Full Transcript

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Frank.

First time we've had it with sound effects. It was a little different. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. We have several items on today for open session. First up, we have Deborah Wetzel, Anti-Litter Committee, Matters Surrounding Update on the Spring Cleanup. And Councilwoman Waski is going to lead that off with us. And if you have members of the Litter Committee, please come on up and join us. Thank you, Supervisor. Thank you. discuss it. They also have a video prepared that they would like to show today. So would you like to start with that? If you could just all state your names so that the public knows who you are. Deborah Wetzel, I'm chair of the committee. Joanne Rizzo. Jim Meineke, I've been on the committee since 2004. That's dedication. Very nice. If I may, let me just give you some background about the EWDA committee. The committee was originally started in 1986 by Jessica Dow. And I'm not sure how long the original committee lasted, but in 2004, George Bartnick brought the committee back to life. And I joined at that time, and we were active, I guess, through 2011. And then in 2019, Deb got involved with Council on the EWDA. And they brought the committee back again. So we've gone through a number of reiterations. Matter of fact, if you drive around the town and you look at the stop signs. Can you just come up a little? Yeah, you've got to talk a little closer to the microphone. So the mic can pick you up. You were going. Okay. We hope we're going to pick you up like that. Just lean in, okay? If you go around the town, you'll see stop signs and other highway markers. And there's a little blue sign on it. Okay, keep the overhead clean. Okay. So that was one of the things we did back in LIDDA. I call it LIDDA 2. Now we're into LIDDA 3, so. 3.0. 3.0. I'll turn it over to Deb. Okay. So yeah, can we play the video first? This is, shamefully, Parts of Riverhead. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. informing them that it's their responsibility to clean up same or face possible town code violations so we would generate a letter out and put them on notice that they are they have to clean that up or they will be in violation we're gonna do it again we emailed Joanne we have like a 35 page spreadsheet I have it right here businesses that would been since last summer that we've gone out to over a hundred businesses ourselves right but it might come with a threat of criminal action that might be held a little bit more in regard to cleaning up their properties but the problem seems to be that it goes to code enforcement and then code enforcement says we're too busy with housing and then it will make time for code enforcement to address us that's unacceptable what you just showed well how because very simple we will have them do it we'll be part of their daily operations to go out and do that all right so you're telling me that you're going to step it up because we've gone down this road where there this is a new road you're just a new highway you're traveling okay this is a new board let us have a crack at it that's what I'm telling you so then you know the history of what's going on because I've met with you and you we've had conversations three months it takes to go out and then it goes before a judge and the judge just goes like this and then you know I've driven recently it well a lot of the properties that we have called and gone into and they're just back to doing what they do I mean we've talked to target especially because I'm sure their target in Manhasset Hills doesn't look like this like our target you know and you know what I'm saying right so you know I mean look I I've been doing this for four years there are other members of the committee that are not here today but everybody on my committee super devoted hard-working we're all trying to make a difference in our town and we really need more support and we really appreciate the words we're not getting we're not getting what we need to to actually keep our town clean I mean my mom lives in Kutcha I drive through there it's not like our town there's just a you know the video says litter begets litter when people see garbage they think oh you know it's okay to just some let someone else pick it up or I pay taxes and someone else will pick it up I think there's a difference today I know there's a difference today but Tim Hubbard as the town supervisor has unanimous support from the entire town board behind him and he's already made efforts to expand code enforcement and to by increasing staff and department they're working on a number of different avenues and that I think that the prior administration held very tight budget for code enforcement and we're we're expanding it and they're actively doing interviews we're gonna move forward I had a chance to speak to South Hall to South Hampton and the town of Babylon about what they do about litter okay and when I spoke to Babylon you know we got into the discussion of you know picking up litter and and some of the problems they have okay and obviously one is budget okay manpower and they said apparently they go and get grants to help to defray some of the cost okay the second thing they mentioned was they work with the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department because the Sheriff Department has a program where they'll send out you know inmates to do cleanup and I think that's an important part of the Department's performance in the So I would suggest that... We've used that in the past year. We want to consider, but I think more importantly, all three towns, they have things like litter, beautification, programs like that run by the town itself. And one of the problems we've had is we need to get help. It's Bob running trying to get somebody to come and pick up the bags after the clean up day. And we would just recommend to the town to consider maybe the function of working with the litter committee is put in one of the departments. Maybe the highway department, sanitation department, whatever department, the parks department. So we have a go-to person to work with. Because one of the concerns we have, and Deb will bring this up, is we're going to have a clean up on the 28th. And the big problem becomes what do you tell the people to do with the bags? Right. Okay. Three years ago we were telling them, bring them to the dumpster next to the police station. Okay. And we've had to run around to get volunteers to bring their... You went out, I guess, to the last litter committee clean up, and we're picking bags up. So it just, to me, it sends the wrong message. We ask all these volunteers to come in, and we sit there and say, well, we'll try to figure out how we're going to pick the bags up. So it's something we can do to help with that. It's just, it's a big help to not only the committee, but all the volunteers to come out. I think it sends the right message if we're serious about cleaning up litter. In years past, I believe we've had the highway department go around and pick up those bags after the day following. No, they didn't. When I first came on the board they did. I know they did for a fact. In the years past, yeah. But when I was liaison to this committee, it was on... It was on the volunteers to bring it back. And so, and, you know, I mean, to your point, and I did get, you know, I was going to get a pickup truck from Mike was going to make the pickup truck available, you know, to go around because they're scattered throughout the town. Understood. Yeah. So, I mean, if we could do that for these guys, that would be great. I mean, absolutely. You know, on that day. I just want to bring up one, two things if I could. What's really important. Like there was a, there was a, in the video there's garbage bags that, you know, the white garbage bags that we saw. If you see that you need, that needs to be, or anybody in the town sees that, any constituencies that they need to call code enforcement and give them the address because we have significantly increased, that's no longer littering. That's illegal dumping. Those fines are significantly higher. In addition, if somebody sees a shopping cart, we, we do. We do. If somebody sees a shopping cart, we, we put two things in place. One is we now charge, where we used to just pick them up and there was somewhere around 20 a month we were picking up. Now, I understand it's down to about two or three. And they, it could be getting worse. Let Highway know, and because we're not only finding the companies because they, we also passed a law that they have to have Wi-Fi wheelchairs. Yeah. Wi-Fi wheel locks and if those do not have Wi-Fi wheel locks it gives us two opportunities one is to get money for picking up and bringing back and Two is now a fine and I believe code should not be giving any warnings Based on all the work that you guys do because you've already given all these places warnings. They should just go out and find There's only two places with shopping carts that deal Good, you know The best interest is Aldi's you return it and shop right has the GPS right now for two weeks, I see Holly Lobby's cart on Mill Road and You know 58 sitting there. I almost want to call them and say please don't call code because what they're doing is They are not following the law Home Depot also has Wi-Fi laws Because so many of their stuff has been stolen but You know That's not All the wagons, but as I've noticed I always look at it Home Depot's got a handful of them, but they're not so then they well they can be fined as well because it's now a requirement Which is required in several towns through our research throughout the country? I mean, there's one from DJ's right down doctors path right before the church once sitting on the side of the road Have you enlisted the help of the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts I Spreadsheet we're in the process of getting the Good, good There's a whole spreadsheet we're in the process of getting the Sure, but they always come to our Good, good There's a whole spreadsheet we're in the process of getting the Sure, but they always come to our You want to finish your and we also We have a plan we before every cleanup we go out and talk to all of the schools This year we're going to go out and talk to the charter school, too. I didn't have them on my list so but just going back to Code enforcement and this goes back to Southampton town They have a system where when you make a complaint right Jim you can you can track it That's like in other words Tim like they That's like in other words Tim like they You know, it's March 6th, and then March 10th, she hears from code enforcement, and then, you know, March 15th, code enforcement again. Like, we would get back these very cryptic emails, and we would have no idea what that means, what happened, which business, nothing. Just like, you know, two adjudicated, one postponed. Well, what? I mean, if they're really serious, if the town is really serious about this problem, and, you know, I think the video brought this across, it's an image problem. The town has an image problem, and again, when you drive through the rest of the North Fork, you don't see this type of garbage. And we met this week. We're going to partner with George Eldee of Wines by Nature for our cleanup on April 20th. So he has said that Brookhaven Town goes over and above. So it just brings me to, you know, why can't our town be doing the same thing as all of these other neighboring towns? If they were able to find the resources, and they were able to put it together, and their towns look great, right? Yep. I'd just like you to know that I'm also the liaison for the beach committee, and they would very much like to. I'd like to help with your efforts on your cleanup day. Okay, great. Are they on your list? Can I ask a quick question? The Chamber of Commerce, I've tried to call several times on another topic I was interested in asking them about, and there's a voicemail, and no one has ever called back. So is there any hours, or is there a certain person there that? Bob would probably know best. I've called several different times, and I just get the voicemail. So I'm not sure who the person is and if there's someone we can contact. Because the other town, Shoreham-Wading River, they use their Chamber of Commerce. The gentleman met with us, so he was an active person. Give me your contact information. I'll have somebody call you. Oh, you can just do that. Oh, you want me to give it to you? I have it. You have it? Yeah. Okay. Okay. So let's talk about the cleanup then again. It's April 28th. We're going to try to do it on a Sunday. Sunday this year. You know, there are some people who say they can't come on Saturday, so we're going to try on a Sunday. Joanna's reaching out to all of the civics and the churches. I'm putting out to the media. I have a list of over 200 volunteers that we've compiled over the years. You know, a lot of the same people come back, and I don't know if the board is aware of this, but a lot of people on that list do cleanups on their own. They go out like, can Julie O'Neal be here? In between here. In between here. Every week she's out there. I'm out there. Thank God for her. I wait a week. I never go on anyone's property, but if it's on the roadside, I put my orange vest on my glove. Yeah, Joanna does the front of our property, yeah. That's the front of O'Neal, right? Yeah. Do you think we can just establish like a list of drop off points throughout the town, different corner locations where it may be, different parks. We provide that list to our building grounds. Our sanitation crew has their own truck, and on Monday morning they should be right out and going to each park one day. It's no rush. You can take all week to get them. It's not like . Because then birds will get in. And rip open and then it's an everything. We spoke with Southampton, and they've had a adopt a highway program for 15 plus years. And basically what it is is they have 60 individuals or businesses or organizations signed up. They sign a contract. Okay? Part of the reason for doing that is the liability issue. But it's also the commitment that people are going to go and clean up their adopted road. Okay? And basically they're asked to do it once a month or more often. And the highway department has the list of all the people. Okay? And the people have a phone number. So if they go out Tuesday and clean up, they call the number and the highway department makes sure, you know, within an appropriate couple of days I guess to get out and clean up. Yeah. Really? The same with, I talked with South Hole. Now, they're much smaller than even us, so they're organized through the supervisor's office, and their cleanup is done basically by their civics. Now, they don't have any garbage cleanup in the town, so people take the litter bags and stuff and their own garbage to the, I guess, the town dump or whatever they use, okay? And Babylon, they have a number of programs that involves litter, okay? Some with individuals. They've also set up a program with landscapers, because they also do a beautification program, where the landscapers take care of the shrubbery and the plants and everything, and they also clean up the area that they're responsible for. So, we think there's a lot of opportunity to get a lot more people involved, okay? But we recognize... We really need the help of the town and somebody dedicated in one of the town departments who's going to be the focal point for our activities, okay? The other thing we'd like to do is suggest to the town board that they consider putting out a proclamation about declaring Riverhead a litter-free town. That'll start to get awareness going, so that when we go out and talk to businesses, talk to people, they say, Oh, you know, I saw that, okay, I saw it on Channel 22. Or, you know, it was a proclamation came out from the town, so that could be a big help to help support the effort. Okay. Okay, well, the weekend of your cleanup, I have spoken with Building and Grounds, and they, on Friday, are going to have all of your stuff moved from the basement... Supplies. ...up here, so that's nothing that you have to do. It will be ready to go on Sunday morning. Okay. So, we'll meet you here in the morning and let you into the building. We are going to get some drop-off points where you'll be able to leave the garbage, and they will come on Monday and pick it up for you. So, we're very actively working with you, and we want to see Riverhead be a better place, a cleaner place. So, you know, that's why you're here. When the supervisor said, you know, that we're working together, it's a new day today, and, you know, the increase in fines was done in January, beginning of February. That's new that this board did, so we are making an effort to help you. Great. Which is why I met with you one time, and here you are already. Okay. So, you know, we're hearing you. We appreciate all the help we've gotten from the council people who have supported and been liaisons for the year. As a matter of fact, we keep them pretty busy. Okay. Well, you've got a good liaison here. Just for the public that may not have participated prior to this and wants to know more about it, you show up here at Riverhead Town Hall on the day of the pickup. We will have litter pickers and bags. And gloves. And gloves. And vests. Do we still have vests? We still have vests. Okay. And then are they assigned out to an area to do, or can they go to their own area that is on their mind they want to clean up, or both? It's both. We have a list of about 35 locations, so that's streets, parks, and beaches. Some people come in, you know, what we've learned is that if we have a bigger group, we'll send them to the beach. Okay. But some people want certain roads cleaned up. Okay. And then, you know, this is just an aside, but the town itself has properties that are not cleaned. Yeah. The water tower is a big one. That property has not been cleaned. I cleaned that myself like four years ago with a group of people. The one on 58? That's right. Okay. I mean, you could see right along the roadway there, and if you go in deeper, there were bicycles in there. And so, you know, there are several town parking lots that are not cleaned up on a regular basis. So what's going to be done about that? We will take care of that. All right. Thank you for the opportunity. We will make sure the appropriate people get out to take care of that. Yeah. And then the other thing, and maybe this is for another meeting or more consideration within our committee, is to do a town-wide public awareness campaign. To actually have messages, you know, PSAs, News 12, in the paper, back and forth. Okay. Okay. And then we'll have a little bit of a discussion about what it takes to discourage people from littering. Okay. I mean, because, you know, there are people that drive around and throw stuff out their window. On a regular basis. Oh, my God. And they... And especially with the farms and the vineyards, it's so distasteful. I've been driving from Riverhead to South Old, as a retired teacher, 35 years, and I drive from Sound Avenue all the way into South Old. And you can just see it getting worse. And when I see things on the side of a beautiful vineyard or a farm where you're getting your food from, I mean, that's so distasteful to me. It's sad. It really is sad. It is. I mean, it may be working with Dunkin... Who do we see, Joan? Dunkin Donuts. Oh, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, and... Burger King, McDonald's, right? Yeah. Maybe... All of... Maybe it's... But that's at a corporate level. Yeah. That's a different issue. So that's a whole other... Yeah. And there's no way those items can get to those locations by wind. Right. Right. Yeah. Because if there's a fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist fist I bring it, I even send her pictures so that she knows. And I think that's also in the PR portion is a short video, not like maybe not so much like that, but on the same theme of, you know, if you do a proclamation, here's a video, every once in a while it goes on your website, you know, that this is what, you know, schools can get the video. As a teacher for 35 years, there's always assemblies and programs, even just a short video of like, I would say no more than a minute. No one's going to hold their attention for a minute. But a little bit like that, but a little bit about what you can do. Can you sign up for the committee? You know, and as Jim said, it should be ongoing. I mean, because my husband and I just go out with our best in our own, outside our development. And we never go on anyone's personal property, just enough where we could grab something. And we always get a bag full. It's amazing what you would see. And, you know, we were. We wear boots and we make sure we do it when the grass is cut. So, you know, we don't get any tick bites. But I, as a teacher, I've been very active in the cell phone community, the Adopt-A-Highway, and establishing some kind of webpage and litter identifiers. So if I can't do it myself, I could say, okay, Deb, what's the phone number, you know, on Middle Road in this area, there was like three mattresses, you know. Especially by PSE and G. That area by PSE and G, that's liver of lamb between Middle and Doctors' Path. Yeah. And it's not even areas where you say it's low income. That's a misnomer. Because it is in other areas where there are nicer homes. And it's really sad. And, you know, the fact that I always bring gloves in my car, it makes me think, where is our mission? Where is the mission of the community? I know in Stony Brook, they have it printed on their garbage piles. They have a quote about their community. And it's sort of a. It's not a quote about litter, but it's a quote. You know, we take pride in our community. And just as Jim said, you know, those little flags on the lamppost, maybe you could give us a few. Like keep Riverhead clean, you know, be proud of Riverhead. You know, some of those little flag things that sign up by the pots that are hung. One or two could, you know, send, like by the theater, you know. What you're talking about with PSAs are, is going to be addressed in one of the matters that we're discussing, our last matter on open session today. Okay. We're doing a whole marketing campaign. We'll get into that. And this certainly would fit right into that for public awareness with videos that are going to be posted and messages and reaching out to the community. This will fit perfect into this. Because I noticed when we go out to the schools, we get a mix of reactions. We either get, you know, I would never do that. Or in one class that I had, a kid from the back raised his hand and said, well, I don't like the smell of McDonald's in my car, so I throw it out the window. And all the other kids were, what are you doing? But, you know, there's, we go out to the schools because we feel then our message to them is tell your parents. When you're in the car with somebody, you know, tell them not to litter. You know what I mean? Because there are lots of people that just think it's, you know. You see it all the time. You follow a car down the road, somebody just chucked something out the car. I've also learned. I've learned that my father would have done to me if I was in the car as a kid and did that. But, you know, well, yeah, but I don't litter also. I mean, some of these people are raised differently. And it's, it's not about putting more garbage piles, I've noticed, in the parks and stuff. It's really not. I enjoy the parks out here. I use them. It's not about, oh, let's add more garbage piles. Because adding more garbage piles actually makes it worse. Because if you have certain garbage piles, those are the go-to garbage piles. You don't need to add 10. Add 10 more. And a lot of people believe, like, oh, you know, let's just add more garbage piles. That's not the issue. And then people will bring their household garbage. Yeah, yeah. We had that issue, too. So I just want to end up on one more note. And this is a positive thing that Jim is working on a business recognition program. We're going to go out to the businesses that are keeping their properties clean. And those are the car dealerships. Exactly. Into what we're dealing with. Yes. The car dealerships, Tim, as you know, are pristine. Which is an example for every other business out here that they can be doing the same. Correct. But it's not, you know, I met, one time I was talking with Target and they said, well, I don't have the manpower. What are they doing? You know. I see the properties. Send one person out every hour. That's not acceptable. Because they have a service that cleans the property up. Okay. Landscapers and they have to do it once a week. Absolutely. And they pay the rent. Yeah. And they have to pay them to do that. Right. Once a week. It's not enough. Let me ask this to the supervisor. Do we have the ability, like if somebody's grass is two feet high, we can go in and cut it down and then charge it. Charge it. Correct. So do we have the ability to go into these places, clean it up and charge them? I don't think it fits under the blighted law that we currently have that we do that under. Because that would be under our, if, you know, your house, you're just letting everything go. That's different. That's different. So we actually attach it to their tax bill. So I don't know how that works between residential and commercial. And I don't know if it's addressed in our blighted law to go in and deal with litter. We shouldn't have to. We just keep hitting stronger fines. That sends the message. And it's cheaper to hire somebody to clean it than to pay the fines. So we just got to start hitting them and then mark the fines. I think the recognition is a good way. You actually make some kind of document and they get displayed in their store business. Just like a plaque. But, you know, a certain number of times, you know, you're going to have to pay the fine. Right. And then you have to go in and get it. And then you have to go in and get it. But, you know, certain documents saying, you know, this place is exceptional and taking pride in our community. And you can make it up on the computer. It's not that, you know, we used to do it in our class. This is exactly, I'm telling you, you have to nail on the head. This is exactly one of the things we have been doing. To be honest with you, all the litter committee has to do is take part of that bill. Yeah. and add, you know, a person speaking and not have to redo the whole thing. Ron Charles, Right. And just say these are the numbers and websites you can contact us. And if you want to be a business that is recognized, they all should, you know, that should be in there as well. And that sends a message in this day and age videos. I'm sorry to say, but. Ron Charles, You're right. You know, sending letters are official. But, yeah, Target is the worst. And the corner, well, P-S-C-U-G, but the corner on Mill Road and Home Depot, that side road. And I see people out there, I think it is Jeannie, that there's like a vacant area, I don't know if Home Depot. Ron Charles, That's Collin Flower Association. Jeannie Schaffer, Well, no, not that one. Across the street. Across the street, go a little past Home Depot, going north to San Diego. Ron Charles, A little north of Home Depot across from the mobile home park? Jeannie Schaffer, Yes. Ron Charles, Okay. Jeannie Schaffer, I see people out there. The shopping carts, I'm sure they come and get the shopping carts. But I see people, I don't know if they're volunteers, but that's a bad area. And behind the credit union. Jeannie Schaffer, On Middle Road is a dumping area. I don't know if people have been coming to pick it up to right, you know, I don't know who's, that the P-S-E, Chief Property or the Highway, I don't know. But it's like a little alcove on Middle Road behind the credit union. And it's been pretty cleaned up lately, but there was a major dumping. Usually I call her. Ron Charles, That's a big issue too. Jeannie Schaffer, Yes, it's just amazing. Ron Charles, It's what streets are the town responsible for versus the state and the county. And all the other towns have the same problem. Okay. They take care of the town roads, but getting the county or the state or not a situation, the MTA, because that's a mess over by the train station. Okay. So it's maybe something that the towns can do to get together. Okay. And get after the state and the county. You know, most of the people go up and down 25 and 58. Okay. And that's really not a town road. Okay. And one of the problems we have is when volunteers come, you got to keep more for those roads. You don't want them going out there and heaven help them and something happens. Ron Charles, Right. Ron Charles, Okay. So understood. Jeannie Schaffer, All right. So I would like to, if Chip, can you put up the flyer please? Let's let everybody know how they can get involved in helping you on your Earth Day cleanup on Sunday, April 18th, beginning at 9am. Ron Charles, 28th. Jeannie Schaffer, 28th. Ron Charles, 28th. Jeannie Schaffer, What did I say? Ron Charles, You said 18. Jeannie Schaffer, 28th. Ron Charles, I'm sorry. April 28th. I need to break down and get glasses. They should be putting it up. There it is. And they can contact you on Facebook. Jeannie Schaffer, And my email is there too. Ron Charles, Yeah, like the shore has a QR code. That's another thing we need a little help with because it's coming from their Chamber of Commerce. Jeannie Schaffer, Okay. Ron Charles, So we can get the information out there. Jeannie Schaffer, Yeah. Ron Charles, Yeah. Ron Charles, Yeah. Jeannie Schaffer, Yeah. Ron Charles, Yeah. Ron Charles, Yeah. Jeannie Schaffer, Okay. Ron Charles, So like to register, Shoreham Waydeenweaver has a QR code. Jeannie Schaffer, Okay. Ron Charles, We just have Deb's email. Jeannie Schaffer, Okay. Ron Charles, So if there's any way someone can figure that out for us. Jeannie Schaffer, All right. Well, I know that you guys really need volunteers. So anybody from the area that can come out that day and meet us here at 9 a.m. on the 28th of April, please do. Ron Charles, Okay. Jeannie Schaffer, Okay. Ron Charles, Thank you. Thank you. Jeannie Schaffer, Thank you. Ron Charles, Thank you. Jeannie Schaffer, Thank you. Ron Charles, Thank you. Ron Charles, Thank you. Jeannie Schaffer, Okay. Ron Charles, If anybody can come out that day and meet us here at 9 a.m. on the 28th of April, that would be greatly appreciated. Be part of the solution, not the pollution. Right? Jeannie Schaffer, That's a good quote. I like that. Ron Charles, I read that the other day. Jeannie Schaffer, That's on the back of the new t-shirts. Ron Charles, Yeah. Jeannie Schaffer, Is it really? Ron Charles, It is. Jeannie Schaffer, I promise I did not know that. I have not even seen the t-shirts. Ron Charles, They're down the basement in the town board. Jeannie Schaffer, That's so funny. All right. Ron Charles, Thank you so much. Thank you. Ron Charles, Thank you. that I have not even seen the t-shirts. They're down the basement in the... That's so funny. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you folks. Thanks for organizing this. We really appreciate it. Thanks, Doug. Thank you.

Okay, next up for item two, we have Steve Shoga and Brian DeLuca, Matters Surrounding Updates, Additions to Art Installments for Art in a Park Reflections. Dawn Thomas and Ken Testa, and I think we have Christy Verity here also for this. We have Clayton Vorheck. And we have Clayton. Yes, how are you, sir? Very good. Steve is not with us. Young boy is getting his tonsils out. Oh. It's ice cream after all. That's what I said. Buy him those big ice cream. Ice pops. Absolutely. Well, welcome everybody. Yes, Ken, how are you? Just start out with everybody's names so the people at home know who's who up here. We have Clayton Vorheck, local resident also. Right. Brian DeLuca. Christy Verity. Dawn Thomas. And Ken Testa. Okay. Who would like to start off? I would love to have the opportunity. I want to thank the board. This is my first chance getting in front of you guys as a new board here, new supervisor. Very excited to you. Thank you. And I'm going to give you a little bit of history on the park. Give us an update, essentially, and maybe a little bit of history on art in the park because there's some new people here that may not be familiar with us. So our dates are chosen for this year for our illumination schedule. It's all free public art, but there are nights that we light the park. To give you a little short history, I worked in Manhattan for 16 years and went to Bryan Park frequently for lunch. And back in that day, Bryan Park was a little concerning to go to. People were asking for half your sandwich and for lunch money. And it was kind of a shame because it was a beautiful park. And, you know, the city took it back. And if you haven't been there, you know, during the holidays, they got all the beautiful kiosks and they got ice skating and they got movie nights. And I watched the transformation while I was working in the city. Coming out here and my full time paying job is the director of the Long Island Aquarium. I'm the president of the East End Tourism Alliance and I'm the mayor of the Central and people asking for half your sandwich and or for lunch money and it was kind of a shame because it was a beautiful park and you know the city took it back and if you haven't been there you know during the holidays they got a little beautiful kiosks and they got ice skating and they got movie nights and and I watched the transformation while I was working in the city coming out here and my full-time paying job is the director of the Long Island Aquarium I'm the president of the East End Tourism Alliance and I am the past chair of Discover Long Island so I am entrenched in the tourism industry and really have a firm belief that the arts can transform a community 2016 I walked through the park and you know really felt that it was underutilized the public wasn't utilizing it and I felt there was an opportunity to transform the park and this is Grangeville Park on Main Street and I began to a little research project myself I'm a little bit of a Pinterest nerd and you know you know I'm a little bit of a Pinterest nerd and you know I'm a little bit of a Pinterest nerd and you know I'm a little bit of a Pinterest nerd and you know setting up boards and looking at all different things looked at art around the world and art events and in 2017 I reached out to Dawn and Drew and Ken at the time and I think it was probably one of the coldest days of the winter and dragged him through the park and said I have an idea you know I wanted to share this with them and basically you know coined this art in the park and say you know I think there's an opportunity to take the park back and make it a public space for the public to enjoy free art and I got a green light from from them gratefully thankfully and fortunately then I went back to oh goodness how do I go about doing this and I'm a firm believer in the quote of it's 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration because it takes a hell of a lot to get to take tasks on and I set up a meeting with the chamber and the business improvement district at the time chamber president was Bob Kern and you know welcome to the business improvement district and I said welcome to the opportunity and the thoughts of doing this he's an art fan himself and you know Steve was with the bid and you know just said you know this sounds good how do we go about it and you know Bob introduced me to Clayton Clayton is a resident a local artist and a full-time artist and a talented guy and I said well this is this is you know a marriage for me made in heaven because I don't have that skill set again it's the inspiration but but really need someone to help drive things and you know make a curator on this project Bob even coined it reflections Riverhead and you know so we worked early on together to get things rolling we reached out we got about 15 artists on board and you know I think our first grant funding was through the bid and and we got match money from them and Dawn got a grant through PSEG and that was our first event downtown or hometown grantor it was there you know downtown Revival finalization it was $10,000 yeah yeah so that was a you know was a good kickstart for us I was able to leverage a few other grants as well and you know we started reaching out to artists and getting things implemented in the park and I started creating things that I you know I've always liked art but just never really I worked closely with Eli Fishman who's the aquarium artist and Clayton and we started you know creating art inexpensively you know getting you know basically grants to cover the materials and not getting paid very much I think you lost the use of your garage at your own home yes yes yes and an upset wife because I spent a lot of nights and weekends if we can just go to that first link so this is the website that we have which is the images it has the events on there we go to the first link yeah and just to throw some kudos out to Diane Tucci and Amy Fideli you know Diane has been instrumental really in building the website for us doing social media marketing the selection of music for the events you know getting the jazz band there getting the ballet group there the event set up break down so it's you know it's been really helpful from Diane Tucci and Amy Fidelity to be part of this this operation and Clayton and I you know putting our blood sweat and tears in this on a pretty much each day we're doing this for the first time we have an event we're there early in the day to get the park set up to light the park and illuminate the park otherwise again the sculptures are there but we open up the shipping container and I'm like we've mostly been there and have seen you know what we've done but you know here's images of just you know how we really transform the park with with the lighted sculptures and it's kind of unique for its for Suffolk County and in Long Island and we want to continue to build on it next slide funding through the bid which has been very helpful for three years they committed seventy five hundred dollars to us and of course that first PCG grant and then East End Tourism Alliance of course we get grants through the state Empire State Development provided some funding you know rotary did some matching we got Omni bus funding Suffolk County cultural grant money that we've applied for Clayton did did a piece with that so you know we've been just pooling money together and and trying to get as much financial support to continue you know putting art in the park and continuing free for the public and then having our events we there is a grant that dawn got and can have been working on and we're getting additional power into the park pretty instrumental pretty important because it's a hundred amp service currently and we're going to 200 we're actually adding to 200 yeah a lot of power right you do whatever you want to do. you know what's been great you know about that that's going to take place is where we've been putting art today is based on where there's power so you know not the way you creatively want to do things messes up our feng shui but it's you know we would do things a little differently in the park yeah exactly right being nailed down to one yep so you know speaking with Ken and knowing that we have this latitude now on the go forward there's some future art that we already have planned some of its DRI money some of its other outsourced funding and we're going to place things in in other locations so that grants I know there's a timeline on that we got a few hurdles there but that looks like it's going to start sooner than later a goal is to try to have it done by June first we've got the two services approved by public service company PSCG they're approved the accounts are applied for all the long lead time material for the services has been ordered and received. Some of the stuff took a couple of months to get. The poles for the two service drops from the street are in stock and we're just waiting on the weather. The contractor was going to do that last week, but it rained and this week it's raining again. The problem is if you put the heavy truck in the park, we'll rip the park up. It's too muddy. We're going to get those two poles in, get the services all set and wired in. What I'm going to do is put all the outlets in, as we discussed and we have a plan that we all met together with and decided where to put these outlets all over the place. That's still open. If you want to change that, I'll run it by you one more time. That'd be great, yes. We're going to do it in phases because we're using as much as possible in-house labor. The in-house guys, I'm down from four to two because of FMLA and they have street lights and traffic signals and a lot of other things. Rather than rip the whole park up and then not get it done, we're going to do it in sections. I'm going to rely a little bit more on outside contractors than I intended to. Because of that shortness in staff. I hope to have it by June 1st. If it's not done by June 1st, it will be 75-80% done and the park will be pristine. We won't leave it disturbed. That's exciting. That's great. We won't rip it up. All of the services that are going in, right now everything's fed for the yard from the light poles. It's the only source of electric we have in the park. It's in the one panel by the pump house. Unfortunately, people are plugging phones in. They're plugging all kinds of other things. We're going to have to get into it. At the bid request and the police department's request, everything is going to come back to master panels that will be lockable, heavy-duty, stainless steel, and individually controlled by switches. For every duplex outlet you guys have somewhere for a piece of artwork, if a piece of artwork doesn't go there, you'll leave it off. You'll lock it off. If you want to leave it off and turn it on for an event, you'll have that option too. They'll be locked off by the panel itself, right? Yes. The panels will be locked and you'll obviously have access to that. Each quad box, four outlets will go back to its own circuit breaker. Perfect. Those we're going to make as well, stainless steel, lockable so people can't try to plug into them if one is left over. I want to say after a few weeks people realize the gig is up. They can't charge their phones. No more free juice. Yes. Because that was a big draw for people when they're hanging out while their phone's charging and then they're eating and drinking. It's a problem. Yes. You really can't shut the lights off. You have to turn them off every morning and turn them on again. Some things get hardwired too. Should we decide to do that? Absolutely. Okay, great. That's fantastic. That's a big step. We'll get it out. That's a big step in making the public comfortable walking through the park. The nights we have there, the police steps up, there are patrols when we have our events. We want people going through. We want to take the park back. I think taking the charging stations away, they're not hanging around for hours while their phone charges. Right. I think that's a big step and really helpful. I appreciate everybody's effort as always there. Next slide is just going over the Oktoberfest. We've done this for three years now using our local breweries. We got COVID one year and rained out another. I don't know if I call this the fourth annual or not, but we are getting tents this year. We're throwing a few more dollars at this. Again, I think that is unique. There's not too many opportunities. There's not too many Oktoberfests happening on Long Island, if not the East End. The intention is to start to bring this down the river. Once Town Square comes on, if we get this rolling, we have people coming in Liedenhausen. I think Bob's going to come dressed this year, he said. I think it's a fun event. We have beer stalling holding contests. We bring an authentic Polish, German band in and we use the brewery. We're excited about it. It is not easy. It is not easy. We're not holding that stallion. That's easy. I can win that. I can start practicing. You try it. We've had one guy though win two years in a row. Then we like to park at night. That's a good way to introduce the public to the park. We'll look to continue that, support our local breweries and get our big businesses in there and host an event that's reasonably unique. It's good you're announcing us now because it gives us time to train. That's it. Good deal. Next is a new sculpture that Eli Fishman did the welding up. Jump back. There you go. This is a 14-foot giant green sea turtle. I do the plexi work and the lighting work. This is a drone footage in my driveway. Out of the garage. Out of the garage. The flippers actually do come off because it's too wide for the road. I put myself there just as a perspective. You see the size of this beauty. It's so pretty. It's a fantastic piece. It came out great. I think every piece that we put in thereafter, you see the bottom is open, all the lighting in there. They're making access panels. It's beautiful. You can see my lawn. Look at that. No litter. That's good. It's a unique piece. Again, I think we just keep stepping up the game here. I'm really proud of this piece. Eli just did an unbelievable job. Welding this up. It's all stainless steel. I was going to ask you. It looks like it's lead stained glass, but it's stainless steel. It's stainless steel with plexiglass. A quarter inch solid color plexiglass. That's gorgeous. Then this is in the driveway at night. Wow. Again, hold on. What happened? Just go back to the still. Yeah, there's stills. The next slide is a still. It's moving. Yeah. I don't know that girl, honey. Yeah. So, yeah, there's the image at night. I know. So, that's just basically a lot of thought put into it design-wise. It's really to scale also and looking forward to installing that in the park. Yeah. So, we can jump. Next. Lighting. Yeah. Take it in, folks. All right. So, in part, while we're here today, too, is also to discuss the next DRI project. And that is, we can go back to that vortex bridge. So, this was proposed to the state with the DRI. The funding that the bid received, part of the $10 million that Dawn and the team got there for the town. And the bid ended up applying for $250 for art installations. And they'll be doing some of the work in the park. And they'll be doing some murals also. So, Clayton's, you know, he's a great guy. He's been designated to do this piece. He's already been communicating with Ken. This is a piece that we're proposing to put on the wood walking bridge. The first bridge in the park. The lengthy bridge. This happens to be a bridge. I think it's in St. Louis. This is a walking one. But there's also a vehicle one also there. You know. So, conceptually, this is where we're at. We think it's a very cool look. And believe Clayton and his many talents can bring this to the table for us. Or bring it to the bridge. And get this done. So, working with Ken. You know, making sure the loads and everything appropriately. And the right power source and so on. So, this is our first DRI project. We will have it in probably by the Oktoberfest. You know, one of our last events. Clayton says we will. That's it. Holding to it. Public meeting, Clayton. So, we're excited that the first DRI spending is potentially going to be in the park. I don't know if it's anywhere else. But we're excited about that. And show the state that we are stepping up our game. And using the DRI dollars. So, really excited about that piece going on the bridge. Next piece is a pretty cool crescent moon. She's a seat. And East End Arts got some grant money through the state. And that's another project that Clayton is working on with Diane Burke and East End Arts. So, that's going in the park as well. And that will be in. So, this piece will also incorporate solar panels. The type that they use on our boat. Flexible panels. So, it will be in conjunction with that. And then, you know, if it's cloudy or whatever for a couple of days. Then it will be backed up with power for the inside. The piece I'm making is a bit larger. The dimensions are 20 inches wide. And it's going to be about 14 feet, maybe 15 feet tall. Everything is constructed of one inch, quarter inch wall. One inch square aluminum tubing. Which I bent to a 10-point. And then I'm going to put a template on the driveway. Not the garage. And then there's also struts of one inch by four inch structural aluminum as some of the cross bracing. The final step will be to make the faces. Unfortunately, it's too big to be able to make them in one piece. I can't get material that wide. So, I have to make a discreet seam. And then the frame. And then the final thing is to decide where we're really going to nail this thing down in the park. So, it can be seen hopefully from Peconic Avenue. From Main Street maybe. And then, you know, very evident in the park itself. So, again, all lighted sculptures. So, you know, the nights we do light the park, you know, it's like nothing else except for county. And I'd like to brag about that for our town here. Next piece is another DRI grant. This is definitely 2025. This is a pretty ambitious undertaking. Over the winter break I was in Dominican Republic. And they had in the restaurant these wood sculptures hanging overhead. And as my wheels were turning, I'm going, boy, wouldn't that be cool to make something like a child's mobile over a crib. And making this thing rotate, undulate, and, you know, really create this movement of this. It would be the same type of work that we're doing with the stainless steel and the aluminum. With the stainless steel and plexiglass and interior lighting. I think it looks beautiful. The seahorse is gorgeous at night when you see it. And, you know, so it would be four pieces. Four different. Maybe a hammerhead shark or tuna array. And a jelly squid or jellyfish. So, Clayton and Eli. Eli will be doing some of the work on this. And Clayton as well. And, you know, we've met a couple times at Twin Forks over beers trying to figure out how to engineer this thing. Sure. And, you know, I'm not short of calling Ken and begging for help. I would have loved to meet Ken for a couple of days. You know, really, really, actually, you know, struggling trying to really, you know, make this work mechanically. How to keep those things lighted while it's still rotating and undulating and all these things. And, you know, I'll say I had a little epiphany. And I realized that Stony Brook University has an engineering department. Set up a call with the administration and got the department head on the phone. Gave him a very rudimentary drawing. And I said, you know, I'm not sure what Eli did. But I gave him a real pencil sketch. And the Stony Brook University students are taking this on in the fall. Wow. That's really good. Is this made to look like water in the center? Because it looks like a waterfall. Yeah. So the center can take on a couple looking. It could look like a school of fish lighted with fish on the outside. It could look like a giant whale on either side. So, you know, the robotics and engineering team are taking this on at Stony Brook. Again, as a fall project for their students. And they don't do the structural part. But they have a structural engineering department. And they already got approval from that team. So we're really excited to work with the university. That's really good. Yeah. Yeah. So it's going to be overhead. It will be about nine feet over your head. And it's, you know, this rotating thing. So, you know, it's going to be a pretty unique piece. And we'll be leveraging other grant money with the DRI grant money. Next image is just some sketches, you know, that we're going to get to the university. Did you run out of power there? That we'll be sharing with the university department there. So they can, you know, give us here's what we want to build. And they'll tell us what they really can do engineering wise. And what's possible, what's plausible or not. So but that's definitely a 25 project that's going to, you know, take us time to get that all executed. But exciting. Excellent work. And we faithfully appreciate everything you do. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. And then just two last things. I was going to show you basically in the park where those things were going. So the turtle is going. So if you can know where the shipping container is. And the fish ladder, the river, the fish ladder. And then that open piece of grass before the path and the stage. We're going to put the turtle there. So there's no power there currently. But it's on my, the drawing that we put up. Okay. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. And the next is just to park where it was going to go, right? So lastly, you know, we can always use financial support. You know, I'm scrounging for grants everywhere we go. We did get the Community Development Block Grant money, which is really towards the end of October or so. I think it will be coming in the picture there. You know, Rotary gives us money. We get money from the sponsors. Rotary is definitely a help. But, you know, we definitely can use financial sponsors. And if you know anybody that's, you know, has a passion for the arts, it would be great. And, you know, and then volunteers. You know, we've attempted to get volunteers in the past, and it's Clayton and I volunteering, unfortunately. And, you know, we've had to go from six events to four because it's just, you know, super, super time-consuming while we're trying to create the art, build the art, make the art, and put on the events. And I'd like to see every one of you. I don't know. Every time. You have the schedule now. Not just the Oktoberfest, Ken. But I'm good at that. So, Brian. Yes, sir. Just a couple of things. I would reach out to the ROTC. They have the, it's in there. They have their volunteer work. Okay. And they're good. How many pieces, because, you know, I mean, having been involved in this, what I really like, and, Ken, this is great, you're doing the electric work, is, you know, it gets lit four nights, you know, the show goes on, there's music, but it would be great if a lot of pieces were lit. So, any time anybody was downtown, they could be directed, you know, after a restaurant, maybe there won't be music, but, you know, everything's lit up. Well, I would say 70% are lit, you know, with the exception of putting out those recycled barrels and opening up the shipping container. You know, the fish is lit at night. The seahorse is lit. Okay, good. You know, the riverhead rocks. Is lit. So, you know, I think it's a reasonable amount, you know. Are you doing the lighting over in the park, too? I know the Southampton lights were the LED. Yeah, that's still up in the air a little bit. Okay. We're going to try to finish the riverfront first and see if we have enough money left over, because we wanted to do 100% of the riverfront, you know, not 75%. Sure. So, if there's money left over in the riverfront, getting ready to start very soon. Right. Lights are on order. There's, like, three different lamp heads down there now. So. We want to unify them and make them sort of match. Right. What's ingrangeable. But when we applied for the grant, which was a couple of years back, the cost went up tremendously. So, Frank was. Oh, it was like double, yeah. Yeah, Frank and Ken worked on an EECBG, which was like a supplementary amount of money we were able to get. And gratefully, that's going to allow us to get the whole riverfront done. And then we'll figure out what to do with the rest of it. But we'll always come up with something somehow. You can go to the last. Next slide there, Chip. So, you know, the expression, it takes a village. You know, clearly, the inspiration, but, you know, not having, you know, Clayton involved, that we wouldn't be where we are, or Eli Fishman, you know, or the bid, you know, is just, you know, they helped fund us for three years, you know. And, you know, they wanted me to be self-sustaining, but quite frankly, a lot of the grants were free public art written grants. And so, you know, there's not really a self-sustaining model, business model to this, to monetize this, because, you know, we're not charging people to go in the park, essentially. And even when we have events, so the Oktoberfest and so forth, it's, you know, it's all free. So, the beer's not free, but, you know. So, you know, essentially, so, essentially, you know, we still need a funding source. And, you know, we're working on trying to get our omnibus money increased. Where do businesses go to find that sponsorship? So, on our website. On our website, you know, there's contact information, which is me. And, you know, there's all different tiers. You know, they can sponsor an artist. They can sponsor a piece. You know, they could be a primary. Without question, there's a litany of opportunities. And, you know, I can customize it in any such way based on their contribution. But, again. Something that the grants don't cover is maintenance of the pieces. And, you know, just over time, they need to be cleaned. But we did a walkthrough recently and found, unfortunately, some of the solar panels and the seesaws were broken. And the handles were broken. And so, there's repair and maintenance with those pieces as well. So, yeah. I've learned I can't leave an extension cord out. I can't leave, you know, a lighting piece. It just, you know, it just disappears. So, and then the general maintenance. You know, lights go out and things fail. And, you know, it's challenging to, you know, help maintain that stuff. But, you know, we try to find the time to address that. But, again, it takes a village. And, you know, without this team here, you know, Dawn, and, you know, getting grants and the bid and Ken. And Bob's helped in the past. And, you know, we just, you know, we couldn't do it. So, I appreciate the group effort. And we're going to continue to keep adding in the park. And we're going to start coming down the river to Town Square. I mean, that's the objective. So, once Town Square is up and looking good, you know, we're going to be complementing that with public art. And, again, I'm a firm believer that it can transform a community with, you know, getting people to come and enjoy the art. Well, let me just say this. I know the park intimately. I was a foot patrol officer downtown when I started out in my early days. In the police department. And from when I look back to what it was then and what it is today. And I know there was still an occasional issue down there. But you have transformed the park with your work into a place where people feel comfortable in being. And that was a big plus. Not only having the art and having a beautiful park. But it transformed it into a place where people are not afraid to walk from the county center through the park. Come to lunch. Come to lunch in Riverhead at their lunch time. And then go back through again. Many, many years ago, that wasn't happening. So, what you've done down there has transformed already. And we're very proud of that. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for what you've done down there. And we know there's more to come. And that turtle just, that awes me. That is a beautiful, beautiful piece of art. And I do go to most of the events down there. And they have been well done and well attended. And keep up. And keep up the good work, guys. You've been helping to put us on the map big time. So, we appreciate that. We have a seahorse aquarium in our house. My wife just loves that piece. So, Clayton welded up and did that whole welding. And I did the plexing lighting work. And again, everything is collaborative. And we found the right partners between Clayton and Eli. And we're getting things done. And happy to continue doing it. And happy to continue getting funding. And we can keep going on and on. And part of the public art initiative is to help people. And we're doing that. And we're doing that. And part of the public art initiative, as part of that DRI grant, we're splitting with Reflections and working together. We'll be improving the, refreshing the shipping container. And then we're also working with environmental artist Tony Valderrama. He's going to do a mural on there. And some other activation to promote local inhabitants and the landscape. And things like that. And I am on the anti-litter committee as well. And part of the murals that we're going to be doing, I need to like those funds for the And part of the murals that we're going to be doing, I need to like those funds for beautification and improvements to things like picnic tables and garbage pails, bike racks, things like that. But also incorporate programming into that. So whether it's through reps, you know, informational material, teaching people the impacts that litter and their actions have on the environment and the Peconic River and the landscape downtown. So all together and see big things in the next couple of years coming up. Yeah. All good. Great work. Yep, very exciting. It is. It's amazing. I have to say. Lighten it up. You ride down Peconic Avenue at night and with the stuff that's lit up, it just, it has transformed that whole thing. Yeah. I mean Clayton did the giant R, which is, you know, either for Riverhead or reflections, whatever you want to believe. But it's, you know, it's a cool piece. It's so similar to the R on the Riverhead blue wave. So we know what Riverhead is. Bob put that plug. Yeah. Yeah. Good stuff. Really good stuff. Thank you guys so much. My pleasure. My pleasure. Have a good day. My pleasure. I'm looking forward to the events this year. Thank you. Thank you. Good day. Light it up. Sure. Light it up. Light it up. Good. Light it up. Thank you. Okay. Next up, we have Matters Surrounding Improvements to Channel 22. And that's with Chip Krenborg and Justin Fisher. Who's going to man the booth? I was just thinking that. Yeah, right. Come on down, fellas. Devin can do it. She can do everything. Yeah. Devin's training Debbie to run the booth, too. Go. Justin, last time you didn't have the camera on. Can you be on TV now? Keep your secret. You got it. I'm just going to go. Okay. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. wonderful new employee in IT who has a lot of artistic creative ideas. We've been expanding on the channel 22 programming and display of information in order to present more current meaningful information to the constituents. Justin has been feverishly working on the graphics for broadcast of meetings and how to display the agendas. We have a ticker at the bottom of the screen. Do you want to expand on that? Yeah, so I wanted there to be more information for the public, and we were thinking of ways to do that. One of the ways that we thought of after we had the emergency broadcast up, which we have available now with the red ticker that you guys saw during the snowstorm. We were like, okay, we could do a different color that's not as alarming, and we could just have carnage. We could have carnage and news. Basically, anything the town board thinks is relevant for the citizens of the town. And then we also had the idea of incorporating flyers in between the sessions, which could also be given to us by any of the departments as long as you guys approve it. Oh, that's awesome. That's really good. A little flyer would have been perfect to do with that. Well, actually, Justin told me this morning that if we're able to put it in horizontal form, we'll be able to get it on there. So I did tell that. We need like three by four format, right? Is that basically? I think that's what it is for TV. It might be, yeah. So the reflections in the park, that they had the dates of all their events, they could put something like that, a flyer up with that on there as well. That would be great. It was a lot of work. Yeah, a lot of work. Yeah.

Screen.

So this is an example of the flyer that we made as a template. And so say the Zoning Board of Appeals wants to announce that they're changing the start time of their meetings. It tells you what department it is, and it's all the same colors for the town of Riverhead. Nice big font so everyone can read it. That's great. If you want consistent information, maybe departmental information, this could be the standard for... A lot of departmental changes or events that happen. That's very nice. That's clean and crisp, too. The message is clear. I mean, it's right there in front of you. There's not a lot of busyness around in it. It gets right to the point. I like that a lot. And it's not just flyers. We could have videos as well. So if we take interviews of people who work for the town, and we can incorporate the videos in between the sessions as a video filler. That's something that had come up in some of the committee meetings I had, that they would love to see the videos of, let's say, the sewer department, what they're actually doing, or the water district, what they're doing. That would be great informational videos for the people of the town to see what... Is there a way to get something like this online for people that don't have access to Channel 22? Because if you have the dish or something like that, you can't get Channel 22, right? Right. So our streaming... Is also live on our website. So you can see Channel 22, whatever's being broadcast, pre-recorded meetings, previously recorded meetings, or when we're actually live. Right now, we're live. And you can go to our town's website, click a Channel 22 link, and see us right now. And this is an archived video that he's going to play right now. So you can see past videos as well that you missed. So why don't you describe what you've done here with the change in the agenda rule? So, you know, Town Seal is visible. They know it's the town of Riverhead. Every single time, there's going to be the session name. It's whether it's the town board meeting or zoning board of appeals. It's going to be right there the whole time with the time and the date stamp. It's all automated. And the scrolling feature that we've always used with the agenda rule, I've incorporated it into other aspects of the meetings, whereas in the past, it would have just been a big block of text over the whole screen. Right. Right. So we've got a lot of things that we've done in the past. So we've got a lot of things that we've done in the past. So we've got a lot of things that we've done in the past. So we've got a lot of things that we've done in the past. But now we have the option to pause and stop and resume. And I think that you guys have seen me do that with the resolutions already. And there's also some animation graphics, which you'll see in a second here, where things don't just blip in and out. They actually go from not really any possibility to 140. It's okay. But we also introduced a timer. It just seems to be. So the timer that we're looking for. Nice. Months and months. Now, the person on the Zoom call. They'll know how much time they have left. Because I'll have it up there. That's neat. Very creative. We're so glad you decided to take this position. Yes. I'm very glad I decided to take it, too. This is where you're scrolling the resolutions as they're being voted on. Gotcha. Everybody knows exactly what you're talking about. I had an idea. What about the video that the litter committee just was showing us? We put that up there. Kind of like getting people aware of, you know. It could definitely. Don't be shaming. It's almost like shaming. Like, don't become this. Let's help our town not stay like this. Let's fix it. Absolutely. That'd be great. All types of commercial type filler. Town related events. Videos that we've taken. Videos that are provided by the litter committee. Of course. We can put that up there. The work you're doing is absolutely phenomenal. Even I think I threw a few challenges out to you the whole way outside. It was done instantaneously. You guys are phenomenal. One question to go to the next level. So I'll always put a challenge ahead of you. It's like, do we have the ability on our own? Do we have our own camera system in terms of where we can just like go around and do our own interviews and throughout the town and show some different formats and start like just between segments, like you say, between one board meeting and the next. We're jumping ahead to our next topic. Okay. You got it. Awesome. Very insightful. We just got our new camera, which is essentially an iPhone. And a joystick, which is stabilized. So hopefully it produces professional quality videos instead of shaky iPhone videos. Justin and I started to come up with the workflow of recording and then editing and all the post-processing there. We'll take videos at the direction of the board, whatever departments or events need to be run. And we're also looking forward to the future. We're looking forward to the future. We're looking forward to potentially doing live stream capability because it's a phone. Awesome. So maybe the cardboard boat race or something like that. Anything. Or off-site events. This is all awesome. This is everything you've done is just another step better. So... Well, Jason is... Justin is... Good stuff. Jason, Justin. We've got a lot of Jason's. Always Jason. Justin is really digging into the capabilities of the graphics that are in the new... The new TV booth. And he's doing a great job. Thank you for that. Because in the past, you know, I mean, you're really utilizing the technology, which I think is important. Oh, another thing that I did, which I forgot to mention was... I don't know if you guys noticed, but it's a digital town seal. That's right. In the recordings and in the broadcast. That's not actually the town seal that's behind you. It's a digital one to make it more clear. Vibrant. Right. And have more clarity. Now, we could... Did you do that with the town board myself? Can I... Really? Really? I want to show my long flowing hair. That would be great. Ten years ago that would be a joke, but I actually could turn you all into cartoons. There are people in the public that would love that, I'm sure. This is very impressive. We really appreciate it. Artistic freedom is great. I appreciate it. Thank you. We're happy to let you have that. It's great when people come in the lobby as well. The TV is there, it's being utilized. I come in the front door and there's people standing in front of it watching and reading and doing it. It's a great message board as well. As we build a little library of videos as well, we intend to plug something into that television like a kiosk just rolling. Yes, instead of the historical photos all the time. Right. They get old. Just a sign to tell people to check in with the officer. That's what I've been putting up there. In looking at this, it looks so clean and crisp and uncluttered. Right. I'm wondering what the board thinks about removing the flags. The lower ones you're talking about here? I like them. You do? Okay. I would tend to favor moving them just because, you know, I'm not a fan of the

but I would leave the ones on the exit door. Oh, yes, absolutely. When it comes to graphical continuity, because I'm using all the same colors in the graphics as the town seal. Right. I just drop the colors in. That side of me says get rid of the extra flags because it will just add more continuity of color. But the patriotic side of me is like leave them up. What about like because just that we're looking at the recording, so where are the flags are specifically talking about these? Is there ability to go across the day? It's like right across like for example, when it's breast cancer month, awareness month, can you do like the big ribbons and so forth? Can we change it? Oh, I can tell you. Have a little bit of a background right across here making things, you know. I can definitely do that. Another thing that I was experimenting with is I could have digital placards for you guys that show your names and your titles right across the front of the table. You know what? You know what? I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. To Ken's point, and your point. Even like back the blue flag across little things. No, but that's. Right. Can you do. You just have like history months. Can you do like red, can you do red, white, and blue stripe right underneath where we're, you know, where the city, where the flags are. If you can change the colors. This way we have that, but maybe we just look a little cleaner. Yeah. I could definitely make it digital instead. That's great. And, you know, I'd have to change it depending on whether or not it's a work session or not because you guys would be down there obviously. You don't want the things going over your faces. Oh, right. They're on top of you. And we'll scare anybody either, so it might not be a bad idea. In that shot, Tim, if you stand up, you're behind the seal. Oh, that's cool. That's cool. One of the things I was saying to Chip is that the material makes the work. You have to. Is that really, does that happen again? That's cool. That's. So I can just hide if I want to. I just have to stand up. Huh. What I've been doing when you guys do the pledge is I've added a graphic that says pledge, which is cool. And also I remove, if I'm fast enough, I remove the town seal temporarily when you're standing up so it's not cutting you off. Right, right. And then I've been using a different camera view so you can actually get a better view of the flag. I love the idea of putting different color banners for different awareness month. Yeah. That, you know. It would take these flags down and. It has to finally be. Same match this day. You've got that. You know, I mean. That's, that's excellent. Another idea that I had, which I'll run by you guys now since I have the opportunity. Is where you see the resolutions, the word resolutions. Mm-hm. When it's smaller things, it doesn't take up as much space and that resolutions area is clear. I could put things like holiday images or other celebratory images in that spot if you guys are okay with it. You know what I'm just thinking? What could you do to the employee in the corner? Maybe every now and then put them up in that spot or something to give them some extra attention. Yeah. It's just a fun idea. Yeah. But that's also, that's a good idea. That you can put, you know, images of holiday images. Mm-hm. You know, I think that's. I mean, you're really utilizing the space you have. Yeah. Which is, before you know it, you'll have Justin's news team is gonna be out there. And I would imagine you got the iPhone 15 to do the video. Of course I did. Okay. Because they are. Yeah. They are. Well, you know. Okay. And we've been watching a lot. Yeah. And I think that's a good idea. Yeah. I think that's a good idea. Yeah. I think that's a good idea. Yeah. I think that's a good idea. Yeah.

And, you know, news channels, of course my favorite one. You know what that is. And all of those, you know, you really watch the graphics at the bottom and how they lay out the information. Right. The logos, things like that. Yeah. And try to. Great. Just. Great stuff. Yeah. We try to take the best aspects of all the things that we were watching. And then also in consideration of the audience. Like we want our audience to be able to read all the information. Like it's not enough to just put the information on the screen. It has to be legible. Mm-hm. And it has to be clear. Yeah. And you're speaking. Yeah. And you're speaking. Yeah. And reading the banner is really, really good because you have the time to read it. Mm-hm. And while you're here, do you want to tell the board, I don't know if you did, about what you guys did with the sound in the room? Oh, the, you mean after the build or recently with the. Recently. Where. The calibration that we did. Yes. Where you can walk back and forth. So we, when we built the whole room, we had all of the speakers pretty much at the same level. But I think you all know we had some feedback issues. Right. So what we did is ramp the sound levels lower and lower in these ceiling speaker rows as we approached the board. Because we didn't want the speakers to reflect off this table and cause that feedback. And it's, it's really made the sound quality better overall. But we learned when you have a Zoom participant though. Oh, yeah. I know. Yeah. I can't believe they're talking from the stands. That's the next thing we have to figure out. Yeah. Sorry. You guys don't hear that Zoom person as well as you hear somebody speaking at the podium. Yeah. Right. So we have to. I always think. We have to compensate for that now. Okay. Even just. You'll figure that out. Here underneath you there. That might be something. If we can even adjust our own little speaker. Yeah. I think that could be what we do with the stage monitor. Yeah. Stage monitor would work. So hard. What's that? You guys have been working so hard. It shows everything that you've been doing. I take a lot of pride in it. I want it to look good. You should be very proud. Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you very much. There were some of the graphics animations. Oh, look at that. Stand up, Tim. Stand up and disappear. All right. Very, very good. Excellent work. Thank you, John. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to the last topic I believe we have on for today, an open session. And it's matters surrounding a marketing campaign for the town of Riverhead. And this kind of ties in a lot of what we talked about today. It's something I always wanted to do when I've been working with the staff, with my staff, in trying to create different things that we can do. To feature the town of Riverhead. We feel we don't get a fair shake. Tim, no intent on you, but we don't feel we get a fair shake through the media on all the positive things that are going on in the town. And it's easy to put a headline up for something negative, but there's so many good things that go on that just get casted aside and don't get talked about, discussed, or showcased. So we've come up with something. We're looking to basically a marketing campaign featuring the good in our great town. And we're kicking around some names for it now. This is Riverhead, rooted in Riverhead. Choose Riverhead. Riverhead in motion. Riverhead rising. Above and beyond Riverhead. We're kicking around some names for it. And within this campaign, we're going to do various things. And they're going to include some short media clips on things. Such as the project progress of projects that are going on in the town. Whether it be the town square, the TOD, the parking garage. We have many irons in the fire right now, so there's a lot of topics to choose from. We can put on media clips of renderings of the future town projects. So when we get the renderings of the town square, we can post them up so people can see that. We're looking for public. Engagement. For downtown for the revitalization effort. Post-meeting interviews. After a big board meeting, maybe there's something we still want to discuss. We can discuss it and put it right on to a video clip. All of our town events. The bid puts some wonderful events together. Keeping our downtown active. Where we can go out and we can do interviews at these events. We can do different things. The senior citizen center events. They have dance. They have holiday parties. We can put some video clips up of that. Recreation department. With all the pickleball games and tournaments and yoga at the beach and everything else. These are all things we can feature on our site to again, promote the good. Shots up at the ice rink. Shots up at Scott's Point. Just things that our town, the amenities that we have and we want to bolster that to the good. We can do that. And we can also make an event to the public. To let them know. A lot of people don't, even though they live here, they aren't aware of some of the things that we have. So we just want to open that up. We want to do a spot called Did You Know? Featuring a spot with trivia-type facts about historic buildings. And facts maybe including old photographs. We can feature our job openings and do that. It's another way than just putting it on the website. Putting it out there. Expose what's available. Let people know. Let people know. Departmental announcements and accomplishments. A perfect example, our engineering department, when they opened up the boat ramp at Reeves Beach after all the destruction that was down there, we can take videos of that, show that it's open, show the work that was done, the before and after. One thing, and this is where it all kind of grew from, and it's something we're calling the banner business. I wanted to recognize the commercial properties in the town that have gone above and beyond. They have that pristine front space in front of their business. There is no litter on their property. Beautifully decorated during the holiday seasons. There's so many business entities we have in town that do that, and they really don't get recognition for it. And this is what we want to do. We want to maybe bring them in, give them a proclamation. We want to feature their business and why we're giving them that proclamation. And it's just, they need to be rewarded for it because we have enough bad characters that don't take care of their property. And I also kind of wanted to create a wall of shame for those that don't, but I was advised by legal I shouldn't do that. But you know what? They need to be held responsible too, and we can do it. And we're hoping that maybe, and I know you are part of that, but we're hoping that maybe featuring and spotlighting the good, it will put a candle under some derrieres of other businesses and make them step up their game. So I think that's part of where we were, where it was coming from when I wanted to do this about the businesses. And we have some beautiful businesses. That I would like to have like board members each month or each every other month, whatever we set it up with, pick. You know, everybody take a turn picking a business that's stands out in your mind, that's doing the right thing in the town. It's beautiful looking. Maybe they do, they support charities in the community. Whatever it could be, we just need to highlight them. And I think it engages the board to get out in our community and see what's out there and say, hey, you know, that place I try to buy it every day. And you know what? It's gorgeous. I'm going to nominate them. And everybody will have a chance to do that. Oh, also, well that ties into what we did at our town hall. We had a meeting. We had a town board meeting when we recognized the Hubbard family electric business. There's so many family, generational family businesses in this town. I want to do the same thing. And I don't want to give away any ideas of who it might be, but there's so many to choose from. You got, I will give it away. You got like Griffin Hardwares. You got Waddell Signs. You got Crescent Duck Farm. You got Poppin' Hicks. You got all these places that have been generational and generational and stood by the town of Riverview. And I think that's going to make Riverhead a better place because of what they've done and what they do. They need to be recognized for that. So this is all part of what we want to put together. And thank God we have Justin up there now because he's going to help us with a lot of this with the video and the editing and everything else. So we're just really looking to promote our town. Employee achievements, promotions. Denise, like you said, we could put up there. Absolutely. They need to be recognized. above and beyond this room for the work our workers do we have incredible employees in this town we have incredibly talented employees that can take care of things and our buildings and grounds just comes to mind that you need something they'll build it they build it and it's like they don't have a set of plans they're using their minds they put this together and and we're so much better off because of it so these things need to be exposed to the public any accomplishments even if they have in their outside life if they're getting proclamations or something for charity work that they do or something they're involved in we need to expose these people for what they are and it's all positive and this will include proclamations and certificates at town board meetings we have what we'd like to do is we'd like to go department from department uh department to department and we have something called this is riverhead and it would be a department's spotlight on each department again the public doesn't really know everything that these departments do and there's so much work that all of them do that everybody takes for granted but it makes this place such a nice a nice town to be in we need to showcase that we need people we need the public to know what our employees are doing so uh in a nutshell that's really what we're trying to do and i'm going to encourage full participation of the board for any thoughts and ideas we have some questions for videos and list of departments that we want to do and such but i expect a full engagement from the board to help out with this and we all take turns picking and choosing and uh i think it's going to be a win-win program for you it's just positivity this town needs that we're not getting from other venues okay excellent any thoughts concerns questions my thoughts are immediately is that like the wells have been farming since the 16th absolutely absolutely yes first supervisor was a will yes there's so much to choose from Bob so many foreign families fit into that generation and unfortunately we're losing some of the generational farmers but this all needs to be recognized this is our community this is why we love our community this is why we all live here and work here and these things just need to be showcased so this is great I appreciate it and I'm gonna tell you that that's the end of our open session today and we have no resolutions today we will be breaking momentarily to go into executive session on personnel matters matters surrounding the change in status of an employee that will be Howard stripling to and coin we have matters surrounding change in status of another employee that will be Howard Stripland and Coyne Stripland and Coyne Stripland Howard and stripling to and then we have matters surrounding the change in status of yet a third employee and that will be Howard and stripling to we have two contractual items that we're going to talk about one is matter surrounding possible sale of real property that will be Howard predente and Thomas and we have a matter surrounding the change to contractual agreements with the attorney and that will be done through also done through Howard you you and that takes care of what we have for today I do have one quick announcement I just have to find it and Joanne this is regarding what you did just a reminder to the residents that all were invited to the first annual raising of the Irish flag on Wednesday March 13 2024 at 5 30 p.m. at the George Young Community Center North Lawn this is an anticipation of the annual George Young Community Center North Lawn James Fort St. Patrick's Day parade taking place Saturday March 30th 1 p.m. and James Fort you have to go to this parade this is a great parade Joanne do you have anything else you'd like to add to that or no you did a great job thank you well we have our promotional crew on standby at the plate gets our first video I think yes we will and for the flag raising from the Institute absolutely okay that being all of our business to conduct an open session I'd like to have a motion to close the work session and go into executive session all opposed we are closed and we will be going to executive session thank you for tuning in everybody you you ! Thank you.