Full Transcript

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Andrew.

Okay, for the open session, first matter we have up is matters surrounding information and overview of the retreat. And that's going to be done by myself. And if I could ask the ladies of the retreat to come on up and have a seat with us. And we'll have you announce your names. I'm Loretta Davis. I am the executive director of the retreat. I'm honored to be here. Yeah, whatever you want. That's good. I'm Helen Atkinson-Barnes. I am the... Education program director at the retreat. And I'm Julia Smith. I'm the senior director of finance and operations. Excellent. Well, we welcome you ladies here. True confession here, I met with you a few weeks back, and we had an awesome meeting. I am familiar with your organization. Having been a police officer here in town for 32 years, you assist people with domestic violence. And I'll have you explain all that, but I just wanted to make a note that... The Riverhead Police Department has been engaged with the retreat for as long as I can remember back, I believe since you came out to the East End. And what we do, what we still do at the police department is every domestic incident that is filed automatically gets faxed over to you. And then you are basically the first point of contact for the victims that have been victimized through domestic violence or sexual abuse. And it's great to know that you're here. Thank you. And it's great to know that you're there and you're a safety net. And sometimes it's a first time victim and they don't know where to go, what to do, and you provide a great resource. So I'm going to turn it over to you and let you explain what you do. And I think you have a PowerPoint presentation you're going to do. So... Yeah. And thank you because we have a great relationship with the police and we're the only agency that's been proactive to then go out and try to contact the victim if there's a safe number. So... Yeah. So thank you for that. Yes. Here we are. Here's our presentation. So, you know, the retreat has been around since 1987 and we have been in Riverhead for over 20 years. For many years we kept it kind of a secret because we were concerned about safety. We're not doing that anymore. It's important that everybody know we're here because a lot of people were surprised. So that's our mission. Our mission is to provide safety, shelter, and support for victims. And also to break the law. And to break the cycle of abuse. And that's what we've been doing. And this is our main office. It's really our hub. This is where our clients come because we're in the courts. Helen is in the schools. We're in the high school right now doing prevention education, which is key. You can provide the services, but you need to provide the prevention education on the other end. Correct. So we've been in Hoppog and Riverhead for...we've been in Hoppog since the last 15 years, Riverhead for over 20 years. So... Yeah. And we're here to work with you. Awesome. I know you're familiar with us because of your work as a police officer. But a lot of people don't know who the retreat is or what we do. And you are familiar with your work as well. I don't know if others here on the board do know about the retreat. No. I think Ken and Bob are going to learn for the first time today, I believe. Right? Yeah. Absolutely. So just as Loretta was saying, a lot of people have... A lot of people haven't heard of us. And that's for a good reason, which is we keep a lot of the work that we do very confidential and quiet because of the risk to our clients. You know, they can be tracked down and it can be a pretty dangerous time for them if they are leaving a partner. So we've traditionally kept a lot of the work we do quiet, but we're a really big organization. And we have a whole huge range of services that we provide. But certainly the victims that we work with are impacted in a myriad of ways that is really challenging. From the extreme of, you know, extreme cases that we work with, people who've been strangled, people who are brutally beaten up. To the data. Right. And so it's really important to know what the day-to-day emotional trauma that they're experiencing or the financial impact of a partner controlling all the finances, not allowing them to leave. So one of the most common questions that we get from clients is, well... Or from the public, rather, is why doesn't that person just leave? Why doesn't the victim just leave? And that... I think a lot of people don't realize that. A lot of people don't realize how challenging that just leave can be. Because the abuse doesn't end when the person leaves that partner. Often it intensifies. Sometimes you can't leave, you know, financially. Financially you can't. You have kids. Where are you going to go? The bad guy might be the breadwinner for the family. And how am I going to support my kids? And often children are involved. And it's not... If you've not been through abuse, it's hard to... It's hard for you to understand why somebody wouldn't just say, hey, I'm out of here. I can't do this. But if you talk to victims of abuse, they will tell you how hard it is to actually make that step to go. And everybody... You know, we all know the stories. They promise, I'll get better. I'll get better. I'm sorry. I won't do this again. And it's just a cycle. And, you know, it's very hard to break somebody out of that cycle, even with jail time and whatnot. A lot of times if they don't get the proper therapy, they're going to be in jail. And if they don't get the proper therapy, they come back out and they go right back into the same routine. So it's important to know that it is very hard for somebody to leave a situation, an abuse situation. Yeah. So what we like to tell our clients and everyone should know is that if you come to the retreat, we can help you. We have a 24-hour bilingual hotline. We have a shelter in an undisclosed location that has 18 beds. We provide free legal counseling. We provide regular counseling. We provide advocacy. We have a financial empowerment program. We get your credit to be good again. And, you know, we help you with jobs. We have transitional housing program, a grant which helps us provide housing after they leave the shelter. So those are all free. But, of course, we have support, you know, from the towns who help us because we're all trying to make our community safer together. But the point is, is that in town here, in Riverhead, that's where our legal services are, our counseling is, case management, and our bilingual hotline, which is 24-7. And what is your physical location in Riverhead? So in Riverhead, we are right next to Markham. We're almost across from the aquarium. There's like some beautiful houses in the front. And then in back, there's kind of colonial one story. I think it's 554 East Main Street. Yeah. We're right on Main Street. So we're right there. So we're within walking distance. Sure. Absolutely. It's great to be in town. We used to be a little bit further out. We just moved there last year. Can I ask, is it just for an individual victim? But what if a victim does, like, have a child? Can the child go with the victim? Yeah. Does that work? Absolutely. Most of our residents at the shelter are under the age of 12. 60% are. So the families come with a non-abusive parent. And the non-abusive parent is the one who's going to be in charge of the shelter. And the shelter is for everyone, any individual, any sexual identity or preference. It doesn't discriminate. And people can stay there usually for three months, sometimes six months. And then as soon as they get there, they're looking for new housing. Because the way the system works right now, anyway, is it's the victim who leaves the house, who leaves the job, who leaves their neighborhood, their friends and family, and then they have to find, you know, housing after they leave the shelter. So it's only 18 beds, the shelter. But we have 1,200 clients through our offices in Hop Hog, Riverhead, and East Hampton. And I just want to piggyback on that important point. Our shelter is not in the Main Street location. Those are our offices where we'll meet with clients. But our shelter we keep in an undisclosed location for safety reasons. Absolutely. And we've never had anyone break in. And another important point is most of our clients don't come for shelter. They can access other services without ever, you know, becoming a shelter client. So people come for counseling. Sometimes they're not sure if it's a, you know, is it abuse or not or what should I do next. And they'll do safety planning. They'll do other supportive counseling. Sometimes they'll come for order protection. And get support in court. And there's a whole range of legal services. Often they come to get a protective order, stay away order. That's key. What absolutely shocked me when we met is that you said in the county of Suffolk there's only like 50 some odd beds. 52 beds. 52 beds. And you have 18 of them in your location. And often what happens, 52 beds for a county the size of Suffolk. Yeah. Often a victim has children. And you have 18 beds. You may lose four or five of those beds right to just one incident. Right. Of one victim because of children. So the lack of the number of beds in the county is, it just, I'm amazed that nothing's been done about that. Well, our long range strategic plan is to maybe open up another, you know, a smaller shelter, maybe 12 beds, maybe in this area. You know, it's, you know, all our clients. They often, they're working or, you know, they look for jobs, you know, so there, you know, there would be, you know, very good additions to the community. But it is, it's really, it's not enough. And we, you know, we're in touch, all the shelters in, you know, Nassau, in the city, you know, so with, you know, we talk and say to see who has openings and those kinds of things. But. So, you know. That's just, these are some of the programs that we talked about on, right up there on the PowerPoint. What I would like to move forward to, so there's our safe shelter, undisclosed location, is I'd like to move to some of the numbers. You know, we provide counseling, legal advocacy, financial empowerment, and then we have prevention education, which we can talk more about. But these are overall numbers. We had, you know, 3,300 calls that we responded to in one day. Okay. So, for example, for our schools, we have 4,000 counseling sessions, which we responded to in one year, and over 3,000 counseling sessions. But then we also have our numbers, legal, violence prevention, in Riverhead. So, in Riverhead, we offered 561 participants workshops in prevention. A lot of that was with the police, which has been great. And those, we've offered 2,700 services. That means seeing a counselor. seeing, you know, maybe a case manager, maybe an attorney. So just, you know, we are in your community, even though, you know, you may not be familiar with us. It's kind of, it's behind closed doors, a lot of what we do. So if you're not familiar, if they're not familiar with you, they're lucky. Right, that's right. Right? So, but the word does need to get out. So victims, potential victims or victims know where to go and what they can do. And that's why we wanted to have you come in and do this presentation. And we appreciate the information. This is great and the numbers just flabbergasted. Financially, how do you survive? Do you accept donations? Do you do fundraising events? Or how does one from the other side that wants to contribute to make sure that you're okay? We do survive on the generosity of others because all our services are free. We figure we'll eliminate that financial burden. So all the services are free, but I have a talented professional staff. Yeah. And we have a staff of 70 people. So, you know, so we have a number of government grants, government contracts that pay for about half of our $6.5 million budget. Okay. And the rest is donations, family, foundations, events. We have a thrift store that also contributes to that. Where's the thrift store located? The thrift store is amazing. It's in Bridgehampton Commons. It's a mall in Bridgehampton. We get a lot of donations from the community as well as from stores. And our clients get to shop there. They get a stipend of $150 and that kind of thing. So that's another way that we can give back to the community because it's a way for people to donate in kind, you know, if they can't do otherwise. But, yeah, we're always looking for support because we're, you know, we feel like our mission is aligned with all of our goals. And our mission is aligned with also what towns want to do is make it safer. Absolutely. You know, so. And I think the challenge on the fiscal end is that we are, you know, we have grants. And you could say $500,000 to run this program. But the cost of doing business keeps increasing year to year. And our grants don't increase. We're giving that contract for three years and it does not change. So we have to work around those boundaries. So relying on contributions, events that we do. As well as donors is, you know, a big part of sustaining us. So it is a challenging piece of I think any not-for-profit, I would say, not just us. And we do, you know, volunteers help us also. In our financial empowerment program, we always like to have professional people come in and do the mock interview, you know, to help people. And so, you know, that's something if you're interested in, you know, that's very helpful. You can't do too many of those. Especially if you haven't done that. Especially if you haven't done many interviews. But we also have volunteers that work at the thrift store and help us. So that's also another way. So, yeah. So I have a question. How is this trending right now? I would just say in the last five years. What's the trend? Is it going up significantly? Well, we definitely saw a bump during COVID. And I think everybody developed a sort of newfound empathy for what our clients were going through. When they were stuck at home and feeling somewhat trapped or isolated. That's really very much the feeling of a lot of our clients is they are restricted in getting out, going places. So we did see that. But we, unfortunately, you know, we're continuing to see issues. And my department works a lot with teens. And certainly with social media and phenomenon. And we're seeing a lot of the phenomenon of sharing explicit photos and videos. People are much more and more tagging locations, tracking friends or partners. There's a lot that's happening. So we're trying to keep up. And we're doing, you know, working with students in the schools. We have our teen leadership council that helps, you know, build awareness about setting and respecting healthy boundaries in relationships. So really working to do prevention as well as support. But unfortunately, it's still happening. Yeah. To answer your question, like the cyber abuse has just escalated. I mean, it's so prevalent. It's really tough for kids and for adults. Anything on your phone, you know, Facebook, you know, that's out there. That remains out there. That's really, that's damaging. But with COVID, people started talking about abuse more because you learned about these horrific, you know, isolated cases. So it's definitely gone up. It's definitely gone up. But you don't know if it's people weren't coming for help before. And now they are. But our numbers have gone up. So. Go ahead. That's one other question. How is, have the bail reform laws affected what you're doing? That's infected everybody, especially the police. Yeah. Because with the bail, the way it works now is there was kind of, there was a time when the non-abusive partners, you know, could go back to the house and leave. It was quiet time. You knew the person was going to be, you know, in jail overnight. And it was a safe time. Yeah. And now we don't have that anymore. So it's, yeah. I think they are working and have implemented some sort of exceptions for domestic violence. But it's not always clear to implement those. Where it's not always easy to do that. Yeah. I agree. It's not always easy for police to call on that. Yeah. The intention was there. But it, yeah, it hasn't been a good thing for our house. So it sounds to me like there's not a lot of support out of Albany recognizing this problem. One, from a financial standpoint. And two, for, you know, having this lenient bail reform. The bail reform, and I think it's effective for five years, right, before they can change it. But that's been tough. That's been tough. I think. You know, maybe the intention was different. But, you know, we have been getting some support from Albany in terms of, you know, funding. And, you know, we got the new, the hotline, you know, and some of that. Yeah. But my concern is when there's an abuser. Yeah. And you can't keep them away long enough. And I understand what the supervisor said. Yeah. Even if they're in jail for six months, they're coming back and doing the same thing. But. And with limited number of vets, that someone can get out of their situation is a non-sense. Yeah. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really. you know, then they did have control of isolating the non-abusive partner. Those are good questions. Thank you. No, I just want to say thank you so much for coming in. It's so important that the public hears about you and the services that you provide to the community because as a deputy bureau chief of child abuse and domestic violence for eight years and having prosecuted domestic violence homicide, I unfortunately know this cycle all too well. But the important thing for everybody to understand out in the community is it's all about isolation. And it doesn't mean physically isolated in your home. It means that you control the kind of job the person has. And if you don't like that job, you go to that job and you interrupt it to the point they lose their job. You affect them with regard to their children, isolation, making them pit against one against the other. There's so many layers to this, the dynamic. And it's amazing. And unfortunately, I'm so thrilled that you're here and you do the work you do so that people, not just women, because this can happen to men as well, any kind of domestic partner, that they know that you can get out of the cycle of isolation by all the different types of counseling that you offer. And it's so important that they take that step to go see you and talk to you about the finances, talk to you about the counseling. And the biggest component to this that's so hard for everybody to understand is they still need to know that you're here. And they still love the abuser. So you help give them the counseling as to how to recognize healthy love, a healthy loving relationship versus a non-healthy one. Because they're so often made to feel guilty for wanting to leave. So I think that's such a big component for people to go get the counseling. And I understand not only counseling for the individuals you do, but also law enforcement, training them on how to interview domestic violence victims. Because they will downplay it. The moment they feel safe, they'll want to not go forward with the charges, tell you it never happened, tell you that this person is a wonderful, caring person, it's all my fault. I'm the one that made him upset or her upset. So it's very important that you train the officers in how to recognize signs of it. And also with the community. I thank you so much for the work you do. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for hearing us. I know you've got a lot of other people here. We appreciate it. We appreciate your support. We appreciate your interest and your concerns. We appreciate it. We look forward to working with you. We are going to be going through our resolutions for the upcoming town board meeting next Tuesday. And with the support of all my board members, we went through the budget and we came up with some money that we're going to be voting on a resolution to donate you $10,000 to the retreat. That's fantastic. Thank you. And we know the work you do here in our town. And hopefully we can kind of set the pace for other towns to do the same thing. And I know it's not a lot of money, but I'm sure every little bit helps at times. So we're very glad to do it. And we appreciate the work you do. So thank you so, so much. And we appreciate that because what you just said, what kind of collaboration we can do with Riverhead will also help us get into other towns to make awareness and be able to support the communities in other towns. Absolutely. Use you as an example. Thank you. Yes. I appreciate that. I'm happy to help. Can we put a fellow town match challenge out there? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. That would be good. I like your thinking. There you go. East Hampton, South Hampton, Shelter Island. Come on. Match for kids. We're much wealthier than us. I will say that. OK. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate you coming in. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. So I believe this.

OK. Next item up is expedited building permits. And that will be with Andreas Safalakis and Dawn Thomas. Zafoklis. Zafoklis, yes. Zafoklis. Andreas. Andreas is putting in. Sorry. And Dan. And Dan. And Daniel Hurwitz. Sorry. Yes. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. We just wanted to put a program together to try and, you know, get some information. Yeah. Yeah. Make it so we can keep building permits streamlined for everybody. And the expedited new fee sheet would allow that because it will. People that do pay the accelerated permit fees will help to clear up the line that's regular as well. So I think it's a good process. It does work in other towns. And very. You saw the resolution, right? Yes. So that's it. And that's really all there is to it. It's pretty simple. And the form itself that you put together. Yeah. And the policy for that would be an administrative policy. We also have like, which I have an office manual policy. But we have priority permits, which would be gas lines, generators. Those wouldn't be eligible for expedited review because they're just so simple to start with. We're going to try and get them out in a week. And that would all be outlined in this right now. This is just a work in progress. But it would be outlined as we go. Obviously with the board's approval as it evolves. Go ahead. I think just to clarify, everyone pays the same fee and they get into that waiting queue for their project to be reviewed upon. This doesn't necessarily like jump that line. Everybody stays in that office. But this is saying that basically if you're willing to almost pay the employees overtime fees, time outside of the standard workday. Yes. And you're going to cover that. And if you're willing to do that, you're going to cover that cost. And the employee is willing to do that cost. Then your project obviously can move along a little quicker. Correct. But it doesn't demand any member of the public that you have to pay extra fees if you want to be heard quicker. Like, you know, everyone goes in the standard waiting queue. Yep. And so there are a lot of projects as we go. Yes. But this just says that, you know, it's hard for us to sit on this side when working with a very tight budget to go, yeah, stay overtime, catch up. And so this is now going to allow that. Yes. Yes. Overtime cost, you know, to be paid by the developer. Yep. Yep. If this is your stack of permits and now this many want to expedite, you're also getting to these sooner. Correct. Because you're going to do these after hours. So it helps out for the person who maybe doesn't have the money to pay for the higher amount. Right. But it will speed up the process. So to me it's a win-win. I think it makes a lot of sense. I know other towns have done it. We've talked about that. Yep. Yep. And it's been pretty successful. And there are people that are. That have the money and are willing to pay for a quicker service. So. Yeah. I think it's good. Yeah. So we looked at the fees and we're confident that the fees represent the actual administrative costs that are going to be going into the work that's done. So it will be a zero financial impact to the town while also creating this additional service to the town residents. Very good. Fantastic. Yep. Yep. So, I mean. Again, you know, I would just reiterate what André said. We're interested in making sure customer services are number one priority. People come in. It's a clear process. They can pay the fee. They know they're going to get a quick turnaround. And if people need it quicker, then they have the option to do that too. And as long as they will cover the cost for that. Sure. And also to clarify. I know the expedite gets basically your office to spend that extra time, you know, in the after hours to do the review. But it does not change. But it does not shorten in any way the length of our other laws for like fire districts and so forth. You know, that standard period of review time. So we're not, you know, I don't want someone to feel like, oh, they expedited everything. We never got to see it. We never got to put our impact. You still have your standard waiting periods for fire departments, fire commissioners to review these projects as they go through. But basically it will prevent that time from you sitting on the bottom of the pile. And typically by the time they come to the building department, like site plan, all that stuff is already. We're the last stop on the train. So they come to us and say, okay, we're ready for a permit. Now we're a month and a half, two months out. But we need to try and build quicker. Well, then they pay the fee. And like you said, it also does help the regular resident because now there's less than the regular. And the regular or all the residents are paying overtime costs for overtime work. Correct. Correct. And we did speak with Bill Rothar about setting up special accounts. Right. He's here if you have any questions about that process. But there will be accounts delineated so that the fees can be accelerated fees will be put there and used specifically to fund the overtime charges. I'm also going to say that I've been impressed, Andres, that like everyone in your entire department, you know, from all across the board, it impresses me because you have employees going, hey, we're willing to spend the extra time. We're willing to stay in the office. We're willing to do the meeting after hours. We're willing to do the catch-up time period. You know, and we just got to cover it financially. Where you're not a department that says is it almost 430 yet? Can I, you know, how soon can I get out the door? Oh, we got a great team there. And everyone like going through the building department and of course the planning department and community development, like there's so much continuity going on. And everyone's working together. And I'm just commending you as leading the building department over there that like it is impressive. And your staff is working really, really great teams. And you're working really, really great together. And things are flowing through there. So, yeah. Thank you. I think that's part of the idea of consolidating the groups. I think there's a lot more. Being in this building, I would say also has just been huge because everybody's super accessible. We have lots of meeting space. If we need to do something, we can, you know, quickly get to it. That wasn't always the case in the past. You know, and building was across the street. Exactly. And planning was across the street. And now it's pouring rain. Do I need to go see Andres today? It's just, it's just, and it really, really, you know, everybody is working really hard. And it really feels like a team, I think, now more than it ever did. So, that's good. But when you have staff coming to you saying, I want to stay after, I want to do this, I want to catch up, I don't want to keep people waiting, I have to commend you on that. Very good team. And all of the staff. Thank you. Thank you all. The office staff is awesome now. And it's been something that's been in code revision for a little bit of time. And just reviewing all the legal options and so forth. So, thank you. Yes, definitely. Great. Sweet. And I have to say, and I, we know this the other day, we received a letter again. We often get letters from the public commending the work that comes out of your office and the ease of use of your office as opposed to people have used other towns and had to go for permits and other things. And they, they always like when they come to Riverhead, they, they enjoy it. Yeah. They enjoy the way they're treated and the help they're given at the window with the staff. And, and that even goes out to the planning, the planning pre-submission meetings, how things are, you know, how you and the planning department help out. It's, it's awesome. So, this is only going to be a win-win the way I see it. I think it'll do very well. Great. Appreciate you bringing it to us. Thank you. Okay. You've done a great job as a leader of that department. And I, I can't tell you, I, I get calls about how, what a pleasure it is to work with you as opposed to other towns who like to throw around their power. And I've never seen you do that. And I've worked with you with customers that have had problems. And I've never once seen you like get above them. You're like, let's work this out. And that's a really big deal. And Riverhead is lucky to have you and your department. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. Absolutely. Yes. Great. Thank you, folks. Thank you. So, are there any other things that we need to do? Or how soon does this get underway? The, my office drafted the resolution. So, if we have your approval, we'd like to put in for Tuesday's meeting. Absolutely. Sure. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Perfect. Alright. So you're working late on Wednesday? I'll be working late today too. Okay. Thank you very much. Alright. And as one good deed leads to another, we now have expedited fire marshal permits with Oh, we're not going to do this. Fire Marshal Smith coming in. up to talk about it. Good morning everybody. Good morning. Good morning. So we've already had an accelerated services fee that we put in probably six, seven months ago and we utilize it for after hours inspections. We've been using it for a plan review and what we found is we wanted to tailor our fees a little bit more for the plan review to make up for the time it actually takes to do certain types of permits. So we've amended our fee schedule to account again like Andre said for our overtime and things like that. We don't want it to be at the cost of the taxpayers to do after hours inspections and plan reviews. So similar to what we're doing with the billing department, we're just looking for a resolution to be approved for the updated fees. I did speak with Bill. He's going to be able to put an account together where we can separate that fee type out when we do our deposits so he knows that it goes towards the overtime budget for our department. What I like about both of these is that other taxpayers are not paying for work you're doing for other people. Correct. And I think that's crucial. So you're doing a great job. I have to say Fire Marshal's Department has come a long way and you're a breath of fresh air coming in and you know young and new and our older guys are getting ready to leave and they're leaving the department in really good hands so I'm very happy about that. Thank you. Absolutely. So I just have one question. In terms I know sometimes things happen is somebody's planning that beautiful outdoor wedding a year ahead and everything was going great but then all of a sudden rain is in the forecast and then you guys are called in you know Friday morning can you can we get a tent up you know tonight tomorrow morning for a wedding that's on Saturday and things like that. Are we addressing like those fees in the same move to make sure that. Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of what we did with the accelerated services the last time we use it for that type of thing. So we're going out on the weekend to do a tent inspection because like you said from foreseen circumstances it's going to go up. We just apply the accelerated services. So for us we have a minimum call out of two hours for a weekend. We apply two hours. We have an hourly rate for our accelerated service. Doesn't take us more than that to do a tent inspection anyway but. We're always getting the guilt trip like you don't understand the wedding's tomorrow. You got to come out tonight. So I'm glad that that's covered. And it helps with some of the commercial construction like our plan review. We run generally around two to four weeks for review time. We do ours and then you know Andre still has his cue. So I was doing some accelerated review and finding out that he didn't have it. That kind of put us where we are today to help everybody because they can accelerate a review through us. But they still had to wait through the building department if it was a construction permit. So. It's good that we're on the same page and we have the ability to expedite if we need to. Somebody wants to pay the additional money to do that. Excellent. I mean this just helps out most projects as much as I would like to see them happen. Court the most of them take four years which which is bad to me. You know but this kind of behavior really helps out to get a little quicker maybe to take three years. Great. Just want to give a shout out. To Craig Zedek and Dave A to Z also because they've been instrumental with all this stuff over the years. Bring them in. We've gotten to a point now where and then Bob has worked hard on this to get everything up to date. And you know we were given stuff away basically with the fees. Our fees were pretty old pretty outdated. And I came back last year took a look at him. I'm like wow. Yeah. He was. I have to say you were amazing to work with. It was like this. We went through everything. We looked at. We scoured other towns compared fees and great job. Yep. Yeah. And you can see in the first four months of this year the difference between last year and last year. Absolutely. When he gives the updates at the work sessions we see that's awesome. Good. All right. I'm grateful for your 24 hour response. So all the other fire departments coming here on the scene right away. So 24 hours a day. So. Yep. Thank you for your commitment. Absolutely. Appreciate it. So our office has drafted a resolution for this as well. So with your approval. We'd like to. Put it on for Tuesday's town board meeting. Absolutely. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yep.

That's it. I don't see him. I don't see him. Joe. Yeah. I see. Two emails. Is Devin back in? Bye bye. Bye bye ladies. Thank you. Hey Debbie. Can we let Drew Dillingham know he's supposed to be here? Have him. Thank you. That's okay. All right. Next up we have. Expanding the food scrap program. And this will be handled by Denise Merrifield and the invisible Drew Dillingham. Yeah. Is that the old town hall? Yeah. I know. That's what we set up here too. Okay. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So.

He's on his way. That's big of him. Okay. Can maybe Bob sing a song or something like that? Keep us entertained? Well, hey. Can you turn on the Jeopardy theme? Yes. There we go. More like the Benny Hill thing, Joe. For the final Jeopardy question.

Sorry. Maybe we'll jump into Rezos. We'll do Rezos now, and then we'll do the engineering discussion after. Yes. Absolutely. Thank you.

He can wait now. All right. No problem. I don't think I've come on, but I didn't have the show. Everybody ready? We are ready. Okay. Resolution number one, fund balance transfer for payment of Series C bond anticipation note. Resolution number two, fund balance transfer for purchase of printer plotter. Yes. Number three, town hall improvements, fund balance transfer and bond authorization rescind of TBR. 2022-547. This is tied into the first resolution. You read the $900,000. These were monies that were recouped for both money that we spent here, getting the building ready with the renovations and also the $900,000 that was all removed or acquired through savings that we had from last year's budget. And Bill Rother was able to put this together so we could. Okay. So we don't have to bond that money out. Right. So I think actually resolutions one through five and Bill can clarify and confirm for us are all the result of the good work of the town board and the accounting folks who put us in the position to have the surplus funds to be able to do this. So he can further expand upon that. Debbie, if we have Bill, if you're grateful. And our great ability not to spend that money. Bill, we're just talking about the $900,000 and the $1.5 million. Maybe you want to come up, Bill? Sure. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. careful one through five so these are projects that we're funding with saved money from 2023 okay the large part of them are debt service that we either needed to incur or already incurred in a short-term on anticipation note so we're paying off 900 000 of a bond anticipation for building down in town square and then all the retrofitting for this building of a million five that we had a bond authorization we never borrowed any of that we're paying it off with cash those are the two big numbers we have a couple of other ones that are in here one of them is for work um engineering or architecture work over at justice court and then also um the well you mentioned earlier today $100,000 for that that all came out of saved money from 2023 correct and that these are resolutions one through five all of that came from that correct okay

okay resolution number six round 18 downtown revitalization grant program budget adjustment did just just read four and five yeah oh i'm sorry because we didn't read those i'm sorry uh resolution Resolution number four, budget transfer from fund balance for donation to domestic violence retreat center. That's what we spoke about with the retreat. That's where we're giving the money from. Right. Resolution number five, capital project 12407, Justice Court at 200 Howell Avenue, fund balance transfer. And that's for the architectural designs of the new Justice Court. Right. Wherever that may end up being. That's right. I think we're looking at East Hampton now for property there. Oh, good. I see the two justices in the back row here. I'm sure they'll cut us a very favorable deal on that. We'll put us up in East Hampton and we will run Justice Court for East Hampton. We already bought a house for you guys. Don't worry about it. Yeah. Good. Okay. So number six, round 18, downtown revitalization grant program budget adjustment. Number seven, sets hours for town beaches. 11 to 6. Ray's not here, right? In reading through this, when we say the beaches are open, that means they're lifeguard staff, correct? Right. Yeah. That's- So- Just confirm that. They'll be open. Yeah. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. And that it's ... There'll be lifeguards at the four main beaches that have the staff on them from 11 to 6. Correct. Now that's from May 25th to June 3rd, just on the weekends, then starting on June 24th, it's seven days a week. Right. Okay. And then if you're one of those folks who want to get on the beach to fish after hours, you have to get the night pass from the recreation department. Correct. Over and above the fishing license that you're required to have anyway. Right. Number eight, Water District Capital Project 82405 Altair Pharmaceuticals 311-2.5. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And number nine, accepts the resignation of a principal office assistant. We wish Tracy best in her endeavors. Absolutely. Number 10, ratifies the resignation of a wastewater treatment plant operator 2-F. Hey Drew, not only were you late, but you're chatting and it's a little loud up here, so hold it down please. Number 11, ratifies the termination of a custodial property. Okay. Really? Really? 12. Provisionally appoints a code compliance coordinator. 13. Provisionally appoints a justice court clerk, Spanish speaking. 14. Changes the status of part-time traffic control specialists and or part-time traffic control officers. 15. This is done as a requirement of civil service when they can work and the number of hours they can work, depending upon the time of the year. I believe it's from May 15th to September 15th they can work unlimited hours and from September 15th to May 15th it's their, the hours are controlled that they can actually work. Seasonally. Same thing for this next resolution you're going to read. Right. Number 15, which changes the status of part-time police officers. Number 16, set salary schedule for 2024 beach personnel for the Riverhead Recreation Department. Number 17, appoints returning seasonal. Beach employees to the Recreation Department. Number 18, appoints call in park attendants to the Recreation Department. Number 19, appoints a call in recreation leader to the Recreation Department. Number 20, appoints a seasonal assistant recreation leader to the Recreation Department. It's a busy time of year for those guys in that office. Summer's around the corner. That's right. Better days are coming. Number 21, appoints a member to the Anti-Bias Task Force, O'Donnell. That's all. Number 22, appoints a member to the Anti-Bias Task Force, O'Donnell. That's all. Number 23, reappoints members to Veterans Advisory Committee, Najon Carey. Number 24, reappoints member to Veterans Advisory Committee, Tom Najon. Number 25, reappoints member to Veterans Advisory Committee, Kim Judt. And that is basically the committee, those three people. And the work they do is awesome. It's tremendous. They take a lot on their shoulders. The banner program, now with the cherry trees, and that's just a little of what they do. It's incredible, and we really thank the three volunteers I see. Kim Judt is here today, and to Tom and Carrie, the same thing, and Councilman Rothwell. The work they do is, it's really good. It goes above and beyond, and we really appreciate it. And I'm undoubtedly rain supervisor every time they hang those banners up. Murphy's Law. Resolution number 26, appoints member to the Architectural Regional Council. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Ken Testa as municipal garage manager and authorizes payment of a stipend as compensation for such additional responsibilities and duties. This has been handled by other personnel in the past, and we made a change, and Ken Testa is going to be doing it. So it's basically cost neutral. We just painted somebody else, and now we'll kick over to Mr. Testa, who will be overseeing the town garage. Correct. And number 29, ratify stipend payable to John Apicello as interim municipal garage manager. Correct. That's the second piece of what you just explained. Yes, he filled in for a time when we needed someone to fill in, and now he's going to turn it over to Ken Testa. That's right. And number 30, resolution voluntarily relinquishing highway superintendent stipend for municipal garage is sort of part A of the three pieces of that. Number 31, rescinds resolution 2024-352, nunc pro tunc. Number 32, approve salary increase for a senior account clerk. Number 33, authorizes the supervisor to execute an agreement with Cummins, Inc. regarding generator maintenance service for the Riverhead Water District. Number 34, authorizes the supervisor to execute stipulation with CSCA Local 1000 AFSCME AFL-CIO Riverhead Unit of the Suffolk Local 852. Number 35, authorizes the supervisor to execute an addendum to an agreement with LVF Landscape Architects PLLC. That's regard to the town square. Yeah, so it's actually a two-prong amendment, and one relates to sort of the upper deck, and one relates to the parking, to the playground. And really, it's just, as I understand it, and the town attorney can explain it a little further if you guys need, they're just swapping out somebody who does some of their cost estimating for them. Number 37, authorizes agreement nunc pro tunc with Cuse & Forth Development, Inc. QED. Number 38, authorizes the senior citizen program director to execute an agreement with the New York State Commodity Supplemental Food Program.

Number 39, authorizes the supervisor to execute an agreement authorizing the town to accept funds from Suffolk County Office for the Aging for the purpose of supplementing the town's nutritional program for the elderly. This is funding we get every year, and this is like a housekeeping thing that has to be done every year. Number 40, authorizes the supervisor to execute an agreement authorizing town to accept funds from the Suffolk County Office for the Aging to supplement the town's 2024 residential repair program for the elderly. Same thing, but this one is a great program. If you're elderly and you have some minor repairs that need to be done at your house, you can contact the senior center, and you can talk to Kelly Katuchy down there. I don't know if this also goes through CDA. I think not. I know one of them used to. It used to go through CDA also. But if you don't have the money and they have personnel that can come do minor repairs, and a lot of times they build handicap ramps and stuff for people when things change. So I just wanted to put that out to the community in case they weren't aware of it. Okay. Number 41, authorizes the community development department to apply for a Suffolk County Water Quality Protection and Restoration Program grant for Meeting House Creek Restoration Project. Number 42. Accepts donation from the Riverhead Chapter of the Women of the Moose for the senior center. We thank them. That's a nice donation that they made to the senior center, and that money can always be used down there. So we appreciate that, ladies of the moose. Number 43, resolution calling for public hearing regarding a capital improvement for the proposed lateral water main extension replacement at 205 Osborne Avenue, Riverhead, New York. Number 44, authorizes the removal of fixed assets. Number 45, corrects typography. Number 46, 456 award for the 2023 annual construction contract. Number 46, awards bid for electric motor repair. Number 47, extends bid non-proton for dry hydrated lime calcium hydroxide. Number 48, authorizes notice to bidders for the installation of water maintenance for 205 Osborne Avenue rebid mixed use development for Riverhead Water District. Number 49, authorizes the town clerk to publish and post notice to bidders for 2024 annual procurement contract. Number 50, authorizes the town clerk to publish and post notice to bidders for 2024 annual construction contract. Number 51, ratifies amendment to resolution 2024-364 Home Depot outdoor plant sale. Number 52, amends resolution 2023-911. Deshawn J. Briggs, Memorial Foundation, Inc., run for Briggs. Number 53, amends resolution 367-2024 Riverhead Townscape Country Fest. Number 54, approve special event Chapter 255 application for the Autism Studio Fun Run Fundraiser. Number 55, approve special event Chapter 255 application for the American Heart Association Cycle Nation Long Island Bike Ride. Number 56, ratifies the authorization for two police department employees to attend training. And number 57, I'm told this morning that we need to remove this resolution. And it's a sequential thing. We have to have you folks take up number 58. And thereafter, at a future meeting, we'll take up number 57. So we're going to remove that from the packet entirely. And that brings us to number 58. Meeting. House Creek Wetland Restoration Secret Classification and Lead Agency Coordination Suffolk County Tax Map Number 600-67-2-27.1. And that's it for resolution. Okay.

All right. Let's go back to expanding the food scrap program with Merrifield and Dillingham. And Lizard, I assume. Yes. Yes.

Good morning, sir. All right. How are you doing? Excellent. Hello. Hello. Good afternoon.

Okay. Okay.

Okay. So I just want to lead off by saying that being part of the Committee for the Environmental Advisory Committee. We've met several times now. And one of the things we're looking to do is help get climate smart points. And one of the ways to help achieve that as well is to hopefully open up a second food scrap location. Not only does it provide points, but I also invited Jason as well as Mr. Dillingham to talk about how well the first food scrap, location has gone. And the location of the second food scrap point. I can't talk to that one. Sorry. How well that's going to go. And also just to talk about in general where we are with our climate points. Okay. If you'd like to go. Sure. I'll just start it off. This is the second food scrap recycling facility. The first one is kind of out of the way. It's in. It's in the area of the

! It's in the area of the! It's in Calerton at the food yard waste facility. So people from South Janusport, people from Janusport, it's kind of a hike for them to bring their food scraps there. And that reason and also the reasons described by Denise. We decided. We decided to put another food scrap facility at George Young Community Center. And it's a good, it's an actually it's an ideal place because we have an attendant there all day long, Howie. And he's also a horticulturist, so we can't go wrong. We hauled in 20,000 pounds in the last year. Really? facility so we expect to have just as much if not more at the Jamesport facility. And with that I'll turn it over to Jason. I'll just say that number again so people hear that. Jeff that's just from one your one location and I understand Jason that's with just 75 people right and that produced how much? Over 20,000 pounds. Over 20,000 pounds with just 75 people participating. So if we have the second location the numbers are just going to go exponentially higher. Right, yeah so I just wanted to kind of go through everything so kind of how we got to the pilot and everything like that. So this is kind of what our facility looks like right now we have 15 toters and the two signs there. So we started with a pilot the Environmental Advisory Committee came to engineering after we released our solid waste management plan and Mark Haubner and Mary Morgan had just completed a pilot out of the facility. And they were looking at the ! We picked up from 10 restaurants sorry 10 residences, two restaurants and the senior center and we picked up on Monday Mondays and Thursdays and we were originally bringing it to the Grown Oak Lavender Farm eventually Cornell Cooperative joined in and helped us out to get all our food scraps brought there. In the three months that we did that pilot we did over two tons of food scraps in just that little bit of time. So in that time after that was over we basically went in and started rethinking things over. And see how we could kind of you know make this program more beneficial to the residents. So the Environmental Advisory Committee had met with the Village of Scarsdale which is upstate in Westchester. They have been doing food scraps for about five years. They're kind of like the pioneers of all this so they've helped a lot of other municipalities get started. We're one of them. So they have a very successful food scrap drop-off program. They have it commercially picked up it's a little bit different but we were able to actually adapt it to what we needed. So thankfully Beth Fateny and Green Inside and Out with Judy Greco had brought in a twenty thousand dollar grant. They had originally gone to the town of Huntington and they said no. So they came over by us and it was a blessing in disguise because we were able to purchase all the toters, the signage. We were able to do a lot of community outreach as well. So that was really a big thing from them. And then without further ado we became the first municipally operated drop-off food scrap drop-off location almost a year ago. About nine days short of a year. But yeah we on May 11th we became the first one. So this is just kind of a look at our website. So this is our kind of why we recycle food scraps and this is our registration. So on the signs that we have located there is a QR code that leads them right to this website. And it's just a registration basically to know firstly is it a resident. And then the other thing is that they have a lot of information about the program. So they can register for the program. And secondly if there's any kind of contamination that starts happening at the collection site. You know stickers on your bananas, apples, whatever. We can just send out a friendly email reminder. Say hey you know don't forget to peel your bananas or apples or stuff like that. These are the flyers that we had distributed. They were both in English and Spanish. Well everything is both bilingual. So like I said this also has the QR code that allows you to register for the program. So we made it very tried to make it as easy as possible for anybody. Even if they go to the facility and aren't registered they can scan the QR code right on the sign and register. That's excellent. So yeah so and then as part of our program we actually offered compost bins and bags for our residents at cost. So we were able to purchase them at a you know a large quantity and ultimately give them at cost to our residents. So it saved them at least half the cost. They were trying to save up to half the cost. So we did a lot of space management in there. Really just to provide space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space what we call the full starter kit where it came with both we actually sold out of the seven gallon and starter kit full starter kits but we still have the compost they're selling yes out of the 80 ish registered we've probably sold I'd say about 50 of them that's good to hear yeah yeah so actually scarsdale was critical in helping us with that because they actually gave us our first batch and we ultimately sold off what they had given us and then we're now selling our own stuff so that actually worked out really well this is a little food scrap recycling guy that we put together so anybody who registers they automatically get the previous slide that you just saw and this in an email and basically say like you know these are any kind of questions if you have any further questions we actually have a full compost that town of Riverhead mo I go email address that you can email and ask any kind of questions I feel that a lot of questions from residents not only from Riverhead but from all over the town you know long Island especially in like Southampton and Hampton Bay is that kind of area where they were looking to basically bring their food scraps here and unfortunately you know we were just trying to keep residents only but we were trying to maybe put the pressure on other you know administration's to start up a program like this so yeah that's that's kind of what we sent out so this is where we're you know basically the same picture you know pumpkins and stuff like that in our compost pile and then basically this is the the idea of the drop-off location so we have the large signs we have 15 64 gallon toters with the compostable bags there we only utilize five at a time so the five in the front are the main use because if we started using all of them you get a little bit filled here you know max filled here so ultimately we wanted to make sure that everything got filled at once and then we put the five in the back bring the next five up and you know we ultimately process the food scraps from there so some of our metrics we have a total of 80 registered residents so that's only put in perspective is only 0.2 percent of our entire population and we've diverted over 20,000 pounds of food scraps it actually works out to be kind of the same metrics that the DEC and all of them have where it's a half of a pound of food scraps per person per day so if you compare that to Riverhead that's nine tons of food scraps just out of Riverhead alone. You know and then if you want to add a little bit more metrics it's actually equates to over 76,000 pounds of methane because methane is actually 20 more twenty eighty times more potent over the first 20 years when it's degrading so that's how you keep it out of landfills yes exactly exactly so this was our little presentation at Riley Avenue Elementary School where we talked to about a hundred fourth graders got them very excited about compost and worms and dirt and it was it was actually really good presentation they were actually very intrigued with everything so this was kind of our target audience this group of age group to kind of get everything rolling with them so this is one of our latest things it's called a a dunkster so this actually factors into climate smart pretty well because there's a little like on the outskirts there's something with innovation with climate smart and they're basically looking for any kind of way to you know process compost faster and more efficiently so a gentleman Tim shuttleworth out of eastern Pennsylvania created this idea that basically when you create an aerated static pile which is just dumping the compost on the ground you don't get that airflow and basically create the microbes to start chewing the compost up and you know sanitize it and stuff so what he did was he created an airflow system that basically creates a laminar flow which is more uniform and the air goes through the air and the air goes through the entire compost and is ultimately processed and degraded in a shorter amount of time so even in the winter they were saying that it could be upwards of six short of six weeks where a normal pile on the ground would be about 90 days so and we have three months yes we are already running this so this is actually our dumpster this is Riverheads dumpster so on the picture on the left is our guys setting up you know some of the the actual dumpster itself so this was a dumpster that was actually built in the early 2000s and this is a dumpster that we got from crown you know beaten up old one that we didn't that they weren't really you know attached to or anything so that's the some of the benefits of the dumpsters that you don't need a you know brand new you can get something that's kind of beaten up and so what happens is we we did it differently because we don't have as much feedstocks so we separated the dumpster into two separate sections and we've been kind of composting the trot the first run has not been going great but there's a lot of nuances and hiccups that we have to iron out and stuff like that right when we got this started this time around is when we got the two snowstorms so we was starting to heat up and immediately cooled right back down so we kind of lost it a little bit in there so but you know we're not discouraged we're gonna try it again and try to see what what else we can do with that check in with you during August yes yeah exactly exactly so and yeah that's basically the whole idea behind our whole program and where we're at right now and I think you mentioned that you're going to be doing a lot of work with the !

sent out an email as a courtesy to Greater Jamesport Civic Association just to kind of let him know and also maybe have them help us get the word out a little bit out to the residents out there so like Drew said Howie is a horticulturist by trade so he's already kind of hands-on with this and the gardening that he's doing there is actually gonna go right into the food waste bin anyway because it's brown and greens and stuff like that so yeah that's basically where we wanted to expand to and just lastly just so everybody in the public understands how this fits in with the climate smart points yes so what does the state require yes so not only so there's actually two working parts of this this also fits into our solid waste management plan which is required by New York State DEC as a municipality we have to create a plan of ten years of basically where our garbage is going so this fits into that it's a almost like an incremental plan where right now we're only grabbing like that what they call the low-hanging fruit the people that really want to recycle the garbage and then we're going to have to do a lot of work with the mayor about the management of the farm space and the management of the farm space and the management of the farm space management space and the management of the farm space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management space management there's a you know things that come and go with certain parts of this program but for the food scraps specifically there's two sections organics management plan and then organic waste program for government buildings which we actually automatically get the highest amount of points because we divert a hundred percent of our food scraps from the senior center so technically we only create food scraps at the senior center and ultimately are diverting a hundred percent of it so we max out in that section of it but we also have a tiered plan where we can get more points depending on the organics management plan that we that we create ultimately so and that's basically where we're at you know with the climate smart and how it's going to fit all into all that awesome thank you very much great job just lastly how many points and when do we have them by need to get home so we're still right now we we're still in the process of getting them out of the system and we're still we're able to be certified by 2025 so we have to you know everything is good for five years so we basically started this in 2020 and now we're getting to the point where we need to submit so by 2025 we're hoping that we're gonna be bronze-certified so okay and we're near that right yes yes we're pretty close yes thank you all right just I'm just curious I mean I'm really happy to hear that people are buying these home comp comp posters right yeah I would really like it at some point if if you you know who's ever you know that somebody on that committee can come to a work session and educate the public on those yeah so that we're not going around picking it up right because I mean I'm really happy to hear that you got somewhere between 70 and 80 people that have taken advantage of that and I'm gonna look check with the emery's if there's any arpa money available to assist with that okay all right thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you

Stephen Barshaw of Esquire Matters surrounding possible litigation against the town of Southampton. That will be with Howard Prudente and Thomas. We have a contractual... We're going to take that off. The first one we're removing? Yeah, we're going to take it off and reschedule it for next week. Okay, so we're going to amend our executive session and remove the first item listed as legal with Stephen Barshaw. That's removed from today. Okay. Next matter we have is Matters surrounding possible agreement for court reporting services. That will be with Howard, Hulse, Walter, and Burgess. And then we have two items on personnel. Matters surrounding possible change in status of employees. Striplin, Teo, and Kremborg. And we have Matters surrounding possible change in status of employee with Howard. Bob, you had something you wanted to read? Some notes you wanted to mention? Yeah, I just wanted to... Should we close? Yeah, on May 11th at 9 a.m., the Riverhead High School Interact Club, which interacts with the Rotary, and the Rotary are installing a rock garden at Northwell Oncology next to Burger King. So they're looking for some volunteers, Interact kids, to bring you a trowel. You can call Kim Judd for more info at 727-3017. If you're volunteering out of Manhattan, there's a 631 area code. Thanks. Okay. Thank you. All right. Well, that closes our open session. I'd like to make a motion to close open session and go into executive session. Motion. Second. Second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Okay. Open session is closed and we will continue on with executive session. Everybody have a good night. Thank you. Have a great weekend and we'll see you next week.