Full Transcript

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, Craig.

We have no real announcements. Well, I guess this is kind of a real announcement. Just happy Super Bowl weekend. Everybody have a good time. Enjoy the game. We're going to get right into our discussion items. Matter number one, we have matters surrounding an update on town action regulating online retailers selling of lithium ion batteries. We will ask Bob Kern and Danielle Hurley and Andrew Smith to come on up. Good morning. Good morning. Sir.

So, what we did here is we extended the code to include online retailers so that they could not ship into any of our zip codes. And the fines are, I'll let Danielle. Right. So, it actually didn't need a code amendment. We're using our existing code. So, just a little bit of background. Chapter 213, Article 3, which is the sale and resale of lithium ion batteries that was adopted by the town board December 5th, 2023. And we received the file letter back from the state on January 4th, 2024. That's when the law becomes effective. So, that code was about the selling of non-UL batteries. Since then, as Fire Marshal Smith will attest, there have been some lithium ion battery fires. Not since our code thing. Most of them predate our code change. There have been some in the county. The county fire marshals are keeping stats on them. So, if we do have one, we'll report it to them. Their stats go to the state with all the other stuff, but the county fire marshals are keeping stats on that. So, also, New York City has had, recently, had a lot of these fire issues. So, Councilman Kern came to me and asked what we can do about the issue with online retailers because big places like eBay, Amazon, Walmart, things like that, they're selling these items and how can we regulate that in some way? So, I looked into the New York City local law number 39, local law 39, which is what we modeled our code after. And there, the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection is using local law 39 to prosecute online retailers. So, since our code is almost identical to theirs, we're going to start using our code to prosecute online retailers. So, our plan for that is to send out, which will be forthcoming on the website, a public service announcement similar to what the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection has done. Just letting everybody know, this is the law, it is now on the books, and we're going to be using it against online retailers. Along with that, with the help of the fire marshal and code enforcement and Councilman Kern, we drafted a warning letter that we're going to be sending out to places like eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, people that are shipping. And we're going to advise of the code and the penalties, and ask that they stop shipping to the certain zip codes that we have listed here in the warning letter, 11901, 11933, 11931, 11947, 11970, and 11792.

So, we're hoping that with the PSA and the warning letters going out that they'll stop shipping, because right now, if you go onto Amazon and you try and ship to New York City, it won't let you. So, we're looking to kind of have that same thing going on here. We are asking the public if they see any online retailers selling these items, that they contact code enforcement or my office so we can send them a warning letter as well. So. Good. Very good. That's no easy task. Getting it. How will enforcement work? That's a big curiosity on an online thing. On our end, this just gives us the teeth if we get some kind of shop or something that's selling them, and we're doing inspections, we identify, oh, you're talking about specifically on the online end? Yeah. Unfortunately, it'd probably come to if there was a fire and we identified one of these items being purchased from an online retailer, and we could figure out the date, and at that point, as long as they were already put on notice, I think we could issue fines to those corporations. Right, and potential Supreme Court actions, because these companies are obviously out of state. Right. Is there a fine to the purchaser? No. It's to the online. And just to be clear, there are certain chemicals, certain devices that cannot be shipped into different states, so this is not something that's uncommon. Sad fact of this is that the federal government has done nothing, and the state government has done nothing. That's the sad fact that we have to do what the federal government should be doing and what the state should be doing, particularly the Bureau of Standards on the federal side and the New York State Safety Commission. New York State Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Yeah. They've done nothing, so they've been neglecting this. The feds have been neglecting this, so we'll do what the city's doing, and I think a lot of people will start doing it. A lot of towns. Sure. Well, thank you for your work on this, Bob. I know you spent a lot of time doing this, Danielle, Andrew, also. I think it's a great it's good to have this because you put the news on almost every night there's a fire in the city somewhere. You know, they're reporting on another one of these batteries blowing up and whatnot, so it's good and I appreciate the work that's been done. Anybody have any questions? I'll just say one more thing. What we did when we initially got into this, we went out to Amazon, we looked at batteries, and we looked at the reviews, and so many reviews on chargers and batteries were horrendous. Caught on fire, it gets really, really hot, had to unplug it, blah, blah, blah. So, I mean, it's all black and white. But you're saying the state has no restrictions on non-UO batteries in the state of New York? I think you could probably go on Amazon right now and get a non-UO-listed battery. Those are jams. You can definitely go on there and get one shipped to Riverhead. We did a trial and error. We did a training with ATF about two weeks ago, and they got one off of Amazon to do a demonstration for us. And we did a test, and we got one shipped to us. So, are we going to hold Councilman Kern accountable for buying a battery? In honesty, it was a trial under my supervision. Okay. Yeah, it was well supervised. You're in charge of all that. We tried to, I think he had a problem getting a refund from Amazon. Yeah, we canceled it immediately. I'm still trying to get my refund. It's true. All right. Thank you very much. Great job, Bob.

Item number two. We have Drew Dillingham here from Engineering, and he's going to talk about the matters surrounding the new MS4 permit requirements. Good old state of New York has done it to us once again, and given us some unfunded mandates, and a rather thick listing of these mandates, and hopefully you're not going to go through every one of them, but it's incredible. It's incredible what's in there. You can give us a Reader's Digest. I am going to do that. It's still going to be painful. I forgot to bring my pillow down here. There's just no way of making it happy, as you say. Happy and fun. It's not either. Okay, so the EPA was sued.

The lawsuit has been lasting, or had lasted seven years, and finally the EPA, came up with a permit that was acceptable to the parties that were placing the lawsuits, environmental entities. The new permit was passed down from the EPA to the DEC, and then the DEC delegates it to us. Each MS4 operator must electronically submit a notice of intent by the 20th of February. There are, again, this is just an overview right now. There are many specific plans needed to be prepared and updated annually. And there's still an annual report. There are interim progress certifications due twice a year. Drew, just for the public listening and watching, what is MS4? Oh, geez, sorry. That's the first thing I should have done. MS4 stands for Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Separate Storm Sewer Separate Storm Sewer Separate Storm Sewer System. Separate Storm Sewer System Separate Storm Sewer System Separate Storm Sewer System That's what it stands for. So it's basically all your storm pipes and anything that's connected to them. The key to it is the state is only interested in storm sewers that are discharging to a water body. storm sewers that are discharging to a water body. storm sewers that are discharging to a water body. That's all they care about. But still, that puts us up, you know, over several hundred catch basins. We cleaned, I was cleaning one catch basin this morning at the riverfront, because it's cold. Because it's causing a mess down there. And it took us from, well, they're still working on it. They started at 7.30 in the morning, the highway did, and it was packed all the way up to the grate with sediment. So they backed it out, took three hours, and they're still working on it. And this was last cleaned about how long ago? Oh, boy. How long did you get out of them? I know it depends on weather and everything. If it's downtown, I know Mike tries to get them annually. Right. But it doesn't always work like that. So yeah, three hours, and there are many catch basins out there just like this, so that gives you some idea of how long that's going to take. The mapping requirements have been expanded, many deadlines imposed, and several new types of training. The permit itself, It's the first page. I know, that was just page one. Go ahead, Joe. It's really not much. It's really not much. 162 pages long. The fact sheet alone is 55 pages. Permit's five years. And the previous permits have given great latitude to MS4s. This one is much more prescriptive. Okay, so I'm just going to read the list of new plans and programs we've created. And I'm going to go ahead and read the list of new plans and programs we've created. So, I'm going to go ahead and read the list of new plans and programs required. There are ten of them. Enforcement Response Plan Monitoring Locations Inspection & Sampling Program Elicit Discharge Track Down Program Elicit Discharge Elimination Program Construction Oversight Program Post Construction Stormwater Practice Inspection & Maintenance Program Municipal Facility Program facility-specific stormwater pollution prevention plans, municipal operations program, and catch basin inspection program. Those are the ten new programs and plans. The training, eight new types of training. Elicit discharge inspection and sampling, elicit discharge track down procedures, elicit discharge elimination procedures, construction oversight procedures, erosion and sediment control, municipal operations procedures, municipal facilities procedures, post-construction stormwater practice inspection and maintenance. So the catch basin cleaning program. This is just one program, but it's pretty important because it also supports the spills over to highway. I spoke with Mike Zaleski about this and he said to fulfill these requirements of catch basin cleaning, we would have to get new equipment because otherwise it would beat the other equipment to death within a few years. And you could get more than one crew out doing some of these at the same time. Correct. So if you've got one vac truck, you know, you're limited to what you can do. This stuff does beat them up. And the vac trucks are very expensive. And he needs a sweeper truck too. And the sweepers. Vac trucks are $500,000 and sweepers are $700,000 and with each one you need two people, so with benefits it's like $100,000 each. So just those two pieces of equipment and personnel is $1.6 million. Unfunded. Unfunded. Unfunded. Unfunded. Unfunded. Unfunded. Unfunded. Unfunded. Unfunded. Unfunded. Unfunded. Unfunded. Unfunded. Unfunded. Really? Really?

And then lastly, sweeping. Between April 1st and October 31st, all town roads, again, within the watersheds, all town roads and all town parking lots, that's especially important because there are so many of them, have to be swept or cleaned, again, annually from April 1st to October 31st. And then after that, every five years in the spring. Just to give credit to Mike Zaleski, he does, I mean, every street in the town does get swept once a year. Yep. That's not something new, but he does not sweep necessarily all of our parks, parking lots, all town parks. And that's going to be time consuming. Yep, it is. Okay. Last thing. Just to give you some idea of our deadlines. Just by July 3rd, which is six months, we have 12 deadlines.

Enforcement response plan, comprehensive mapping. We have to do some... Okay. Really? education to the public and also elicit discharge and good housekeeping which is ties into highway and municipal garage um i have to establish an organizational chart which we have we just have to add on to it and i would be the main contact for that i've skipped over a few this one develop and maintain a prioritized inventory of all construction sites note that within 30 days of when a construction site becomes active it must be prioritized so that's going to be construction sites both of ours as well as planning and building and then numbers mcm6 which is good housekeeping develop and implement procedures for sweeping and or cleaning structures and there are a few more but that gives you an idea of what this is like and there's every year there's this many deadlines until 2029 and then after that everything that you've already done has to be done either every three years or five years depending on what it is um In Department Head, I already mentioned this, but I'll mention it again. I asked a consulting firm how much it would cost us for this consulting firm to comply with the permit for the first year for us, do all our permit requirements. We would obviously have to help, but they would do most of the work. For the first year, their estimate said $30,000.

I've spoken with Dawn, and she is looking into grants as we speak, and she said there are available grants for this type of need.

Other than that, I would say one person full-time. We would have to work on this project. Now, we can do it in-house, but there will be little time for anything else for the first couple of years. We could hire someone. A stormwater manager is, I think, $65,000, but we name our price because we've never had that title here before. Other than that, those solutions, if anyone has any questions, comments. I know you and I have both spoken to Assemblywoman Giglio. She is aware of what is taking place with this. She's going to talk to her co-workers and see if there's something that might be able to be done. Honestly, there are towns that aren't going to be able to afford to do this. We can't afford to do it. There's also talk of a possible class action suit statewide. If that happens, then maybe we will win. Jody's looking into that also. Again, unfunded mandates, they kill you. They absolutely kill you. I get it. It's good stuff that's being done. I understand that, and it's all about our water. It's overkill. Yeah. It's overkill. Well, it makes me laugh because you go past construction sites and you see that little black fencing that they put up that's supposed to stop any runoff. What's it stopping? I mean, in reality, is that stopping anything? It's really not. Or bales of hay. I mean, water's still going to go right through there if it's got contaminants in it. If it's installed right, which it never is, it works fairly well. You see it blowing, flapping in the wind and everything. No one ever maintains it, and that's why we have to. We have to start doing construction site inspections. That's what the state wants us to do. Understood. Understood. Mr. Dillingham, I just wanted to ask, the consultant firm is one we've already used in the past, right? It is. And they were also willing to work with us on- They were. So that's good. And the other thing I just want to express to the public is that all of the runoff water from washing the vehicles has to be captured as well, correct? That's one thing that I didn't mention. That's a huge expense. Yes. Yes. That's a huge expense too. That's huge. We are talking, I belong to the Peconic Estuary Protection Committee, and we were actually talking about maybe sharing one of those vehicle washing facilities only because it's required now in this permit to collect all your water, your wash water. No one does, or hardly anyone does. But they're going to, if they do an audit, that's what they're going to be looking for. Okay. So again, we're talking about it on a committee scale, and hopefully we can get together and find a solution that will benefit everybody. The deadline's as given. Is there any way to request extensions in time frames so that we get into next year's budget? Because simply right now, the money's not in our budget, it's not available. How do you comply? You just do the same thing. Okay. Okay. You just do the best you can. If you get, first of all, auditing, there's so much paperwork involved in these that an audit, I'm bringing up auditing because you asked how we would do it. Well, the audit would find whether or not we're doing it. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. to get is a compliance schedule from the dec and the compliance schedule says you haven't done this this and then this or you haven't done this correctly by such and such date we want this done but it just you know we as a board sit to do everything we can to be fiscally responsible and watch every dollar that's going in and out and how we're expending things and then the state of new york the governor just hands us down basically a one one and a half million dollar bill and says good luck with this and so when we sit here and you try to explain to our taxpayers why next year's budget will potentially be a million and a half dollars more that there's nothing we can do about it because we're we're required to comply it's it's like the supervisor said it's another unfunded mandate that's what puts five but these are the consequences and and i i understand the principles and and we're not here to be that we got to do everything in our power to to be you know environmentally clean and sound and and do everything we can but even building a washing station we're blessed to have our own sewage treatment plant but there's a there's an enormous cost if we're going to build our own washing station where the water can then go into the sewage plant so that's an advantage that we have perhaps of the towns but still you know you're talking a hundred thousands of dollars to build a washing plant so that all of our highway vehicles our patrol cars policing department everything you know it's it's a lot of money it's a lot more than one and a half million dollars 150 000 for one of these facilities that was years ago yeah but yeah having to be able to capture the water and descend it into the sewage plant it's another enormous course so as much as we sit here and try to do everything we can then how do you how do you explain to the public that you know here we go we're already on our way to piercing the tax cap next year and we don't want to do any of that but where are you going to cut as you mentioned earlier when you're trying to do everything you can in-house to be fiscally responsible and we all appreciate that but you only have so much staff that's within the budget and what you're really doing is taking somebody away from working in the parks or the building and grounds to work on something else and it just means that it suffers someplace else so i think unfortunately in a process like this you're going to have to increase your staff the consulting work can be done by others but still somebody's got to go out there somebody's got to sweep the parking lot somebody's got a vacuum and we got to buy the equipment right and that's that's where the budget figure came in before do you have a question so if you got a consult a consultant you would not need this storm water manager or you need both no we wouldn't okay we would not because between us and the consultant they would comply with all the requirements of the permit for the first year and and gone you know she said she's pretty confident she can get that that's the first step right to identifying mapping out the drains etc so that's a good faith effort on its own right we're well advanced on the maps fortunately okay um just because the gis people that we've had in the past were always good and kept up to date on the permits

so it would be the additional vehicles and a full-time person to help basically paperwork compliance okay so well you mean if we didn't go with a consultant right right that's correct be a full-time person and that full-time person just for the paperwork and then we need um a sweeper um a back truck and probably four more workers and i think that comes up to 1.6 million in debt and i think that's a good thing that's a good thing that's a good thing and don't watch the cars till next january when we do right like i said hardly any municipalities have their own uh truck wash facility so it's just going on the ground right now for the most part so who sued the epa the dc or state no it was a environmental activist group who sued them um and this isn't the first time they got sued again in 2010 when they had to leave up the permit as well and this this time is just out of control i think they they gave um they gave the group that was suing them pretty much everything they wanted and i'm very surprised that there's not a class-action suitor going on already when did this entire mandate come out like to be sent to your attention to say um well this has been a work in progress for you this has been a work in progress for you in the last couple of years progress but for years for the last three years nothing happened and we were going by the old permit when this came out it was we knew it was coming out but we had no idea what the dc wasn't telling us anything so the permit became effective january 3rd we got it january 2nd so that's what i'm trying to do so it's not as though you know it's been sitting on a desk for six months and could have been part of the budget this year it's they gave you 24 hours notice we had no idea when this was going to happen plus they limit the time when this is to be done like from i don't know what you said april to october or march to october those yes those are the annual well actually that's the uh one of the interim reports timeline there's two interim reports um it's one's doing october one's doing april in addition to that the the annual report which is separate from the certification reports is due also april 1st what was due february uh 20th of this february 20th is called the notice of intent and it's a very short document that tim is supposed to sign that says the town um promises to comply with all the requirements of this new permit what happens if we sign that and then there is a class action lawsuit have we already formally committed to following the the grounds of what no if there's a if there's a cr if there's a class action lawsuit it's going to trump anything that we've been doing because that's meant to relieve some of the pressure not to increase it so drew one of the suggestions from the community development agency you know as dawn searches everything she can through grants is are you able to reach out to the other five bc's and say hey i'm going to do this in town fist ! be through an inter-municipal agreement purchase one back that that the five eastern towns could share or a sweeper and so forth that can be shared we have been discussing that okay um it'd be a lot more cost effective perhaps it is we just started discussing that a couple of meetings ago so it hasn't gone very far yet but it's definitely come on yep sorry okay but it's definitely on the table and everyone is going to need a new vac truck and a sweeper for this i mean if it it might work out well with different towns if because the timing is only you know for to do the town parks and to do other things right some kind of like can be shared amongst the other five eastern towns yeah i think the governor should buy us a back door personally send it to us

okay well thank you bearer of good news i appreciate it happy fun projects right i kid with you through but it i understand that i think we all get the importance of having to do this it's just a matter of how we're going to fund it i used to actually like small more and he just made it unbearable yeah that's a shame is that it that's it okay thank you sir thank you thank you okay next up we have an overview of the comprehensive plan update um progress to date timeline and we're going to ask dawn thomas and our wonderful planning people and who else Oh no Levine's gonna join us on line correct on

I can hear you can you hear me absolutely terrific um John do you want to start you want me to start I'll just just intro you kind of but we're you know the completion of the plan is on time and on our budget so far so I guess I can just kick it to Noah for some details on what we've been discussing and where we are there's going to be some additional chapters in a draft plan posted not too long from now and for people to comment on sorry as well as the steering committee so if you want to take it from there sure um is it okay if I just I have a couple slides it just might be helpful to just show them just to walk through where we are just bear with you one second it's a very short presentation I just wanted to um just give you a quick overview um and thank you for meeting with us um this is I think a good step just to keep you posted it's obviously very important for you to to stay abreast of progress as you will be uh hopefully adopting the plan um you know once once we have something to uh to show you which should be fairly soon um just quick update uh many of you um were at our last public meeting in December um you know I think it was a very uh very um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um about

so we did fulfill that in the last public meeting with regard to the chapters we have made a lot of progress these are the chapters in the plan the ones that are highlighted in green have already been posted to the project website the other chapters we are reviewing with town staff we've had weekly meetings with town staff to go over a little details just to make sure we have things as correct as can be at this point understanding that it is an interim document and we know a lot of the eyes will be on the document and so they're not final documents by any stretch but we want to make sure they're in in a good place before they're posted online we are anticipating posting the remainder of the chapters uh by next week so the idea of you know having all the chapters posted by february 15th we could then have a 30-day comment parade for the steering committee and ! members of the public to look at those chapters and and give us comments it's important to note that the chapters are developed in word and so they're kind of in a unformatted fashion we really want to focus on the content in these documents rather than the formatting with regard to photos and graphics and acknowledgements and all of other things that we will put in the plan that will come once we you know have confirmation on the content so this slide just provides a general timeline so february um and and on the left side shows the comprehensive plan update and the right side it shows a seeker process which will be happening concurrently so as i mentioned before um in february we'll be posting the draft chapters online we're also working on the draft geis the big portion of that will be the build out analysis where we're looking at proposed changes and we're also working on the draft gis and we're also working on the draft gis and how they might affect the future build out of the town uh and in march uh we'll have that 30-day review period and we'll concurrently be working on the dgis once that period is over um we'll revise the document format it in a nicer way and present that to the town board for review um and we'll also in march be uh presenting um the dgis chapters to town staff first to the city council and then we'll be working on the dgis chapter for review and then we'll be working on the dgis chapter for review and then we'll be working on the dgis chapter for review and then we'll um to you know make sure they're in a good place before they're um finalized and and given to the town board so in april we're hoping that everything will be to be able to be submitted to the town board um that includes the draft plan and the dgis chapters um at that point we'll go through the seeker and the adoption process which will include public hearings um the fgis the findings and you know the adoption of you know hopefully both documents and so it'll just kind of follow along the the kind of regular prescription timeline that's required as part of the seeker process so thank you thank you thank you thank you progress is great okay so it was concerning going back you know six months ago but but you guys doing a great job and keeping us on schedule so thank you first I will say the weekly meetings with BFJ have been really productive when they're getting the chapters out we're reviewing them so that's been very helpful in just keeping us on track and making sure everything's progressing properly yeah the timeline's been adhered to and that's we're very glad about that plus the quality of work fantastic so well the planners along with John you guys have been working I've stopped in to some of your meetings and you're you don't expect me to come in and you're hard at work and you're really doing a very very great job along with Noah you're doing a good job we down into the weeds at this point it's good fine-tuning anything so we could document as you get into you know as Matt said the weeds you know there's a lot of little details to get into and we're doing our best to provide the town with some guidance a lot of those recommendations will need to be further refined once the plan is done but the you know the plan is really it provides the town with guidance it doesn't necessarily solve every single problem but it does help to point out the areas that really need more attention and I think we've done a lot to advance some of those ideas for you know 10 years minimum and I think if you read it you'll see that it really is good guy comes in like good guidance for the next 10 years it's really very well done agreed worker bees you have any questions or comments I mean I just agree with dawn it to the point you know that like Noah said the the comp plan is not the the silver bullet you know here's the definitive document that's gonna solve every ill or wall of the town but it gives us guidance to allow us to evolve our codes you want to respond to stuff as we as it comes up and kind of keep it as a living document so yeah that's what's more of a blueprint so you guys make it look so easy but I watch me how it work we have we have good consultants that make it easy for us I've never had any dreams or nightmares about comp plans since we've started

working any further comments or questions very pleased that we just thank you very much thank you very much thank you thank you

okay next up we have the bitma matters surrounding 2024 event schedule and we have Christy Verity from the big Christy how are you doing everyone good morning all right so we were here a few months ago talking about some of the changes to the events and happenings and I'm just here to submit our final list of dates I'll run through them quick we have reflections art in the park co-hosted with Easton tourism Alliance then we have two live on 25 this year one in July one in August with two rain days we have cardboard boat race co-hosted with the Chamber of Commerce and then we have the !Rain Dates! Octoberfest with reflections in October Halloween Fest and then holiday parade in the Santa house so the only other changes that I have to suggest are Halloween vest for one I've been working with PD historically well I think the coffin race portion of it began on the riverfront years ago and then you know flooding on riverfront it was moved up to Griffin Avenue and you know well it's great on Griffin Avenue we have the courthouse steps sort of as bleachers It presents a lot of challenges. You know, we're running all across town throughout the day, and even people that are at the coffin races, they run a little bit over, they're missing out on the trick-or-treat portion and whatnot. This year, 2023, it was the first year that PD closed Main Street for trick-or-treating, and it worked out wonderfully. So the bid suggesting that we move the coffin races onto Main Street probably start in front of Star Confectionary and head east because PD wants to leave Pecanic Avenue and Roanoke open. And they have a TCO to cross people over at that intersection. That may be a change that we're making. PD's in favor of it. You know, it would be easier for them with the street closure and whatnot. And I think it would just be nice to keep everyone in one place. We just have to be mindful because they've been doing a lot of construction on Main Street, and the road is pretty choppy right now. Yes. They are going to be repaving it. I don't know when that's going to take place. So maybe if we can get a date on that, we'll check and see. But I love it having it right there because it's a great place to be. Because it makes all the sense in the world. That way one can float right into the next, and nobody's missing out on anything. Right. And, you know, that's a great point. You know, as far as all the events that we're throwing downtown, I think everything right now is very contingent on the landscape. It's changing and evolving, and we don't really have a timeline on those things. So, you know, even speaking about the holiday events, we don't know what the shape of Town Square will be come, you know, winter, that parking lot in the back. So we're kind of evolving as we move along. I mean, with Halloween Fest, we've moved the showmobile a couple of times. I eliminated it last year. So, you know, all of these things are just contingent on the state of the town at the time of the event. And I like the fact that the Alive on 25, you've stepped down to two dates. I think you're going to have two really hugely attended programs when you do it that way. That's what we're hoping for. The four kind of watered it down a little bit and spread it out, but I think you're going to see every one of them. Each of these both will be like the fireworks show one. Right. Where it's really packed out. Right. Yes, you mentioned. Last time, you know, strain on resource and the town holding for. There's a lot of other events happening downtown. I know townscapes bringing back the music in the park. They have the Blues Festival. I spoke with the, I think it's, I don't want to say the wrong organization, but they want to do Shakespeare in the park again and they want to do it downtown. So I think that there's a lot of other events that are happening. Right. And by cutting back on these, we can support those events and get things off the ground. I have one pending. I have a discussion with these anti-bias task force, like a food unites, you know, bringing culture and diversity events to downtown. So while we're pulling back on Alive on 25 a little bit, we'll be able to, you know, expand in other directions and activate with other organizations. Sure. So the same thing with the holiday parade and the Santa House and bonfire. We're in discussion with some other groups to see if we can collaborate a little more on that. And the only change to that, the big change is the bonfire. We've had some meetings with the fire department and the fire marshal and the bid has discussed this. We voted on changing the bonfire from one large wood fire to multiple fire pits that we could put throughout Town Square or like I said, the landscape changes. We do a tree laying on the East End Arts Campus. We can do them there and also, you know, potentially use them with other events and do things recreational downtown. My vision with it is, you know, fire pits spread out throughout town. You know, you can do things like fire pits in Town Square and you have businesses like North Fork Chocolate or Mugs on Me can sell things like s'mores kits and coffee and, you know, things like that. Be a little more interactive and have another activity. So that's, you know, our general updates for our events. Any questions? I just have a quick one. I think it's really appreciative that you have come here today to give our town supervisor six months notice to start building his cardboard boat. How do I answer that? Well, first of all, they don't need cardboard strong enough for this body to get in and stay afloat. So I'm going to have to try to sneak some fiberglass reinforcement in there or something. That's a problem. Residents, start bringing your cardboard to Town Hall. And I will say that the past few years we've had an excellent representative of the supervisor's office do that. And I think in fairness, because if I go out there and I win, I'm competing against a woman. And it doesn't look good should I win that race. So I think with our deputy supervisor and the supervisor from the town of Southampton being a female, it will be a perfect. It's a perfect. Yeah. There you go. Oh, absolutely. That's right. I don't know how to swim. That's right. Oh, I had shoulder replacement surgery. I can't paddle. That's right. I forgot about that. That's my excuse. It has been suggested that we have a council member race. And all of our council members participate. Oh. That's great. Yeah. Yeah. Rest assured I will never run for a council person. Because I do not want to participate in the . It is a really fun day though I have to say. It is. It's a great event. It's well attended and everybody does a great job. Mark M.K.'s been emceeing for the past couple of years. And it's just, it's a really fun day. And the weather's always been pretty good too. Yeah. So. Yeah. And that one, we have a lot of moving parts with that event. I mean we have the show mobile come in there. They brought the bleachers the past couple of years. B&G is with us all day. PD is down there. Power Squadron. You know there's so many entities there. And it's so well run. Well oiled machine at this point. And it's really such a nice community event. So. The excitement of the kids getting in the boats and going. I mean the kids are like they're all wound up. They love it. They're out there. And they do a great job. I got to say. Yeah. And the boats. I just, I love seeing the boats. It's incredible what people can create in their garage and bring down and race with. Yeah. And the turnout this past year was phenomenal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. is posted for August 17th and we just approved the Polish Town Fair for that same date. I did see that. I think the Polish Fair begins a little later in the day. We wrap up by 1 o'clock. So we start... It starts at 10. It doesn't start at 10? I'm just worried about the manpower with the police. They have hour dates and they have the Polish Fest dates too, so they do usually give some feedback if there's any sort of, you know, overlap or if they're concerned in any way. But I did see the update for Polish Fest, so I'll reach out to Katie and just make sure. These dates are also for the cardboard boat race. Keep in mind the tide also, right? Yes. Yes. And we're doing the... We moved to Live on 25 from the first weekend of August because we didn't want to, you know, coincide with the tides and the boat race and do too much at once. So that's kind of why things are all scattered a little bit on the schedule. Okay. Christy, I think it's great. I think it's really smart that you're working... with the other organizations because I'm really glad to hear that Townscape is going to bring the music back to the park. You know, start that again. So... Yeah. Yeah. It's great. I mean, we couldn't do it without the help of other organizations and the town and everyone involved. Great. You're always looking for volunteers. Oh, absolutely. So can you say for the people at home a website or an email address to get a hold of you? Sure. Volunteers, sponsors, very important. And then, you know, we can also suggest other entities. And events and organizations that people can volunteer with so it doesn't necessarily have to be an event. Right. But people could certainly email me, hello at DowntownRiverhead.org. And then on DowntownRiverhead.org we also have a contact form that comes directly to me. Excellent. I just want to say the trick-or-treating event was amazing. And the competition that was had for the downtown polls with the bar, that was amazing. Yes. And also the parade. And I think I saw a couple people from town council in that parade. Yeah. How many bags of candy did they have? Yes. And did Bob fill up? That's what I want to know about that parade, huh? Yes. This past year we had a grant from EDA that we purchased the candy with. And I purchased a little over $6,000 worth of candy and handed out to downtown businesses. So we're looking for sponsors for that. We don't have that grant this year. But yeah, it grows every year Halloween fast and it's wonderful. I mean, you never know what's going to happen all of a sudden the town is alive. Yeah. Phenomenal weather we had this year. It was like 80 degrees. Yes. It was. Too hot for house in the winter. Yeah. Right. And when speaking to people they were coming from all over. Yes. It wasn't just local residents. It's drawing people. So I think that every year it's just going to keep getting better and better. Yeah. If that's even possible because last year was great. It was nice. And it was nice to see PD. They did work with the street closure a little bit. We did things a little different. Usually, you know, as the parade goes through the street opens right behind it. But they left it closed until everything was clear. And my favorite part of the event is at the end. You know, we come, we loop around in front of town square in the theater there. You have PD on the street. So you have, you know, Bob Curran, myself, and Mark M.K. and the community and everyone's interacting and happy and, you know, no incidents, nothing. So we're very fortunate and, you know, appreciate all of the community participating. And the clean up crew does such a great job. Clean up. Yes. It definitely reminds me of when I was a kid here because back in the day every parade that we had the streets were lined with people. And over time and over the years that's kind of gone away. But it's so nice to see the crowd. And I'm so proud for that Halloween parade. It's awesome. Yes. I don't know where. I mean, I'm on the street all day and see the trick or treaters and everyone. I don't know where everyone comes from because, you know, we turn the corner and we have no idea what's down there. And it blew my mind the amount of people on the street this year. It's a lot of fun. Yes. All right. Thank you, everyone. Keep up the good work. Thank you, Christy. Thank you. She's the game or the bid? The bid. She's the bid. From the bid? Yes. Can you pick me or something? Christy. Thanks. Okay. We are now moving on to item number five. And this is regarding recreation. Matters surrounding possible sponsorship program for ball fields and the brochure. And Ray Coyne, if you wouldn't mind coming up. Good morning. Are we limping a little bit? Good morning. Good morning. How are you? We're limping a little bit. Good. Thank you. Still playing some sports. See. Too much pickleball. Yeah. This is Liz. Liz. Liz. Liz. Liz Keller? Liz Keller is...puts the shine on the recreation department. She does. So... She's always smiling. We appreciate everything you do. You work very hard and a lot of these programs are successful because of your input. So, Liz, we appreciate all you do for us. Great job. So I gave Liz another task. Basically what we're doing in recreation, we have a bunch of initiatives for 2024 and so we separate it into teams. One of the teams is sponsorship and revenue building. And we're going to start in the last year. So we're going to start in the last year. And we're going to start in the last year. And we're going to start in the last year. And we're going to start in the last year. And we're going to start in the last year. And we're going to start in the last year.

Liz is in charge of that team so I wanted to bring her in to discuss what she came up with sponsorship wise so go ahead Liz

you gotta come just come to it's a lean into the money after meeting with Eric a few times down just to discuss the different possibilities legally that we can to find some money for programs we realize that we can sell ad space in our brochure and we can sell ad space in our brochure and we can sell ad space in our brochure and we can also sell banners on our ball fields like we have in the past but upon reviewing the banner prices and the ad prices for the brochures we realized that they hadn't been increased in a really long time so since everything's gone up we're just kind of asking for you to we're gonna put you a little closer okay you're not on TV no I'm just not super loud okay but you but what you're saying is super important so so we're looking for you to review the current prices versus the proposed prices because we'd like to maybe match some other departments along the island and other research that we've done that do participate in sponsorship programs like selling banners and ad spaces in their brochures so that we can be comparable to them so that's basically what we're presenting to you today is this is a way for us to generate revenue by selling sponsorship space yeah one of the things we do is we do a lot of research so we look at recreation departments all over the country this is one of them I don't even know where this is somewhere in the Midwest and so we look up all the way they do things and sponsorship so the prices are derived from these different research departments so we're just not plugging numbers out of the thin air so it's difficult to find an exact match though just so you're searching demographically you know what you're doing in terms of the price you're doing in terms of the performance Size towns are comparable to ours financial situations of the towns So that we're not pricing out potential ad buyers We want this to be you know affordable advertisement for the businesses in our community because you know We're all very community oriented. So this is what we came up with there's multiple different levels of price increase and We just wanted to present it to see if this is something that we can work towards I'm selling in 2024 and this is a start for us We want to expand it out eventually to all different areas But we felt with with Liz's research and speaking with the town attorney that this is our best bet to start So it would be selling and space in our brochure, which we do But we're now we're going to increase it because those are introductory prices many many years ago And then we want to put batters on our outfields. We have four big outfield veterans park We have at least two at Stotsky Park. We're not going to infringe on Little League's matters. And then we have the multi-purpose fields with a fence. So we feel we can, we have a lot of real estate to put ads and we feel they're cost effective for businesses to advertise. And I'm sure businesses will jump at it. How many brochures get sent out every year? 19,000. 19,000. I would just look at the prices. I still think even with your increase, you're being over generous. I think if I could take an ad out in that brochure and get into 19,000 homes throughout town, this is still bargain basement pricing. Right. And I think you're, it's excellent that you're considering raising it. It's a good source of revenue. But I mean to think that I can get it in. You know, for $500, I can be in inside cover of 19,000 homes. That's a steal. There is good coverage. And a brochure is something people keep too because if you have kids or a family, you know, you're constantly looking through it to see what's coming up. So it's not like, you know, I mean you're getting a good bang for your buck there if you will for the advertising. And we're going to press it. You know, in the past we kind of let people come to us. We're going to go to the businesses and we'll see where it goes. Supply and demand. If we get a lot of demand, we can easily increase the prices. But we want to get people on board. You got it. Do you have an idea what revenue you generated last year from the ads? Not a lot. Based on ads, I believe it was under $2,500. Double the cost. What's the cost of the publication? Oh, it varies. Right now it's $4,000 to $5,000 for the brochure. We send out three. So it's $4,000 to $5,000 a piece. Depending on the season and the size of the brochure. Do you also have an online version of it? Yes. And so you now have the ability when you sell a banner to offer for a little bit more online, right? Yeah. The other question I have, you have the cost of the banners. Is that included? So in other words, if I take out an ad for $500, I'm getting, I'm not an ad, a banner, you're paying for it? We would be paying for the banner, yes. See, that, I think you, you know. We can, we can put it in where the customer has to pay for the banner. I just priced it so that it would count for it, so that the prop would be after purchasing the banner. So that it was more accessible, easier for the ad purchaser. Because you're really getting it in front of a lot of eyes. And I like the fact you're bringing it to veterans, right? Yeah, we haven't done the banners before. Yeah. And so you can do a twofer if you're doing it over here, right? You know. Yeah. And I would look at, look at that as well. There's all different possibilities. People sell packages where you're doing a marketing package where they would buy ad space in the brochure and a 3x6 banner. And you would bundle it, basically. Exactly. So these are all just preliminary research prices, just to get it out there that we wanted to raise the prices. And like I said, I know you're saying they're low, but we didn't want to price down any local businesses. We wanted everybody to have opportunities for this. And since they were so low. Since they were so low to do such a large percent increase, we were just being mindful of people noticing the jump, especially our existing ad buyers. Okay, may I make a suggestion? Of course. So I've been involved with fundraising with journal advertising. And there's a big difference between the price of a black and white as opposed to color. There are businesses out there that are willing to pay a lot of money for the center page. Where it would be a full page color, which you can get a lot of money for. And the people that, the businesses that don't want to spend that amount of money can go down to the business size in black and white. Or more expensive to a different one with the color. And you can also, which is very cost effective, is add that you would have an online version of it. And mention them on your online version for an extra amount of money. Yeah, no, that's great ideas. And we'll definitely look into doing that for the resolution. Our goal is to get this. This big packet where we have packages for everything, including events. You know, we want eventually business to sponsor events. And so we want to spend as little money as we can out of our budget so we can afford other things. But that's why, that is an excellent tool. And I just think that if right now you're only bringing in $2,500 and that's costing you $4,000 to print it. I think that if you get, I mean, I think you should really focus on trying to make this self-sustaining. Absolutely. That would be the goal. And get it so it doesn't come out of budget. Correct. But I mean, I just look in for a quarter page for $100. I mean, that's a really low number, I mean, for a local business. I mean, I'll make a commitment right now. Come to me, I will buy an ant. You know what I mean? But it's, it's. I'm hoping you get the back of the government. I'll buy the back of the government. Thank you. Sold. I'll buy the back of the government. No, I think River has the back. But I, it's, I, you know what I mean? I just think, I think I would. You want to just push the limit a little bit more and make it self-sustaining. You could maybe another 10, 15%. Yeah, we could do that. That's just my thought. I mean, it's still a very low price. No, we just didn't want to overwhelm people because we are raising it, you know, to over 25% from where it was. So the current people, the current business that are advertising, so they've put you up a little bit. But I'm, you know, again. But if you have a prime spot, that should be worth some money. Yeah, I'm all for jacking it up, so. The super market. I'm all for jacking it up. The supervisor makes a great point. Like, like we go to events and, and, and some are charity, some are just, you know, but, but it's a, it's a brochure or an event that's handed out one night. It's read, it's put aside. The supervisor's point of that, this sits in your home for six, eight months where people continuously looking at it. Yeah, or online. It's at, you're there. So that it has a much greater value. Yeah. You could also have a parent's page where for 20 bucks they can say congratulations on your, on your, on your, on your, on your, on your, on your, on your, on your, on your little Johnny have a great year. Yeah. Yeah. There are a lot of possibilities. I agree. Yeah, definitely. Oh, I like that. When does it come out? Three times. So we have one for the winter, one for the spring, summer, and one for the fall. So for the general public, what's the deadline now for the, for the next one to come out when we got to have ads in? Actually, Liz is stepping up for the brochure this year. My deadline is end of February. So that's where we're trying to. Two weeks. Yeah. It's a small, it's a short window right now. Can I make two suggestions while you are here, Christie? You think that, I mean, the Chamber would probably put this out to their businesses because it helps them, right? To give their businesses more exposure. Would the bid put that out as well? So the bid would put it out as well. Another question that I have is do you track the online hits that you get? Yes. The system tracks it. Correct. Do you have the ability for people to opt in to not get the printed version, just to stay online? I'll tell you where I'm going with this. Currently we mail them out to. Doesn't matter, right? Yeah. So what, the reason why I'm asking that is because probably a lot of young people are going online and seeing what's happening. So if you have people opt in to, you know, we don't, we want to save paper. We'll take the online. That's where I'm going with this. We did try that twice. How long ago? How many years ago? Well, many, many years ago, one. You're talking a while ago and it was horrible. Then we tried it again, I think last year and it was okay. It's still, we still have a, Riverhead's still tilted on the, on the older side. We're leaning towards trending that way. Okay. Okay. Yeah, chamber the bid. Get it to them. They're going to put it out. Yeah, we're going to meet with, with, with Christy and go over the events and everything soon. Liz, I just have one question. Is it just for local businesses? Is it just for local businesses to advertise or is it open to other businesses throughout Suffolk County? We'll take anybody's money. I don't see any reason why it can't be open to other businesses. I just wanted to make sure that was part of it. I just tend to focus locally. Any way to help out that AO6 fund would be much appreciated. Yes. That's one of the things, the initiatives to get, get in. Our goal would be to entirely offset the cost of the brochure with that. Yeah, absolutely. And Tenga may send it to all their stores and give them the opportunity to. Yeah, we feel like that's a good idea. Yeah, we feel like that's a good idea. Yeah, we feel like that's a good idea. Yeah, we feel like that's a good idea. Yeah, we feel like that's a good idea. We get it out there and that was, we haven't pushed it. I think a lot of people will come on board. No, Liz is taking over. She's going to handle it. We have the same five ad purchasers basically, but since we're trying to generate a little bit more revenue this would be. You're going to get it done, I can tell you. I hope so. I'll take a quick look at it one more time, compare it. Maybe we can jump in. Yeah. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea. Maybe we can jump it up maybe 10, 15% before we end the resolution. Yeah. Joanne and I are going to run a bidding war. I'm offering 600 now. We'll start a bidding war for the coverage. I'll go to 625. 650. Yeah, local hasn't had that yet. We split it between Eastern Fuel and Westfield Local. Yeah, okay. Yeah, Eastern Fuel is one of the best. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. phenomenal job. Jackie does a really great job. She's very good at it. Unfortunately for her, she's on maternity leave. So I've been recycling a lot of her graphics. Great. Well, thank you folks. Thank you. This is a lot of work, so thank you. Liz's team does a great job, and she's a good leader on the team. Absolutely. Good job. Thank you. Next time I'll put you on TV, Liz.

All right. That completes all of our discussion items for open session. We're now going to enter into executive session, and we will be discussing matters surrounding a change in status of two employees with Raycoin, matters surrounding contractual agreement between the Town of Riverhead and sports facilities companies, and that will be Duane Thomas and Joe Mariana from our CDA. We have matters surrounding contractual agreement between the Town of Riverhead and sports facilities companies, and that will be Duane Thomas and Joe Mariana from our CDA. We have matters surrounding contractual agreement between the Town of Riverhead and sports facilities companies, Island Exterior Fabricators, that will be Howard and Hurley, and we have matters surrounding agreement between the Town of Riverhead and the Riverhead Central School District, and that will be myself and Chief Higginmiller. So can I have a motion to close the work session and enter into executive session? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Okay. Open session is closed, and we will be heading upstairs for executive session. Thank you all for coming out. What's that?

Thank you.