Full Transcript

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Drew. And we have no announcements for today, so we'll get right into our first discussion item, which is matters surrounding collaboration with Brookhaven Town regarding Wading River Duck Pond improvements. And as I said, we have our town engineer, Drew Dillingham, with us, and Councilman Rothwell. You want to take it away? Yes. Good morning, everybody. If you want, I can also invite our Deputy Town Attorney, Emery, to come up. She's going to work on some contractual negotiations with the town. Good morning. Good morning, Emery. Good morning, Drew. So, for the past 30 years living in Wading River, we've seen the ponds at one point, they seem to quite flourish with ecological life. And over years, it has. It's slowly diminished over time. I think the main source is the storm water that enters the ponds over the years. Anybody that lives in Wading River and experienced a heavy rainstorm have seen that that water flows down North Country Road all the way down to the duck ponds, and it's four feet wide, and it becomes like a raging river going down there. And I took some pictures this morning that Chip could put up. I'm going to show you on the screen just so we can see that it's current and it's here. But for many years prior, there's been a number of efforts that have attempted to restore the duck ponds, to correct the flow of water and so forth, and it's never come to fruition. It's just not working. And so some of the pictures in which you see this morning, because this is even days after, and Chip, if you just go... I'm going to go through the slides a little bit, but what you're seeing on the right, too, on some of the pictures is the oil slicks. So there's visible oil that's run off from the roadways that are just appearing in the ponds. You will see how the bulkheading is dilapidated over countless years. And it's sad that the town of Riverhead has just not had the financial means or way with all to restore the duck ponds. And what is... And it's a unique situation because it borders between two towns and the majority of the ponds itself are in the town of Brookhaven. Yet the bulking and the runoff that comes down is the source coming from the Riverhead side. So you can see the oil in some of those pictures that are just floating on there as toxins in the water. And so we have met with the town of Brookhaven officials. We worked with them. We worked very closely with Highway Superintendent Dan Panico's office and his assistant superintendent, Steve Tricarico. They've been wonderful. We've had nice roundtable discussions where we've brought in our community development team with Don Thomas. And we've kind of become to a decision that the best way to approach the duck ponds because it's between the two towns is to create an intermunicipal agreement together. And that... And we need to not just do the bulkheading. We need to restore... Put proper drainage in place, perhaps preventing the water runoff that comes as far as up on 25A. It comes down North Country Road. Starts in Wading River Manor Road. Comes down North Country Road. It's coming from Remsen Road, from Gully Road. And that water just flows directly down past the firehouse, past the congregational church, and eventually ends up in those ponds. So we need to put catch basins further up the roadway. And catch especially the sources off of the main highways where I believe we're getting the majority of these oil slicks that are coming in there. I've watched as... 30 years I've watched my kids growing up and going down there and taking great pictures and hanging out and taking pictures of the wildlife. And there used to be an enormous amount of turtles that you would always see down there. There is even today. There's clearly wildlife and... Ecolife within the ponds. There's fish that are present in there. But... I watched last year a number of residents try to... Pull out a deer that went in there and it just got stuck up to its waist in like muck. And it's so... The ponds need to be dredged. They need to adjust the runoff that comes into the ponds. The backside of the ponds you'll see heavy amounts. Where you're seeing... All the debris, the wash off that's coming down the hills and the broken tree branches and everything going in there. And it's just... It's turning into a thick muck on the bottom of the ponds. So... Our town has made efforts. I think Brookhaven has made efforts over the years. But they've been in small steps. And funding has always been the main source of the problem. So... With this collaborative effort, the goal is to overall... Is to jointly... Put together using... Outside resources to determine the overall cost of the project. But we're going to jointly put together an effort... And permit and submit a grant application to our Congressman Loda's office. And... His office has already... Said they will do everything in their power... To help assist both the Riverhead Town and the Town of Brookhaven in this endeavor. To once and for all to restore the environmental... And ecological... Aspects of the ponds to prevent deterioration from continuing in the future. And it's something that I'm certainly passionate about being a Weyden River resident. Councilwoman Merrifield has said, please let's do it together. Let's join in like... And we'll put in all the time, all the effort, countless meetings. We'll go back and forth with Brookhaven. We'll meet with them. We'll meet at the Duck Ponds. We'll meet here. Both our grant writers from Riverhead side as well as Brookhaven will work on grant applications together. They have... You know, we have an incredible team. I mean, speaks volumes when I think we've brought in probably over 50 million dollars in the last three years through... Downtown grants and water infrastructure in Manaville and just... Revitalization grants. So, there's no question we've got the best grant writing team around. And Brookhaven has an incredible grant writing team. I think together... We can put together this application and we're going to seek federal funding. I think is the only way to really correct this financial downfall that has allowed the Duck Ponds to deteriorate to the conditions they are today. It's about safety as well. So, we still have families that gather down there on a regular basis and the bulkheading is not safe. It's environmentally, it's not looking good. And it really should be from the Weyden River side, myself being a Weyden River resident, it's really the pride and the focal point of our town. On the west side of Riverhead. And we need to restore it. And I'd like to see other smaller things where families can gather more in the future. I'd like to restore the Christmas lights and the holiday lights and Hanukkah lights and everything that was down there that was once a real focal point. That has lost its enthusiasm, lost its endurance over the years. And, you know, it's a beautiful area. And I think that just with a collaborative effort, we can make this happen. So, our town engineer has worked on in prior years. He put together some great proposals about, you know, installing catch basins and so forth. But it's always the end. It's always been the lack of funding. And that's really what's halted the process. So, in 2005, Brookhaven and the town of Riverhead applied for a grant. And Brookhaven, I guess, I'm not sure whether it was a matching issue. But Brookhaven was able to carry it. They were able to carry out their part of the work plan. And Riverhead was not. And it ended up being some minor dredging. They put in a new cleaning device, but it wasn't that much. But ours, when we actually implement it, it's going to be at least, I was looking at the old plans yesterday, 13 catch basins with leaching pools. On those intersections that you mentioned before. And I'm expecting it to probably be about a million dollar project. And I think with the time we add bulkheading in and dredging and all the other structures, it's going to be in the millions to complete. We want to look at a cohesive effort of restoring everything. So, not just piecemealing anymore. Let's do a large scale collaborative effort to do all of that, just as you say. And so, I'm going to scale back the resolution that's in the packet. And it's simply going to relate to the coordination of efforts between our community development agency, town engineering department, and town of Brookhaven to make application for the grant for the dredging, replacement, repair, bulkheads, landscaping for the duck ponds. Yeah. And because that's what we're looking at right now. We're not pointing fingers to 90% of it's Brookhaven, 10% of it's Rivette. We're just saying that together, we need to be unified. And the grant will be for the entire project, for both ponds, for catch basins. We want to put it and implement it in such a way that there are no town lines drawn. It's just going to be more of an aerial view of everything. And saying regardless of where the town lines form, this is a cohesive project between both towns. And so, I think that's the only way to do it. Okay. So, we're going to have to really approach this and then to do all the work together. And so, if the grant from whatever is the necessity side of Brookhaven, whatever is the necessity side of Riverhead, it'll all be lumped in together. And that's where we'll sit before Congressman Loader in his office and say, here's our application, here's what we need, and we need federal funding. And I think it, every, you know, Congressman has been excellent in obtaining funds for many projects throughout, you know, all of Suffolk County. And so, this is something in which we're going to personally sit with him and we think we can do that. So, this is just the very beginning, really? Beginning process. This is just the beginning of the process. It's going to take some time. The federal funding generally comes out once a year. And it did just come out approximately, you know, about a month and a half ago or so. So, but we do need time to prepare. So, we are looking at and hopefully that if we sit at this same time next year and we receive that funding, work would begin. So, it is a long, tedious project. It is going to require that both towns do put some money up front so we may see some resolutions down the road in which we need to pay for studies or plans. It's not just the town of Riverhead and the town of Brookhaven doing things. It's going to have to presumably involve, you know, working with the EPA, working with the DEC to make sure that everything that we're thinking about and getting advice on all environmental agencies to say that whatever we're going to do there, we're going to do it. We're going to do it. Whatever we're going to do there, we're going to use the correct safe materials, be it for bulkheading, how we're going to eliminate the dangerous runoff that goes in there to end the oil slicks within the pond. There's a high volume of algae plume that is in there right now. And so, you know, we're going to seek many different experts that are going to cast their thoughts and ideas on this project. It's a beautiful… I'm sorry, go ahead. No, it's a beautiful spot in Wading River that families have enjoyed for a long time. Thank you. It's a place that they've enjoyed for decades. And I myself used to take my children down there to feed the ducks. It was lovely. And it's a shame that it's deteriorated like this. This particular proposal will help environmentally clean up the area. It's also a historic district. It's an area that has been around since the 1600s. And it's beautiful. It's also a beautification project. And it also economically helps the businesses. And they're in our town. And there's a number of stores, shops that have had a hard time in recent years coming around. And they're doing very well. And it doesn't help the businesses down there to see this deteriorate where it's just a swamp. And really, we'd love to see it come back to its original state and just beautiful again. So, wholeheartedly want to be a part of this and help the town. Drew, maybe you can just give the public some sense because certainly folks in Wading River are intimately familiar with this. But maybe folks that are, you know, located further east. In Tanna River Head are less familiar with it. So, maybe you can just give people a sense of the size, the scope of it. And also just expand upon what the Councilman spoke about a little bit in terms of the sequence. And how, what kind of work this project is going to entail. Just for the members of the public for clarity a little bit. Okay. So, there are two ponds. Together there are two acres. The eastern pond is about an acre and a quarter. And the western pond is three quarters of an acre. And so, we're going to be looking at the two ponds. And they're two to three feet deep. As Council Rothwell said, really choked off with algae. Our plan is, I spoke with the stormwater manager over in Brookhaven. Who's probably going to spearhead their portion of it. And they're planning to, or they'd like to RFP it. Get a consulting firm. Do a feasibility study and establish a handful of recommended alternatives. And then from there we would choose an alternative. And then prepare plans and specs. And get the permits that we need. I don't think we need an Army corp. permit. CDC only. Yeah. Yes. So, I understand you correctly. It would be an RFP for a consultant to plan the specifications. Yes. Okay. Necessary for the grant. Right. Okay. And we do have some work and studies that have been done in prior years. prior years that were not implemented, but perhaps it may be more even cost-effective to send some of them back out to simply be updated with the costs, right? We have some of the drainage issues that were addressed in terms of mapping and planning but never implemented for lack of funding, but it might be more cost-effective to even send some of them back and saying, okay, what does this cost now in 2025 to come off in the future? What are we truly looking at these numbers today? Did Brookhaven give us an estimate for the consulting? There's no cost of been, you know, we're in the early stages, but because we have two different town board members, council members, elected officials, highway superintendents and so forth, I just think that when we're gathering that room, people should understand why we're there and what are we doing. And what's the topic of conversation? And that's why Brookhaven Town said, well, they would put forth a resolution in which they have, and we are putting forth a resolution that just states publicly that we are going to do a collaborative efforts. And that's why we intend to gather. And that's why we should see activity around the ponds where you may see some Brookhaven engineers, our town engineers working, looking at it, examining it, determining what's that measurements so that we can complete these grant applications over time. So when the general public says, okay, we're going to do this, we're going to do this, and what exactly is going on. This will be our study effort to see how we go forward and to collect the necessary data to apply for federal grant. So it doesn't determine. We're uncertain of the numbers right now. But we'll get there. And that's what we intend to work on and submit that with the grant. Right. But do we have a budget for the proposed consulting? Not. we can determine like what what's going to be necessary okay so and we're going to look at what we already have in place and what what other studies we need to do so the resolution that's in the packet is going to be revised we're going to tweak it and simplify it a little right right so that will change we want we want going for we want everything to be accurate and so until we get those numbers and we have a better understanding then we can you know disclose that and share it with the public and then it'll be written on the grant application as well the goal of this I think it's going to be in the millions and the goal of this is to obtain federal funding for a joint effort between the town of Brookhaven and the town of Riverhead that's I see going forth this the only way we're going to get this project done and we're going to ask to do it right yep and did ask the support of our of our congressman and our state is state senator state assembly if there's anything on the New York side and of course our US senators as well so for the federal funding okay all right we've been successful you know we can do it out of curiosity where is the oil coming from I believe what's floating on the top I am NOT an environmental expert but just clearly with the recent storm it's presumably runoff what's coming down from the road and that's what's floating and you have the road Zofra Mills that comes between the two duck ponds so anything off of that road is going right into each pond too Brookhaven side is buffered with all the trees and canopy and we don't have any of that and there are there at the lower ground right so but the one road running down the street yeah that could be as far as 25 a point is a distance away and it just spreads out but the entire road lacks all of the catch basins that would normally typically be in places going down so 25 a the elementary school coming all the way down to st. John the baptist Roman Catholic Church from Remsen Road down the opposite side Gulley Road they're all hard to get down. the street. That could be as far as Route 25A, which is a distance away. And it just spreads out. But the entire road lacks all of the catch basins that would normally typically be in places going down. So from 25A, the elementary school, coming all the way down to St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church from Remsen Road, and on the opposite side, Gully Road. They're all high-line areas, you know, and that water is just flowing down. And then the pond is at the lowest point. And that's...the pond currently is the catch basin for all of that water. And it just doesn't work. That's true. I remember all of the ducks that were always there. And they can't live there anymore. You see some of them in there and you kind of feel...heart like...you know...man, it's just not the same. And there were swans, too. Used to be swans. It was beautiful. And so we want to get there. We want to get back and restore. It's environmental. It's ecological. It's... it's beautiful in its sheer beauty of it. It is a beautiful place to sit. It's one of the big focal points in the heart of Waiting River. And we're going to get it done. We've got to work on that. And I say that with confidence because we have done some great things with water that is now being installed up in Manitoba with the downtown. Like, we have great writing teams and collaborative effort from both towns. Top-notch individuals. I'm confident we'll get it done. That's great. All right. Sounds good. So good things to come there for the Waiting River and Duck Pond. And we'll give progress reports. Over the next year we'll give progress reports and we'll let the public know how we're doing and where we're at. Good. Anything else to add or...? No. All right, guys. Thank you very much. Appreciate you coming in. Drew, thank you. You're welcome. So that's it. We have a short agenda today. That's the only discussion item that we have on the open session docket. So now we'll move on to resolutions. And if the board's ready, we'll get it going. Yes. Okay. Resolution number one. Water District Capital Project 82421, Calverton Hamlet Center. Resolution number two. Approves Planning Department budget transfer for comprehensive plan update. Number three. Authorization for four Police Department employees to attend Governor's Traffic Safety DRE interview. Number four. Grants special permit with conditions for 431 Griffin Avenue to convert an office to a single family dwelling. 431 Griffin Avenue, Riverhead, New York. Suffolk County Tax Map number 600-128-1-30. Number five. Grants special permit with conditions for 4592 Middle Country Road to construct a two family dwelling at 4592 Middle Country Road in Calderwood. Number six. Grants special permit with conditions for 4592 Middle Country Road to construct a two family dwelling at 4592 Middle Country Road in Calverton. Suffolk County Tax Map number 600-97-1-79.1. Number six. Resolution calling public hearing regarding a capital improvement for the proposed lateral water main extension at 437 and 483 Young's Avenue, Calverton, New York. Suffolk County Tax Map number 600-80-2-6.1 and 9.1. And just to clarify for the public, all costs associated with the proposed lateral water main extension are $4.37 and $4.83 per m2. And that's $4.38 per m2. And that's $4.38 per m2. And that's $4.38 per m2. And that's $4.38 per m2. And that's $4.38 per m2. And that's $4.38 per m2. And that's $4.38 per m2. And that's $4.38 per m2. And that's $4.38 per m2. And that's $4.38 per m2. And that's $4.38 per m2. And that's $4.38 per m2. And that's $4.38 per m2. [transcription gap] And that's $4.38 per m2. [transcription gap] Number five. Sub américado's Number eight, authorizes the supervisor to execute an inter-municipal agreement with the town of Brookhaven for the dredging and replacement and repair of bulkheads and landscaping at the Wading River Duck Pond situated in Riverhead and Brookhaven towns. And as we just discussed, this is going to be amended a bit, so the content of that will change, but the thrust of it will remain the same, which is that we want to work together, of course, with Brookhaven. Absolutely. Resolution number nine, authorizes the supervisor to execute a license agreement with Darkside Productions, Inc. This is apparently something our fire marshals do every year because staff, as I understand it, turns over from year to year with Darkside. So our fire marshals go over and they do sort of a test simulation so that the new staff is familiar with what to do in the event of an emergency there in the haunted house. Has anybody been, by the way? Many times. No, we've passed it many times. I've been brave enough to go myself. I'm so scared. Yeah, me too. I don't like those things. All right. Resolution number 10, to acknowledge supervisor's advisory committee, citizens cooperative development team. As most are aware, the supervisor made this a priority from the very beginning when he took office, that he was going to meet with a group of folks and form sort of an ad hoc EPCAL development team, advisory team. And this is, they've been meeting for, I guess, eight, nine months at this stage. But this is sort of formally formalizing that entity and that mission. We've presented on this, I think, more than once at work session. And it's certainly been a productive group, working group so far. And this just, as I said, formalizes that. Resolution number 11, approved special event, Chapter 255 application for Wading River Shore and Chamber of Commerce, WRS Chamber Fall Festival.

Number 12, approved special. Special event, Chapter 255 application of Fine Fair Supermarket, Customer Appreciation Day. Number 13, approved special event, Chapter 255 application of Foodie Fest Productions, LLC, first annual Foodie Fest.

Number 14, appoints a maintenance mechanic, too. Number 15, appoints a senior account clerk. Number 16, ratifies the appointment of a fire marshal, Visser. Excellent individual. Further bolstering our fire marshal's office, right? Yep. Good. Number 17, ratifies amendment to resolution number 2024-733, appointing a call-in cook. We just had a little, not typographical, but just an error in the title that we put in a prior resolution. So that's just correcting that. It's a terrible time to be on a diet. We're talking about foodies and cooks and everything else. I know. This is rough. Resolution number 18, ratifies the approval for a leave of absence. Number 19, ratifies and accepts the resignation of a part-time police officer. Number 20, ratifies and accepts the resignation of a part-time police officer. Number 21, ratifies and accepts the resignation from a part-time court officer. Number 22, accepts the resignation of a water treatment plant operator to be. Number 23, authorizes the town clerk to publish and post notice for public hearing regarding U.S. HUD Community Development Block Grant CDBG 2025 funds. Number 24, ratifies the execution of an amended grant disbursement agreement with NYSESD. For the 25. 25. [transcription gap] 25. 25. 25. 25.

The Riverhead Town Square project, number one, I think we need to have a dollar sign there, $133,334. So basically what we're doing here with this, it was an $800,000 grant and we're getting reimbursed for $720,000 of it at this point. They're just holding back a little bit of the funds until we meet the remaining conditions, the remaining criteria. We have to do certain things because it was a historically significant building. So once we do those remaining things, we'll get reimbursed for the balance of those funds. Number 25, revises bid award for 2024 annual procurement contract. Number 26, extends bid for removal of household hazardous waste. Just a note for the public and we will further alert the public. But just so they have a sense of the importance of the public, I'm going to go ahead and have a sense now. October 26th coming up will be the second day of the year of the 2024 calendar year that they can participate in the stop program. Any hazardous chemicals, whether those be oil-based paints, things like that. Also prescription drugs can be dropped off at the highway yard over there on Osborne Avenue on October 26th. And then the new dates for 2025 will be released in January. So we'll have to wait and see. Number 27, issues finding statement pursuant to 6NYCRR part 617.11 and adopts the Town of Riverhead 2024 comprehensive plan update pursuant to New York Town Law 272-A. And that is the end of the resolutions for today. Do you want to just read this for the public? Yeah. We'll just give you a minute. I'll give it a quick read. It won't take any time at all. All right. So that concludes the work session agenda for today. We have one item that we've added to executive session, which is matters surrounding potential legal action with Deputy Town Attorney Hurley, Water Guy Frank Mancini, and planners Greg Bergman and Matt Charter. So unless the Board has any other comments they want to offer, we'll ask for a first and a second to close the work session and head into executive session. Make a motion to approve. Motion to close. Second. All in favor? Aye. Nobody's opposed? So that's it. We'll conclude the work session. Thank you very much, everybody.

Thank you.