Full Transcript

Thank you. [transcription gap] Thank you. Okay. Okay. For today's work session we are starting out we're going to go into executive session first. We have three items. Um. to discuss on executive session and because of Timing of the people that are responding for these executive session matters. We had to do it this way We're going to go in for a contractual matter matters surrounding a possible lease of town-owned property that will be with Howard and Thomas We have a legal matter matter surrounding litigation between the town of Riverhead and elite towers that will be with Howard and We have personnel matters surrounding potential change in status of an employee and that's what chief frost We plan on coming back to open session at approximately 11 o'clock We're hoping we can take care of these three matters in the next hour and executive session And then we will be here approximately at 11 o'clock and we'll sign back on so at this point in time I would like to have a motion to close open session and go into executive session Make that motion second all in favor aye all opposed. Okay open session is closed We will now retire to executive session and again, we should be back at approximately 11 o'clock this morning Thank you very much

Welcome back everybody. We are live again with the open session of our work session agenda We're going to start out with the Recreation Department North Fork Environmental Council Anti litter committee and bid matters surrounding the installation of a trash receptacle Little critter to Joanne you want to lead us off? Sure So if you guys can come up Come on up I'm going to go ahead and start [transcription gap] I'm going to join you up here My very precious laptop here My very precious laptop here

As a way of introduction My name is Lisa Valas I'm with the North Fork Environmental Council I think you might know everybody else around the room I think you might know everybody else around the room I'll do it as we go through here I'll do it as we go through here We've been working together as a group To try to get Second Installation of a litter critter in Riverhead The first one has been very successful So let me just take you First to where

Okay Of course Just saying Two buttons you allowed me And I pressed the one you told me Okay So the second litter critter that we've been working on Has actually been a relatively simple process We had the Anti-Litter Committee At all Working on the first litter critter Which of course Paved the way for the rest of us To get the second one done Can you just address what the first one was For the people that are unaware Absolutely I'm going to show you a picture in a minute I'm a little afraid to flip back and forth So I'm going to get to the picture second Don't mind me I'm a little nervous about the little switching back and forth here now Based on my first attempt The first one was championed by The Riverhead Anti-Litter Committee And thank you Joanne for Being here Representing the Litter Committee It was funded by National Grid It was launched in the spring It is alive and well And in Iron Pier Beach It was designed by Clayton And we believe about 2,000 Bottles and cans have been collected So far Or were collected probably up until the fall I don't have a new number for that For those of you who haven't seen it It is sitting Right next to the beach And I was part of a Beach clean up in September And the beach Was relatively clean And the litter critter was relatively full Exactly what we were hoping for So given that experience We thought there might be opportunities for other places For a litter critter Which made us come up with A strategy for a second litter critter So Every litter critter has to Address five issues Funding, location, design Who's going to collect And how are we going to market it So With an incredible Partnership Between Joanne Thank you for guiding us Through this process Funded by the North Fork Environmental Council Supported by The Anti-Litter Committee With all the experience and expertise That we have And the !

We were looking for a location That Where we could put this permanently It wouldn't have to be moved When we go through town square design And what not So over by the community garden Just north of the community garden At the intersection of Main Street and Griffin Avenue There's a grassy area As you can see on the map So the beach is going to be placed there We thought it would be a great location With the playground right next door And with the community garden And the air programming And actually on the south side Of the River and Roots Community Garden Along the Grand Jewel Park The fence has a Pollinator garden that was installed By Cornell last season So the idea of the bee Construction Kind of tied into all their programming And the playground Is set to Have some advancements coming In the next year or so We have a grant from Suffolk County To incorporate the Bermuda tree And some sensory pieces in there And the bid is also planning to Muralize the The comfort station there as well The brick walls on that And we'll be doing a call for artists Beginning next month And that project is funded by the New York State DRI grant And we'd like to incorporate The programming and nature aspects Into that mural as well So we'll be calling on the community garden And tying that into our marketing as well We're looking to do the installation In the spring and then hopefully The mural and the Opening ceremony for the Anti-litter piece early May And as Chrissy said The design Question was so obvious Once we had a location because there's A pollinator garden there There's already children's trivia about bees And it's a great opportunity With a sort of 2D QR barcode That will be on this Litter critter to talk about The importance of pollinators And talk about the importance of bees And of course recycling and plastic And the things that the litter critter Specifically takes care of But it also incorporates all the other things That is going on in that neighborhood So given that it's a bee We asked Clayton to Draw up some Ideas And I think He's got some original He actually has some even newer If you want to be able to If you put it over here in the middle We'll have the camera zoom on it This one is like a A little bit profile The idea is Well I'll give you a description Justin Can you get the camera Put the camera on please So the wings Will be 3 to 4 inches Thickness It will be armature Either stainless steel or aluminum There will be a mesh On the top and the bottom And I want to fill the wings with Water bottles after the labels have been removed So it will be kind of translucent It will be like diaphanous Like a real bees wing The black stripes Will have to come up with Black soft drink cans Or some kind of Something Refreshments or whatever Those will be crushed And then I'll Fasten them together To create the stripes For the Black areas The yellow area you see there Will be a mesh which I'll paint With some sort of outdoor paint That will be yellow So it looks like black and yellow For configuration The way to Fill it Will be in between the wings I think Right up in the top there So you can walk up to it And throw the cans and bottles in And then to empty it I'll make it in such a way That it can easily be pivoted And then Opening a hatch At the tail where the stinger would be Pick that up Clip on a bag And they can just float right out So that's the idea for that Okay Any thoughts comments on bees Love it A nice bee a happy bee I just want to give credit where credit's due When I was A liaison to the litter committee Christy is the one that brought this whole Concept up and if I recall It was from Daly and you're on the litter committee Yeah Deb could not Deb Wetzel I didn't want to interrupt you Is in charge of it and I'm just here representing Yeah and I'm just so glad because it worked Really well there and it's working really well Thank you What about the cost Funded Donating the LFBC is funding it Very good I love the design Phenomenal job on the first one so thank you And thank you for stepping up and doing it again Well this is going to be a little bit more involved But you know I think it's Important in fact that's going to be By playground As well as you know murals And pollinator garden and all that I think it will bring More awareness to Kids in particular And they're going to bug their parents That mom Put the thing in the bee Do we put signage up or something like Encouraging people to do it because the only thing When you first put the one up in James It was like it's a beautiful Artwork and am I supposed to be putting My littering into the artwork How do we encourage people I think we need to pre-litter fill the work In the beginning when it was empty You're like yeah what's my deal You put 50 bottles in it It'll be out When we dumped it for the first time We didn't fully dump it So that it kept some of the recyclables In the containers We never emptied it completely Because it becomes Then truly only art and what we appreciated As we also wanted to be functional To Ken's point there it is There's the sign oh you can Put my bottles in cans here Can I just say one thing I love the design And I think everything is great I'm just a little worried about The pollinator The soda cans near the playground Kids are always afraid of bees And some kids are allergic to bee stings And I'm just wondering Is maybe a better location Can you give me back control of the I'm just a little nervous I want to go back to this picture For a second Justin Can we go back to The picture of the Location of the The head location of the Receptacle in the park Thank you So the The pollinator garden Is at the other end Of that grassy part And the So the pollinator garden Is at one end And the Playground is across that path So they're not really on top of each other They're all proximate But I don't think that They're going to be sitting with like Juicy soda cans Juicy boxes Right next to the kids who are playing So it is all in the same neighborhood But I don't think it's The bees aren't going from one of those spots To another where the kids are actually playing I mean go and look in that property And see how far I don't think it was very far The pollinator garden is along the south fence And the Bee sculpture will be placed on the north side So it's a There's already a garbage receptacle there So regardless of whether it's going into The bee or the garbage container It's still there But that's a good point And it's important to have the garbage pail Next to this so people know To differentiate them And they're not lazy And throw paper cup or whatever I was very excited about this location Because I felt like it expands Downtown Riverhead And starts to really incorporate West Main Street And it's a nice flow And it ties in with all the work That the BID is doing in that area And making it even more beautiful We're very excited about that location One of the things that we have to deal with Is how to get it collected Parks and Rec picks up at the beach They already pick up at the beach So that was an easy solution For the first litter critter But they do not pick up in downtown So we spent some time Talking about how we might get that Collected and they are willing To coordinate volunteer collectors And they say they get constant Requests for community service Hours and this is a perfect Community service idea If you are Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts Or you're trying to get some hours For high school You also have the added little bonus Of you might make a couple bucks By sending the nickel cans Back to Wherever you send them So we're always in the Riverhead brochure Ashley spent a lot of time Pre announcing That we need help If anybody is interested This could be a project Ahead of time Just to see if people This is an ad that is already In the current Parks and Rec Brochure Calling for people who are Interested in adopting a park I mean there's a number of different items And she's very confident That there are plenty of people Who are interested in Getting some service hours And that this is an easy one That they would be happy to do As a bonus We get some Climate Smart Community points For that which is always nice When we're trying to get grants We get some points and it gives us A better chance of winning those points So that's our sort of bonus And then lastly Once it's up and running We have a couple good things that will happen There will be a QR barcode on there That will send people to A town Page That will talk about The importance of Paladins It will talk about the importance of Making sure that you recycle And you know I think education is Clearly a part of this It's sitting next to where there are going to be kids So we hope to Make it bigger than this one And that's a piece of art In addition the first one got media exposure We certainly expect the second one to Also there's The bid has some Tentacles We have tentacles So we expect to make sure that we get the Media out talking about it And support it So that it gets good use I would say the only reason You know the only caveat I would add is if it doesn't get used there Then we might want to talk to you about Moving it to some place where it does We expect it to get used there But we also don't want to waste it If in fact it's you know Whatever all the thinking around the table Was wrong which I don't think it will be But and Paladins made it in a way that They can move it if required I'll fit it in the back of my truck You know if we have to move it Even like we spoke about for a special event Or something like that You know I'd be willing to Bring it somewhere else We'd like to be here But if it doesn't work Then we're not going to throw in the towel And say it's not going to work anywhere There's also a possibility that it will work But you may not find a lot of bottles In it or cans Because they may be removed by people In the area I'm okay with that We agree 100% So if you go and it's empty and it's empty Like oh this isn't working We just monitor it because maybe it is working But you know there's a lot of people That rely on income From picking up cans of bottles And they can always empty the one at Iron Pier Through the parks too So either one if they don't have anything in one They can go to the other I mean between the litter committee's objectives And the Northside Environmental Council objectives Of course it's really just to keep this off the street Keep it out of the incinerator Regardless of who's taking it out It's serving it's purpose And the best way for children to learn Is hands on And this is definitely a positive And it's a good thing for them And media wise The first fish at Iron Pier Actually The mayor Up in a town in Connecticut Heard about our fish And had a teacher call me And ask for more information Because they wanted to implement Something like What we did With the fish So you're going national then right I was going to say did they hire you Clayton? I didn't head head head [transcription gap] head head streets and having the help of the highway department has been extremely helpful on the two events we have during the year they we gave them a map we gave some locations we've tried to make it safe for kids to volunteer you know we give them the parks we give them you know areas where they don't have to be on the street or by a street and for the two events that I've been involved with and Joanne's been involved with we've had you know it's been a great success you've also given us information of locations of properties that are littered and we've contacted our code enforcement and they've contacted the owners of those buildings with a threat of either you're going to receive a ticket or you're going to clean it up and they've cleaned up some of those properties so that's a positive also that comes out of the litter committee which we really and thanks to the councilman Kern he's raised the fees for violations for you know the shopping carts have been a big issue it's a collective effort between everybody and it's so great when we can come together as we have as a whole including the rest of the town board because we discuss you know what's going on within the committees we you know we want to work together we've had a lot of new groups volunteering versus last year we keep a little record and people are interested in making their community nice and the last part is we're recognizing whether it's a business owner a worker an individual person that has come Deb has compiled the first group that we did a few months ago in November so like we're recognizing people like thank you for doing that and you know so that's another whole part of it too they have a whole country to clean up so you better expand your committee one time at a time don't tell that to Joanne so we are here asking for approval as soon as possible for a spring 2025 launch I don't know that we need a resolution I don't think so I think we just you've got our just maybe I'm going to accept a donation yes that's what we'll need except from whoever is going to pay for it we would need to do a resolution up okay accepting the donation okay yeah that's it well can we just say that it's the donation of the receptacle yeah I thought I have no idea this is over my pay grade but sometimes it's all they do except something free we have to do a resolution accepting it's also just acknowledging and the right to credit that the gratitude so uh-huh okay but it means you go ahead and figure out the particular yeah yeah to them or whatever no no no no it goes from the resolution okay you're accepting the beat I see right would you be able to accept the donation from the North that's what you have this from the North Park Council please just do it right thank you yeah okay we'll make it easy you can still work thank you what are you waiting for out of here thank you very much excellent it's time to celebrate and I'm so sorry again for the way thank you thank you all I would love all right we're going to skip over our normal schedule here and we're going to go to code enforcement implementation of new online rental permit application portal with senior investigator Rich Downs and I think Bob you probably want to jump on yeah what what oh okay yeah if you turn the mic on sure okay you might just have to tell Jace uh now you got me on Jace Justin yeah I mean Justin can we have this mic put on can this mic be put on yeah he's going to put it on right you want to put it on Rich? yeah he's going to put it on Rich. so about a year ago we look we look to bring a lot of departments online and we're really making a really good effort with the support of the board the first thing that we looked at is right now is code to do online rental permits so just so people understand people would hand write them give them to code code would then put them into a computer now by people doing it into the computer themselves it saves us a lot of time and we have an electronic file so yeah and it's gonna streamline things for us and and it's gonna help out the applicants that are submitting rental applications so we're very excited about that and I hope that everybody's excited to move forward with this yeah I don't want to date myself but we're moving from the Fred Flintstone age into the Jetsons here so we're excited yeah and you've done a great job which I know you spent a lot of time with open go yeah you know and you're finding out any kinks that may be there which I think is fantastic yep and with the help of IT they've also been instrumental here and getting this program up and running and we are excited that we're live right now so yeah so we're gonna run through it from an applicant standpoint just to show you how the system works and how an applicant can apply so chip you ready

so an applicant can simply just navigate to the town of Riverheads home page and click on divisions and deletes apartments and then click on code enforcement and that will take the user to the home page embedded in the town's website which is code our code enforcement web page where a user can access the instructions on how to navigate through the open gov rental application portal chip would you be able to switch the screen over to this you ready go over this one so I can see it thanks perfect application for the instructions yep once here you you click to apply for a rental permit okay can you scroll down ok [transcription gap] once here an applicant can read the mission statement and any new requirements as you can see outlined in red regarding Driveways and the new requirements for surveys after that an applicant can proceed to an online apply online by selecting the blue select button at the bottom of the page and title residential rental registration profit process Once selected, the portal navigates the user to this page entitled Residential Registration Process where a user can obtain information regarding the town's rental properties and links to the town of Riverhead's rental code as well as the New York State property maintenance code. From here, a user would select the blue button on the right, Apply Online. The user will then be directed to the permitting and licensing menu where a user can either log in with their existing credentials. If you have existing credentials or an account with OpenGov, you don't need to create another one. You can simply just log on with your existing credentials. Some landlords or rental property owners already have credentials, so they would use the login for whatever township they have that in. But if you do not, you would use the sign up for OpenGov. For the sign up, a user only need a valid email address and create a password specific to their email. When you do that, just please write down your password. I do that, but then I forget where I wrote it down. I have a password manager that I use. All right, once that is completed, the portal will take you to a page to input your contact information. You will enter all your contact information accurately and hit next. So I will let Chip enter some test contact information there for the demo. Okay. Let's see if we can get Chip to enter the contact information. Okay. Here's Chip's phone number. [transcription gap] Okay, where you will put in a parcel. The parcel would be your rental property address. It's a pre-populated, so whichever, when you start typing, those fields will come up automatically. As you see, he selected 4 West 2nd Street. You will then hit next. You will take a look at all this information to make sure it's correct. On the bottom, you'll see that data is pulled directly out of the assessor's office. You just make sure that everything matches up to what you choose. You can also see that the !

Exemptions. So if one would be selected, it would not let you proceed. We just hit next. Okay. So this is the property information page. An applicant would select the registration type, whether it be a new application or a renewal. You would also select the type of dwelling that you have. For the purposes of this demo, we will select the single family. There's multiple different types of dwelling units here that you can select. Each type of unit has a definition alongside. So somebody can understand exactly what type of building they have. Rich, does this cover accessory dwelling units as well? Accessory apartments? No. That would be an application through the building department to receive. Yeah. It would still be, it would just be a single family residence. That would be the choice. Okay. The next page is the property owner information page, where a user would input the deed. Where do we get by that? Do we skip by that? Oh, no, we're in a tenant's. We're doing tenant's. I'm sorry. This is a tenant's information so you would input your tenant's names, phone numbers, applicable email addresses. We'll head over to head over head over head head head head head head head head head I'll hit next. All right. So this is our deed information. The user would input the owner information as described on their deed. The next field on this page is a question drop down as to whether the property is owned by a corporation or not. If we select yes, additional fields are populated for the applicant to input. As you see, the additional fields are populated. The user would then input the required information into these fields. You doing the corporation chip? No. I guess I'm doing the corporation chip. Okay. You said no. It wasn't a corporation chip. You said no. Okay. [transcription gap] I'm sorry yeah the asterisks are indicating that they're required field so you can't leave one blank and move on to the next without putting it in so the address same

the next are just declaration accepting the electronic signatures records act in lieu of receiving traditional notaries as required on our our prior applications which are the paper applications so an applicant just has to put their name in these fields and then hit next

yep let's do it so they're fail-safe for the for the for the fields they have to be filled out here is the uh an applicant could choose to add a guest or an authorized or and or managing agent to their application in cases where they choose to give another person access to their rental record and receive correspondences or even just be able to interact on their behalf they can uh you can select the check box for the demo to show that it will open up another set of fields web forms [transcription gap] for the purposes of this demo we don't need to select that it's just more input so we'll hit next this is the i'll bring you to the rental property maintenance standard screens where an applicant will read and acknowledge that they shall adhere or be in compliance with the applicable town codes and state codes as described and provided for by the links in the beginning there is also a link here to the new york state property maintenance code for their reference and the the the [transcription gap] the the the the [transcription gap] the [transcription gap] the the the [transcription gap] the the [transcription gap] the the one thread the user will select the checkbox and provide a digital signature and hit next you did that already you doesn't way past me there so this is the inspection type where an applicant will choose what type of inspection they want performed there are two choices here one choice would be to have our uh town code officers do the inspection. The other choice would be a certified architect or engineer or a home inspector of their choosing to do the inspection. For the purposes of this we'll select one of our guys to do it. This is the an update of information screen letting the applicant know that they have an obligation to provide true and accurate information during their rental period and notify the code department if there are any changes to their rental property. This brings us to the attachment screen. An applicant can upload all their attachments here on this screen simply by using the upload buttons to the right. We still will traditionally take in if an individual an applicant does not have a scanner at home or cannot upload documents through this portal we will take still documents by mail or they can drop them off the office and we could simply just attach them to their records. So Chip will upload one will upload the ID. Just to show you how it works. Would you just take a picture of it and upload as a JPEG? No we're not accepting the JPEG images here through this platform because in some cases they just don't turn out blurry. We just we just it's kind of a back and forth with the applicant so we're only accepting scanned images. If an applicant figure out how to take a photo and convert it to a picture. I mean that there's capabilities there too we'll accept that. Just quickly this is open gov for example when I want to deposit check with my bank I go there it says deposit and automatically reads my camera and takes a picture. Does open gov have that ability? No we're going to the payment screen after this. Yes so we'll show you how the payment method works. I'm more concerned about their ID but go ahead. Okay.

Describe these documents. Yeah these are these these are all going to be self-explanatory all these documents would be required for a new rental application and if you had selected a renewal renewal it's only going to bring up those documents that would be required for a renewal. There's various documents that are required for rental properties. Surveys. COs. Floor plans. Things of that nature. Okay. This is your confirmation page. This is going to show you all the information or the data that you entered. You can as an applicant scroll down. Review all the stuff. You can also make any edits or changes to any of the information that you had put into the system at this point. If you made a mistake or a zip code or type something wrong you could make that change right here. Also you can make any changes to any attachments that you uploaded. Okay then when everything looks good we confirm and submit. Okay. Okay. So at this point you're at the payment page. At the top it says your application has been submitted. At this point we have received your application. It went over to us electronically. And then we have a new application. This is just the payment page. So if we scroll down a little bit we can see the fee. The fee is calculated by the system. That's based off of the data that you inputted when you applied. From there we select the applicable payment method. Whichever payment method you want to choose. You can pay by credit card. You can pay using a bank account. Each of these are different. You can pay by cash. Or you can pay by cash. Check or personal check. If an applicant is paying by those with a cash or personal check. Above we describe that you have to come down to town hall. And give us your payment method. And or you can mail the check in. Is that like an application number or something on there? Or how will you match up the check to the different. It does I think in the language. I can't really read it from here. But it says there's an application number right up top there. To bring in that to town hall. We can also look it up by your address. So if we select for the demo purposes. You want to select credit card. And then we can see the payment method. [transcription gap] So the credit card. Brings up this menu. Brings up this menu. An applicant would simply put their email in. An applicant would simply put their email in.

Put the name, address, zip code, city. Put the name, address, zip code, city.

So it's a credit card form. I promise you. It goes by pretty quickly when you're an applicant. It goes by pretty quickly when you're an applicant. When we're explaining it. It's taking you some time. This one will choose all the major banks. So this is the plaid link. It links plaid. You can link it right up to your bank account. If you have a mobile number. You input the mobile number. And there's various banks. [transcription gap] So we're going to skip that. Can I just say. I gave a lot of credit to Rich. But Chip. You've been instrumental. And your knowledge beyond your normal job. Was incredibly useful. And helpful with this. Dealing with everybody you had to deal with. knowledge beyond your IT job. Chip the IT guy. Chip the IT guy. Well he knows a lot more than. Well he knows a lot more than. Just the scope of what he does. Just the scope of what he does. The process is pretty much finished. I mean once you make. If you make the payment online. You're paid. We see that on our end. There's a lot of bells and whistles on our end. Which I won't get into. But there's a lot of interaction that we have. Directly electronically. Through us and the applicant. They can receive. Permits. Directly. Real time. When a permit is issued. They can receive correspondences. If they're missing documents. We can communicate with them. Immediately and directly through email. So there's a lot of little bells and whistles. On our end. Hopefully it is. Kind of mistake proof though. Because you can't submit until you've filled out. Everything. So I'd be curious to see. What slips through that. That we could correct. You know moving forward. Thanks. Any questions? Okay. Thank you both. Thank you Rich. I should have made a video of this. That we could have put on YouTube. The website. I bet that Justin. Okay. Next up we have the CDA. Matters surrounding the 2024 recap. And 2025 outlook. With Dawn Thomas. Hello. Hello. Thank you. So good morning. Everyone. So as a part of what we do in CDA. We annually review what we did. Year prior. And then set goals and objectives. For the upcoming year. So we know what we're doing. And what direction we're going in. So when we did this calculation. Actually this is the. This is the old one. This should be. This is the one. This is the one. This one should be correct. So. There was two versions of this. Yeah. Do we have another version of this document? Um. Do you want to go to the video? The very last video. And then we'll come back to this. Sure. Okay great. Thank you. I have the correct version. We're going to go on hold with this for a minute. And in the meantime. We're going to show you the latest. Riverhead in action video. So as soon as our. IT crew can put that up on the screen. This was something that. Councilwoman. Maryfield and I went out on. And up to the. Hi this is Tim. Supervisor of the great.

Town of Riverhead. And you're watching. Riverhead in action. A media campaign. Designed to hide. And to keep. The public. From the. World. Of the. Riverhead. And you're watching. Riverhead in action. A media campaign. Designed to hide. The public. From the. World. Of the. Riverhead in action. So Denise. We are here today. At the. Pot of coffee. Ice rink. In the town of Riverhead. This is our first. Residence in Riverhead. And we're going to. Show you. What we have. And it's. A two hour session. Today I believe. And there's another one. Sunday night. Sunday night from 630 to 9pm. Free admission for the kids in the town. And also it's free. Ice skate rentals as well. And both sessions are sold out. That's great. 70 kids today are coming. And same thing on Sunday night. All Riverhead residents. Very brave adults. Yes. We got here a little earlier. And the hockey session. Was letting out. It was a hockey clinic. And this place was mobbed. And then the new wave of the people coming in. For the free skater here. This is amazing. It's incredible. The size of the rink. You watch hockey on TV all the time. And it's like okay. They're skating up and down. And you see those guys going back and forth. And back and forth. It's no wonder they change their minds. Because it's a workout. Definitely. It's a great facility. And they do special light events. In the evening they have the light show going on. They have the music come on. So this is great for date night. Not just for little kids. It's a great thing to do in the winter time. It's nice to get outside. There's not a time I've driven past here. That the parking lot is not filled up. It's well used. We have our naysayers in the town. But we understand that. But this is a tremendous amenity. For the town to have. To be able to provide for its residents. And of course you get to learn to skate. I mean winters are kind of iffy around here. And as a kid I remember ice skating on all the ponds. And down on my uncle's duck farm. You could do that. Because it was colder then it seems. Now it's not always that cold. And you don't have those places to skate. But it's a great thing. Plus I fell in enough times through the ponds. And stuff. I'm much happier on an ice rink. Where I know the water is not over my head. I learned to skate on Lake Honkakama. We went down there. It was great. But you're right. Nowadays it doesn't get that cold. It's just too iffy. This is a very safe place. And we have all the amenities here. It's nice and warm inside. You don't have to worry about the wind. Ice, rain, all of that. I think it's a great place for kids to hang out. Especially during the holidays. When they're off from school. Nothing to do. And for the younger ones. Or adults too. Just learning. They have the section down there. Where you can use the little holders there. To learn to skate. That's very high end. When I was a kid. It was little plastic milk cart crates. When I was a kid. It was the double long blades. They were wide. So you didn't tip over as easy. But now they don't even rent those out here. It's all single edge blades. I think they even do figure skating here as well. Figure skating lessons. Lessons on that. Not just hockey and figure skating. I'm watching this one young lady out here. Dressed in black. She might be one of the figure skaters. And I heard mention of curling. They're going to do something about curling. The recreation department is going to set up a curling program. That's about the only time I would feel safe on ice anymore at my age. You wear shoes. I'll join you. I'll come out there. If they have curling we'll do it. There you go. This is a great amenity. We thank Peconic Hockey for all that they've done. There's a long time coming. There's a lot of I's to dot and T's to cross to get here. And they're not done yet. They want to expand in the future. They want to add a concession. They want to make it a little bit more expensive. They want to make it a little bit more expensive. But there's a lot of fun there. They've done a fantastic job. They've done a fantastic stand. And a big full sized locker room for the teams. That's going to happen. It just takes time. You've got to raise money. But they've done a fantastic job. And again, for Riverhead to have an amenity like this to me it's such a home run. Look at all of our residents out here for free today. And I was saying also in terms of tournaments that they do. You know, people will come out if they're having tournaments. Stay in hotels. Go to the restaurants. Go to the restaurants. So in an area, a time when the town may be a little quiet and not as many tourists, this is a great way to also attract tourism. Absolutely. Absolutely. And they've seen it uptick in that. They said already when they're running the tournaments out here that the people are, they're weekend tournaments. So rather than traveling back and forth from wherever they're coming. We've got the hotels. Right. The hotels are here and everybody's reaping benefits from this. Good. That's great. It's a very good thing. That was great. It was good. It was really nice. Folks, if you haven't been up there, you've got to go up there. It's a beautiful facility. I just, I can't really say enough about it. People love it. It's getting well used. And we thank Baconic Hockey again. And Councilman Rothwell, too, who was very instrumental in helping us to make it. And I think it's a way to where we're at. Thank you. And, you know, Troy Albert and the other members up there, Rivet Building Supply, done a fantastic job. And, you know, we're very proud to have it. So, thank you. Next. Sorry about that. I had a math error in my. Thanks for putting you on the ice, though. Yes. With those studded shoes. Excellent job. Math error in my original version. And I wanted to make sure you had the right one. So, when we did the analysis this year, obviously, there was a really significant number. I thought it was worth sharing. As you can see, we have so far 2024, 33,254,000 grants, mostly attributable to RAISE, which was 24 million. That's worth sitting against. Everybody hears that. Yeah. 33,254,000. That's fantastic. So, and, you know, we continue to process and administer grants. There's a lot of work that goes into that. Even getting to contract. And one of the things I know we've spoken about is that when you receive a grant award, it's for a specific project. And then that specific project is contracted with the granting agency. We lay out the money, generally speaking, and get reimbursed. And so the grant money that comes to us can't be used for just anything. It needs to be used for a specific thing that it was awarded for based on those applications and those contracts. And so, you know, all of that is going to be used. You know, all of this money that you see here is allocated to these specific projects. There is a substantial number of water grants that we were able to acquire last year. Suffolk County Downtown Revitalization, we received 97,000 for the splash pad in the Town Square, which is probably the lion's share of the cost of that project. Restore, round eight, is for the Town Square Hotel. That will go to the developer. That has to be, that application comes through us. Obviously, raise is for the parking garage and Main Street improvements. CDBG, we have every year for our downtown low to moderate income area projects. Some of it goes to home improvement. Our home improvement program where we take seniors and low income seniors and repair their mostly mobile homes. We have another program called Home that we can use on a real single family dwelling. For low income seniors. And then we have a program called Home that we can use on a real single family dwelling for low income seniors. There's a waiting list for those programs. The grant, water grants are the WIIA and federal CDS grants that you see here. Meeting House Creek is the cap off of a project that's multiple layers of grants we're partnering with Stony Brook University on for the restoration of wetlands at Meeting House Creek at the headway of Meeting House Creek, which will filter stormwater and improve water quality. And then EECGB is a riverfront lighting project. So those total the 33 million. And then we have a lot of ongoing projects as you'll see. You know, what we're working on, prior grants and things that are still underway. Whether those will be, you know, work that we're getting to a contract, working on the actual project, or working on the reimbursement. Those would be the stages of the work that we do. We are, thanks to your gracious addition to our budget, we are working on a lot of things. We're working on a lot of things. In addition to our budget, we'll be adding a staff member this year to our team, which is great because, as you can see, we've greatly increased the amount of work that we have because each of these grants is the same kind of process. Even if it's a small grant, it's a time consuming and tedious, not tedious, I shouldn't say that because I don't want to say that. It's a detail oriented project where we need to provide documentation of every expenditure. It has to be in a certain format. Whether we've complied with the MWBE. We've got to have the MWBE requirements of the grant or any of the prevailing wage things. And those all have to be documented and sent. And then we get the check reimbursing. And then we have funding goals for next year. So we have a bunch of different things that we're looking at depending on what comes our way and what's going on. We have the projects at the town square, obviously. We're always looking for funding for those. We'll be looking for private donors for the playground and the amphitheater. Vale Levitt, we're working with the Jazz Loft, see how that goes. And I know there's another entity that's also interested. We have continued water grants, which we'll be working with the water district on. The ADU Plus One program, which we just approved this last meeting. And we'll be working with the Long Island Housing Partnership to implement. We want to, once our new staff person joins up, implement the first time home buyer program, which will be down payment assistance for anyone who gets it from the county for a town of Riverhead homes. And our new staff person will be administering that program. We'll be using the money that comes from the Suffolk County Workforce Housing Fund. So we'll have a very limited amount of money because that's deposited based on subdivision work that comes through. So we'll have maybe 10 that we'll be able to award in 25. Hopefully that will help people. Safe Streets for All, the federal government's looking for us to work on any street project. So it could be through USDOT. It's a planning grant for, we could use it for West Main or we could use it for Sound Avenue. I've spoken to South Hold about partnering on that opportunity. Maybe we could do something traffic calming things without significant... Impact to the... No tree removal. Historical... You know, small things that can be done to improve traffic flow on Sound Avenue. Yeah. Pro housing is a grant opportunity that we now have access to because we were participated in the governor's pro housing program. That gives us access to funding for placemaking infrastructure, which is all of the things that we actually need. Yesterday or the day before I had a phone call with Stony Brook University College of Business. They are looking to partner with us and the Real Estate Institute potentially to make an application for a strategic business plan for the balance. So we're going to look at that. We had a really nice call on that. BioSalads, we're going to take another shot at the BioSalads funding opportunity this year. Police Department, we're working closely with Chief Frost and Captain Willsey and with Chip, the IT team on things that they might need for the town, including cameras, some new cameras and things. FEMA flood mitigation, there may be an opportunity that comes up this year. We're going to look at that. We're going to look at the state of New York. It's federal money through FEMA where we could look to work on that bulkhead boardwalk project. And then records management, we've all spoken about this. The building department is doing great. Moving forward, we want to get – and going backward, we want to get all of the materials scanned in and accessible electronically. The New York State Archives offers a grant of $75,000. I think that's a potential application we could make for that. Funding to hire a scanner group. And we are coordinating with all of the departments, making sure that they know what – we know what they're looking for, what they need, and what we can help them with. Polarstown, we're looking maybe a strategic planning grant for revitalization of Polarstown. And then obviously we're looking for funding. I would like to be able to buy that ornament. And expand it. You have it on your future endeavors for the bail levit. But we did get – Is the $250,000 grant in your total right here at all? So that was the year prior. So we – Actually, that's their grant, not our grant. So the bail levit applied for that funding. But still, it's going to be applied to the overall. So I know we discussed things in executive session, but I think we are putting together a really good future for the bail levit. Yes, there's no question. Hopefully something will come out soon where we can – We've got some funding from multiple entities, including the County of Suffolk, probably some others, to get the renovation completed there in the historic way that it should be completed. And, you know, get it up and running for whomever it is that the Board selects to run it in the future. I think we're making Ray Hedwig on the public show. Yes. Something good on the rise for the bail levit. Yes, I think so. Also, yes. So we just wanted to share this publicly. I know other departments are doing it. It's one of our management tools that we use. It's one of our management tools that we use to keep us focused because there's a lot going on. So, John, I would say this. No, I was just going to say we look forward to getting $34 million next year to try to outdo yourself. We'll be looking forward to that. We appreciate that. And I know there are some good things coming up very shortly, which you'll hear about. But, you know, we continue to work and apply. And by the grace of God, we are being successful at this. And the town, you know, certainly deserves the attention and funding because it is a great place. Thank you. I'll just say this. I mean, a lot of this is state money, which is fantastic. So the taxpayers in Riverhead who have been paying state taxes. Yes. The beautiful thing about this is you've managed to get a lot of that money back and invested into this town. Yes. And I think it's real important to note that. Yes, I think that's true. We're putting our tax dollars that we send away back into our community for sure. Yes. And Congressman Olota has been extremely helpful, too, with all the water grants that are in the water. Yes. And I think that's a great thing. [transcription gap] I think that's a great thing. [transcription gap] New York State Empire State Development is incredibly supportive of us and you know really great about making sure that we're You know aligning ourselves with the opportunities that are coming our way We constantly communication with them the county of Suffolk has been unbelievable Helping us get things done And so we have great municipal partners. We hope to soon have some great private partners and getting some Consolidation well without you and your team getting all this or adding none of our plans for the future of it I could have well we get you or you and your team so that's what from you all and we're grateful for everything you do To make it as able to get the work done and you know do great things for our town Because it certainly is well deserved it shows everybody's level of confidence And what the town of Riverhead is doing correct because they go through these grants and they get grants from all Over the place and it come out on top and when some of these numbers that you've won for us is Incredible and it honestly it means that they believe we are going to do this We know we're going to do this but you have to convince the money people that it's going to work out and you've done that and we're there and Sometime at some point in this year. You're going to see changes down here by the town square It'll all start coming to fruition so for this I mean We can't Thank the CDA enough for what you guys have done are and the money you brought in because this is it's a lot of work It's a lot of writing and it's a lot of presentations and you're all over the place making these presentations But you do a great job. Otherwise, we would not be sitting here looking at these numbers I couldn't do a thing without Joe Frank and Carissa those teams guys are unbelievable They're on a seminar right now. Otherwise, they'd be down here They make it all happen. They keep things organized. They're very very meticulous meticulous about everything that needs to be done which helps us that Organization that they provide and the work that they do they write grants. They administer grants. They do contract work They do everything that work allows us to be able to apply for more that that order that's been set up and the Organization that they've created has really allowed it to happen So I'm just I'm grateful to work with all of them. We're grateful to work with all of you. It's been great the boards You know forward motion forward thinking is one of the really important things behind all of this because you guys are taking bold steps to do bold things and That's the kind of thing that gets attention We're definitely getting it Well good, we appreciate it and we appreciate you guys This is phenomenal and I'm I've been so excited like a little kid at Christmas waiting for this and this is going to be the Year so it's gonna be a big year for us. You know, I can't promise you another 33 million Yeah, that's why? Five million was there to help to be but it is it is tough to be but I'm not saying no By far the most in the history of will always keep working and we're excited to do the work So it's just a labor of love for us. Thank you very much

Okay in a moment I have two quick announcements number one is just to remind everybody that today is a national day of mourning with the death of former President Jimmy Carter. So flags should be at half staff and keep President Carter and his family in your memories. 100 years old, it's pretty incredible, the work he did for Habitat for Humanity. And the work he did after he got out of the presidency is almost as big as what he did when he was in the White House. So he was a great man and one of our presidents, and we owe him respect. The other thing is today is National Law Enforcement Day, and we always speak very highly of our own police department, and rightfully so, but with National Law Enforcement Day, we recognize our Sheriff's Department that services the town of Riverhead, our New York State Police, our State Park Police, our University Police that come out here on occasion. So keep all of us... keep all of our law enforcement members in your thoughts and prayers, and we wish them nothing but the best in 2025. Okay, we have one matter left for executive session, so in a moment I'm going to close the open session, and we're going to go into executive session, and I want to correct what I read earlier. The correct legal matter we're going in to discuss are matters surrounding litigation between Romano J. at A. versus Elite Towers at Al, and that will be done with Councilor Howard. So at this time I would ask for us to close the open session. Could I get a motion? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Okay, we are closed. We're going to finish up in our executive session. Everybody have a great and wonderful weekend, and maybe a chance for a little bit of snow over the weekend. It's early to tell, but the forecast is the same. Be prepared. Just in case. So everybody stay healthy, and thank you. We'll see you again next week. Take care.

Thank you. [transcription gap]