uses, for instance, a hotel, would have to, quote, buy into the garage. And it would be monthly. And it would be monthly fee per room equal to, if you have 80 rooms, 80 spaces. So we have to update that and account for that. The other thing we're starting to talk about is paid parking downtown. So we're one of the only communities left on Long Island with a downtown that doesn't charge for parking. As a part of the development of the garage, the overall downtown area, in some fashion or another, is going to have to have some paid parking. Because... Because... If you have free parking all over downtown, no one will ever use the garage. And the garage will need to be used in order for it to be effectuated. Is the parking people telling you that? Because once the garage goes up, it's going to take out quite a few spaces, number one, which is going to leave not too many spaces left. Right? 138 on the ground floor. So you're going to lose 138? 104. 104 on the ground floor. So you're going to lose 100? But those are... They're still there. They're part of the garage. Yeah, but you're going to be paying to go into the garage. My concern is that the, you know, I expect when the lower and upper town square is done, and if the stage is put in the right place, you're going to attract so many people that you have to use the garage. And the other concern that I have is, have they done an account on how many employees? This is all going to be handled... This is going to be done. Yes. Okay. Because we need, you know, we need to know that and figure that all out. Because right now, I have a hard time even thinking about having employees pay for parking. Nowhere has it been suggested that employees would pay for parking. No, no. Well, I mean... I'm just introducing it as a topic because it is going to come up. Okay. And we are going to have to... So we're in process of looking at it. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Yeah. I had a question. All right. I think that the paid parking might be a very good idea in the sense that it alleviates the... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. tickets in the court, right? It's automated. It does your license. So wouldn't that help assist the collection of fines? There's a whole world of parking management. And that is something that I know only a little bit about. But the people that do it know everything about it. And so I think that that'll be our next discussion, you know, potentially bringing someone in that is a parking guru and help us figure that out. Not to scare off other businesses downtown. It has to be a substantial amount of of commonly used short term free parking. Somebody wants to go into Mugs on Main and get a cup of coffee. They're not expected to buy a $3 parking ticket. It has to protect all of them. Once it's implemented, it'll start out. There'll be a lot of public engagement, a lot of stakeholder meetings, a lot of, you know, in order for us to do it right, to make it work for everyone. It's going to be a project. So it's just, it's just, you know, as we get down from 100,000 feet, you know, to the, to getting closer to these projects happening, you know, we know we're going to start having to getting into things like this. Dawn, I have a quick question. The Complete Streets, which I'm very excited about because West Hampton is beautiful, what they did over there. Is that going to run from McDermott to Peconic Avenue or will it go further west? further east? We want to implement it all over downtown, including up Griffin and Roanoke and Railroad Street, Court Street, and Strander there, but the current money that we have is for right in front of the town square on Main Street, East Main. So if in the strategic investment plan that was created through the DRI, those streets were identified all as, you know, too wide, raceway, not safe for pedestrians or bicyclists. We have a tremendous amount of people in the downtown area that have zero to one car, and so, and making it safe for pedestrians and having a garage where you park once and walk around reduces vehicle miles travels of VMT, right? So we're all into this DOT language. So that we would love to implement throughout downtown. Down on Heidebier Way, when it becomes a pedestrianized street, that would all be implemented. If we are successful in getting this raise grant, all of that will be done. Wow. Yeah. Great. Yeah. Fingers crossed. The current layout of downtown Riverhead has given you an incredible opportunity to mean that the parking garage is still going to be close to everything downtown. So many times we go, we travel to different places around, and the parking garage is like the last thing that's sought out and put way out in the distance, because you don't want to give up that valuable space, but putting it right in the current parking lot that we're all currently using anyway. And I can tell that we're already going downtown, because it's getting harder and harder to find a parking lot around noon time and so forth. Yeah. We're going down to lunch and so forth. So it's great, but I think it's, you're developing everything right around it, and we're keeping everything in close, short distance. Yeah. And so that garage is a short walk to everything downtown. I think, too, the way the plan is set is that first street will actually be recreated, because there used to be a street with houses. If you, when you turn into that parking lot off Verona, when you make the left, you'll see, you know, those office houses. Those houses used to go right along. The town acquired them at some point to mileage them and expanded the parking lot. And it eliminated that street, you know, as a street. It doesn't look like a street if it looks like a parking lot. We're going to recreate that street with sidewalks, lighting, landscaping, signage, so that when you come out of the garage, you're going to feel like you're on the street, and you're going to have a very clear picture of how to get down to the town square, because the two alleyways, the two exits for the garage are going to be lined up exactly with the alleyways. It exists now, the Benjamin Place alleyway and the Suffolk Theatre alleyway, both of which will be renovated. We already are working on the renovation of the alleyway at the Suffolk Theatre. We have a grant for that from Suffolk County downtown revitalization that we're moving forward with, you know, auto automated lighting and making it look like not a frightening place to be. In those places, it'll be fully accessible, and you'll roll right down to Main Street. And you'll be at the town square, basically, is how it's set up. So it really will change that whole area completely. Drew Dillingham was here at our last work session, and they're going to experiment with different lighting downtown, because the lighting right now is too dim. It's far too dim. So they're going to increase. They have two others they can go up to increase the brightness, and they're going to experiment and see which one's going to work best. So that's all part of it, too. Perfect. And then we can just quick shift to TOD. I'll let Anne-Marie kind of fill in that one. So related to the parking garage, the team has probably received three or four preliminary draft site plans. It's looking good. We need a follow-up meeting, probably final tweaks, recommendations that we're going to make. Danielle and I have basically talked about this. We tackled every foreseeable agreement that we'll need in the future. We've done the easements. The parking lot easement. Yeah, the parking lot easement, third and Roanoke. They would have exclusive use at night, but during the day it would be municipal. They would improve the landscaping, the lighting, and be responsible for payment of that. Staging agreement. Which one? Staging agreement. Danielle's doing the staging agreement right now in anticipation. And we have an agreement for the map and plan. We're in there agreeing to all infrastructure improvements, key monies, and we're going to proceed with the hearing with the map and plan. And related to the parking garage, the county of Suffolk agreed on the Griffin site we're going to move forward. And the good news is, county staff that worked on that with Dawn and I are still in place, eager to move that forward. And the county of Suffolk agreed that we wouldn't have to build a garage on the Griffin Avenue site. And instead, any overflow we would make available in this parking lot. Because you know, you see the empty lots in our lot. So that was good news. And we're going to move that all the way. When we close on the TOD site, we can take the monies from the sale and put it right towards the garage downtown. And then I know you want to update on the legal progress on the town square side on the private partnership piece? Oh, yeah. So Danielle and I have met with the master developer, Joe Petrucelli, and his lawyer numerous times. Yesterday, I think we finalized the footprint. And I believe, supervisor, he dropped off a renovation for you. I got the MIR office. That is correct. And now that we have the parameters, Danielle and I are going to sink our teeth in and fully negotiate the master developer agreement. So that'll result in a closing where we transfer the property to his company. Correct. And then they develop the hotel that'll line the square, which is, you know, all part of the project. Hopefully it all goes at once. And also, we have been working with the granting agencies from the state. Because of the practicality of him having that development ongoing next to the square, he's going to be allowed to contract on our behalf for the building of the square and the street improvements. He has to competitively bid, obviously, for all of the sub-components of that. But I think it'll make it smoother and more seamless. And then, I think it'll be less disruptive. Similar to this building, we retained Joe Petrucelli as the contract manager. And we would do the same thing because we need the development of the town square and the development of his site to move seamlessly forward. There's a lot of infrastructure that's going to be on the square for all the projects. Yeah. So underneath the square, you're going to have infrastructure for development projects that are going to be facing to the upper deck of the square. Plus, we're dealing with elevation and grade changes for his project site at 127 and the town square. And it has to be seamless. Yeah. It's essential. One of the things I'd like to incorporate into development discussions is, I don't know if this is the answer, but I'll say, is to incorporate maybe perhaps a sanitation district or something for downtown Riverhead to enclose it so that we can find more locations and maybe it needs to be compact as opposed to dumpsters and that everybody in the downtown's got to chip in or something. But the ongoing problem is, as we speak right now, the litter behind in the parking lots throughout behind Dagers is just phenomenal. Yeah. As much as building a grounds goes and cleans up, they're all blown out of the dumpsters. They're all over. And it's just a never-ending battle. But if we can create some type of infrastructure underneath the upper portion of the town square that's maybe accessible by our adjacent building or something like that, let's think of the Disney effect and let's have a lot of those disposal sites and so forth that go into a collection area underneath that can be driven out and pulled out. But let's put compactors maybe behind Dagers that everybody is just going to have to chip into because the dumpsters are just not working. It's ongoing. It's just a disaster. And other residents are just failing. And I think we're just feeling that they can add to the local business garbage and we've got to find a way to combat it. And I think that we should, when we're designing all this, the town square, the upper level, the TOD, the whole area, where is sanitation fitting into all this? Because it's an important component that after this incredible project was built, we want to make sure that it's full of flowers and green and beautiful things and not sanitation. That's just hodgepodge garbage bales put around and yet it's not going to work. And this is exactly what, when we're drilling down on everything, all these issues are developing and we're working on solving those problems. So for sure, absolutely. This has been a longstanding problem with the dumpsters and the problem we have. And what's nice about all the new projects is we will be able to go with compactors. We tried doing that in the situation we have now, but every business downtown is under a different contract with a different company and they weren't able to break out of those contracts to go to one, say one, one compact location in their area. So we tried doing that for years, but it just could never work out. But with a new project, obviously it's going to be all new businesses. We can start out fresh and start that. Maybe it's the sanitation district that's going to pay to get one person. We shop around, we get the best deal. When downtown gets rolling, it's a possibility. We always were just fearful of creating more taxing districts because it would just keep crushing everybody. It was already just barely getting by. And if the town wants to embark on that, you have a short window to do it because we're going to be rolling out bid specifications for residential garbage pickup probably in May. So it's significant in those bid specifications, the breakout of the different districts, the number of homes. So if the town's going to embark on that, it should be now. Now, now, not later. Right. I think it warrants a discussion because it's going to be difficult when you have these new hotels and everybody's going to be compliant with the new projects and new restaurants and things that are coming in. But we've still got to address the current ones. We've still got to be fair to our current, you know, is enough. But if we can keep costs within their same range, but we can control that it's all brought to universal sites and to be cleaner. At the end of the day, I think it would make everyone happier, the public and the business owners, because it would simplify it. But it's just the way it is. It's just been one of those chicken and the egg problems that we've had over the years that, you know, it didn't really, we couldn't figure out how to make it work. Well, with all the downtown improvements, it's just going to add to the population even more. Exactly. The incoming visiting is that much more garbage. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I will tell you, Danielle, Dawn, and I just negotiated this facet yesterday. When Joe Petrucelli reconstructs his building, we negotiated with him. He's going to build in to that a storage shed for us, for the equipment to maintain the town square or any storage the town needs. But he's going to construct it literally. It'll look like part of his building, but we'll have access. Right. Because there'll be benches and tables and... Right, seasonal items that have to be stored. Right. And the things, you know, the little pop-up tents or whatever it is that we need down there will be able to be stored right on site, which is important. Yeah. Yeah, so that's all I think we have. Perfect. But I just want to say that this town board is very lucky to have the people at this table that we have. Yes, absolutely. The work that's been going on behind the scenes with this, the general public probably doesn't see it. They ride past, they see a patch of green grass, and they're like, well, I don't think anything's going on. There is so much going on. Absolutely. And we're doing it on a daily basis. Right. But there's so much to putting this project together. And we've got the best people in the world to do it for us here. Well, it's great to have a board that supports. So thank you for all your work. We appreciate it. And we, you know, we couldn't do it without a supportive board, so we're grateful for that. And I think, and this gives us an opportunity, this update gives us an opportunity to share with you those things that we are doing. It's quick and easy. We're all together. And, you know, because we don't really have an opportunity to tell everyone where we're at. Right. So, you know, we're going to be able to share that with you. And I think, you know, we're going to be able to share that with you. Really, 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. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, that is the end of our open session on matters. We are going to move on to resolutions at this point in time. Devin, would you mind reading resolutions along? Okay, I'm ready. I'll get ready. Everybody have what they need? Yes. Councilman, do you have what you need? Top sheet. Okay. All right. The saving paper. Thank you. Oh, just a second. I don't have my glasses. Okay. We'll get started. Resolution number one, appoints a water treatment plant operator trainee. This is, the board is probably aware, we're moving somebody, we had moved somebody from operations to the distribution crew, so now we are appointing a water treatment plant operator trainee. We're appointing this person now as the water treatment plant operator trainee to replace the person we moved. Right. Resolution number two, water district budget transfer for vehicles and equipment. This is money that's, they're going to use, along with key money, to purchase vehicles and a trailer that are desperately needed for our water department. So, we have, I believe, a couple of the trucks. We can get access to fairly quickly, so we wanted to move on this, as is a time delay in ordering vehicles. Right. From the time they order to the time they actually take delivery of the vehicle. Nationwide, right, to the time they actually get here. Right. So, this is money we're moving around to, or they're going to use to make these purchases of badly needed equipment. I've seen the water equipment, and it's not good. So, can't kick that can down the road anymore. We have to bite the bullet here. That's right. We have to bite the bullet. Okay. Resolution number three, authorize the supervisor to execute an agreement for court reporter services with Colleen Track. This is for jury trials only. She'll be on call as needed, and it's something we've always had with Justice Court. Resolution number four, authorize the supervisor to execute an agreement for court reporter services with Donna Spratt. Ditto. Basically, the same thing. She'll be on call and as needed for whatever we need her to come in for, she would be available to come in. So, we're going to have to wait and see. Okay. Resolution number five, appoints a public safety dispatcher to the police department. We are adding to our staff. We're still short-handed in that area, and we have interviewed other people, and they are in the process of going through the background checks and everything now. Because with our contract with the ambulance company, with the ambulance corps, we are required on certain shifts to have a dedicated dispatcher just for emergency EMS calls, because the volume is so high right now. Right. It's important that we have that. Okay. Resolution number six, awards bid, electrical system maintenance and emergency service contract for the Riverhead Water District. This is a bid that we do every year just to have a service contract for our water district. Resolution number seven, authorizes notice to bidders construction of pre-stressed ground storage tank at East Wind Drive Riverhead Water District. Ooh. Okay. This is, I believe, a concrete tank that they're going to have, and again, it's needed for the infrastructure of the water district. We have the water district superintendent here, and he can field any further questions on that. Frank, is there anything you feel you need to add to this? No, I'm just going to ask a question. Okay. Okay. Resolution number eight, authorizes the attendance at the 2024 Annual Meeting and Training School held by the Association of Towns. February 18, 2013. And the school is open for the first time through 21-2024. We have Deputy Town Attorney Danielle Hurley and Victoria Saru, and also Councilwoman Denise Merrifield all going to attend class upstate. And I actually have here an attachment that we inadvertently omitted from the resolution, so I'll pass these out to everybody. It's just the required travel voucher. It's nothing except. Right. This is a school that's done every year in February, put on by the Association of Towns. Excuse me. It's for attorneys. They can get their CREs. It's training that they have to, you have to, to maintain your lawyer status, you have to get training every two years, I believe, a certain number of credits. So they can accomplish some credits at this school. Denise is going to go, and I think it's a great idea. I've gone a couple of times myself, and it's just, it's, there's a whole host of information. There's so many different classes. different classes and topics you can take. And you pick and choose whatever you want, so they don't assign them to you. Because some of the topics, quite honestly, deal maybe with hydropower, which is something upstate New York would use, and we wouldn't be interested in that. But there's so many other things that are, you know, would be related to what we do here. So it's great that you're going, Denise, and I recommend anybody, if you get a chance in the next couple of years to attend and go, go and give it a shot. Thank you. We came in, we had to do it in the middle of a pandemic, so we did it online. But those are incredible speakers, knowledgeable from all over that participated. I agree, I agree. But when you actually go to it, there's so much networking that goes on where you can meet people, and it's really a good thing to do. But the quiz, when you come back, is really awesome. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Okay, resolution number nine, authorizes renewal of Musical Works license agreement with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, ASCAP. That's something we do every year. We have to pay to play their music at our senior center and other events. Right. Resolution number 10, appoints official print newspaper for the town of Riverhead 2024. Woo-hoo, Riverhead News Review. Look at that, Tim. Good stuff. Resolution number 11, authorizes town clerk to publish in post notice to consider a local law to men chapter 301, zoning and land development part three, supplementary resolution, regulations article. I didn't Google it, so I don't know. Cannabis of the Riverhead Town Code. And this is going to set up a public hearing to further amend as Councilman Rathwell can expand upon the permitted areas. Yeah, currently under the current town code, there are very limited parcels. I think, quite honestly, we're down to like four or five only. So we created a corridor effect that starts from Route 25 in Wading River, comes in and goes continuously, continues 25A in Wading River, and then goes into 25 when it reaches Calverton, then continues through Route 58, and then rejoining back into Route 25 as it goes through Ackermack and Janesport. But we basically simplified it. We divided it up into five corridors. Corridors 1, 2, and 4 and 5 are only having one cannabis through the saturation rate. So there'd be one permitted in each corridor, and then Route 58 potentially may be four or five or so within that area. But, it basically is removing the residential restrictions. That's really what's held up the ability of making any land accessible under our current legislation. So they removed the residential restrictions only on the commercial corridor. So this was put together, comprised of the Cannabis Committee, which consists of Police Department, CAP, school representatives, local residents, all of the community, civic associations as well. Like, everybody's joined in, and it's really become universal, and everyone, from both sides, have agreed upon it, and like it, and proposed it together. So now we'll put it out to hear comment from the general public. And per the Supervisor's request, sort of, hotter topic, public hearings are going to take place at the evening meetings to afford the most number of folks an opportunity to get there. So this is going to take place on February 21st at 615. Thank you for the work you've done on that. And to the committee. I know that they've met numerous times, and, you know, it was a challenge. It was a challenge getting things whittled down a little bit, and so, congratulations. And there's still a lot of overlying restrictions. It's not like we're opening up the whole car. You still have saturation rates that are involved, and you have limitations by landowners, because what, you know, whether that's even permitted, if they have current mortgages through the federal government, they're not permitted to participate in the program. So. Okay. Resolution number 12, Special Event Chapter 255, Application for Race Awesome Jamesport Triathlon. We have a change to this one as well. Supervisor had requested that the applicant be required to post signage at various locations along the route to alert neighbors that the roads would be closed at certain, you know, along the route during the race. So, town attorneys have embedded that language in the resolution, which I don't think is reflective in the copy that you're pointing at. Yeah. The applicant's going to have to, you know, notify the residents of road closures, because a lot of this race goes through residential area. So, it's a help for them to know that they go to pull out of their driveway and their road is closed on a Saturday morning or whenever the race is. They just, they need forewarning of that. Right. And staff reached out to the applicant, Corey Roberts, and he apparently was more than amenable to accommodate, happy to do it, had indicated that he had attempted some signage in the past, but this is going to sort of formalize that. Good. And he's happy to accommodate. So, no issue there. Perfect. And the locations of the proposed signs are indicated, as I understand it, on the map and also articulated in the body of the resolution now. So, Bob, when you and I are running it, just note that we did change the course. Yeah. Just follow the signs. You'll be fine by that. No, I appreciate that, because I won't wear sunglasses that day. So, I can see them. My participation will be standing and directing traffic at a closed road there. So, just so you know. Somebody's got to be at the finish line to cheer everybody in. So, that's equally as important. My knees would go on strike if I decided to do that. Resolution 13, reappoints a zoning officer, Nunc Protonc. This is reappointing Greg Bergman. Yeah. Resolution number 17, adopts a local law amending chapter 301 of the Riverhead Town Code entitled, Zoning and Land Development, Article, I think I know that one. I think that's 17, Business F, Zoning Use District, Manufacturers Outlet Center Overlay Zone. This is, we had the public hearing on this regarding some changes up at Tanger. We had comments both for and against it. Right. And it's coming up for vote on our next. We're done. Yeah. Resolution. Anybody have anything they want to discuss about the Tanger overlay? I'm glad we're doing it. Okay. I am too. Okay. Okay. Resolution number 15. Resolution number 15. Adopts a local law amending chapter 301 of the Riverhead Town Code entitled, Zoning Land Development, Article, Related to Condominium Mass. 58. 58. Thank you for that. I welcome any help with that. Yeah. In fact, we do have a very friendly constituent, I'll just add, who has noticed my shortcomings with Roman numerals. And he dropped off a little sheet, like a cheat sheet. And I haven't mastered that yet. We used to have them at the old town hall. We had them up on the dais. Yeah. Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? Really? It was dropped down to $3,000 per unit, and we're going back up to the $5,000. So this way we can also help build up our recreation fund and get some capital projects going that are badly needed. That's all good stuff. Resolution 16, as the supervisor mentioned, adopts a local law amending Chapter 301 of the Riverhead Town Code entitled Zoning and Land Development Part 4, Subdivision and Land Development Article 56, Site Plan Review. Okay. Resolution 17, Budget Transfer, Emergency Repairs at Reeves Beach. I think we all know what that's for. This is for the cleanup down here that has to take place from the rainstorms we had to get that back and going again. I had a request yesterday from a resident down here wanting to know when at least a boat ramp could be opened up because people get antsy this time of year being cooped up in the wintertime and they want to get out and they've bought their permits already and want to ride the boat. They want to ride the beach. And a lot of the people that go down early actually clean up and pick up a lot from the winter storms that has washed in. So they're looking to see, and I told them I would get back to them. I'll check with engineering and see if there's a timeline for the ramp because I have a feeling the ramp might be open prior to the gazebo being ready, but I want to find out for sure. Okay. We can circle back around with engineering on that. Yeah, and I'll announce that publicly too once the ramp is open. Resolution number 18, Authorization to Accept Grant Funds and Enter into a Contract with New York State Parks, Creation, and Historic Preservation for Construction of the Proposed Town Square Adaptive Playground. That's what we just talked about up here with CDA. Resolution 19, Adopts a Local Law to Mend Chapter 273 of the Riverhead Town Code entitled Solid Waste. Is there anything you want to add to that, Bob, that you worked on this? No, I think we covered it pretty extensively during the work session. Okay. Okay. Resolution number 20, Ratifies the Termination of an AEO, Automotive Equipment Operator. Self-explanatory. Number 21, Ratifies the Appointment of a Technical Support Aid. Justin Fisher, who we're proud to say is in the booth today. It's a one-man band today. He's doing a great job, and we're happy to have him. We're lucky to have him. Justin will be running our booth for us now. He's a full-time employee of the Town of Ribbon. Welcome. Glad to have you, Justin. You're doing a great job. Thank you. During the town board meeting, if it cuts out right here, it means we voted no. You can shut off. I encourage the yes vote. Resolution 22, Ratifies the Appointment of an Account Clerk. This is in the fire marshal's office. This employee is going from part-time to full-time, much needed. She's doing a great job over there, and we appreciate it. And the fire marshals are going to be in a little better position now that she'll be there full-time. Absolutely. She's great. She is, and she loves her job. Absolutely. She really does. She's phenomenal. Resolution 23, Resolution Calling Public Hearing Regarding a Capital Improvement for the Proposed Extension No. 99 of the Riverhead Water District for the Marist Farm Subdivision and Other Properties, collectively known as Suffolk County Tax Map No. 600, District 600, Section 117, Block 1, Lots 6.1, .2, 7.2, and 3, and 4 in Riverhead, New York. This will also be put on for a public hearing on February 21st at 6 p.m. Okay. Resolution 24, Calling Public Hearing Regarding a Capital Improvement for the Proposed Lateral Water Main Extension at 203-213 East Main Street, Suffolk County Tax Map District 66, Section 129, Block 1, Lots 17 through 20, Riverhead, New York. I think we just need to check the district on that number. Maybe we'll just double check that. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. THIS IS FOR THE PROPERTY WHERE THE OLD BUILDING WAS. THIS IS THE HEATHERWOOD DEVELOPMENT PROJECT THAT'S GOING TO BE AN APARTMENT HOUSE THERE. SO THIS IS NEEDED FOR THE, THEY WANT TO HAVE WATER IN THEIR APARTMENTS, WE GOT TO DO THIS. OKAY. RESOLUTION 25, 203-213 EAST MAIN STREET RIVERHEAD SEWER DISTRICT CAPITAL PROJECT. SIMILAR AGAIN FOR THE SAME PROPERTY BUT WITH SEWER AS A PROPERTY. OKAY. ANY OTHER QUESTIONS? ANY OTHER QUESTIONS? RESOLUTION 26, APPROVE SPECIAL EVENT CHAPTER 255 APPLICATION FOR THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY MAKING STRIDES AGAINST CANCER OF EASTERN LONG ISLAND. THEY DO THIS EVERY OCTOBER AND IT'S SORT OF ALONG THE LINES OF PAINTING THE TOWN PINK AND THEY DO THEIR RUN AND PROGRAM EVERY OCTOBER DOWNTOWN. THAT'S RIGHT. RESOLUTION 27, AUTHORIZES THE FILING OF AN APPLICATION FOR THE OTHER STATE OF THE COUNTRY. OKAY. ANY OTHER QUESTIONS? RESOLUTION 28, AUTHORIZES THE FILING OF AN APPLICATION FOR NEW YORK STATE ASSISTANCE FROM THE HOUSEHOLD HAZARDOUS WASTE HHW STATE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM AND SIGNING OF THE ASSOCIATED STATE CONTRACT UNDER THE APPROPRIATE LAWS OF NEW YORK STATE. SELF-EXPLANATORY. NUMBER 28, AUTHORIZES APPLICATION FOR FUNDING THROUGH THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION RAISE 2024 GRANT FUNDING. THIS IS OUR FINGERS CROSS 25 MILLION DOLLARS. OKAY. THIS IS THE $100 MILLION GRANT WE'RE APPLYING FOR. PEOPLE, IF YOU HAVE A LITTLE VOODOO DOLL THAT YOU CAN DO SOMETHING WITH AT HOME TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN, WE APPRECIATE IT. OUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS WORK JUST AS WELL. BUT WE'RE EXCITED AND WE'RE HOPING, VERY MUCH HOPING THAT WE GET THIS. FINGERS CROSSED. NUMBER 29, AWARDS BID PROCESS CONTROL SYSTEM MAINTENANCE AND EMERGENCY SERVICES CONTRACT, RIVERHEAD WATER DISTRICT. THIS IS FOR EMERGENCY SERVICES. A CONTRACT WITH THE WATER DEPARTMENT THAT UNFORTUNATELY TOO OFTEN ARE NEEDED. BUT WE HAVE TO HAVE IT. NUMBER 30, SIMILARLY, IT'S AN AWARDS BID BUT IT'S FOR MECHANICAL MAINTENANCE AND EMERGENCY SERVICES FOR THE RIVERHEAD WATER DISTRICT. YEP. RESOLUTION 31, APPROVE SPECIAL EVENT CHAPTER 255 APPLICATION FOR POLISH TOWN CIVIC ASSOCIATION, POLISH TOWN STREET FAIR AND FESTIVAL. FROM WHAT I UNDERSTAND, THE POLISH CIVIC ASSOCIATION, AFTER A COUPLE OF YEARS OF NOT BEING ABLE TO PUT ON THE FESTIVAL, HAVE REGATHERED AND REORGANIZED AND THEY'RE LOOKING TO START IT UP AGAIN. SO THAT WILL BE IN AUGUST OF THIS YEAR. JUST TO CLARIFY, THE CIVIC ASSOCIATION PUTS ON THE POLISH FAIR AND THE POLISH HOLE IN RIVERHEAD PUTS ON THE POLISH OKAY. THANK YOU. SO WE'RE TALKING ABOUT TWO SEPARATE ENTITIES AND POTENTIALLY TWO SEPARATE EVENTS. THE POLISH FAIR IS USUALLY A TWO-DAY EVENT THROUGHOUT POLISH TOWN AND THE POLISH FESTIVAL IS MORE INCLUSIVE TO THE POLISH HOLE, THE PARKING LOT AREA AND GOLASKI STREET. OKAY. SO THEN WHY DOES THE RESOLUTION STATE THAT IT'S A FAIR AND FESTIVAL? I DON'T KNOW WHY IT SAYS AND FESTIVAL. THAT NEEDS TO BE CORRECTED. OKAY. SO SHOULD WE AMEND IT AND JUST HAVE IT READ POLISH TOWN STREET FAIR AND DROP IT? I THINK SO. YEAH, I THINK THAT'S THE WAY WE CAN KIND OF KEEP THE TWO SEPARATED. YEP. AND WE DON'T KNOW IF THEY'RE GOING TO I'M ASSUMING THEY'RE NOT GOING TO BE ON THE SAME DATES, BUT THAT WOULD BE SOMETHING THAT WILL BE DETERMINED AT A LATER TIME, I GUESS. WELL, THEY ALWAYS WERE. THEY ALWAYS USED TO BE. YES. ALL RIGHT. NO PROBLEM. WE'LL MAKE THAT QUICK AMENDMENT. YES. Okay. Resolution 32, appointment and approval of the fee schedule for the Rainer Group P.E. and L.S. PLLC as consulting engineers and land surveyors. This is just an update for the people that we use for land surveying and engineers. Resolution 33, authorizes the supervisor to enter into an agreement with specified employees. This had to do with a bereavement situation where we allowed the individuals or allowing them to take bereavement time a little bit different than what the contract says because it was a time lag for the services to be done for the family member that they lost. So. Resolution 34, Ward's bid installation of water mains and appurtenances, SEA Seacrest Estates Subdivision, a.k.a. the villas at Roanoke. Riverhead Water District.

A water department is very busy. They are. They are a busy bunch over there. Resolution 35, Ward's bid hydraulic control valve maintenance services contract, Riverhead Water District. Number 36, another one, Ward's bid distribution system maintenance and emergency services contract, Riverhead Water District. These all just come due roughly at the same time. So it's just a matter of time. It's nothing new. It's just the contract is up and it's renewing. Resolution 37, ratifies the acceptance of resignation from a public safety dispatcher. That's the positions we're looking to fill. Just a quick note to the people out there. Take, if you're looking for job opportunities, take a civil service test. They're easy to find out how, when, and where. Go online to the Suffolk County Department of Civil. Service. They list descriptions of all the jobs, of all the tests for the jobs that they're giving. Especially for our younger people. I mean, it's a civil service job. Actually, you can afford to live on Long Island with many of these jobs. And just take the test. You never know where it's going to bring you and where it's going to land you. But there's so many opportunities and such a wide variety of fields that you could go into. I just, I highly recommend people take civil service tests. We can't emphasize that enough. We're looking, as a town, when we hire, we run out of people on the list. You know, the list, there's nobody on it anymore. It's like, you know, people looking for jobs. These are some good jobs. Benefits, you know, take those tests. I can't emphasize that enough. Frank, part time?

Okay, resolution 38, accepts the retirement of a custodial worker one. George Modern. George has been with us a number of years. Most of his years were spent down at the senior center. So, wish George the best on his retirement. And we're going to miss him. Number 39, appoints bond counsel. Again, something that we do every year. Number 40, appoints financial advisor. Ditto. Number 41, authorizes town clerk to publish and post bid for water service materials. Is that water department again? They are needy. It's the headliner today. Number 42, authorizes town clerk to publish and post bid for charter buses. These are buses that are used for recreation and senior center trips throughout the year that they go out to bid for. Resolution 43, authorizes supervisor to execute agreement with the adventure group LLC DBA Cousins Paintball. Bob, is there anything you want to discuss on this? I think this is something that's good. It's somebody coming in to pay us $60,000 a year for maybe I think seven acres roughly. And so that money will go toward the park. And it's been unused land since probably the dinosaurs were here. So, making good use of it and putting money into recreation. And it's another amenity that the town has to offer. And it's up at Veterans Park. And it's just to be clear, the $60,000 isn't to buy the set. It's to be clear, the $60,000 isn't to buy the seven acres. They're leasing it from us to do this, to run paintball up there. How long are they going to be doing that for? They have, you know, they're going to be doing it. They have the option to renew. So, again, it's in the woods. It's not on any open fields or anything. It's unused property. And they're going to actually build a facility there? No, they don't build. They just put it. Just the natural wooded areas. They just take two containers. And the other thing they do is they put it in the woods. So, they make a lot of money for the ! Yeah, so, they're no permanent improvements. It's a license agreement. Pursuant to the terms of a license agreement, the municipality, us, town of Riverhead, we reserve the right to terminate at any time. puts the other side on notice but notwithstanding that because it's a license at any time we can always take it back for municipal use but i will say and bob it's it's more than seven acres it's about 14. oh 14. yeah that's 14 in the woods once again but he is doing some permanent problem because he is he is building on the standard roadway off of the fire access road and he's building a parking area right until the 2014 map well he's not building a roadway he is improving a portion of the property uh for parking but whether or not you would consider that permanent it's not asphalt uh it's got curbing and drainage and stuff are you saying everything right i don't i i'm not certain it would require that an engineer is going to work with him it's what i was asked in the exec session that they put rca down for and they they purchased that from a dec approved site i think maybe in the road he did offer to redo the bike path but that was nobody thought where the parking is according to the map you have to be able to get from the fire access road to the parking lot so he has to build travel road yeah i wouldn't it without a road overall it can be beneficial it's it's not the groundwork we'll call it a phase one to the parking lot right exactly correct and we've already consulted consulted with ken testa and he's gonna review all the plans and oversee all the work i have one other question i know that the dog park is right in that area correct that they're going to be some kind of buffer i i don't know that much about people but i can just see yeah there's two containers and also and this just did come up early on and we looked at this very early on and they took the decimal readings but there's a pickleball court there this the whack of a pickleball is actually more decibels than the paintball shot and i think also was moved back that's correct further south so it's a really excellent point and concerns were raised so number one we pushed his project back making it small and in the space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space space There's also going to be netting that a paintball can't escape from the paintball area out to the dog park or the pickleball court. So we tried to put in three or four additional safeguards that we didn't have in the original agreement. All right. I didn't know some of the backlog on it. What about bathrooms? They put in, they have four bodies. Okay. Okay. Resolution 44 adopts a local law amending chapter 301 of the Riverhead Town Code entitled zoning and land development part four, subdivision and land development article 53. Subdivision regulations. This is I think part three of the rec fees that the supervisor is- Yes, for the rec fees for dwelling units. Resolution 45 authorizes attendance at judicial continuing education program. This is for Justice Schoenwalter. Number 46, budget transfer for 2023 legal fees. Number 47 appoints official online publication. This is naming Riverhead local, correct? Yes. Yes. Naming Riverhead local to be the official online publication. News review will be the official newspaper. Print newspaper, right. 48 ratifies the reclassification of a maintenance mechanic three. And 49 ratifies the reclassification of an automotive mechanic two. And that's it. Okay. So we're going to move on to the next item. We're going to move on to the next item. We're going to move on to the next item. We're going to move on to the next item. Okay. Before we end the meeting, I just-I wanted to mention that Riverhead lost a member of its community this week. And many people, I know the board all knows him, but he's known-well known throughout the town. His name is Ron Schmidt. He's a retired lieutenant from the sheriff's department, but he was so active in the town on so many different things. He's been on committees with the town, the rec advisory committee for years. He ran Riverhead Little League for a number of years and made such a name. And made such great improvements up there and did such a good job while he was president of the league. They actually named one of the fields after him up there. So we just want to say, you know, we're going to miss you, Ron, and our thoughts and prayers to your family. His son Ron followed him and he's also working over for the sheriff's department. And thoughts and prayers to you and we're going to miss Ron. Okay. That ends our work session for today. And I would like to have a motion to close the work session. We are done. We have no executive session to go into. Second. All in favor? Aye. Okay. All opposed? No. We are officially closed. People have a great weekend. 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. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.