Full Transcript
Thank you. [transcription gap] Thank you, Mr. Reiser. Okay, we're here for open session of our work session today. And before we get started, I would like to ask Councilor Howard, and Dorn Thomas, maybe to come up and give us a brief overview of the first two items we're going to talk about and a quick rundown of how we got to where we are at this point today. I know it is.
I'm going to apologize if you see me dabbing my face. My razor was hungry this morning and took a chunk out of me. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. So just quick overview. We're talking about the reuse of the Val Levitt Music Hall this morning. The Val Levitt was built in the mid-1800s and is a mini-replica of the Ford Theater, which is where Lincoln was shot, and has been the home to many different things over the years. But the ultimate goal was to have a cultural resource performing arts center in the downtown. And so in the 1980s, the families that owned it privately deeded it over to the town of Riverhead, who thereafter deeded it to a group called the Council for the Val Levitt Music Hall. And for the next 40 years, it attempted to succeed, but failed miserably until, I guess, 2023. The town moved to recover the property. Pursuant to a reverter in the deed. And so the objective since that time is to be able to attract a cultural resource to that, recreate a performing arts center out of it as the families originally intended. The town never received any funding for that. It was just, we were just a pass-through at that time. And, you know, but the town has been carrying that property since we've recovered it with the great work of the town attorney's office. So... We've spent the last 16 or so months working with different people to try to, you know, figure out what the next steps are, to make sure that the theater succeeds as a performing arts center, as we had hoped all these years, and to make it really dovetail nicely with what's going on downtown, including the Suffolk Theater and the future amphitheater that the town will be creating as a part of the downtown revitalization work. And so we've been working on that. We've been working on that for the past seven years. So... Important to remember that East Main Street from Peconica Avenue to East Avenue is part of the East Main Street Urban Renewal Area. That was a designation that fortunately a smart person, Andrea Lonais, created back in the day to allow the town to engage in urban renewal... And that's a renewal process that's set out in New York State general municipal law, which creates the opportunity for the town to not sell property to the highest bidder, but rather to work as a partner with different entities. So similar, it's... We have three urban renewal areas in the town. EPCAL is one. East Main Street's one. Railroad Street is also one. And that gives you flexibility to be partners with entities to create those things that you want to create in terms of economic benefit. And so... An urban renewal project has a process that people are familiar with. They often refer to the Q&E, qualified and eligible sponsor process. And that's a, you know, an arduous process that individuals have to go through to prove that they are qualified and eligible sponsors of an urban renewal project. So the town's criteria includes things like what is your, you know, obviously what is your business plan? What is your history in doing similar projects? What is your experience in doing that? In doing these things? You know, what are your connections and partnerships? How do you work with other entities across the state? New York State, the county, you know, and other entities like that. And so when we're talking to some individuals this morning about potential proposals to reactivate the Vale, the Vale over the 40 years that it was held by the Council for the Vale Levitt Music Hall was not maintained. There's a tremendous amount of repair that needs to be done. The property is on the National Register of Historic Places, which further complicates the renovations to the property and requires a lot of other approvals and input. It can't just be done. And so we hope that these individuals will give us a little bit of their background and tell us how they would be qualified and eligible so that the board can decide how it wants to move forward. Again, you know, because it's the Q&E process, you don't need to do an RFP. It's not competitive bidding. It's not the highest bidder. None of those things apply. It's who's the best partner for the town board in creating the economic environment that you want to see in the downtown. And so that's what we're here to discuss this morning. I don't know if you want to... I think you pretty much covered it. Okay, great. Yeah. Okay, so that's what we've been doing for the last 30 years in downtown. We're so close to that tipping point. And we look forward to hearing from you. We're hearing what people have to say. So I'll leave it to you guys. I guess just to clarify, because one of the questions the supervisor and I were talking about yesterday was because, I guess presumably because it's an urban renewal project, that's why we don't necessarily have to put it out to like an RFP or just put it to bids. Correct. Because we want to make sure that it's not turned into a storage place, that it's... Yes, yes. Used as a theater and used to drive people downtown. And when it was gifted by the families to the board to make it a performing arts center, that was the goal. And so the only way we were able to retrieve the property is because they weren't engaged in making it a performing arts venue. And so that was the little hook you had to get it back. And so, you know, moving in that direction, now you have some more proposals and some ideas. So we can go from there. So with that, I just would... I know I did a little research on the Suffolk Theater, which is also in the urban renewal area. And that was... That did go out for an RFP. And I'm just, you know, I know that did. But the town has the ability to control that RFP, you know, given like those kind of points. Everything you said would be inside an RFP. And I know that one of the things that we've talked about over the... Well, I know I've been working on it for over two years. But the 16 months that we've been working with some specific individuals, you know, the timing of it has been important to the board getting it moving. And when we did the RFP for the TOD, just creating the RFP alone takes over. Several months. And then vetting that the respondent to the RFP. So you're looking at a one-year process at a minimum to do an RFP. And I think the property is in dire straits and needs to kind of be addressed quickly. And so... And we've known this for a while. And in fact, you know, before we were involved in working together to get... Two and a half years ago. Yeah. But even before that, my office went to New York State Preservation... League of Preservation. And we got... Because they were not able to even get out of their own way. A well-intended community group who had local roots and musical background. But just not the... You know, it takes a certain ability to run a theater business. And they just were... They wanted to do it. They just couldn't... As you know, we couldn't get them to do it. They wouldn't even apply for the grant that we got them. We did get them the Building Condition Survey, which was a very important springboard to get to other funding. Because we could show what the cost was going to be. That was something that our office worked on and got for them. But again, you know, it's been a very long, hard road we've been traveling to get this property reactivated. So we're excited about hearing what's proposed. So setting the stage for today, through discussions and communications meetings with the Town Board and Town Board members and Town staff, we identified two potential options for the Vale. And so today's... Today's discussion is simply to review what their plans are, how they envision activating the building. This isn't a qualified and eligible hearing. In the event the Board is comfortable with either of the presentations today and wants to move forward, that will be subject to a future qualified and eligible hearing. Great. All right. Okay. We'll start out... First, we're going to start out with Tom Manuel. And Tom is from the Jazz Loft in Setauket. Tony Brooke. Good morning. [transcription gap] How are you? Very well. Thank you for having me again. Pleasure to be here. Pardon me for using my notes. So just as a recap, I know we've been meeting for the last 16 months and had several discussions. But for those that are unaware of who I am or who the Jazz Loft is, just a little overview. My name is Tom Manuel. I'm the founder and the executive director of the Jazz Loft in Stony Brook. I'm also the endowed artist in residence at Stony Brook University. What I'm going to present is a little bit of a summary of the full presentation document that gave much more detailed information. This has been made available to the Riverhead Town Board. And I'd encourage everyone to revisit that document should they have any questions. And my presentation this morning will just be a much shorter summary of that more detailed presentation, which has a lot of supporting media clips and quotes from local and state supporters, as well as extensive data regarding the tourism and economic figures. So as a little background, the Jazz Loft is a 501 not-for-profit. We will be open for nine years. This coming May. We assumed stewardship of a historic property in 2014. That's on the Brookhaven Town Register for Historic Sites. We underwent a capital campaign to restore the building. And then we oversaw a half million dollar renovation, which we completed in one year to the day from which we got our building permits. Our mission at the Jazz Loft is to advocate for the American-born art form called jazz. And we have a trifold mission, which is performing the jazz. But there's also a major focus on performance, education, and preservation. If you come to the Jazz Loft, you'll see we present over 200 performances annually. We present a variety of styles of jazz music. And we employ performing artists in the amount of roughly a half million dollars annually. We have several major festivals that attract patrons from throughout Long Island and throughout New York and even beyond. We have an annual Swing Into Spring Festival, in the month of March when we're not quite out of winter and not quite into spring to get people downtown, to get people into restaurants and into our community. We also have a Monteleone Art of the Guitar Festival, which has a focus on guitar enthusiasts, and we bring in guitarists literally from all over the world to perform at that. And then one of our biggest festivals is our Harbor Jazz Festival, which we do on our Village Green, overlooking the Stony Brook Harbor, which is a beautiful, beautiful backdrop. And that's a free festival all day long for all of our community members and really draws people from all over Long Island. Our museum has 30 archival collections from some of the most important figures in American popular music, like Ella Fitzgerald and Charlie Parker and Tony Bennett and Louis Jordan and many others. And we also have a very important art and photography collection. So if you come to our museum, what you'll see is rotating exhibits of all of those things, and like I said, including art and including photography. Our education programming, which is the third point of our mission, has a strong collaboration with Stony Brook University, specifically the music department and the jazz department there. And we have a loft school of jazz program for middle school and high school students, which brings the students into our space. We also host field trips. We host workshops, clinics. We have a variety of adult programming events. And we often host a wide range of professional development days for arch educators that come from Nassau and Suffolk County. Lastly, I'd like to mention we have a jazz dispatch series, and that focuses on our community collaborations. We currently have active relationships that bring what we do inside our walls to restaurants, to music festivals, libraries, performing arts centers, community spaces throughout Long Island, including Huntington, Cold Spring Harbor. Bridgehampton. A lot happens within our three village community. And most recently, I'm happy to share that we have a new concert series that's going to start this month, April 24th, and run through the end of August in Southampton at the Avram Theater on Stony Brook University's Southampton campus. So to get to what our mission would be at the Vale-Levitt, the mission of the jazz loft at the Vale-Levitt would be to renovate, first and foremost, and reactivate a historically important theater. And then, of course, to create a new venue for the venue, which is a historically important venue, which is and should be the crown jewel of your Main Street community. A major focus would be on presenting art programming and music of ranging styles and performance. And additionally, as part of this mission, the venue would also serve as an incubator for educational and events and collaborations with area arts organizations and businesses, and would serve as a home to other events and activities which would promote and serve the venue. And so, as part of this mission, the vision of the Valle-Levitt is to create a hub of activity to serve the community and to embody your town's slogan, which is work, stay, play, eat, and live. As I shared in much more detail in previous meetings, there's a lot of data from local, state, and national projects that have shown and have proven that arts strengthen the economy, arts and culture are tourism drivers. Arts, university, art, and art. And so, we're going to be working on that. We're going to be working on that. We're going to be working on that. We're going to be working on that. We're going to be working on that. We're going to be working on that. [transcription gap] I think I've spoken a lot, so maybe you might want to just see this video clip of what we do. This is a good example of one of our projects that's been developed over several years and is a Sinatra show that we do. And it's actually, as a plug, it's coming up at the end of this month. So if any of you would like to come and see it, you can see it live. I have seen it. It's a wonderful show. Thank you. In the past. The Jazz Loft presents Strictly Sinatra, celebrate the genius of the chairman of the board, Frank Sinatra, as the Jazz Loft's 17-piece big band presents the original arrangements of Nelson Riddle, Billy May, Johnny Mandel, and more. Vocalist Pete Caldara will take you on a journey through Frank's most beloved hits, including Fly Me to the Moon, I've Got You Under My Skin, My Way, Pennies from Heaven, New York, New York, and many more. Experience the high-energy excitement that has seen the world. Thank you. And the sold-out audiences on their feet as Pete Caldara delivers with class, style, and his own thrilling renditions of timeless classics. The best songs, the greatest arrangements, the top musicians New York has to offer, the spotlight voice that will steal the show. This is A Man and His Music. This is Strictly Sinatra. So I think what I would just say on that note, you know, the plan for a restored and revitalized Belle Levitt Theatre would benefit your community, not only culturally, but financially as well. You know, that show brings literally hundreds of people, sold-out shows. We keep adding shows every year. And they just keep getting sold out. What the data has shown is that those people that come, those are the people that are going to go out to eat and have dinner before any restaurants or after. Those are the people that are going to come and make a weekend out of it and stay in your hotels. Programming that is of a high quality, that is consistent, that is reliable is a benefit to communities. And that's why you've seen so many of what were our old original theaters or movie theaters are now, all not-for-profit organizations that are performing arts centers. And to my knowledge, all of them are incredibly successful in every town. If you go to West Hampton, if you go to Sac Harbor, if you go to Stony Brook, if you go to Northport, you name it, the list goes on and on. So it's not something new that we're presenting here. It is a tried and true model, which I think is important to note. Last but not least, I'd like to emphasize that the purpose and agenda of a successful theater in a community has always been. And continues to be, in my opinion, a place for collaboration within a community. We've seen over the last 25 years all of these theaters, like I mentioned, turn into these wonderful performing arts venues. And all of them have been successful because they've embraced the identity of their community. So I just wanted to mention some of the partners that we bring to the table and some of the people that I think would definitely be key collaborators would be, of course, your Main Street businesses. We have a very strong relationship with Discover Long Island, with the Gardner Foundation, with the East End Arts Council, Rights of Spring Music Festival, the East End Tourism Alliance, East End Jazz, which is a new organization as of recently. Of course, a very strong connection with Stony Brook University. And I think it's definitely worth mentioning all of the effort and investments they've been putting in, literally from Manhattan to Montauk, with a strong focus on Riverhead and the Southampton area. And then there's, of course, other organizations. And I think it's really important that we have a strong relationship with the other organizations and supporters that we would want to get to know and forge some relationships with. The big question always is the timeline. Having overseen a half-million-dollar renovation of a historic building, and it should be noted, and I know Don Thomas mentioned it, restoring a National Historical Register building is not a small task. Restoring any building that, you know, the oldest part of our building was 1770. The oldest part of your building is 1881. The whole building, for the most part, is that age. You are always going to have surprises when you do any sort of restoration project. And if any of you have ever redone your bathroom or kitchen, you know what I mean. There's always things that go quicker. There's always, you open up a wall and you find some surprises. So I preface what I'm about to say by sharing that. But we really believe that a successful proposed schedule, based on our experience would be that if we were to proceed within the next 30 to 60 days, there would be a due diligence period where we would just ensure that everything is in place regarding the building. We would then propose that that following month, if not sooner, there would be a confirmation and a transfer of whatever grant funding is available for the restoration of the building. We at the Jazz Loft believe very firmly in being completely transparent with what we do, and we would definitely welcome dialogue and conversations with your local press and your local community organizations like Rotary and Chamber of Commerce. We definitely think there should be some open press conferences and meetings that should happen early on in that period. We would think that some soft opening community press events in the early summer, late May, early June would be appropriate. Of course, we would need to secure contracts for renovations, town work permits. We would ask that the city of
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It's possible, but it should definitely be put forth that you do need to be prepared for hurdles. I understand this is not a qualified and eligible hearing, but just in terms of finances, how does the jazz law play in terms of how, what are your finances to invest into this building to get this restoration done? How do you sit financially? We are incredibly financially sound. We have just over a $1 million budget. Like I mentioned, we employ almost half a million dollars to artists annually. We are a young organization. I will mention that. This May, we will be open nine years. We don't have large amounts of reserves, but as a not-for-profit, our financials are available to anybody, and we could certainly supply our budget in any documentation you would like to see that supports that. So, Tom, that million dollars is including the jazz. It's not set aside for the bail. Correct. So that's what I'm kind of looking for, is what you intend to invest or have finances on hand. Are you solely relying on grants, or do you have money that you are ready to invest into this, to put into immediate, whether, you know, if grants are not achieved, not given, or not transferable, how do you intend to move forward? Right. As we said in some previous conversations, this is our collaboration with the town to do this, would be reliant upon that grant funding from the state for the renovations, which was put forth in that very well-detailed proposal by Joel Snodgrass. The funding that we would be putting forth would be to purchase the building. That would be our investment. And because you've done this in the past, you have received many, many grants. Is that correct? We have, yeah. We try and diversify because of the often, unreliable nature of grant funding, as we're very aware of in recent times. So our funding, our grant funding specifically, does a lot come from MISCA, from the state, from local municipalities, but also foundations. And we've invested very strongly over the last decade in building a strong philanthropic support system. If something that's come up, just so the public is aware, you've already had architects come in and examine the building, is that right? A collaboration. A collaboration of what work you have done, what work has been done by Joel Snodgrass. And yes, for the last 16 months, we've been handed out of the building quite a lot. And also, you said historic preservation is something that you've been able to do with the other building from the 1700s, is that right? Right. And that's why I mentioned with such caution the timeline. Because when you're talking about a building, think about how fortunate your town is, that this building has been, for the most part, preserved like a time capsule. since 1881. There's very specific skill sets that come into place just even to fix a plaster wall. You know, it's not throwing some sheet rock up there. There's a lot of due diligence and caution that needs to be done and care to do it right and should be done and should not be rushed. Now, with that said, we live in a historic community here on Long Island. I mean, even the fact that the Gardner Foundation is right in your town here, historic preservation is not something that Long Island is new to. So there are very talented and skilled people here and wonderful trade unions that know how to do that. But it's important to have a plan. If you don't have a plan, you're going to have some problems. And also going back to some other points you were talking about, you do have a board of directors. Is that right? We do. We have a wonderful working board. My board was established as... a working board rather than a board of people that just write checks because we recognize that running a performing arts venue is incredibly challenging. You need a skill set and very specific people that have experience in finance, in legal, in the arts, in not-for-profit. You see the ones that struggle and you see the ones that are rather dormant and don't do much. And I believe that that was and is what continues to be our greatest strength is rather than me coming in and saying, oh, I have a great idea and I want to do this. I was able to recognize this is actually really hard. And if this is going to be successful, you need the right people that are willing to commit the time and the skills and the energy to collectively make it happen. You mentioned also about working with the community. Would you open up the Val Levitue community events, not just performances by the Jazz Lob? Absolutely. I mean, I think again, and I mentioned it and if it was in passing, my apologies. But when you think of what is a theater, like why did in 1881, why was a theater built on your Main Street? Why was a theater built on every Main Street throughout our country and throughout the world? There are places for the community. There are places for the voices of the arts and other events to be heard. You know, the Jazz Lob, I didn't want to go on and on about the Jazz Lob, but the beautiful part about our building, people say, well, what year was it built? And I have to say three years because the main part of our building was the first Stony Brook firehouse that was built in 1920. The side part dates to 1770. When Ward Melville built Stony Brook Village, he moved it a quarter mile up the road and attached it, repurposed the whole building. That 1770 part, that was a union meeting house. That was a place where multiple community organizations met, and they were able to talk about the history of the community throughout the years, Chamber of Commerce's. A theater, a performing arts venue, needs to be a stage literally and figuratively for your community. Yes, you need a calendar that's well thought out. Yes, your programming needs to be accessible and diversified. But one of the things I pride myself on is all the different community groups and individuals that use the space of the Jazz Lob for different things that support the community. And I believe that that should be the case at the end of the day. I think that's the key to the success of the theater at the Vail. And philosophically, as a musician and as an educator, I feel like that should be the philosophy and approach of every theater that exists. You mentioned the Gardner Foundation. Do you anticipate that they will support this endeavor? I think if Catherine Curran was here right now, she would say she cannot promise money. And I would say I cannot promise that any organization would give us a grant. What I could say is that they are an amazing foundation that has supported projects, projects like this. We have applied and received funding from them before. I know that they are quite proud of the project that was done at the Jazz Lob. We would absolutely be applying for a grant in their next grant cycle. And I would imagine that we would be successful. And would hope that. One of the things I had asked you in the past, and I'll put it here just because we're in the public light, is that the goal when the town square is completed, that we have a grandstand, we have an outdoor amphitheater, and things that we're looking for is to have, I feel like, to drive people into town to have multiple venues and to use them and collaborate them. To have a country music festival, to have a rock and roll festival, things like that. And I originally had asked you that, so is that something in which you would collaborate, to have different type of, John, in the building, would you participate in those type of festivals? I think in the spirit of collaboration, I would always be willing to, have the conversation and collaborate. I do want to be clear though, to be a jack of all trades and not have a clear focus on what you're presenting, does worry me. When a conversation would be started about programming at the Bail Loft, there's a difference between what's programmed on the stage and what you collaborate with. Give you just a few examples. The Jazz Loft has dance companies that come in. They come and present things at the Jazz Loft. Now most people think dance, that doesn't really have anything to jazz. It doesn't. We've had bluegrass concerts. We've had abstract modern jazz. We've had a lot of, we've had choral groups. But that's not the bulk of our programming. The Jazz Loft's focus is on the American born art form of jazz. That also allows the space to be used for different things periodically. I guess what I just want to be clear on is, I would not want to proceed with a venue that didn't have a real clear vision for programming. But I do feel like any music that communicates honestly and genuinely speaks powerfully, which is why we all resonate and speak to music. And I'm always open for collaborations. That's the nature and spirit of jazz. You mentioned outdoor concerts. We do have an amphitheater that we will be moving forward with our concert. Would you be willing to perform at the amphitheater as well? You mentioned doing that at the Harbor Jazz Festival. Would you do that here as well? Absolutely. One of the things I love about all of our collaborations throughout Long Island is all the different music festivals that we're a part of. And what's really interesting is, and there was a great article in the New York Times about this, for some reason people always have a little fear about walking through the front doors of a venue. When you present the arts outside, it becomes immediately accessible. There's a way you could be a part of that without the commitment of walking through the door. We've actually found of all the outreach we do, of all the PR and marketing we do, the thing that brings people through our doors the most is when we perform outside. We actually have one of our summer series, which is sponsored by Stony Brook University, is called our Summer Swap Series. And we do four outdoor concerts on the lawn of the Jazz Loft. Swap stands for Stage With a Purpose. And they're free. And of all, after that's done, of all the things when we ask people, you know, oh how did you hear of the Jazz Loft? They would say, oh we came to the festival, we came to the outdoor summer swap. That's how I became a fan. I came to the free concert out on the lawn. You've been recognized by the New York Times, Newsday, for your performances. That particular performance that I went to, you had an artist that performed on Broadway. I apologize, I don't recall the woman's name, but she was amazing. Would you bring those types of artists here to Riverhead? Absolutely. I mean, I think the one thing that the Jazz Loft could bring to the veil is, I mean, we've had literally thousands of performers that have performed, Grammy winning artists, jazz legends, variety of recording artists, Broadway, I mean, the list goes on and on. The one thing that is really wonderful about being where we are in Riverhead or really anywhere in Long Island is our proximity to New York. You know, think of what a challenge this would be if you were in New York. You know, you're going to stay in the middle of our country somewhere, not that there aren't great music scenes and talents, but New York is New York. It's a hotbed. It is. That's good? Yep. Okay. All right. Tom, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you, everybody. Have a wonderful rest of the morning. You're the same. Thank you. I just sent you an email. Okay. Next up, we have Ray Castronova, and he's going to do a presentation on the Dale Leavitt also. Okay. 360. Good morning. Good morning. Somebody else want to bring it? No, but Melissa here. I suppose you can. Okay. You're all set with IT to get it on the screen? Yes. I'm not an IT guy. I'll do it all at once. No, no. This is ... Good. Good morning. Good morning. So, some of you know me. Some of you don't know me, but I'll give you a brief history of where I am, who I do. I am a local. I've lived and had business in Riverhead for over 30 years. I do a lot of restorations. So, in the town itself, I probably over the last couple of years, I've been doing a lot of restoration. I've been doing a lot of restoration. [transcription gap] Probably over the last couple of years. As some of you may know, there's a ... I own the building on the corner of Second Street and Roanoke. I restored that. That's the old Art Fellers Building. The old Town Hall. The old Town Hall. Right. I saw the sign this morning. See when I went downstairs. To the left of it is a house that was built in 1912. You probably see it if you ever go to the brewery. It's across the street. I restored that. What we do is ... So, me and my son go to the historic museum. Museum and we look into the history and what it looked like and we make it the same way so then I bought the house next to it on the other side of the odd fellas on Roanoke and that was in the late 1800s and we restored that one everything in there from beginning to end then we decided that you know this Riverhead this is our town we want to do what we can do keep the historic ways then we bought a building 434 Griffin Avenue I know st. David's had it and they were getting just we're getting ready to demolish it everything was disconnected the electric the gas the sewer there was nothing left and they wouldn't give him a demolition permit because it was in the historic district I bought it I brought it back to life again and it's restored every inch of it inside so that's what I would propose to do with the veil so I'll give you my history I'm going to tell you why we're more than capable of doing this so growing up in the city in Brooklyn I grew up restoring these old buildings and when we have 50 okay yeah we're 50 years of construction knowledge I restore them I put them back together again and that veil habit to me all I had to do was walk around for a little while and I seen a gem that when you have a history in restoring these things the first thing you look at is settlement if a building has settlement it's like an infection you don't want to go near it I advise a lot of clients in the city when I do walkthroughs there's no settlement here so whatever you can do cosmetically can be done so putting that all together and I know there were grants oh so I I own a big construction company I'm sorry I didn't like you know my history what I do is a profession so I'll do mid-rise buildings in Manhattan Brooklyn Queens Long Island we're gonna do our own on Main Street on McDermott Avenue then probably you'll go to the other site plan approval and we have the ability to push the dollar a lot longer they do this I restore a lot of buildings say if I a lot of fire departments up in that Long Island as well we restore them would make them bigger we've got to make it sort of trucks fit in so as far as I know there's a grant for the roof I know there's a couple other grants I don't need the grants will they help me yes but if we had to go and figure this out ourselves financially we can do that that is something that I'm really passionate about and I'm a passionate about the town give me the next one please oh so this is oh yeah so the Oddfellas building I see this is a cemetery I just finished a little over a year ago this is a brand new chapel a little over a year ago and there's ten mausoleums behind it and the detail in that is because my history in restoring things was that a lowest bidder to get that job no I wasn't was I the most qualified yes I was because of my history living in that kind of mainstream work the detail is where the focus is so as I look at the veil and I drive around now you know I'd live here I drive past it quite often I just look at those front windows to brighten them up to get them more exposed again and to move on to bringing that old man alive again so you know I'm a little bit more of a !
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 so so so so so so so so so so so the word spreads. In the Suffolk Theatre, the first round, we raised about almost $50,000 through the Camelon Formal Society. Just this past November, we raised about almost $40,000 for, by our performances, for the, it's an organization called New Ground. New Ground gets homeless veterans off the street. This is my focus, these grants, to help these organizations as well. And then we'll all move on to other things. And then come this November, we're having another fundraiser, and it's going to be all donated. I have two organizations I'm vetting out right now, but it's going to be for women that are victims of domestic violence. I've got two daughters and two granddaughters, and I've always taken that real seriously. So as far as now, the construction, so what will I do, and how will I keep this fair living going? So, I'm very, very savvy in the music industry, and I know a lot of people in the music industry. Yeah, you had connections, but they're gone. What's that? The page, we can go back. Yeah, yeah, okay. So, with this in mind, there's a gentleman, actually, Melissa, can I please get a couple of those support letters? This is Melissa, she's my office manager. Allie works in my office as well. She's in charge of a lot of production. Yeah, so I have these support letters, and I can pass them to you. I can pass them around to anybody who wants them, but this gentleman here, I have guys on board that'll be my event planners. This gentleman, Mark, he wants to get on board. I have a few people that are coming to me. I have to find out who the right ones. I own a construction company. Every job has 37 subcontractors, and I have to qualify them, and I have to get them in and make sure that they are who I want. So, with this attraction, I have a few people that are attracted to it, and I have to interview them. The other thing I have to do is I have to get, but I want to see how all this goes, and then I start my interview process. So, the gentleman that I understand has all this experience with me. The first one. So, you've all heard of Live Nation. Live Nation is the biggest concert producer throughout the country. He owns part of it. He lives out here. During COVID. From Manhattan. He moved out here. And he loves Riverhead. He lives in South Jamesport. He has a passion. He's got a passion. He's got a passion to be part of this. He has a passion to bring shows here. He has a passion to work with us. He also is a partner in, we have Live Nation, and Ron Delsner. Ron Delsner is a big producer. I don't know if some, we remember Ron Delsner, but the new kids might not remember that. Ron Delsner. He is another big promoter. So, what I would do at the Air Lab, can you, oh, and Grant Ryders. So, in my construction world, I do a lot of affordable housing. Up and down Long Island. And those people have Grant Ryders that I'm familiar with as well. They can get entertainment grants. They just know the system. So, if I need some help, I'll do it. With the Roof Grant, I'll need some help. I'll have them do it. So, I hire people who are experts to handle all the different tasks to run the theater. So, what we would do is, I would have all the different, you can come to the next one. Which one? The next one. The next one. Go to where? Yeah, okay. So, entertainment. So, what I propose and what I feel would be best for the town, because this isn't, you want to hear Frank Sinatra? This is my kind of town. I came here a long time ago and I'm not leaving. My roots are in here, my kids' roots. So, we'd have performances from all genres because the, a single genre, the sustainability, to Greg, it's a lot of fun. To Greg, you bring people and what they want, what they feel is, you don't want to limit yourself. So, we'd have all genres, we'd have all types of professional musicians. I'm going to try to stay away from the tribute stuff because that's Gary over at the Suffolk Theater. Gary had also written, it's a very strong support letter, that we will work together. We will not collaborate, we won't go against each other and he is very into us being involved. And he's going to work with us and Gary is an expert at what he does along with Mark. So, we'd have all different genres. There'll be acting classes, we'll have all kinds of, there's kids entertainment. So, kids entertainment is real important to us as well. Kids come in, their families come in. We want people to come into the streets of Riverhead and, you know, what the whole objective is. Bring it here, make it a destination and not just a pass through. So, a podcast room. I was just going to start building a podcast room in the building over at Roanoke. I stopped because when I saw this opportunity come along, I said I'll build a podcast room over there. People podcast right now are only tapped into the 15% of population and it's already a multi-billion dollar venue. So, they could come in that room downstairs. We'd have a lot of community events. Event planners. I have all the event planners to do it that'll work under my supervision. So, the gore of it all is that on the financial end I have the horsepower to get this where it is and then have it operate and be sustainable.
What else do you have? You have one more, right? Opportunity. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's it. If I grant the opportunity, I'm going to make DeVal Leavitt proud and bring it back to life. Thank you. This place. I'm already thinking about if it comes in our direction, I'll meet the building department and I'll see what it takes to get this thing running as quick as I can. So, I have experience in these restorations that we can keep that building open while I'm restoring it. So, I'll take care of the inside, get it ready for start and whatever it needs shows. I put roofs on existing buildings. I've taken roofs apart in existing buildings and fire departments. I work around. So, getting the interior safe and having all the life safety in line and having it look beautiful will be my first plan of action. That is going to be less effort than once I start attacking the outside. I have chimneys that need pointing. I mean, I walk, I live in there. I look at every crack when I walked around there the last couple of weeks. I see all the facade on the roof. All the windows. I see all the facades on the roof. All the windows. I already have guys planning to come out and see and look and get real prices. So, with that grant, I'll be able to push that money a long way. So, I want to try to get this open sooner than later. I already have a PA system I can put in there. Mark is going to work with me to redo some lighting and help get all the sound systems going. So, you have any questions for me? Go ahead, Mark. In your previous presentation, you talked about putting an LED screen across the ceiling. Yes. And I think it's important also that you were going to do some theater in there. Yes. Theater. We'll have dance competitions. It'll be open to the community. All these dance schools around here, they want to have competitions. I'll have music competitions. People love that kind of stuff. To compete with something and they'll win prizes. And they'll be able to do certain things. And with the help of Mark, with the Live Nation thing, you shouldn't have any problem working with something theater and the amphitheater. We already have. Oh, yeah. We already have. Yeah. And the amphitheater, everything that we need in this town, I will be there for. And I'm literally, I think if I walk, it might take me three minutes to get it available. So, just my presence alone makes things operate the way it's supposed to be. I remember when, way back when Dawn and I were working, like two and a half years ago, you had, I had seen you somewhere, I don't know, and you said, oh, I have the engineering, I did all the engineering for that building. No, I didn't. And that's always in the back of my mind, but you did not, there was a financial problem with the existing board. Right. But you have all that. I do. So, there was a design made, I remember Jeffrey. Jeffrey. Freeman. Freeman, yep. I have all that. So, I was trying, I was working with Bob Barter, who was there originally, and there was another gentleman. And I climbed through that building, every which way from the burnt trusses and the roof, to see how it is structurally, and it's, everything's structurally fine. There is some of the burnt stuff that I got to fix up up there. Although, we have that whole, I was trying to work with them, and I put numbers together for them, enter into each one of these tasks. They just couldn't get it going. I have that whole report, designs, everything else, you have to understand. So, you're not looking to rely on grants if they're not there? Oh, I don't know. Just like I did. These buildings I put around these houses, I paid out on the cheap end, I put a hundred grand into one of them, on the cheap end. I know the one on Griffin, I just, because it was in such disarray, there was no connections, there was nothing. That would probably, I don't know. I don't know. About a hundred and forty thousand I put into that. So one of the questions I asked the other gentleman was, I'm looking at, so we're gonna break ground hopefully this summer on the town square. Eventually have that amphitheater. So I think restoration is one enforceable. It's important. Which I think you've already spoke about. Tend to utilize your own funds if necessary. But I'm looking more towards everything else that also is around. that also is around you. So all our restaurants, our storefronts and so forth, and driving, forced driving, making Riverhead a gathering place with the new town square. So I see it through means of different types of festivals and so forth. So I'll ask that same question. I'm looking for that country fest that bring back the Blues Festival and those other type of things where you're going to have multiple stages working together. So you tend to collaborate with the Suffolk Theater. Clearly you're obviously based on the letter working with Gary, but if you just talk about that, in terms of a driving force, you have to be a starting point for everything else around you as well. That's correct, yeah. So the Blues Festival, I actually played in a couple of them. I could never figure out why that stopped. Country festivals, country music, having that whole atmosphere. So we have connections with all genres of music in all the festivals. It's just the quality of the music and having the whole atmosphere. So in the country festival, you're going to have it like country. If you have the Blues Festival, you're going to have it like blues. So yeah, we are open to helping and supporting all that. You also mentioned about your connection with people from Broadway. Yeah. And you were going to bring people out, and I know you, I mean, you had mentioned, you can get people paid $200 to $500 a seat to see. Because it's a small venue and it lends itself to that. Yeah, so this leads to another one who you know. So I have a vocal instructor in Manhattan. His name is Derek Rosenblatt. He's the top-shelf vocal instructor, probably in the country, but yet focuses on Broadway. And our connections, and I said to Derek, I said, Derek, if I have this veil on me, some of these Broadway singers and some of these Broadway people want to come out and just put on, like you see somebody on Broadway. So they're off on that, but they want to come out and put on a show, and this way we could have the expenses, the ticket prices all go up. He says, I have no problem introducing you to these people because they will do that. I bring them out, I house them. When you see these type of people starting to come to the Vail Leather Musical, there's going to be an opportunity for a lot of people to follow. And I have no problem, anybody wants to see all of my finances and my company and see what kind of money we carry in there, I have to do it all the time. That tells the truth.
Yeah, I have a handful of experts that we hire. Like in my subcontractor world, Electric, do I know about that? No, but I know how things are supposed to go, and I know how progress is supposed to be made. Yeah, but that's what I do. That's why I hire people who know. Can I get one of those? Yeah, sure.
Ray, what is your particular genre when you go to the Suffolk and you put for one? So I get asked that a lot on radio station interviews, and I got stumped when I got first asked. So it took me a minute and I said, you know what, I'm going to make up my own genre because I don't have one genre. That's why the variety is one. And then I said, so what is it? I said, I'm going to call it music stew. And they said, music stew? What's music stew? I said, because I learned from the old blues legends. I learned then after the Motown kicked in, and you learn that whole soul. Then the British invasion and then rock and roll came in, because they learned from the blues legend and spiced it up. Then the disco world starts coming into play. And now then you have all of these other contemporary genres. So we play everything. So actually right now, we're going to play a lot of music. As soon as I leave here, I have to head to New Jersey, because I'm leaving town Saturday for a week. We're going on vacation. So I work with a gentleman who ran the Saturday Night Live band for like 15 years. His name is Chris Palmaro. And right now, we're creating another genre, and we're having these all for today, these all these dance songs. So I have to, as soon as I go and leave here, I got to pack in the car, and I have to head to New Jersey, because I got to put bass lines and all this other. You can feel like you're back in Saturday Night Fever with this music. Right? So I'm in Saturday Night Fever. So all these different genres are part of what we do. So I said, what genre is actually missing from what we do? We do play jazz. Now we're going into that dance era with disco music. And you know, we can have disco parties over there. You get a disco band. But the tribute bands, I'm not so big on. If it's something special, and people are requesting a tribute band because they want to have a certain occasion, I'll find them. If not, then I'm going to just try to go with performance that have that history. And Mark is connected to all of that. I see that. The School of Rock has some, I mean, they couldn't, I don't think the kids could fill the Suffolk Theater, but some of them are incredible. They are. Tribute bands. And they could probably, it'd be cool if they could perform there. They could maybe fill that theater. That's something you'd look at. Yeah. So I'm actually communicating with them a few times. I've done it a few times already in the past to try to see if I could. So I have an occupancy up on that third floor. It's a non-conforming pre-existing use that my 501 runs. That's why my 501 could have the bail of it. And I'm communicating with them to get at least maybe 50 kids up there, let them have a little bit of a performance with their teachers and their family and things like that. Yeah. I know about two years ago, I went up there and we jammed. I couldn't believe the size of this space and how much equipment, which was great. But anyway. I will say that we saw you at the Suffolk Theater to a sold-out crowd. And honestly, I hadn't heard you prior to that. And when we attended, my wife and I didn't know what to expect. But then, you know, it was like a flashback of memories of hit songs that would just keep coming and coming. And we found ourselves in the end standing up. Thank you. Singing along and everything. Yeah. That's right. That's a great show. Thank you. And you know, communication is the key. You know, when there's a song, you want to talk to your audience and give them the hit. Because we did a lot of original music. Give you a history of why that song was written. Everything's a story. This is a story. We're starting at the beginning. When you get this guy going, and like that's the beginning of the story. And when they make him come alive. So you tell the story so people can follow along. Yeah. Cool. Saturday Night Fever, was that the Bee Gees music? It was. I tell you, if you want to, I have the, I have the cut that I'm going to go work on now. You'll hear, you, it will, you'll feel like you want to put on your bell bottoms and dance shoes. Because bell bottoms are coming back now. And, but the, and the other trick is, is that what I got from about four producers already that latched onto it, they said nobody's doing this yet. So we'll have some fun. I have a videographer already set up for it. I got, I'm communicating with two choreographers and a couple of dance schools. It's going to be fun. And it was designed around, it's called a touch. It's a dance that goes with it that we created. And it's designed for professional dancers. It's designed for non-professional dancers. It's designed for the elderly. And it's even designed for people in wheelchairs to do. Because when you look at these kids today, so when we grow up, even in the 20s, people dance together. Now they look like little robots, dancing around. So if we get a little thing called a touch, people get a little closer, you know? It's. It's. Capsuleman Kern might be able to hit some of them high notes on Saturday Night Fever. Give him a chance. They did have some high notes. All right. Yeah. Just step hard on my foot. I'll squeal. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate it. And you had not had to get a hold of me. You need me for anything. How many questions? Two. Two. ! All right. Well, thank you for the answer. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. And you had not had to get a hold of me. You need me for anything. How many questions? Your attorneys want to see what we have. And we'll tell you, you know. Okay? Yep. All right. Thank you again. Enjoy. Thanks. Bye. Thanks. [transcription gap] from the Science Center over the last year about, you know, really getting this thing happening. And recently, you know, now that the architectural drawings are done and stuff like that, they are ready to go. So, Jordan, I'm going to leave it to you to speak about. And I know you're in touch with a master developer, so make sure we can hear you. Sure. Hi, everybody. I'm Jordan Rogoff, principal at DXA Studio, New York City. I am also a part-time resident of Mattatuck and love the North Fork area and was actually living out there during the pandemic and trying to get involved with Riverhead. So I know I've had an opportunity to speak with Don and some members that are here today. So thank you for the opportunity to come in today to talk to you about this project. I have my team members as well. I have Sando and Shahab that have helped us prepare some materials to share with you today. Kind of a two-phase vision with the intent of trying to get the Science Center up and operational as quickly as possible, hopefully by as early as this summer. But it obviously requires quite... It's a rather complex site, obviously, with so much going on. That'll require quite a bit of collaboration, which we've started in earnest recently. So we're happy to share with you some images that we've prepared that speak to the two-phase proposal that we put before you today. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Just text us. Oh, it's our pleasure. It's an exciting project, for sure. Well, we're interested in learning what you've put together. Sure, absolutely. So I don't know the best process. We can pull it up on the screen. I know that we passed along a package last night, but just as easily, if we're able to share our screen, we can pull it up and tell you about the project, if that sounds good. I emailed it. Yes. Yes. Okay. We can pull it up. Good job. You want to take a shot? Why not pull it up?
Okay. Can you guys see the screen? Yes. Excellent. All right. So I think the first image here is just to show the current conditions of the building. I know that Larry and team have installed a temporary roof. We have clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear water issues in the relative relationship to the base flood elevation and some of the other flood mitigation work that is anticipated with the proposal for the town square. But what we would propose to do right away is, again, to get the Science Center operational as quickly as possible. So what we have here is taking the rough opening of the storefront and essentially just cladding what is a simple CMU building with a rain screen system, which is just simply a panelized system that gets hung onto the rain screen that can really rejuvenate and start to give a public face to the building in this first phase. So it's minimal work on the storefront. It's some restoration and then obviously some signage to kind of announce the arrival of the Science Center to Main Street and then this cladding system. The idea would be that the primary function of the building exists at that ground level, knowing that the flooding issues probably will not be addressed in totality. So we would have to wait until the town square is complete. So it would be good to get a sense of the timing of that. We have talked to Barry Long and heard that there are about 95 percent CDs, which would make, I guess, the ability to pull permits and start that work in the relative near future. But it would be good to learn more about that. We got a sense of the
how that town square would kind of interface with the building. And so for phase two, if we go to phase two, for phase two, we would try to make the primary entry off of the town square as another kind of activating feature so that the primary method of ingress could happen at the level of the town square, which actually does align with the elevated ground floor. So we would we we recommend it strongly that the that all of the public assembly, the space happen at that level because that aligns with the proposed town square and is is co-planer. It is an accessible entry point. And then the the the floor that exists beneath that the basement level, because of the fact that we have a lot of public space. And in the case of some of those challenges with with the flood levels, we would we would we would propose that that level be used with some remedial work. Drainage and storm water retention. Be more of kind of a backup house support level that houses all the mechanical and maybe some office spaces up a little closer to Main Street. And they have that. That that remains. And then for phase two, actually reinforce the the roof and let that be a second floor of which a planetarium that is that that serves the roof of the planetarium that serves the ground floor assembly space. And then also what's what's hidden behind the trees here is is a a roof level enclosed by a greenhouse. Structure with some outdoor space that can serve as a as a a flex exhibition and assembly space. It could be used for events, fundraising efforts. It could be an all around larger assembly space for the town and for the science center. So that second phase, I think, is really tied to the the grant acquisition fundraising. And then the second phase is really tied to the the grant acquisition fundraising. And then the the goal would be to do that second phase as quickly as possible. But that's again very much work in progress in order to be able to advance those efforts. Really need to make sure that that we could advance with that with that first phase. Bring a public face. Get these get these plans out there and and proceed with getting the funding necessary to realize the second phase. So that's kind of a general overview of the strategy that that our firm is proposing to the science center. And and yeah, we just wanted to kind of start the conversation knowing the interconnectedness of the efforts of the of the town square and our endeavor here. Did have an opportunity to speak with Joe Petrucelli. And and talk a little bit about that connectivity. How how the buildings can can support one another in the effort to really activate the town squares space. And and then obviously, I guess, with the change of of water collection, I guess, historically, that had just been kind of shed out to the river. So part of our strategy would be to collect that in a water retention tank inside the building. And this is very much akin to many of the projects our studio has dealt with through the years. Most notably, probably in the in the South Street seaport. And then in lower Manhattan and in the meatpacking district. All of those have a very similar relationship to the base flood elevation. But there's a number of ways that we've been able to make sure that there's a space there that doesn't even exist below that hundred year of flood mark. So there's a number of strategies of floodgates of flood barriers removable. We know all of those kind of technologies and can can apply those first in a kind of immediate effort to to get open. And then a longer term kind of more sustainable strategy. Without going into too much depth now, you know, that is kind of the basic concept here is that we would anticipate quite a bit of back and forth to understand timing for the town square, connectivity, and where our opportunity is. When we looked at the recent town square plans, there's a great opportunity about midway down the length of this 200-foot building, close to the center where there will be a memorial fountain in the beginning of the bosque. That seems like an opportune place to introduce an entry on the side of the building and then really start to open up the building to the plaza and activate that space. One other little thing to share is that we've been involved in quite a few master planning efforts and think that we can make a lot of suggestions. It can add to the team dynamic and goals here to activate the town square. Anyway, that's kind of the gist of what we're proposing here. We're excited to have this meeting and start these conversations. Jordan, I have a question. It's my understanding you're currently building a planetarium in Brooklyn? No. We did a proposal. A number of years ago at BAM, that project did not end up happening. We developed drawings. This was before the digital projection was a thing. We were talking to the old school $1.5 million projectors. It was an interesting concept. It was going to exist as an educational facility every day until about 5 p.m. and then turn into a nightclub or fundraising vehicle for BAM. Unfortunately, it didn't happen, but we learned a lot about the process and can apply some of that expertise to the planetarium here. Does the planetarium allow it? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Think of the right word here. Lend itself to immersive art shows? Absolutely, especially with the new technologies. Now, they can be projected, like a very sophisticated led projection. Pretty much anything that you model in a computer can be projected. It's no longer has to be led. We have a system so that's clear so you can head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head And so pretty much anything that you model in a computer can be projected. It no longer has to be limited to kind of a series of slides or templates that were used in the old time projectors. So it opens up a lot of opportunity for art installations and even just video projection onto the dome surface. So absolutely, yeah. You could, like the BAM project, use this for educational purposes most of the time and pivot and use it for other events and art installations for sure. I have just one question. So I'm presumably breaking it down from a phase one to a phase two because I'm making a presumption maybe based on finances. You know. I'm not saying that it's impossible to allow to raise more funding and to continue into phase two. But why the delay like on the easterly facade of the building? Wouldn't you want to immediately open up all those doors? I mean I don't know how much it will really change in terms of the overall cost. But I think that when the town square is open and operating, I think wouldn't it be less disruptive to the town square if you, and more drive people into your facility. So if there's people sitting outside a restaurant, sitting on tables, they'd be really looking into the science center saying, I want to go in there. I want to go check that out. So is there any particular reason why you're holding off on easterly facade? That's an excellent point. The thought there is that the construction sounds like it'll be about a year or so. So what would typically happen is if we did have that fenestration, the contractor, the team that's building would then be obligated to cover all of those windows with masonite. And protect them. And protect them over the course of construction. And so rather than do that, I think the goal would be to just have that wall ready to go so that we can install those windows and sync that up with the completion. Like work hand in hand with the installation of the town square. The goal would not be that we, that we, that we, that we, that we do work after the town square opens on that, that we do that together in pace that because there's going to be issues of waterproofing that we'll need to essentially do flashing details over curb details that happen in conjunction. But to do that in advance and then and then obligate that team to cover that all up is, is, you know, I think would be a second job. Second choice. The first choice would be to, to do that, to do that in concert with the completion of, of the, of the town square. So in actuality, it could be almost a phase one to get open because the other, the other consideration is that most of the windows and doors are rather long lead items, especially since the pandemic. We've been actually, we've been averaging anywhere four to six months for orders on, on, on custom windows. And so it, it, it would take some time, but that can be done again to align that when the town square is complete, that, that that portion of the Eastern wall is complete as well. So imagine a phase one, a phase one B and then the phase two, and you're absolutely right about that phase two. I think there's a number of, of, of grants. And, and opportunities for, for fundraising that need to be developed to, to capitalize that part of the project. It just, I think in terms of finances, towards building that facade and then cutting it all apart, dismantling it, you know what I mean? Like almost if it was built in phase one, but just consideration, but it sounds like you're telling me that you feel you might be ahead of the town square project. In other words, is that what you're thinking? Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I think that again, the, the, the mission, the brief that we received, our firm received is that help us get open as quickly as possible. So I think, you know, in order to do that, to simplify the, the response in the first phase and not engage with these long lead items. To your point though, I think we would anticipate the presence of, of the fenestration, so that's clear. when we do the panel installs so that the system is ready to simply just be removed at those areas and that the waterproofing's ready and that the install itself can be done really very quickly and without any sort of interruption of the completion of the town square. What guarantee do we have that you will actually go into phase two and that we're not going to get stuck looking at just a concrete wall basically? I agree, that's a great question. You don't have phase two yet, right? That requires a lot of funding? That the phase two requires funding. I can't speak to the financial structure of the deal. Just what I can speak to is that we'll design all of this and it'll be ready to go. If it's a matter of having that fenestration kind of guaranteed as part of phase one, then that's a conversation to be had with the team. But as far as guarantees, I'll have to talk to the client and have that conversation. I would like that conversation to happen. I would too. In the handout here, it seems to address that. Maybe Chris, you can go into that a little bit more. Thank you for having us in. Thank you, Jordan. That was really excellent. We have quite a few grants in place to move forward. For phase one, we would look to try to get open for the summer. We have those grants, about 1.8 million. Then that's for getting a CVO and getting open downtown to be a regional attraction. Right, set by August 1st. Hopefully. Yeah. Because it's a pretty simple renovation. And then the exhibits are ready to go. We have some great exhibits at Tanger. It's just very small. So we could expand and also host more classroom space. So immediately we could activate the building with phase one. And then phase two, we have about 1.8 million for doing the planetarium. And then the rooftop. And we are ready to do additional fundraising. We just didn't have a location. We have so much grant in place that we wanted to close out the first two, getting open this summer, and then start with a capital campaign. But we have other financing opportunities that we've gotten in the past. There was a letter of commitment for the $15 million build out. But the requirement of that commitment was that we had some of the projects that we were going to have to have a CFO in two years. So with the timing of the town square development, we were a little bit ahead on schedule. This would be great because, I mean, Jordan and his team are so talented and sort of aware of water table issues that they could develop the rest of the project in coordination with the development of the town square. So you're talking roughly $15 million for the entire build out? Yeah. That was the other building. This one, I think Jordan did a rough estimate. It was about a million dollars to get open for the summer. Right. With like a vanilla box kind of space. But for the final project, for phase one and phase two to be completed. I don't think it would be the full 15 because that one had a lot of setbacks. We'd have to scope out the cost. It would be probably a lot lower. Yeah. Grace, I can speak to that, that we can probably get those numbers. It's . . . I think we're in the design phase. We've been involved just for a few weeks that we'll put that together. But I concur. I don't think that that $15 million, like we should be well below that. But yeah, give us a little bit more time and we'll be able to get those numbers for you. So Jordan, if I could just ask, when you're building phase one, from an engineering perspective, are you building the structural unit to hold the roof down? Yeah. Are you putting the roof top and the planetarium in phase one so that does the science center remain open because it has a complete base for phase two for the second story? Or is this something that you're simply . . . It's a facade on the front of it. It opens up. And then when you go into phase two, are you shutting the whole science center down for a period of time while you go into phase two? Like, so are you putting the engineering and the structure in place at the conclusion of phase one so that the science center can remain open? That's the goal. The goal would be that we do the structural remediation and be prepared to really think of that roof as a kind of blank slate that we can start the construction on there. That would be important to be not disruptive to the town square should the phase two happen after that opens. Our goal is to make it go as fast as possible. But if we have that, we're going to be able to do that. We're going to have that roof ready to go and we can keep occupancy continuous and then build above there. I would anticipate just out of necessity, especially the planetarium area, that we would close off a localized area to be able to construct that and keep the rest of the museum open and then be able to build that phase two off of that kind of table of the . . . roof slab. So that is the goal. If for any reason that can't happen, then I imagine the science center would stay open and we'd go, we'd do a bay by bay approach. But the goal would be to try to get everything future proof and ready to go. So when you're filing your building permits, are they going to show, you know, the entire structure, phase one, phase two, in its entirety initially so that I think kind of . . . I think the proof on hand is that if you're seeing the support structures and so forth put in place in phase one and you can, you know, the engineering and our building department can analyze it and say, okay, if the whole structure network is . . . it also is put in place in phase one, it's kind of like proof that you're going to phase two as opposed to just, again, putting a facade on it and beginning to open up. But I just . . . you know what I'm saying? So like you . . . Absolutely. 100 percent. Yeah. So you're saying that you're going to have to do a whole set of documents, you know, for . . . Yeah. My goal would be to draw it out complete and then kind of reverse engineer what we're able to accomplish as quickly as possible and then work with the building department to phase it appropriately. But you're absolutely right. If you get . . . even with phase two, we're going to have to do all of the occupancy calculations and make sure the egress is ready to go and have that all drawn out. And then reverse engineer what is achievable in the timeframe and in that bandwidth of the amounts that Chris just shared. So yeah. And my experience is it's a little bit of a negotiation with the building department as well to make sure what the proper way of doing it is. Is there a TCO given for like a . . . A temporary occupancy arrangement in phase one that then becomes permanent in phase two? Or is it done, you know, filing all of phase two and then building phase one, getting the CFO for that, and then coming back for phase two? That's a conversation . . . those are more conversations that have to happen as to the right way. But our studio would design the entirety of it, have all the calculations. Detailing everything ready to go. And then work towards that August deadline. My concern here . . . For a third floor when it was originally built, steel beams. So the family that built it, built it with the anticipation. To understand my point of that, like, you know, if you're doing phase one, put the entire structural unit in place so that you have the possibility of remaining open and operating. And so that it's not . . . Inhibiting on the town square that we open up a new town square and that it's boarded up for years while it's construction. That, you know, you continue operating while you're doing your second phase. Absolutely. Sorry. My concern . . . The other . . . Financially is simply this. Phase one, you're talking you have about 1.8 million available to do what you need to do. And according to what you say here, the estimated cost to get open for the summer is about $800,000. Mm-hmm. However, go to phase two. Mm-hmm. You're talking about $1.6 million for that. Now, if we're talking give or take $15 million for the entire project, where is the rest of this money coming from? That worries me for phase two because you're talking about capital fundraising. Mm-hmm. But you're minus a lot of money to get to that $15 million number. Yeah. So the . . . that's a good question. And the way it's phased is that once it opens, these are reimbursement grants. So the money will come in and it will be the cash for us to work with going forward. And then Kylan Kaler, when she was executive director, put together a very extensive business plan on the expanded space. So she did a lot of work about the size that's required to become a regional attraction and having multiple classrooms at the same time. So that key number was 10,000 square feet. So that's what we would get with phase one. And then we would be able to have expanded revenue streams. And that's what the loan was based on. So we wouldn't need the full $15 million going forward. And depending on additional grants once we close these out because we're a little bit maxed out with additional funding in terms of going back to funders and asking for more money. We don't have a . . . so once we get the plan in place, we would close out the first two. Phase one concluded. We have the second two in place. And then there's other opportunities both with grants and then capital campaigns. So people are interested in becoming involved with the capital campaign, joining the board, and have been involved with some big campaigns down in Florida for regional science museums and some of the South Fork projects. So there's interest in getting involved. We just didn't feel comfortable with that until now. We didn't feel comfortable with that until we had a plan. And I think having Jordan come on, there's a plan. And this is a lot has to do with Lucy Barnes really pulled a lot of this together. And her relationship with Jordan pulled it together. So she joined the board and was instrumental in sort of coming up with the phase plan. So I've had this conversation with Larry Oxman when he first talked about buying this. And he talked about buying this building. And in fact, the location of it being right on the town square, there's no better place for the Science Center in my opinion. And I felt that way all along. But I think we just . . . we are very concerned about the finances of the Science Center having the money to actually finish this out, especially in phase two. And that's concerning for us. And that's why we're having this meeting today and why we're in the situation that we're in. I need some assurances that money's going to be there for phase two other than you just saying, well, we have people who are interested. But we've got to show them a little something first. That's not how we're doing the town square. We have to have that money. We know we have the money. And we wouldn't embark on doing the town square saying we were missing 60 percent of the money to do the project and just worry about it later. So that's concerning for me. I think once we have an estimate from the science center, we're going to have to do the project. I think once we have an estimate from Jordan on the phase two with the cash flow of moving into a certificate of occupancy and closing out the first two grounds, we can move forward with phase two. I don't think it's going to be the 15 million involved, phase one, closing on the building, and then it was a much more complicated structure up top. So I would think it would be half that price. The 15 million included the purchase price of the building, too? Well, it was refinancing. So everything was rolled into one big construction project. And then closing out all the grants sort of at the same time and getting one CO. This is a much more reasonable phasing. And then it sort of dovetails with the development of the town square. So this, the letter of commitment, I think Dawn saw it in the business plan that supported it. That goes back a few years. But those funding streams are going to be there. Those funding streams are still available. I know there's a lot of talk about federal this, federal funding. This and the project itself, I don't see being in any situation where they couldn't get funding. I think the way the federal government is turning interest to innovation and legacy, we'd like to do a Long Island innovation exhibit and something about the Brumman legacy. Those are all key objectives that the current administration wants to support. And the federal funding should be there. We haven't really even tapped into federal funding for the capital construction. We've had federal grants for the programming. But there's definitely, once we have a plan with the town and the permits and the phasing with the town square, I don't see any problem getting additional grants. And then, you know, we'll see. We'll see if we can get additional grants. And then the capital campaign is just so that people know it's going to be built. We wouldn't want to take any money in without having a set plan that's actually going to open. I have a question. Go. I'm done. Okay. So I feel very comfortable. I'm familiar a little bit enough with construction and know that if to address Councilman Rothwell's concern, you're going to put everything in place for Phase 2. And what, you know, so that you can build that it's not going to be an interruption to what's, you know, finished on the town square. Which I think is really good. Where I'm a little bit confused and, you know, but is, so when you, let's say you get the permits, you start for Phase 1, which I'm very comfortable with. I feel very comfortable with Phase 1. And you take the time you need to get the funding for Phase 2. Because that's the objective is to get this building complete. Right? Can you start writing, going for grants right away? I think once we have the permits and the commitment from the town, we would definitely. Oh, okay. That's good. If we can get open by the summer and close out the first two, we could go back for the same funding, you know, pots of money. But there's also federal funding. No, that I understood. I just, you know, okay. You talked about being open for some. Yes. Are you going to look like this by summer? Well, that would be. That's what I said at Pace. That seems awful. Photo 3 is what we get by the summer, right? It's really, you know, if you look at like the Suffolk Theater and the Woolworth Building and D. Muma's Building. Yeah, that's terrible. Those really look terrible. I mean, the Suffolk Theater looked like a knockdown. And the way it's been restored is brilliant. So it adds context to your Main Street, you know, facade and architecture. But it wasn't done in three months. Well, this is really like a skinning in a, it's like a vanilla box. So if we could get the demolition permit, we're just taking out. It's a steel beam brick construction building. So it's very straightforward construction. And then the inside will be like just mechanicals and the flex space. So the exhibits can move around. And there's some, you know, ideas for movable walls for classroom space. But it's not. I mean, Jordan, you're probably right. I mean, Jordan, you're probably more experienced to speak on it. Yeah. But the elevations are going to change too. So you don't want to. And so you're going to do this. The elevations are going to change. And then you, Jordan, correct me if I'm wrong, you're just going to punch out where you need to put windows in once that's all done. Exactly. Shahab, can you go back to the rendering that we're talking about, the Phase 1 for the summertime? So the first thing I'll say is one of the things that I've been thinking about is, you know, one of the fundamental differences of this and the previous approval was a complete demolition, new foundation. That is a bigger undertaking that we're proposing here. To facilitate the expediency of opening quickly, we're going to just do remedial work on the existing structure. There will be additional footings to be able to support the loads of an occupier. So we're going to have to do a complete demolition of an occupiable roof for Phase 2. And, again, we'd like to try to get that in as quickly as possible and file for that. So, again, we've got that table of the second floor in strengthening the roof. But for everything that happens on the outside, this is a pretty much a dumb box. So we do a vapor barrier application. We do a vapor barrier application on CMU. And then we hang this panelized system on top of that. So you're adding just a couple of inches of cladding. We remove what's a cornice piece on the front. And then we'll do brake metal and some remedial work to the storefront and then obviously add the signage. I think the accessibility is already addressed with the presence of a ramp that's built in on the right side of the building. And then stairs up to the ground floor level. And, again, what's beautiful, intentional or not, we weren't involved as long as everyone else, but that floor aligns with what is the elevation of the town square, which will be elevated between 16 and 18 inches because of the flood mitigation strategy. So all of that, like if we had to come in, build a new building, put a new floor slab and do all of that work, we are so fortunate that that aligns. And so it's really not a heavy lift to take the building as it is, repurpose it, and then deal with the flood issues with flood barriers in phase one and then a more comprehensive strategy for phase two. So, yeah, it's not a big lift. The other thing I want to say about phase two, I know that there were the financial concerns, but there were also concerns about the timing it would take to erect. If you go to that slide, Shahab, of the phase two, one of the kind of beauties of the proposal is that that phase two can be a unitized system, meaning that the greenhouse structure can be a unitized system. And that's a great thing. Thank you. So there's a lot of things there. But there's also a lot of things there. One of the things there is there can actually be fabricated off-site and erected on-site cutting down construction time like pretty dramatically. So we've done a lot of off-site construction and prefab elements on a lot of projects. And so that would, if it does happen after the town square is open, it's not going to be like another year worth of construction. So I think that's a positive thing regarding the timing and disruption to the town square. I just wanted to point that out. I just had to thank you, Jordan. I just had a couple of questions. I really am happy that you're involved and Chris. Thank you. Yeah, and it's nice to see you again. I just a couple of quick questions on the opening to the square that you have on the phase two drawing. You know, I think it's so critical that we activate that square that even if it took some temporary covering to do that, it might be important to just consider doing that in the first phase because if it takes a little longer, even then maybe is anticipated to get it. And then if you have additional funding, you would have that activated side. So that's my one comment. And then the second question I have is, and I see and I know just when Joe Petrucelli looked at the building, the removal of the back part of the building that was really the most impacted by flooding was suggested, which I'm looking at, you know, the phase two rendering. It looks like you're doing something like that. And so because I can see that it's a little. The first. Phase a little shorter. Then. You know, the phase one's, you know, the entire length of that east side of the building and then phase two, which I see like that little bump in there, which I think is great, would be amazing to have that kind of, you know, access to the science center on the square, which is sort of what we always all envisioned and hoped for. How do you how do you figure, you know, would you be demoing that back half of the building and then making it flood compliant? Because the. You know, the other buildings along that whole side are sort of like serve as a flood wall. And I know you have thought about capturing that flood water, but like, is your phase two really addressing that issue? Yeah, if not through subtraction. So when I spoke with Joe, I gave him the example of. Um. Uh. We did a project at 100 Barclay, which is almost the same relative to sea level as as this project. And it was a landmark building. So we didn't have the option of of doing demolition, but we employed like a flood barrier strategy that is highly effective. And so I don't think it's a it's kind of a black or white choice here. I think there's a lot of construction technology and building technology that we can apply to to maintain that. portion of the building. Uh, and make it make it floodproof so I don't think you have to demolish head. Um, but it is a conversation in the overall kind of vision. And water mitigation strategy. Um, and I don't know if that's a conversation with the Army Corps who's kind of, you know, involved in the in the riverfront portion. Um, or, or, um, with you guys, your building department. Um, but I, I think there's a number of strategies that we can maintain. The. the accident footprint and apply some of those kind of battle tested strategies that we've used before. I just want to say one thing. I'm concerned that what Councilwoman Wawrowski was saying and also what you've been saying, Ms. Thomas, can we get, just looking at the photo at number three, that box could stay like that for years until they get the funding. If they could have what's in photo four minus the top with the rendering, with all the doors as such, as everyone is discussing, I think that would look phenomenal. And it would create less of a problem when you are constructing because the town square could be finished for a couple of years before you start doing all this other demo for your second floor. And I disagree going back to what Councilman Rothwell was just saying. That planetarium, you're going to have to shut down that whole building to put that in. I don't see how you can segment that. It looks from this rendering you have, it's taking up most of this whole second floor. So I really don't know how you can stay in operation while you're putting that huge planet or I don't know, is that the sun with the other planets around it? I don't know what that is. But I just don't see how you're going to be able to keep the place open while you're doing that. Yeah. It's a great question. We would not be able to keep the full 200 feet of depth open. The plan would be that if we have access from the rear and the side, that we could actually just partition that what will be a 50 foot by 50 foot segment and do the installation. Primarily the dome can get installed from the rooftop. And then kind of the enclosure seating. All of that. Can get installed inside of that area. So you'd be partitioning. So we want to maintain some flexibility to the functioning and have a phased plan for the operation of the science center for that installation. But you're absolutely right. All of the area that would be under that dome would be closed off to facilitate that phase two. But the rest of the museum could remain in operation for sure. Okay. So you do have the funding for 1 and 1B. I'd like to see that. Right. And to address what the councilwoman is saying, what I heard was that that whole east side will be finished when the town square is finished. It's not going to be left without these windows and all that stuff. No. They have that in phase two. It's listed as phase two. No. Phase two. No. There's 1 and 1B. Right. A 1A and 1B. You had said. Yeah. Yeah. So. And phase two is just the roof. I apologize. Phase one says new facade. Right. The facade is the face of the building. It says nothing about the east wall. I am concerned. Right. That is just going to be the front of the building that's going to be worked on. And the whole east side is going to be. Right. So. [transcription gap] The middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle [transcription gap] middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle [transcription gap] middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle middle along Town Square that's all happening in phase two not things one I think the idea was to collaborate with the design of the town square because there might be a grade raise or we you know we have Jordan yeah we could work this issue out and we do have the funding I just don't want a band-aid on the front yeah and us get stuck down the road this this is such a significant part of the town square and I'm worried I think that's originally the concept Lucy had was that it would be really a nice attraction in the town square so I think Jordan is the design professional and already started working you know discussing with the team to coordinate how how they could phase that side there was just some question and answer and I think that's what we're trying to do and I think that's important and I think that's what we're trying to do and I think that's what there's a lot of questions about grade that I think yeah we designed these two ways but I think great it's gonna race so they can't they gotta wait for that to happen that's why all happen with concert with the rest of the towns for going on if they just built this and then raise the grade they'd be throwing in some of the windows I'm going to stay on there but I would disagree with that in terms of that the design plan is being put in place for the town square so even if you put in that that facade you complete that side it would be beautify the whole area. Even if our town square isn't ready, you could still do temporary steps and so forth out there, or slope sidewalk and so forth. You have handicap accessible available in the front during the construction. It kind of gives us the guarantee of this is how it is. So even if no additional funds are ever received or able to move forward, it gives you the guarantee of the facade putting in their place. And even in the town square, I'm certain that if your project is ahead of us, then in building a town square we can simply work with those steps and facades to make it some of the pathways and walkways to be more approachable so that it joins together. It's not like we're going to build a town square and then suddenly be three feet high or lower. If your facade is done, we're going to have to work with your facade to match up. It's a key component. I just wouldn't want to see you to say, no, let's do the whole town square and then after we've already completed and we've paid all that money for that granite work on there, we're going to tear that all out of there. And start building doors and windows later on. I think you should do it right from the beginning. If you're going to be open in August, then there may be parts of the town square that were under mostly construction, I think in the rear in the very beginning, and you could utilize that front lawn right on the side of your building. Put some picnic table there. Make it a gathering point. That's the construction starts, then it's different, but then you have the front access. What is the material that you anticipate using on the exterior? What's the material? This is the it's a panelized system. And say that you want to speak to the actual product that we were looking at. The ceramic based. I mean, there's a bunch of ways to do this because it's actually fairly simple. You can do a metallic finish on a ceramic. You could have a zinc panel. You could have like an aluminum. It's all about budget, but it's a very, very simple, almost like a like a open, open screen panel. Right. I just wanted to speak quickly to in order to open in August. One of the challenges is that it's going to be impossible to get the the doors in windows. And that was the reason we were we were representing what would be kind of August one. But again, the goal would be that and we're going to have to work with LVF, the group, I think, that has the master kind of elevation master plan landscape drawings. We have to work with them to position the apertures. This is kind of like what the starting point. Right. And then it's a collaboration negotiation as to where those openings happen to the extent that we can get that done, filed and be part of in lining up in advance. We're still we would still need to take about. 18 inches or so from the top of the of the plaza level and not build it. We could build up to that datum, have the windows in place. But then what we're going to have to do is kind of flash and get the waterproofing details in sync with their details. So that from our past experience is it is a few month process. And so what we were proposing is to just kind of do something very simple. We're going to have to build up the The hand out that you have is articulated a little differently. But the goal would never to be like that. When the town square opens, we still have a big dumb wall there. It would be that just knowing that we have to sync all these up. And develop the details and positioning of all the the apertures in this wall with the LVF team. There is there's quite a bit that will go into that. And that's not really, I think, possible by August. Maybe by the end of the year. But again, it think that with the construction team and how the town square what that schedule is so that any anything that we do is not impeding their progress. So that's something that we're going to have to do. And I think that's what we're going to have to do. And I think that's what we're going to have to do. All right. Any other questions? I'm good. Good. Thank you, Jordan. And I know Lucy's not on there. But I want to thank Lucy Barnes for the work and working with you, Jordan. Good to see you again. And working with you, Jordan. Actually, Lucy was really great. Yeah. Thank you. Well, we're really excited. Thanks for the opportunity to present. Sorry I couldn't be able to get you on the phone. I'm sorry. [transcription gap] for matters surrounding the Down Payment Assistance Program and Municipal Parks and Recreation Grant. That will be with Keller and Thompson.
You're up, people, you're up. Finally, and we need money for parks. We came down a little early. Came down a little early. How are we doing today? We're good. Good. I heard you were missing something. That was just the attach. Okay. Yeah. So we have the opportunity to partner with the county on this first time homebuyers. Microphone. Yeah, you know I'm over quiet. So we have the opportunity to partner with the county on this first time homebuyers Down Payment Assistance Program. It's really just offering people a chance to purchase homes and become established residents. I know there's a lot of people who are in the community. Trying to find a balance between rentals and homeowners. So this offers them a good opportunity. The county will vet all of the paperwork. And then we have a separate application that they can then be kicked over to and apply for additional funding. So the county is offering with stipulations, if people meet the requirements, $30,000. That can be applied to the down payment of a new home. And then we could offer additional funding. That could be applied to actually either the down payment or the closing costs. So that's advantageous for the first time homebuyers. So we have $280,500 available for that. So for roughly nine people or nine families we could. We can get that many. Right, if we can get that many to qualify. Right. I have one question. How do we prevent or police the fact that somebody might be going to come in and buy a home and then turn around and start renting it? What happens in that situation? So with the first time homebuyer? Yeah, so it's like anything else. They're going to sign a lot of documentation that indicates that if they do anything like that, the money gets recaptured. Oh, okay. They're required to use it as their primary residence for 10 years. 10 years, yeah. Right, but I look at, okay, so I look at somebody, they buy a home, they get $30,000. They start renting it. And for the amount of rent that people are getting, they'll capture that $30,000 and give it back real quick and then continue to rent. Yeah, but they've got to remain as the primary owner. Okay. Resident in the home. They can't rent. They have to be living in the home. I know my own personal experience, my wife and I, we've got the Sunday, May first time homebuyers grant. So that was 30 years ago when we were first starting out. But they did actually fund. They did follow up checkups. And then like there was actually a payment scale too. So if we were to force, forcefully have to move for job change or something of that nature or wanted to sell the house, then there was a certain degree that the money is returned as each year goes on. So there's a sliding scale so that the money gets returned. That's still kind of the principle also too. Or if you do sell beforehand, it becomes due upon the sale of the house. Yes. At the full amount. Did you guys talk about that? Yes. I think that the county does and that we would be piggybacking on that. Yes. We're just piggybacking on the program. So it's kind of nice. It's a little bit less work and paperwork for us, but it's still opportunities for people coming in to purchase here. And the county does background checks, credit checks, education. Exactly. And that's a really cool piece is that they're required to go through mortgage counseling, which is really. And they also require you to have a personal bank account of a minimum of $3,000 in the bank account when they go to closing. Can we find out? Yes. And how do you find a way, as I've asked in the past, same question, to allocate the money towards first responders or veterans and so forth. So you talk about nine individuals. How do you narrow down the group in terms of like we need the ongoing volunteers in our community and sadly the younger generation moves out. Because it's becoming so unaffordable here. So this is a great way to make people stay in town. But is there any way to allocate these? I think it's open to all. I mean it's not. It can't be exclusive. Especially since we're piggybacking off the. Can it be exclusive to Riverhead residents at all like current Riverhead residents or again do we do these programs? This is county to county administering this though. I'm just kidding. We do these programs and how do we know that we're going to help the people live in right here in Riverhead right now groaning for that as opposed to having somebody from Huntington or Amityville that's just going to move in and we're really not benefiting. Well that's why we're trying to take it on here immediately instead of the county doing it as a widespread opportunity. Okay. So Riverhead is going we're going to do this by advertisement or whatever we have to do to present it to people out in just generally the Riverhead area. This is offered throughout the county as well so other towns are participating in this program. Yes. So people from other towns are having that opportunity as well. They do have to live here for ten years once they sign this program so we're getting new residents and new tax credits. How do they determine how much they give each town? What's? So the county does their own program and that's all using HUD money and I just want to address the you know selection of different groups to Fair Housing Act is very strict on that and so you can't say Riverhead residents only for instance so those kinds of things you can't limit the when you're using that money it's you know there are things that we can do to try to make sure that Riverhead residents are aware they'd have to apply to the county first qualify there and then we would just be piggybacking off of that and then the next question was the. Is it HUD guidelines? How it's formulated that's how much we got as opposed to how much we got. Oh so we're using. Go ahead. We're using workforce housing. Our Long Island workforce housing on the subdivisions so we're. So we have money from there and then we actually can determine what we're getting we don't have to match the thirty thousand. If we have these existing funds and say they're only receiving an average of like five applicants from Riverhead then the money can be distributed however we see fit. You can do fifteen or twenty or whatever you think is appropriate but it still helps it's a nice chunk. Sure. Towards and I think there's a max price right now five fifty. But we just learned that the HUD guidelines are coming out further. Yeah. So that's when we're looking to potentially rule this out. Okay. So that's when we're looking to potentially rule this out is once we have all the information from HUD so we can set our application straight with what the cap is for the housing purchase price and then the annual what is it your gross annual income. So the income guidelines. We'd be happy to send you over the application form with all of the very specific requirements. Are you saying that the purchase price is. The purchase price is five fifty. The max purchase price right now and you have to meet the area median income guidelines. What's the max? Eighty percent. Eighty percent of area median income. So you can't make more than X. So that's a little bit of a dilemma. Yeah. Originally we were thinking about that and it might be a little bit of a concern but we did have a meeting yesterday where we're finding that the housing price is going to go up. Possibly a little bit more. Six hundred thousand. So there are properties. There's nothing on the market for five hundred. I'm going to say. There's not a shed out there for five hundred. Well there's some stuff. Yeah. It's a fixer upper. There's not a lot on the market right now. And they do have other grants out there or other programs that are available that they will offer to homeowners to have for improvements. Again it will be a lien added on to the home. Right. And it will be for a period of ten years usually. Same thing. You know that will be attached to the home. Screams why we need to do some clustered housing that's you know thousand square feet. We can drop that because I know we talked about dropping the twelve hundred square foot minimum so that people could have starter homes. So the land cost is so high. Yeah. That's that you know because we live on an island so. But you know this is at least a shot to help and a boost to Riverhead residents or people who want to be Riverhead residents to come live here for at least ten years and become part of the community. Could these be used for CEP? For seniors in the mobile home community? Like what is the particular guidelines? Well you know what this is probably based on that it's a home that has also property that's attached because you have to attach the you know so in other words the mobile home. The mobile home is considered a chattel it's not real property but if it was a senior person and it was their first time buying a home for sure it could work for them. Yeah. And again they had can't own a home for three years prior. Veterans are exempt from that. Yeah. Good job. From that time restriction. Now let's get those first responses in. Yeah the county the county has a great program it's going for a long time so we just figured we're not going to reinvent the wheel we're just piggyback right off of that and if you get it from the county you'll get it from us and we'll go with that. It's an additional source. And then the second program we're talking about is the plus one ADU. Yeah. And that's the one that's going to be used for the community. Yeah. And then the second program we're talking about is the plus one ADU. And that's the one that's going to be used for the community. Yeah. And that's the one that's going to be used for the community.
So the accessory dwelling units that's through the state homes and community renewal and we're partnering with Long Island Housing Partnership on that as well. So they handle the majority of the paperwork people come in and they are awarded up to one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars. We've talked to other towns who do this and they do find a smidge of a problem because one hundred twenty five thousand isn't a lot of money. But it it does. Yeah. It does. [transcription gap] I think a benefit with maybe rather than a new accessory dwelling build, it can help to bring existing dwellings up to code so I feel like that's kind of where it's more applicable here because they have to have the capital to finish out whatever they do. It's just that initial one twenty five so. It's a matter of getting every you know code issues in order and as well as also septic system because they have to have great system so. Great system so. Great system so. Great system so. So if they say have an existing accessory dwelling unit on their property and it needs renovations, this is a program that they could apply to to make sure everything is up to code and to improve the dwelling itself. You could use it to finish a basement, make a basement. As long as it's not the head. The egress. The egress is everything. Right, right. So we would piggyback off this program as well, and then we have very specific town codes. So we would just be providing the Long Island Housing Partnership with what our town codes look like, and they would help mock up the application because they have their own application, and they're vetting the participants through that. And then we just send them all of our requirements, and they'll modify the application, and then people can apply. And it's really, this program is more about getting the word out to our residents that this exists. And then I think it's advantageous to have this money. It's available so people can bring their existing units up to code. What do you think? Perfect. Very good. That sums it up. Well, thank you for letting us add those. Every little bit certainly helps. It's a new program. It's a top market out there right now. I know. And I wasn't real concerned initially about that pricing for the house, but you pop on Zillow and there are things around. They do need it. They do need work. You're going to get a fixer-upper with us at this point in the market. They don't like that, though. Exactly. Those houses. People are looking for homes. They have people flipping them, buying them, and flipping them. This gives the first-time home buyer that little bit better opportunity to compete because they can't compete with the flippers and the investors. So this is a little bit of an edge for them to maybe get a spot. Get a foot in the door. Yes. Literally. Very good. Yes. More than a foot. Right. The whole body. Yeah, right. Well, thank you. Thank you guys very much. Yeah, thanks. Very informative. Very informative. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, our last item on for open session are matters surrounding park improvements to Two Bears Park. And we have Ray and Ashley. And Drew. Oh, you forced Drew to come? Yeah.
Good morning. [transcription gap] Hey, did everybody get one? How are you? Good morning. Yes. You know what? Not yet, no. I got mine in the mail the other day. The other day? Yeah, because you were the first. I didn't see you getting mine. They sent mine to FedEx. Well, we're off to a great start this morning. Our first day. This thing gets better every year you do it. And it's always been good. And we have our Civic Rec launched this morning. Wow. So brand new system. We really had no kinks. It's been working out great. And we're... We're at the $15,000 mark. I think the record is 21. So we're hoping to break the record for the first day of registration. 26% were online. So that's a good sign for us as well. That's great. And it's only 1115. Yeah, yeah. So I think we're going to break the record. This is great. So that'd be great. That's great. Good. Love it. Okay, so we are here to discuss Two Bears. Two Bears is probably the park that needs... Two of them. Two bears. Yes. That needs the most loving tenderness. Because it's just been... We haven't touched it in years. It's been on your list for years. Yeah. And we've been kicking it down the road for years. Yeah. Just for lack of money, of course. But I agree with you. And I'm glad you really pushed hard on it this year. Because I was up there a couple weeks ago and checked it out. It needs work. Is that the one behind Timothy? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I actually, after you mentioned it, I also went and looked at that park. It looks abandoned. It's in such bad shape. Yeah. Yeah. They've been asking us for a while. They're great people down there. They don't push the envelopes. But it's been the funding. Because that needs an overhaul. So we had a contract to go down there and check it out. And we got a very high cost as far as their quote. So Drew was sent the quote. And he has saved us close to $80,000. I use the annual construction contract. We got a quote from Land Tech. And they went off the Southampton contract. Yeah. Is that what it was? Southampton contract. And their total was $385,000. And we came up to short of $240,000. Awesome. The thing that saved us the most money, which is... Really good in retrospect, was the glazing or the surfacing of the tennis courts. Because they charge basically per ingredient for a multi-layered system. And just for the surfacing, it's got to be well over $100,000. Yeah. We're going to rip everything up that's there now because it has to be ripped up. And we're changing the configuration. So we're going to go with the new design where we're adding a full court basketball court there. And then we're doing the tennis pickleball court combination on the other side. So we feel that's based on the request down there. That's in the best interest of what they're looking for down there. Because right now they have basketball off to the side. But it's only a small... It's in the parking lot. It's a little area. Yeah. So we figured a nice full court. New coated. And then the tennis pickleball courts. In fact, I just got an email from one of the residents. A long email. I'm not sure if you were on it. So... I was just talking to the supervisor saying how bad it is. And then when I wrote him back saying we're attacking this first, he was ecstatic. He said this is great. So what I'm here to ask, we're here to ask is just the town board. I'm going to put in a resolution to transfer the money. It's park and rec fees to the project. And then we can start on the project. How much is coming out of park and rec fees exactly? This is 236. So if you want to correct, these only have 150,000. No, we have close to three. We have 271 available. And then we have another project that we could liquidate at like 15 grand. So... Because I was anticipating it to be over three. But like I said, we saved a lot of money. We are... Did they make any comments or endorsements of the use of the fees from the park and rec committee? We... This was addressed two years ago by park and rec... By the advisory committee. And they were pushing for it. They were pushing us to get this done. So... Now we're getting it done. I'm just asking. Are they aware that now that all their funds will be depleted? Not in the last meeting. Because we did another topic. So... But they know. They get our reports. They get the spreadsheet. We told them two bears at the top of the list. And so they were... They were fine. They'll be fine with it. I know that the Councilman Rothwell has been concerned about the park up in Waiting River. And... [transcription gap] fixed that that we're gonna have fixed yeah those are new tennis courts yeah so should be under warranty or some sort I would think right I think that it might have expired it's been like four or five years but three two well either way we're having the company that did it go up there to redo it so we'll get that fix actually some type of warranty you should look into that yeah no no we'll look at the contract I go through them with everything while I'm here so since we saved some money Milberg Gables Park which is off Lewis Avenue it's another park that needs a lot of fixture fixing up and so we they new tables and we actually had ordered the new table so we're going to put that out for them they had recently had a new playground but we're looking to the basketball court is another issue over there we were able to get a court to resurface the basketball court so it looked great brand-new surfacing you know we're looking to get a new court to resurface the basketball court we're going to put two new basketball hoops in there and it's for 11,000 I just got the estimate today so long here can I add that to the list if we have the money land tech's not doing that right no no we have a separate company that doesn't Hampton sports courts they did Horton Avenue I was gonna ask you because they did whoever did Horton did a great job and I know land tech was a lot more money yeah yeah and they're so with their they said they just got us the quote this morning so I'll put that in as well I'll talk to their wreck advisor and then Stosky we already had in the project queue is gonna be done as well basketball court so that's where we're at perfect we played pickleball at 3 o'clock today yeah and free skate yeah we have three skates yeah I know we have two or three in the queue and we're just gonna keep pushing coming up for the seniors and then Gordon put something together for like the ones like the ones you're doing now but those are should all be in the brochure great yeah we're getting the caroling is coming next what's up there you go yes all right thank you thank you folks curling is really is getting really popular okay Megan's still there all right that takes care of all the open session meetings we're going to move on to resolutions Devin if you would come up there to go over the resolution good morning to the board everybody's ready we'll jump right into it so our first resolution is a budget amendment for capital project number 72306 veterans park memorial sanitation system and engineering TESTA IS JUST A FEW MINUTES DELAYED, SO WE'RE GOING TO JUST KIND OF HIT THE PAUSE BUTTON. OH, HERE HE IS. WONDERFUL. COME ON UP, KEN. I'M CUTE. PERFECT MINDING. SO KEN IS HERE. HE'S JUST GOING TO KIND OF SPEAK TO THE TECHNICAL OF THIS RESOLUTION. GOOD AFTERNOON OR GOOD MORNING. KEN TESTA, TOWN ENGINEER, TOWN REVET. AS WE DISCUSSED IN EXECUTIVE WORK SESSION, WE HAD A COUPLE OF TECHNICAL ISSUES THAT WE ENCOUNTERED ON THE SANITARY SYSTEM CONSTRUCTION AT VETERANS MEMORIAL PARK. WE WERE WORKING WITH A DESIGN THAT'S ALMOST 20 YEARS OLD BECAUSE THE PERMIT APPLICATION WAS ORIGINALLY MADE IN 2007. IT WAS A VERY LENGTHY PERMIT PROCESS. IT INVOLVED THE BOARD OF REVIEW HEARING WITH THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT BECAUSE OF THE PROXIMITY OF THE SITE TO THE CAVELTON SEWING DISTRICT. THEY WANTED US TO TRY TO CONNECT TO THE SITE. AT THAT TIME IT WAS NOT FEASIBLE TO DO THAT BECAUSE OF THE DISTANCE TO THE SEWING DISTRICT AND THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE. THOSE CONDITIONS ARE STILL IN PLACE. SO THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT ALLOWED US TO REACTIVATE THE OLD PERMIT. TO START OVER AGAIN WOULD HAVE BEEN A VERY LENGTHY PROCESS. WE WERE WORKING WITH THAT OLDER DESIGN AND SOME DEVELOPMENT THAT HAPPENED AT THE SITE THAT CAUSED US TO HAVE TO CHANGE SOME THINGS AROUND AND SHIFT SOME THINGS A FEW DIFFERENT WAYS. WE ENDED UP AT SOME COST OVERRUNS. TWO CHANGE ORDERS. ONE INVOLVED SHIFTING THE SANITARY SYSTEM TO AN AREA WHERE THE GRADE WAS ABOUT FIVE FEET HIGHER THAN ORIGINALLY PROPOSED. SO THERE WERE SOME EXTRA 780 CUBA YARDS OF EXTRA EXCAVATION HAD TO COME OUT. THE SECOND WAS A CONFLICT WITH THE MANHAUL AT THE BALL FIELDS THAT WAS PUT IN BACK IN 2007 THAT WE HAD TO TIE INTO. IT WAS FOUND TO BE A LOT LOWER THAN ORIGINALLY ANTICIPATED. WE HAD TO TAKE IT OUT, RIP UP 300 FEET OF PIPE AND PUT IT BACK IN. SO THERE WERE SOME COST OVERRUNS IN THE BUDGET TRANSFERS TO HELP COVER THOSE COSTS. OPENING DAY FOR THE RESTROOM IS? VERY CLOSE. I CAN'T PROMISE BECAUSE I'M AT THE MERCY OF PSE&G ON GETTING THINGS CONNECTED. I'VE BEEN VERY COOPERATIVE, BUT THERE'S A STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS. SO I'M HOPING NEXT WEEK. I'LL GIVE YOU AS MUCH OF A HEADS UP AS I POSSIBLY CAN. I KNOW YOU'VE BEEN TIRED OF WORKING ON THIS, KEN. WE GREATLY APPRECIATE IT. THANK YOU. OKAY. RESOLUTION NUMBER 2, ACCEPTS DONATION FOR THE RECREATION DEPARTMENT. RESOLUTION 3, RATIFIES THE SETTING OF FEES FOR THE RECREATION SPRING-SUMMER BROCHURE. NUMBER 4, APPOINTS NEW SEASONAL EMPLOYEES TO THE RECREATION DEPARTMENT. NUMBER 5, REAPPOINTS SEASONAL PUMP-OUT BOAT OPERATORS. NUMBER 6, APPOINTS A SENIOR WATER TREATMENT PLANT OPERATOR 2B. NUMBER 7, APPOINTS A SENIOR WATER TREATMENT PLANT OPERATOR 3A. NUMBER 8, APPOINTS A SENIOR WATER TREATMENT PLANT OPERATOR 1B. THESE ARE ALL MOVE-UPS FROM MICHAEL RYKLE RETIREMENT. AND FROM THE ONE WITH WATER. YES. RESOLUTION NUMBER 9, PROVISIONALLY APPOINTS A PRINCIPAL ACCOUNT CLERK. OKAY. THANK YOU. [transcription gap]
Number 14, ratifies and accepts the resignation of a traffic control specialist. Number 15, changes the status of part-time police officers. They'll go from part-time to seasonal for the high season here. Number 16, changes the status of part-time traffic control specialists and or part-time traffic control officers. Same thing, to help with the high season. Number 17, appoints the captain to the Riverhead Police Department. She's been provisional. This will make it permanent. She's doing a great job. Congratulations, Captain Woolsey. Number 18, ratifies the approval for a leave of absence. Number 19, authorizes submission of application to apply for reimbursement of new motor for the pump-out boat to the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation, EFC. Thank you. Number 20, ratifies the settlement of legal action in the matter of Town Riverhead against Robert James Hartman, 1524 Osborne Avenue, Riverhead, New York.
Number 21, authorizes the Senior Citizen Program Director to execute a memorandum of understanding with New York State Commodity Supplemental Food Program for 2025. Number 22, authorizes the supervisor to execute an agreement authorizing the town to accept the leave of absence of a public transport service. Thank you. Number 23, authorizes the town attorney to execute an agreement with Jeffrey L. Seaman, CEP, and acknowledges an agreement by Peter Scalzo.
Number 24, authorizes the... Number 25, authorizes the supervisor to execute an agreement with C-TUC Environmental Association, Inc. and the Rotary Club of Riverhead.
Number 25, authorizes the supervisor to execute a stipulation with Local 1000, AFS, CME, AFL-CIO, Riverhead Unit of the Suffolk Local 852. Number 26, authorizes the supervisor to execute a license agreement with Celtic Quest, Inc., 2025. Number 27, authorizes the supervisor to execute a professional services agreement with H2M Architects and Engineers for the Meeting House Creek Stormwater Wetland and Habitat Restoration Project. Also known as the Project from Forever. It's crawling forward, so that's good. Number 28. Just one question. Yes. So if you just don't mind, just to go back for a second for the Celtic Quest agreement. Is that just curiosity? Is that in any way taking away space? Is it any of the local town docks? Or is that just, how does it affect the residents? It's the pump-out boat. They park on the north side of East Creek on the west side of the docking. That's where the pump-out boat goes and where the Celtic Quest goes. So there is other parking available if somebody wants to tie up to the dock. So it doesn't interfere? No. I'm just making sure. No. Is that it? That was good. Thank you. Sorry. Go ahead. It's actually a fun time. I went on it a couple years back, and it was a lot of fun. Was he parking it or docking it? Yes. Both. We caught a lot of fish. It was a lot of fun.
Resolution 28. Authorize the supervisor to execute a professional services agreement with Land Use Ecological Services, Inc. for the Meeting House Creek Stormwater Wetland and Habitat Restoration Project. 29. Submit an application to clear head clear head clear head clear head clear head clear head clear head clear head clear head clear head clear clear head clear head clear head clear Number 29, ratifies agreement with Riverhead Town Superior Officers Association, Inc., insurance buyout. That was due to bringing them up to the same as the PBA that wasn't done and should have been done in the last contract. So we put that together to make it an equal offering for both the PBA and the SOA. Resolution number 30, ratifies agreement with Riverhead Town Superior Officers Association, Inc., March 2025. It's actually the signing of the contract. Finally, yep. Resolution number 31, ratifies authorization for the town attorney to execute a retainer agreement with Siegel and Sittler PLLC.
This is for... We can have the town attorney. We can have the town attorney come forward, but this is to handle the Article 78.
Morning again. Yeah, this is a retainer agreement for representation of the town and the ZBA in connection with an Article 78 commenced by Tink and E after the ZBA denied their use variance application for a retail cannabis dispensary. And that's the same thing that was done in the old bank building on Ostrander Avenue. Very good. Thank you. You're welcome. Number 32, resolution of the town of Riverhead opposing state legislation Assembly Bill A2586 Senate Bill S0188 introduced in the 2025-2026 legislative session titled Limits the Authority of Cities, Villages, and Towns to Impose Certain Zoning Requirements. This is under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's discretion under Sub améric's than 20,000 feet and any lot size any lots that are accessible for sewer and water would be limited to a 5,000 foot lot so in our assessment that is inconsistent with the rural nature of our community and this essentially states that opposition and provides that the resolution will be sent out to the appropriate state officials and committees including Assemblywoman Giglio and State Senator Palumbo
yeah okay resolution number 33 acceptance of 2024 Justice Court audit number 34 approved special event chapter 255 application for our future generation for us by us for all of us vendor fair number 35 approved special event chapter 255 application for african-american educational and cultural festivals a a ecf Inc concert series number 36 approved special event chapter 255 application for Polish Town Civic Association Polish Town Street Fair number 37 approved special event chapter 255 application for race awesome 11th annual Jamesport triathlon summer must just be around the corner number 38 approved special event chapter 255 application for Island Waterpark Sports and Music Festival number 39 authorize as the town clerk to publish and post notice to bidders for printing and mailing of recreational brochures and before the awards rebid number two from meeting house creek stormwater wetland and habitat restoration project number 41 extends bid non pro time for charter buses number 25 25. [transcription gap] 25. 25. [transcription gap] 25. charter buses. Number 42, ratifies application for congressional funding for Riverhead Water District proposed extensions 95 and 96. And number 43, ratifies the application for community project funding aka congressionally directed spending by the community development department for Riverhead Amphitheater. We have Dawn Thomas here. If you guys have any questions, she's standing by. And the last one, of course, is pays the bills. And no Roman numerals. Oh, yeah. That's a good one. Can we get an explanation on pay bills? Do you guys have questions for Dawn? Okay.
Okay. That concludes our open session and resolutions. In a moment, we'll close the meeting. We'll go into executive session to discuss under personnel matters surrounding committee appointment with Lasky. Under legal, we have matters surrounding license agreement to license taxiway with Howard. Matters surrounding contractual agreement with Main Street Agency with Howard. And matters surrounding contractual agreement with CMA Mines also with Howard. The last matter listed on the agenda is not going to be discussed today. That will be dealt with at a later date. And at this point in time, can I have a motion to close the open session and go into executive? Second. Second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Okay. Open session is closed. One quick note just to give out. Yep. All right. Saturday, happy Passover. Passover begins to those who celebrate. And Sunday, April 13th is our open session. So, we're going to close the open session. And we'll be back with more information on the next session. Thank you. [transcription gap] And we'll be back on Sunday. So, Easter is a week away and Passover starts. So, happy holidays to everybody. Thank you, everybody. Have a good week.
Bye. Bye.