Full Transcript

Thank you. [transcription gap] Thank you, Joanne. Thank you, Supervisor. Okay. First up on today's schedule, we have Matters Surrounding Possible, Chapter 255, Event with Dreamland Amusement, Kern Coin. Oh, where's Ray? Ray Korn is in group. Okay. Okay, come on up. Yeah.

How great print did these out? Do you have a printout of what you sent, Ray? Yes. Oh, good. Okay. I wasn't sure. I didn't know. It's really the layout. So there's just a little overview of our company, a little bit of a proposal, and then the layout. So, Mr. Supervisor, members of the board, as you know, when we had partner and Cody's on Main Street, we also became affiliated with JVC Broadcasting. Thank you. We ran the amphitheater concessions for years. Now somebody else took it over from us. But in the meantime, we're going to be doing a lot of work. Thank you. Thank you so much. [transcription gap] called me because DreamWorks was a national company do projects like this all over the country and they have a contract in Brookhaven town they've been doing it for years so they had called me one day Jerry and this is Jacqueline she's part of the family and they were looking for a location out east and I thought that a perfect location might be in front of the ice rink it's only in a five-day event we'd like to run it through the recreation department if he said oh he's here so he might be able to take over but that's how they're here today they were looking for something out east this would be she'll just explain all the details and stuff but they run a tight operation there of course they're responsible for all the course insurance everything we have to do the 255 application somewhat that give insurance and everything else so I don't know if you want to you know Ashley and I met yes so yeah I spoke to Bob about this and we had a preliminary meeting before we and I thought it a week ago a good idea to speak you know see if recreation wants to do it recreation seems amenable to do it it would be income to recreation and well just let's go backwards that we were amenable to having it there yeah as I told you not to interfere with the residents which I don't think it will with parking and everything we don't want to host it though I don't think that's what no no yeah how does it work you would leave the property you from the town of river head five days right you tell me we can do the event on the property they show us the special events permit give us a potable water source and we handle everything else as far as advertising toilet cleanups use of the property correct this is a chapter 255 after right on town property okay they only called me about ten days ago so it's I know we're a little bit how's parking gonna be handled we have parking staff and we would use it on the grass lot and we have light towers to light up the grass a lot it's not where you're set up right outside here yes is that enough room it doesn't look like it would because the hockey rinks got to be like right here there's about 150 200 feet in between the parking and the hockey rink and we can always that space there we can always make smaller however much distance you need in between what do you anticipate it attendance wise maximum 1,500 people for a day you know that's all day long so that's 500 cars they do this at Bulls Hill right and I have calls out the Brookhaven just to get some information on it you know you lose your contact number David I don't I can get my I left my phone actually right now they broke a JVC is the ones you want to call I give you his phone number okay JVC has contracted with the town of Brookhaven to run the amphitheater for the last day I think they have a 20-year contract so they have they're the operators now and they have to comply with all the Brookhaven town insurance even because it's still town property right and the they actually lease it from JVC but I can give you John's phone number he's the Cratchel you know John Cratchel he's the owner of that so that's fine yeah yeah they've been doing it for years they do up and down the East Coast I actually supervised why we here today is just to get an indication you brought up a good thing about the parking we we know that and we have to work out all the details to the satisfaction of the town staff on any application like this we just want to know if you're even interested in it if you're not interested in it we're not interested in it. we'll just move on that's all and the price has to be right too I understand that and you have parking attendance it says so that would help they provide security everything yeah so the insurance you know everything that's required we're looking just to really create a family event for the families to come during their summer you know the original Suffolk County Fair started in Riverhead in the nineteen hundreds so like doing something just to like you're doing something just to like you're doing something just to like you're doing something just to like you're doing something just to like you're doing something just to like you're doing something just to like you're doing have a safe, fun place for families to go. Also, strict supervision, and anybody on the RAID team must be accountable. Yeah, I saw that. I like that. No alcohol. No alcohol is served during this event. They're strictly a family. They're a family reputation. Again, I'll be happy to give Ray the John Cracciola. He can vouch for them because they've been leasing the private. When we did the concessions there, they were there. The week that they were there, I could see how they operated. They're a professional organization. Yeah, I've been there. It's a great event. It is. I've been to Bold Hill. Like it says, silent generators. We have those for noise issues. Yeah, the only thing they need from the town besides the property is water, which I'm pretty sure, Frank, we can figure out how to get the water there. Yeah, I spoke to Frank, actually, after our meeting because I saw him in the hallway. And those hydrants from the street, we can hook up to them. He has a price per day. Okay. For the year. Yeah, for the year. And he's been using each hydrant. That's fine. That's fine. So I told him that that was really all you were looking for and the space. And I guess to put my two cents in, when we met with them, I think Jacqueline's family and the company, everything they went over, every time we had a question about something, they had an answer and a solution. And they seem super organized and have it covered. Like we don't need anything from us. It's similar to like Strawberry Festival or something on that. I was just going to ask that. I was just going to ask the same rights. That's nice. It's at the same company. But it's the same concept, yes. And then I put our website down on the bottom of the page. And you can look. We have close to 70 rides now. But they all wouldn't be there, obviously. But we've really grown over the years. And we're a Long Island-based family. Where are you located at? We live in Stony Brook. But our winter quarters, we have one in Delco, North Carolina, and one in Florida. I did come through your website. It's very legit, very good. Thank you. So, and I... Would this require police or police involvement? Well, probably they're going to have to look at this. Tell me that we might need some police on the main road or something, direct traffic. Of course, we've got to pay for that. So I understand that and how that all works. So, but they provide their own security. And I'm pretty sure it's the same security company, JBC. Is it the same guys that they use over there? Or you have your own? We hire a security company. Yeah, right. They hire a company that has... And plus they... And we use them at multiple events. Right. And also, of course, they're going to... It's 24 hours a day security. Because when the fair's not there, they want to protect the equipment and the property and all that. So, yeah. So it's a first-class organization. And the reason I thought of the ICE, in front of the ICE rate, because I drive by it all the time, is I think it blends in with what we're trying to achieve up there to make that a full... Full service, full integrated recreation facility that we got from the government. And I thought this would fit in naturally. Then it's only five days and it wouldn't... I don't think it's going to... It might be a little strain on the hockey rink for the five days, but they're only open... You'll see the hours... Only on Saturday and Sunday, they open most of the day. The other days, they start at 5 o'clock at night. I think it'll help promote the hockey rink, to be honest. That's what attracted me to this. My only... And we're responsible. We're responsible for doing all the promotions. We pay for everything. Just to say where the hockey rink has been having meetings, Pekonic Hockey has been having meetings to do fundraising efforts. Their biggest thing is they want to get the water supply into the rink. So they've been scheduling different meetings for fundraising events. So just in fairness, I put out there that this is one of their major ideas, was actually was to put... Or have a carnival up there to raise funding for the fire hydrant. You could do it another time. I mean, it's up there. This is only in... What's the date? It's in June. I just wanted to know. We would arrive on the property June 22nd, which is a Sunday. And that's kind of like our dead loads, is what we call them, to start putting them in from our other event. Because at our previous event, we would close June 22nd. Then starting the 23rd, we would really be moving in, setting up, staging, all of that. The actual event would be held the 25th to the 29th. And then everything would be off property and final cleanup on June 30th. And we have a... We have a cleaning crew that we hire that comes in to do daily cleanups and also a final cleanup after all the trailers leave. Because sometimes garbage and whatnot gets underneath the rides that can't be taken care of and dealt with until the ride moves, obviously. Just a quick question on my end. You have parking attendants, correct? Yes. Because there's only one entrance into this parking lot. And it has to go through a main parking lot. Yeah. Okay. As long as they can lead the people... I mean, I can develop a path where they can go. So they don't interfere with the hockey or the other people using the park. And this outline is obviously not set in stone. We can manipulate this however we see fit for the event. This is just a rough idea.

Now, I spoke to Jerry, too, who is the other ownership here. And when they go to a new location all over the country, they do a... They do like a shorter period of time to try it out. Now, in Brookhaven, I believe it's what, a week or 10 days in Brookhaven? So it's a week. Isn't it a week you do in Brookhaven? Something. But they would be... If it pans out, they would be willing to sign a contract, come back a few years in a row. Our idea is right now we're testing it out, seeing how the community likes it, what's the response. And then we really would like this to be a 10-day event. An annual event. An annual event and something we can sign a long-term contract. And then the town could... But that's what... Then we do a lease that you get paid, and then you can count that as your income for the budget. I know it's... We're not talking a trillion dollars here, but it's... Every little bit helps. Plus, it helps to promote the park, too, the facility. Well, Vic, you'll remember back in the day, the Rotary held their summer barbecue up there. I said it. And I said it at the meeting. I said it was one of our... Full of Riverhead was at that barbecue. And all Riverhead used to go there. And, of course, we parked the cars in the lot next door. And it was one of the best things we ever did as a community. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. And, of course, Grumman donated property. But we had the train ride and the merry-go-round. We knew there was something on that property back then. Oh, yeah. We had stuff like that. If we have a surplus, we have also stopped entry and stopped sales just to manage the crowd and everything like that. Yeah. So we do... And that is... I can't tell you now. Okay, Saturday at 7 o'clock, we're stopping. But we do... Everybody, all of our management has radios. Our ticket booth has radios. So everyone is fully uniformed in radios where we are not relying on a cell phone to try and get in touch with everybody. So if we do have a surplus and things are getting backed up and we are like, okay, this is too much. We have to pause. We do stop cars from entering. So that just doesn't get out of control. Are you willing to offset the cost of our police department that has to come in for traffic mitigation? Yeah, we've paid for police as well. Right. That's not a problem. And I know the property has to be mowed. And that's something that we can talk about as well. Yeah, I think my only suggestion during it was... I know, I think you said your husband was going to do like an aerial like this. Is now that the grass isn't growing yet, I would go down there to see the level of everything. Right. And because then... And then that grass is just going to be... Right. I'm not going to want to go in there. So see how everything is going to be able to stand up or whatnot because it's a little uneven. We'd have to spray for ticks too. Oh, yes. So it's horrible how that is. I have to spray at my house. I would be interested in looking to see this go forward. I would be interested in seeing a more finite plan. Oh, of course. Right. But as far as saying yay or nay, I would say yay. Yes, I would too. I would favor having this event. And we do a lot of promotions for families. Well, you know, right now it's... And always, it's very hard. And so we try... We are strictly a family event. Like, that's just what we want. We want families to make memories. We have rides for two-year-olds all the way up to people who like to puke. So... The thrill seekers. So we do really steep discounts online prior to the event that we heavily promote. And we do it through mailings and Facebook and Instagram posts to give families the opportunity to make this an affordable event for them. What is your price point? $35 wristbands. And that's all day. So if you buy it on a Saturday, you have virtually 11 hours. And then you buy single tickets as well. And then we... But like I said, we have coupons, which is a $5 off coupon. And we have the promotions that really have taken... You said you heavily discount with the promotions. Yeah. We do like family four-packs and all of that. Where you could... You know, you'd say, buy two, get one free. And like stuff like that. And then as it gets closer to the event, the discounts kind of fade out. But we do promote those discounts. That way it is affordable for families because we know it's hard. Yeah, like I said, they have a track record. So that's good. I know when they called me, I knew who they were. I never met them personally, but... I know the DC guys. The guy that's running the concessions there, Andrew, who's actually might open a restaurant here in Riverhead. I help him out still some... from time to time there during the summer when they run the concerts there. So I thought it might be something that we could explore. And if we get to go ahead here, then we'll just... Everybody will get the work, get the details done, meet with who we have to meet with the town, police department, you know, get everything, get the application filled out. Because it's town property, we're not going to meet the deadline. So I don't... I would ask them, maybe we just don't pay the penalty. We're going to pay for everything else, but just accept the application as we give it to you since it's town property. Because the 255 really was originally meant for non-town property. In other words, when you had events at your... Yeah, like the Polish Wall... Parade in the... We had to do a 255, so you need an extra two. 255, so you need an extra time to get everything. But this... And we're going to provide everything, the insurance, the costs, reimbursement to the town. So basically, the only thing we want the town to do here is enjoy it and make money and not have to worry about any costs.

Ray, you okay? Yeah. My only one concern, which I've expressed, is just the parking and logistics of the parking, but if we can work something out... Absolutely. Well, we can... And we can meet... And make sure it works. Right. This was just to see, like, are we going to move forward? And then, like I said, this is a piece of paper that no one put this part in. Yeah, yeah, I have some ideas and we can figure it out. We can, yeah, and we can meet with you at the property and... Yeah, but I think it's a great idea. ...figure out how it worked last year. The event that you had prior, where is that? It's in Hicksville. Okay. I think Brookhaven's in the middle of the summer, right? When is Brookhaven? Baltimore. Yeah. [transcription gap] densely populated but with Ball Tale and this being so separate it's not an issue. And I think that's graduation weekend too. That gives families something to do over the week. And like I said, we're looking to grow this event. We're looking to possibly, we could, sometimes we have like free acts come in, whether it be a circus or some other thing to also offer to the families. I have an idea about the ice rink group, which I'll run by them. Maybe we can do something during this event to help them out too. I have an idea but I'll discuss it with them first and I'll talk to you Ken about it, okay? You gonna put ice skates on for us? Go around the rink? I played hockey up until I was 40 years old. I played it in college. I got involved with Ed Brody. I knew all the Islanders. I know Jerry Hart who built the ice rink. He built the twinks, rinks in Hub Hog. Yeah, I know him. Okay, well that joke backfired on us. That's why, a long time ago, I used to play at 11 o'clock at night and end up in the Ronnie Bowl at 1 o'clock in the morning and I couldn't go to sleep because we finished playing hockey. And with the ice rink, it's electricity and that's why Jerry, when he opened up his, right near where the casino is now and up there, he had to build a power, he built his own power plant. So that during the day, he could go to the rink and play. [transcription gap] And he did that during demand time. He generated his own electricity to keep the build down from local, in those days, local. Okay, and I think the rink is still in operation. There's two of them up there. The rinks? Are they still up there? Yeah, I'm always up there. Yeah, yeah, that's the ex-Islanders. Bobby Nystrom, they used to always go there. And Jerry Hart, at one time, we looked at where the ice rink is, our roller rink is now. They actually looked at it at the time they built an ice rink in Starsky's Park, but it never worked out. Okay, so do we think this event is okay? Are we excited? We think we can see more of it. Okay, great. And I did some rough calculations on the parking, and you have a lot of parking, even if you're 200 feet away from the ice rink. Yeah, yeah. Because this number, I got a bigger number of this. Okay. So, yeah. All right, so we'll get to work. We wanted to hear more of Vic's glory days. His glory days of ice skating. It was very nice meeting with you, and we're excited to work with you. Thank you very much. Thank you. And we'll put on this event. We look forward to it. Yes, of course. Thank you. And if you come out, just ask for Jacqueline, and I'll take you. Thank you. Thank you. Take care. Enjoy the rest of your day. All right. Thanks, Ryan. All right, next up, we have matters surrounding the monthly police report with Chief Frost. How are you doing today? Very good. How are you? Good. Good. Thank you. [transcription gap] February we had 142, March we're at 144. I don't know if it's due to our, you can't track to it, but obviously shoplifting is down. We went from 39 to 25. Obviously we are definitely pushing that investigations and working with the loss prevention of the stores as well as I brought up in the last meeting, getting a burglary charge from just a simple shoplifting with the trespass. We actually had one of the burglaries here is one of those cases. I think that's probably helping because then people are realizing not to come here to this area.

Deer strikes are nine compared to seven last year. I gave you the overall number. For Suffolk County it was way over 1,000. Stony Brook did a whole thing using auto body shops and everything. Yes, you did.

Pretty much it. Obviously I did bring this up in the department head meeting. We're participating in the Governor Traffic Safety Committee No Empty Chair campaign. No Empty Chair. We're in a meeting. We specifically address teen driving safety education enforcement campaign through awareness of highway dangers and hope there will be no empty chairs during the prom. Which Councilwoman Waskie brought up is coming up shortly. So we're addressing certain infractions that address that. Speeding in school zones. Seat belts and child restraints. Cell phones. Texting while driving. And obviously unfortunately underage drinking. And. Impaired operation. We do coming up shortly we do go into the schools. To the high school and give a presentation for DWI laws and you know obviously dangers of drinking and driving. You know and during the prom season. So it's pretty much all I have. If you guys have anything else for me. You know I was going to mention to you there's a program someone was talking about it the other day. That the charter school. That the charter school. Does where they wear these goggles. The goggles. The beer goggles. To show kids how what. We have those. Do you do that with the high school students as well? It's more of a bigger presentation but in smaller groups the SROs deal with that in classrooms. Thank you. No problem. Very good. Thank you Chief. We just picked up our third motorcycle yesterday. All right. So it's obviously going to get set up. I guess it'll be. It'll be a lot faster than the last two just because everything all the vendors are set up and they already had pre-ordered a lot of equipment. So they'll be turning around a little bit faster than the other two. Excellent. Thank you. You don't need me to test that out. I will. Okay. Just in time with the weather to break. Yes. Good. Excellent. Thank you. All right. We're going to change the order a little bit here and we're going to call up Mr. Lascuadro and your group. Would you guys please come on up. How are you today. I am well. Sir. How are you. I'm doing well. Should be similar. Do I have. Yes. So we heard. We heard. Vic talking. About. Uh. Need for electricity. For. A hockey rink. So. Maybe. This. Will. Help. Well. He. Played. Before. Electricity. Was. Invented. Part of. See. I. Would. Never. Say. That. Wouldn't. State. State. But. I. Wouldn't. Deny. It. Either. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Steven, if you could just introduce yourself and the rest of the team and then I'll introduce the topic. Sure. Thank you. So Steven Lascuadro, the attorney for EC Battery Energy Storage. To my left is Gus Hadidi, and Gus is one of the principals of Rhineland Energy, and Rhineland is the developer of this project. To my right is Paul Rogers. Paul is one of the principals of ESRG, the Emergency Safety Response Group. And Paul's been here before. And Paul's very humble. He was in the early days of the battery and energy storage systems, yes. Paul's very humble, so he would not tell you that he's really the foremost expert on these matters from the safety and fire perspective in the country. I have read that in many of the documents. And he certainly is. Very happy that he's here. I've worked with Paul on many matters across the island. And Paul and I have collaborated with Andrew Smith, your fire marshal. We'll talk about that in just a little bit. And then, of course, we have Walter Sieber from IMEG. And IMEG are the engineers and architects who consult and do the work for the project. So Matt, that's our introduction. Do you... That's good. I'll go through my staff report. Okay, perfect. And if you guys want to give a better idea of how the site functions and a little bit more about battery storage, I think that's probably the best thing. Just so the town board is aware, this is a 60 megawatt tier two battery energy storage. It's proposed at 104 Edwards Avenue in Calverton. If the board's familiar, this is where the Farm Bureau is currently headquartered. We have a... There's a fuel storage... Well, fuel storage facility to the north, railroad to the south, and the cabinetmaker across the street. So just how we... So we understand the context of battery energy storage. The town board did adopt a battery energy storage code in April of 2023. This application in particular requires a special permit. So we're going to have to go through that. And then, of course, we have the site plan application. And a site plan application. Special permit is with this board. Site plan is with the planning board. This application was caught in the moratorium because this was in the whole Calverton industrial area. So any site plan and special permit were captured by this moratorium. So once that ended, we adopted our new zoning for the area. This picked back up again. The state has updated their, you know, greed energy guidance. So they're looking actually to do 6,000 megawatts of energy storage by 2030. This is up from 3,000. So this would be sort of lumped into that. So I would expect RFPs to come out and more of these applications to come in. As I said, this is in Calverton industrial. It's currently an approved property where everything is going to come down. Going through the report, I just have some aerials on the second page. The real nuts and bolts of this in terms of secrets and unlisted action, I'm recommending coordinated review with the agencies listed. So the planning commission, DBA. I'm going to go ahead and do that. DEC, SHPO, the planning board, the water district, and PSEG. Then we have a nice code compliance section. So it makes it nice and easy to understand how this complies with our battery code. It largely does. I'm going to go just through the highlights rather than bore you through the whole thing. I know it's 20 pages. It's a lot to understand. But for the most part, this does comply. Some of the things that need to be addressed, just in terms of lot coverage, we did amend our lot coverage definition last year. So we're going to go ahead and do that. Okay. So this is clear. This is clear. [transcription gap] You can hear me. Justin?

There's work session attachments. There's a site plan that's on the website. If we can call that up, it might just be easier for everybody to see. So they do show a five-foot buffer that goes around the whole property. It's deeper on the front, but side and rear. Five is pretty narrow. You can see through it. I think it might be beneficial if we can go to ten. We might just have to squeeze the development down a little bit. Moving forward, I'm on page six. We have accessory principal use. This is a principal use, which is allowed. Avoidance areas. Just so the public knows. I'm sorry, Matt. Yes, Mark. They're asking, do you have a copy of that on the table that he can zoom into? I can do that. Okay. Do you have one? Oh, yes. Call that back. Just the general site plan is fine. Whatever shows the amount. Yes, I know. Right here. Yes. I just want to get to the supervisor. I'm going to do that. I just want to get to the right side.

All right. So for everyone to understand the context of our code, it didn't sort of just come out of the blue. It's actually mostly the NYSERDA code, which they developed a model. It's a model code for battery energy storage. And then we added a little bit more riverhead-specific things to get it in the best possible locations with the best conditions, I think, for the town. So one of the things we included were avoidance areas. So these are flood hazard areas, open space areas, wetland jurisdiction, historic areas. I think are in here, too. Yep. Historically culturally significant areas. Conservation areas. This project is not in any one of those. So it meets all the... It's not in any avoidance area. Not in jurisdiction of any wetlands. In terms of site plan, they have, as you have all seen, I gave you a nice packet of information. It's got an expanded EAF. It's got their site plans. They have all that. It's been referred to the fire marshal. So things we ask are our fire safety compliance plan. Erosion sediment control plans. We have all that. It's being referred out and being sort of reviewed by all our departments. Fencing requirements are all met. Lighting is met. One thing I did ask for, which Steven has provided me via email, was a sound study. Just because there's noise from all the fans on each cabinet, but the transformer makes noise and the switch gear makes noise. So we just want to make sure that's not going to negatively impact any residents, which there's residents to the south across the railroad tracks. But based on the information that we have, it's not going to really be any louder than the current noise. Okay. So we're going to make sure that's not going to be any louder than the current ambient noise conditions that are there. Moving forward, so we do have a decommissioning requirement. We have a decommissioning plan. That just needs to be updated so we can see the true cost of decommissioning and stuff like that. It is a special permit, so we'll have to meet the special permit requirements for any other specially permitted use in the town. That's on page 12. And then getting into the referrals, this is where we can get a little bit more information on stuff that's missing or something. Okay. So there's a lot of stuff that we need. SHPO, which we got a correspondence back in January. No impact on the historic structures or archaeologically sensitive areas. The town engineer, that was in January as well. It just needs some updates on the plan, some information that needs to be clarified. This property will need a SWPPP just due to the level of disturbance. It's over an acre. DEC, it's not in jurisdiction of Wild Scenic Rivers, which is good. As I said before, no wetlands in sight. and no tiger salamanders they are within three miles of a roosting site for northern long-eared bat as are pretty much everything in the town so they'll be the requirement that they can't clear trees between March and November Planning Commission this didn't go before the Planning Commission back in February they passed a resolution to approve on their end they did have conditions so the first was related to hazmat training so if the board's not aware there had been several incidents throughout the state one in East Hampton two upstate that you know there was a fire at these facilities and they implemented with this the fire fire safety working group which Paul I believe was a part of just studied the root cause of these fires and how to address that there are code recommendations and the state fire code that have been recommended they haven't been adopted yet one of those was mandatory hazmat training so that's what the Planning Commission is recommending hazmat training which I believe the applicant is willing to do to train our local first responders and how to respond to the site the second is full containment of stormwater on site so right now I believe it's just gravel the Planning Commission would like to see actual containment on site so if there is some sort of emergency and there's runoff heavy metals from the battery but that stormwater is contained it's not running off the property and getting into the ground more quickly Matt our best code is is basically we adopted what NYSERDA recommended correct we beefed it up for you know our local standards but it's what I sort of recommended and then also the governor had put a commission together to look into battery and they came up with some recommendations and my understanding is we're gonna add those if it's anything yeah than what we currently so yeah so likely I don't know that anything will change in the battery code itself it's really on the fire code end of things which the state has to do but it's everything that we've asked for in terms of complying with those recommendations the applicants so that's the hazmat training and stuff like that another thing the Planning Commission would like to see is a demolition and recycling plan I think that could probably be incorporated into the decommissioning plan just to see you know where everything's going once this is decommissioned that's pretty much it I know this is a lot so consulting engineer same thing he just needs updates in terms of decommissioning costs details for the sound wall which these are all you know sort of site planning and special permit traditional things that we can work out through the process Fire District did outline that they don't have a vehicle that's capable of going through here and the fire marshal's office has asked that we the applicant put at a staging area outside the fence in the event that there is emergency sometimes these burn for a long period of time so they like to stage and you know be able to have like a command post at a safe distance because pretty much the recommendation now is you you put water on this to stop it from spreading other than that I know this is a lot of information but this is your first book it's a lot to understand I think the applicant can explain a little bit more how this works if the board has any questions how many best systems are there currently in the United States but over 700 large-scale right there's thousands of smaller scale facilities but 700 of this size or larger and we hear obviously we hear about the one on East Hampton and the two upstate but from what I've read maybe you guys can clarify this those were older systems where the systems today are more updating by time this is ever built it will be the top of what's out there and the safest of what's out there and some of the incidents out in East Hampton and upstate were with older models and they would switch problems that's my understanding which I think has been corrected that's true I think maybe we could answer you know a number of things and then go back even to talk about some aspects of the site but maybe it might be worthwhile because we know it's something that's always on everyone's mind is what's being done from a fire safety perspective well first of all you're absolutely right the technology has evolved and it's ever evolving much has been done with respect to training and safety we've had a very good collaboration with Andrew Smith your fire marshal and also with the fire commissioners we met with them so training will be made available to the commissioners to the chief's to the entire fire district in river head to all members of the department in addition I think will be important to the board to know that Jamesport Weeting River surrounding jurisdictions would also have that training be made available to them maybe Paul you could talk a little bit more about the training and and what we would do and also the distinction with what happened in East Hampton as opposed to the evolving technology here. Yeah, thanks. You gave a good summary. I don't think I need to say anything. Yes, it was really good. Yes, so the training is always important and what we like to do and something that was put into the code is we talked about site-specific training, not just generalized training, but the actual site itself. All the different aspects that actually go with the actual battery energy storage. So it's important that they understand that we try to keep it on a high level, but the actual goal is to make sure that they can manage the incident. And then we get into a little bit about BMS data and all the different things that look at the state of health of the battery as they would be managing the incident. I'd like to say extinguish, but we are going to be able to do that. We're going to be able to manage it and we can talk further in detail once we deal with the fire department on that side. As far as East Hampton is concerned, there wasn't a lot of information that was put out there. We were actually looking to grab any information that was readily available. Paul, you're going to have to speak up a little bit. Oh, sorry. Yeah. I have the same problem. Oh, sorry. Yeah. As far as East Hampton is concerned, yeah, we were trying to get all that information too and it wasn't readily available to us. So I really can't speak too deep into it. I don't know the deep details of it and it would be not what I usually do. If I don't know it, I'm not going to be able to speak about it. But the nice thing is that we didn't see anything that outside the building itself. It stayed contained and from what I understand, it is now up and running again. Correct. Yeah. And that was an older type of technology. That was actually before the codes were introduced. The codes were mature at that particular time. And that was also a big dedicated use building, which is nothing but open racks into a building itself. So what they're proposing here is individual cabinets, right? And the goal of the individual cabinet is to compartmentation, is that we actually keep it within the box itself. And then we have to prove that through a UL testing methodology called 9540A, which is a very complex methodology. We have to do this by 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 [transcription gap] 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 variations of things so they said well if you want to if you want to get this certification you need to do it so there's different results depending on the chemistry you're using or depending on the battery energy storage system means but all that stuff is always made available to the local jurisdiction the local jurisdiction the chief smith has the opportunity to hire an outside person to come and take a look at this with a peer review that was put into code too so that has to be paid for by by the developer and and there's other aspects and you know we have developed a relationship with chief smith like my goal is to make sure that we have people out here that notice stuff extremely well and then a lot of people can go to them instead but but in a good way we do want two people to be subject matter experts because as these things come in my ultimate goal is to make sure the firefighters are safe So I think that's a great question. I'm not too worried about the property as much as I am about you right right absolutely like that so so that's why we we do have a good conversation and it's an open conversation and even one of your commissioners I did work with in the New York City Fire Department and we've had discussions back and forth in this sense of just overall battery energy storage not about the actual project itself but the battery energy storage and how they're they're coming and moving forward so it's an ongoing discussion and I like that so one of the things I think is important to is that the commissioners did reference as Matt mentioned that there was an interest and concern about equipment that would be appropriate and they did ask for a specific commitment and donation with regard to that which was met so that commitment has been made to the Commission's of the fire district in person and that will allow them in their estimation to utilize and purchase the type of equipment that they would want. It is Riverhead right? Yes. That's not Riverhead Fire District. Correct. That's Riverhead Fire District. It is. It is. So can you just tell me about the containment system so in terms of this is typically a surrounded drought. Yep. We're just gonna wait so how are you distinguishing year-round between daily rainfall and how it lands on the site and how it's captured or not captured so rainfall we just send back into the aquifer all sudden now there's a fire now we need to contain that water and sometimes perhaps reuse the system. Perhaps reuse the same water instead of completely putting a severe drain on the water system if something happens in the height of the summer sometimes there are basins that will catch or hold us the same water that you just basically be circulating put the same water back on the fire until it's too hot you know so just tell me how do you what what kind of system are using or how are you managing the separation of the rainfall from actual now we're on scene and now we're dumping water. Okay. So you're dumping water on these containers and how are you capturing that so like what is this whole thing lined with a giant plastic membrane. Yes maybe before we talk about that I think it's good maybe Paul to give them just an overview on that there's nothing really exotic in terms of fires in the event of a fire in terms of contamination. So maybe we start with that and then we can transition to storm. And Paul one of the things too if I just may I think it would be helpful putting it in context is that coming out of the East Hampton situation. Yeah. Um. Yeah. Yeah. All. D.E.C. And state health department analysis. Which is all made public. Uh. Reflected that there was no. No. Runoff or ground water contamination. Right. Or any soil contamination. Or anything of the sort. One of the things too Councilman I think is important. Just. Anecdotally. But. We know this actually from witnesses who were there. Just as an example. You folks may know. Tim McCarthy. The Suffolk County business agent. For local 25. Yeah. For local 25 IBEW. Now. When he heard about. The situation in East Hampton. Being a licensed electrician. And also the business representative. For IBEW because. His folks his members are charged. With building lease. He went out there. And. He testified at the Brookhaven planning board. With regard to what occurred. And it was very interesting what he said was. If you were there. And I didn't tell you. That a fire was occurring. You would never know. Because the system functioned. Exactly as it was supposed to. And that is. It was contained. And nothing spread outside. So there were no toxic fumes. There were no contaminants. Nothing affected the soil. Just good to know that even though we're talking about. An older technology. And this is much different. And this also will adhere. As was said. To the evolving code. And the new fire code that is going to be adopted. And that is. The fire code. That is. The fire code. That is. The fire code. That is. The fire code. That is. The fire code. That is. The system function. [transcription gap] And what is a double-edged sword? Meaning that if you get it inside the box that is not contained, there's a potential that you could put it on fire. That's exactly happened in Warwick, where we had rainwater that actually got into the container itself and put that whole thing on. That was in the root cause analysis. So we really want to make sure that when they're actually showing up to the scene that they do have that subject matter expert that is supposed to be available. That's inside the code. And we did that because of what we did in New York City. And that worked out really well that someone needs to be available within 15 minutes. But that's all part of the operations in the event that something takes place. For instance, if you had a box here, maybe use one of these boxes here. This is the one that's on fire. The goal of the subject matter expert is to get on a dashboard and start looking at the battery management system. It looks at the state of health of the battery. It's always collecting. Data and they can look to see whether the heat is transferring from one to the other. And if it's staying within the box itself, and we've seen this, we've actually studied this on a couple of occasions. We did work for Tesla where they actually had a fire. We wanted to know whether that heat was transferring over. And it was pretty clear that the heat was not transferring. So the ones that were right up against it, very little separation distance, about six inches, that heat was not going in. So basically they almost become an oven where most of the heat comes out the front. And if you can take a look right when you have front to front here, we have a much bigger separation distance. I think it's eight to ten feet. Do you have that number? I can't see that. Separation from front to front. That's right. It's about eight feet. Eight feet. For the cabinet doors to open. And that's typical, but most of that heat would come out there. So if the fire department were to use water, it would only be at the direction of the incident commander and we would leave that. Now... You'd just let it burn out basically? Yeah, it actually speeds up the incident. Yeah, it speeds up the incident to allow it to just consume the energy that's inside of it. But we've had great results with the large-scale fire testing and these things where they are purposely destroying them and they want to see where it goes from there, and we're not really even seeing invisible smoke or fire. So, but I I always look at the very worst case scenario above and beyond that, right? That's the only reason they probably recall that. So the idea of if they did have to have any type of water and if they did have to think about using it, it would have to be strategically. And usually we have them just hitting the outside of other containers in a fog path. That's what I heard. It's more or less used as a cooling device on the surrounding units. That's just keeping their temperature low, but you're just letting the actual battery burn itself out and it can close lots of times. You know the triangle, the tri- fire triangle, it just without oxygen eventually it's gonna smother itself out. That's right. They burn for... It's defensive firefighting. You're just cooling the surrounding and then you let it burn. That would be correct. Yeah. And just to follow up on the second part of your question. I thought the containment I think happens within the units and there's no proposal to actually line the entire site with a containment barrier. There'll be... There's gonna be some... There's gonna be some refinement to the stormwater management plan, but it'll be more of a collection and conveyance to stormwater structures. As noted by the Planning Commission. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I mean this is an ever-evolving technology I would say. Even in my experience of just when we adopted the code. We unfortunately learned a lot from these incidents. I mean and Paul can kind of lead and speak to this too. Initially when we saw a lot of these, they were in containers. They were in containerized. You could... It was like a dedicated used building where you could actually go in. So then we had... There was the surprise Arizona incident where a firefighter actually opened the unit, caused an explosion. So then that's why now they're mostly in equipment cabinets if I understand correctly. Right. And the main goal of this which was Paul speaking about is to prevent what's called thermal runaway. So that's why they're separated into individual cabinets because it's the heat that transfers and then the whole thing could essentially go up. Right. So that's why they're designed this way. There's a battery... There's a monitoring system that's operational 24 hours a day. So there's a lot of protections in place and what I understand from the Fire Safety Working Group, all the safety measures worked correctly. It was defaults in the, you know, batteries or the switch gears themselves that caused the issue. I do want to comment on these 15 recommendations that I'm glad to see that you read them and you understand them and that you're adopting them. That will make the New York State Fire Code the strictest in the country as a result of the closing the gaps. There's a lot of open windows but we closed all those windows and we made it the way it is, those recommendations. Which to be honest with you, I was kind of surprised that the Department of State accepted all of them in their drafts. So it's in the second draft right now and everything that we made a recommendation for is still in that second draft. So it looks like it's going to be codified. Good. I have one question. Just speaking about what... How high off the ground are they? Just say we get, you know, like this rainfall these days can be four inches in an hour, right? And then I don't know how the gradient is there, you know? So for a SWPPP they have to, I believe, capture a half an inch rainfall in an hour? That could be wrong. It'll be a function of the pre and post. Yeah, so it's a significant amount of... So water quality calculation. For a SWPPP itself you have to be able to... Yeah. You have to be able to capture a significant amount of water itself. These are elevated. I don't know what the top or the bottom of the cabinet is, but I can't see a situation where the whole thing... I'm talking about from the ground up. I mean, if this was my project, if I'm you, I want that thing high off the ground, right? So there's a platform. Typically, I mean, we have them on six-inch slabs. But, you know, obviously all these cabinets are NEMA rated for rain, for hurricane, for any events that would try to... Right. Trigger flooding or effectively water getting into the system. Yeah, and there'll be a grading and drainage plan that shows positive pitch away from the units in each one of the slabs that contain the batteries and... Yeah. ...volume. I believe the plan right now is a three-inch storage volume across the site, so... Yeah. I think one of the good things Supervisor mentioned as well is that from your perspective, your fire marshal, Andrew, has been very active on a state level. Yeah. Really taken a leadership role in understanding how this functions. We are very lucky to have him as our fire marshal. Yeah. He's very talented. And in fact, you know, in furtherance of that, yesterday, he, Paul, and I, with a group of other folks, were actually in Staten Island. And we toured and had a greater understanding of an actual functioning, yes, it was a battery energy storage facility that was actually dropped literally into the middle of a residential neighborhood. The setbacks are 20 feet. 20 feet to the fence line and in some cases 35 feet to some people's back porches. But it functions well without incident and it was very enlightening to see the safety measures in place and to not just look at it theoretically. So that was an eye opener. And I'd say, Paul, we spent a little over two hours there... Yes. ...with Andrew and NYSERDA folks from around the state. Yeah. And then all of a sudden... Yeah. ...we had a meeting with the fire commissioners. And also, just to add to that, as I mentioned, Andrew facilitated the meeting with the fire commissioners for the Riverhead Fire District. The discussion of the vehicle that they would need and the equipment was addressed. I was going to ask you about that. Yes. Because in his report, he says he does not have that hazmat response vehicle that would be necessary to respond to these fires. Yes. Well, to be very specific, what one of the commissioners said was they thought that approximately $80,000... Mm-hmm. ...would cover the equipment that they needed, the vehicle specifically. But we thought it was best knowing that there can be price fluctuations and often supply chain issues you never know. So the commitment was made by the developer to give $100,000. So it went... Towards the purchase of the... Did not know? Yes. Towards the purchase? So it went above and beyond their request. But we thought that was most appropriate because this way there could never be an issue... Mm-hmm. ...with them sourcing and obtaining the equipment and the vehicle in particular that they truly want. Okay. Okay. And then as I mentioned also, because I know to the Board in particular, it's important to know that the training will be extended to Jamesport, Wading River, other surrounding jurisdictions... Annabelle. ...you know, as needed and as wanted. Right. And this is not a one-off training. This is going to be a... Continual. Continual. Yeah. That's right. Are there battery storage units in skyscrapers of some sort? So the answer is yes. Yeah. There's UPS systems and there's a difference on the use case on how they use them. But they're lead-acid to be transparent. They're lead-acid based. They're legacy batteries. They've been around since World War II. We had them in the submarines. They now have lithium ion batteries, believe it or not, in submarines. When we were first doing our work in the New York City Fire Department, we had them in the submarines. Okay. And we met with the military and we went over this with them. So... Thanks. Are you involved in the Shrum Nuclear Power Project over in Brookhaven? That's not for the best service. I am. Oh, yes. Paul will be very humble, but he's intently involved with, I think, with a lot of the NICERDA stuff, just in developing the code and the safety measures. If you can speak a little to your resume and how you got here, I think it'll give the Board a level of appreciation. A level of appreciation. We have an hour. I know. Can we have an hour? I've done a lot. I've done half. Yeah. Supervisor, I think some final thoughts are just, obviously, we concur with the staff report, particularly with the approach regarding CEQA and the coordinated review. Thank you. The report, you'll note, indicates that most every standard is already met, but as Matt said, there can be a little fine tuning, some clarification. We're already working on that. And with respect to the buffering, he's requesting that it go a little bit beyond in certain instances, and we've already requested that our engineers work to try to adapt to that. So, I think you'll see 99 percent compliance on what is an appropriately zoned site, but we're taking those extra steps now to just finish up those final details. I just wish it would bring down the cost of electricity. It does bring down the cost of electricity to our residents, but it really doesn't. Maybe it can help stabilize. It helps with stabilization, I would say. And maybe Gus can speak to that, too. So, the way these things work, the battery stores it when it's being produced a lot, and when low demand, and then sells it back to the grid when there's high demand. It was yesterday. It sounds like you might want to go down to Puerto Rico. You lost, I don't know, three million customers yesterday out again? The entire island. The entire island. That's always happening. Yeah. It's scary. You know, what's interesting to me about battery storage, it's my understanding, and I just was on a call with B&L the other night, we lose about 60 percent or 65 percent of the energy, the electrical energy that goes through wires. It just, it goes, it's not used, and it dissipates. And what this does is it captures it for reuse. That's right. Correct. And, you know, it's a good location. It's approximate to a lot of the large scale solar facilities that we have in the town, so that's where it's being produced. It's a good interconnect point, so there's a substation right behind this property, so it's kind of, it's a pretty good location. That's right. And it's a viable interconnect point. Just to talk a little bit about the interconnection process, which is almost a four year process here with the New York ISO. We've gone through this whole process. We're, in fact, about to execute the large interconnection agreement for this site. We've tendered close to 10 million dollars. We've tendered close to 10 million dollars of deposits to interconnect at this substation, so everything is deemed viable. We're not in early stages of interconnection. You'll see a lot of projects that will come in and, you know, I'm not going to say waste your time, but they're not going to have the interconnect entitlements that we have here. So we're almost there in terms of getting things done. And then just to answer your question in terms of the thesis for why battery storage, you know, Long Island is heavily congested, transmission perspective, there's a lot of losses, like you said, with running electricity for the wires. So the thesis is this could be an extension of the aging transmission system localized where you're able to store and reuse energy on a local level as opposed to traveling all the way back to New York City. No, and the county executive just is, you know, is asking, I mean, the LIPR, PSE, and G to really, you know, get the power out of the system. Yeah. Because so many people have just subscribed to their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they can just leave their system so they Everybody knows or speaks to a lot of the renewable energy benefits because this is designed to sustain and promote the deployment of renewable energy sources, which presumably will make the environment cleaner and improve quality of life. But there's also another aspect that's not talked about as much, but clearly it's equally as important, and that is that a lot of life as infrastructure is very antiquated. And this is designed to strengthen and harden that. And we all know, increasingly so it seems, that we're susceptible to storms, and this will be really critical to deploy in anticipation of those type of events. MR. We're going to certainly, as I'm sure you will all agree, there are residents that are going to be very concerned about this and have fears and everything else. I would just recommend to those residents, number one, try to educate yourself. There's a lot of information available on best systems. And locally, we're going to be able to do that. Yeah. MR. And we're going to be able to do that. You can call our planning department. You can talk to Matt Charters. You can talk to Andrew Smith, our head fire marshal. They'd be more than willing to answer any questions and concerns that residents might have. MR. Yes. MR. This is, to me, they're coming. We're not going to stop them. We can't stop them from coming. It's just a matter of the way that energy is being developed and tried to be stored and make sure we have enough for everybody to use. And there's so many factors involved in it. So it's not a matter of, are we going to do this? Are you coming or aren't you coming? We know you're coming, but we want to make sure it's done absolutely the safest way it can. And with the guidelines from the state and everybody else and people like yourself, Mr. Rogers, making sure that it's going to be the safest it absolutely can be, I think it can lessen some of those concerns of the residents. MR. One thing, and maybe just a final, final thing, would be that as you, the board, may direct, perhaps through Matt or through Andrew, through particular people you would like us to meet with. MR. If they were reaching out to you, we'd be happy to do that. MR. Okay. MR. Maybe it could address concerns that they have ahead of time. MR. Sure. MR. Absolutely. MR. I remember, I'm sure you do, Supervisor, was it three years ago and there was a mob in the old town hall and it was so great to hear you because you were very, very clear on what was going on and, you know, the safety of blah, blah, blah. And for me it was like, remember that? MR. Yeah. MR. I thought, I was like, oh good, I'm getting a real education. MR. All right. MR. So this will be on with the planning board this afternoon for discussion. MR. Okay. MR. We'll have the site plan end of the application and then we'll move on in the secret process once we do those tweaks that Steve talked about. MR. Great. MR. I'll be ice skating. MR. No more ice skating stories. MR. That's right. MR. Thank you, gentlemen. MR. Thanks for the time. MR. Thank you. MR. Thank you. MR. Thank you. MR. Thank you. MR. Thank you. MR. Thank you.

MR. Thank you so much. MR. Thank you so much. MR. Thank you so much. MR. Thank you so much. MR. Thank you so much. MR. Thank you so much. MR. Thank you so much. MR. special permit for Calverton Satellite Earth Station. Matt Charters and the following gentlemen who are coming up. I'm glad to see you guys. Good morning. Just introduce yourself for the record and then I'll... Good morning. My name is Jordan Frye. I'm a partner of the law firm of Snyder & Snyder in Tarrytown. Here today... Welcome out to the East End. Thank you. We're here with me today is John DeBasio who's the project manager for this location. I'm happy to introduce the project. So it consists of a post satellite earth station in the Calverton sub-region 2. As you're aware this honorable board did adopt a satellite earth station law that was effective in August. Prior to that adoption the project had commenced pursuant to federal law and approximately half of the facility is constructed. But since that time we've halted any further work so that we can comply with the standards of the new special permit requirements and submit all necessary application materials in connection therewith. I made my job very easy. Thank you. Just so the board's aware, I believe back in late 2023 or 2024? 2024. That's when construction really started on this. So they did put in 20 satellite antennas just so the board is aware. Similar to how cell towers work. They're federally exempt. Just a different statute. The technology is similar to how a satellite works on your house. The signal goes to a satellite in space and goes down I guess to the antenna here that gets transmitted to the end user. This is, if everyone's familiar with Starlink, this is a Starlink facility to the best of my understanding. Pretty low impact site. This is in EPCAL. It's in the southwest corner of the property 317 319 Berman. If you look at my staff report, first page or sorry the second page. You guys not get color. I'm sorry. So it's a very small area in the southwest corner where this is where the installation is. The nearest right away is Scott Avenue which is everyone's been through there. It sort of hooks around and comes down. There's some boat storage over there. Can't see it from the road. Can't really see it from anywhere that's publicly accessible. In terms of our code, that's correct. Last summer we did adopt a code that deals with us. You know, it follows a similar standard to how we treat cell towers because it's a very similar thing. Most of the standards are met. They are asking for one waiver just in terms of our screening and vegetation requirement which I think in this case is pretty reasonable. They'll still have a privacy fence around there. Just asking for a little leniency on vegetation. Can't see this anyway so I don't think it's a ridiculous request. Other than that you have the full gamut of this application because it is in EPCAL. You have site plan and special permit. There's really not much to say about this. They're pretty low impact in terms of radiation hazard. Similar to cell tower we asked for an RH report and this is all within the permissive levels. This armored board has site plan as well is my understanding? So in this instance because of where it's located in EPCAL it's an urban renewal area so the town board has site plan review. So it's a one stop shop which is good for you guys. The hearings can be held at the same time as long as we notice them properly. But that's my recommendation. In terms of secret this is also unlisted. Recommending coordinating review because there's no one really to coordinate with on this. It's been to the town engineer and the fire marshal. Neither department had any concerns. So I think at the next possible juncture we can get this on to schedule a public hearing and then move forward. They did get violations which they've I believe you guys have addressed and we'll go forward from there. Matt are we putting in there that if there's any kind of storm here and all the electrics out that they would supply free Wi-Fi? That would be nice. That's really up to the applicant. I guess you'd have to have the... In other parts of the world and parts of the country. You'd have to have the ability to receive it I guess. It would be a customer. I don't know. Similar to the cell carriers we're going to provide the necessary infrastructure. I understand. Marker specs. But it's an option and it's new infrastructure and it's reliable. Yeah. It's a... I would say for the public this is a new... It's becoming more popular but it's not a new technology. This is... I mean the statute federally on this is from 1996 so I don't think there's a lot of concern on this. I believe it's the same transmission as like an antenna on top of your television if I understand correctly. So there's not really a risk. The people I know using Starlink love it. Yeah. I mean they love it. It's good for a little competition in terms of ISPs so I'm happy to see it. And it's also providing support to some of the wireless communication carriers as well. Sorry I'm overlapped. So it's definitely great infrastructure to be brought to your town. Yeah. So if you see the picture of them there's like a big radio dome. It's about... Each one's about 8 feet tall and there will be 40 of them total. Totally surrounded by events. You won't really notice that. Like these guys. Yep. Okay. Any other questions? I don't. I agree with Bob. I know my son uses it up in Vermont. You know he's in the middle of nowhere. If he wants to see TV and watch a ball game he needs it. So he's very happy with it. And it just provides that to areas all over the world that don't have easy internet connection. It's a changing with the times if you will. Yes. We went from aluminum foil on our ramps and antennas on our TVs when I was a kid to now Starlink and moving on. Yeah. It's hard to build areas in terms of getting fiber down and things of that nature. It's a great technology. In terms of scheduling public hearings. Can that be scheduled today or do we have to? At the next town board meeting. Provided I meet the deadlines which I will. It'll go on to schedule. And then it's just a matter of the town's, the town board's schedule is when it's going to be heard. But it's usually pretty quick. Pass a resolution in order to schedule it. Yeah. So it's a sequence. He's keeping you in sequence. It's a process. But it should happen relatively quickly. Alright. Any other questions for you guys? I'm good. Appreciate everyone's time. Thank you gentlemen. That's it for me guys. Thank you. Matt you're done for the day. Alright. I don't see. Okay. There we go then. Alright. Next up. Matters surrounding the code enforcement monthly report. Good morning everyone. Good morning. So we'll try to cover for Rich. He's always very thorough. Okay. You have big shoes to fill. Yeah. They are. Yeah. What's your badge? I don't see a badge. No. They don't give you a badge. Okay. Undercover. Undercover. Yeah. Alright. So code enforcement opened up 50 new complaint investigations in March. Looks like most of them or a good amount of them were no certificate of occupancy, no building permit, couple of illegal apartments, and then some other general property maintenance issues. We have 162 cases that are still under investigation from last year. The month of March issued 83 new summonses and notices of violation including no rental permit, no building permit, no certificate of occupancy, litter violations, importation, exportation of materials, some overgrown weeds, rubbish, grass, parking in non-driveway areas which have been handled by our nighttime enforcement. We have Connor. He's doing one night a week. And we had Kyle DeRosa was five times a week working at 2 to 10. He unfortunately left to go to South Hampton. So we'll be looking to replace his position at some point in the near future. And we'll have more nighttime coverage. Yeah. We'll have more nighttime coverage. Yeah. I like having our dark skies and our parking on non-driveway area investigations happening at night. Generally because at night most... That's when they're doing it. That's when the crowd are home. For the dark skies investigations obviously you need it to be dark to see if those places are compliant. What I would say in general is if anyone has dark skies complaints, you know, please get those into code enforcement. That's what we have the guys on the nighttime shift for. We know that there's dark skies violations, but I'm not seeing a tremendous amount of dark skies compliance complaints coming in. So that applies to anybody. You know, if you see something that you think might not be compliant, just either let my office know or code enforcement know. Some unsafe building structures, violation of approved site plan. There's a couple wetland violations in March. Unregistered vehicles and other property maintenance violations. Our code enforcement didn't refer any new cases for Supreme Court in the month of March. But in March we did commence, well we commenced recently on Maureens Haven and on 1944 Wading River and Manor Road. We had a TRO on that. There was I think about 27 people living in that house. When Victoria comes up on the Justice Court report, maybe she can give a little bit better update on the status of it. Because the defendant did, you know, retain counsel and appear. I'll say it's exhausting to the Wading River Fire Department volunteers to have to continuously respond. And it is abusive to our police resources the amount and volume of calls in which they receive to one location. And it's very upsetting to the neighbors in that neighborhood. They're very concerned. I'm interested in actually taking that one in particular into consideration. This is an item that I think will be on next week. But my office is working with Rich Downs on an amendment to our Chapter 251 code relating to public nuisances. We'll, I believe, be coming in next week to review that with the town board and see if we want to go to a public hearing on it. But just as a general preview right now, it's mostly designed to make it easier for us to pursue civil remedies for public nuisance. It sort of broadens what we consider to be a public nuisance and allows us to incorporate more of these quality of life sort of neighborhood issue type properties into those violations. Can I add something to that, Eric? Yes. Because when I looked into that with Andreas, apparently that house had permits. They had a permit to do recreation in the basement. They had a permit to do recreation in the basement. They had a permit to turn the garage into a den. However, I think we need to look at code. When somebody has a rental and they're putting in for a permit, we should have the ability to check it every three months. We do. We have that already? Yes. So when you sign up to get a rental permit, you're essentially consenting to code enforcement spot inspections. If you refuse to allow those spot inspections, we can revoke the rental permit. Perfect. So that's already built in. I think it's interesting and obviously Deputy Town Attorney Pilo can speak to this a little more when she comes up. The owner of 1944 testified in court on our TRO application and acknowledged that he was going to have people living in that area of the house notwithstanding the fact that it was building permits at recreation and den space. So we ordered the transcript from that and we'll be getting that to the building department so they'll be aware of that prior to them issuing any final certificate of occupancy for that space in the house. I can testify for you because I've prepared people out of that basement and out of that garage. Yep. Yeah, it's a bad situation, but we do, I think, have it under a modicum of control at this point and hopefully we can work with the owner to get the property into compliance. Can the building inspector go in and check it or does it have to be code enforcement? When it's a rental permit, it's code enforcement. Okay. The reason why I ask is once we get those departments electronic, it's going to be very easy for code enforcement to cross-reference. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean if the building inspector at the building department wants to go with code enforcement any time they go to check it out, they can take the fire marshal. Yeah. It allows pretty much any enforcement official to go in and review the property. Great. And that new nuisance code that you're talking about, that may even help the residents at Northwood Roads that were speaking the other day. Right. For a lot of the problems that they're having in their neighborhood. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it really, it'll open it up for, you know, repeated complaints to code enforcement that are founded, whether it be property maintenance, overcrowded housing, illegal construction, illegal apartment. Question. I have a question. Illegal conversions of non-residential space in these structures and in particular abuse of emergency services. That's good. And so we issued 78 new rental permits in the month of March. Code enforcement collected approximately just under $21,000 for the month of March. And that brings the first quarter revenue from rental permits to just the under $95,000. Very good. And to Councilwoman Mary Fields' point on Northwoods, I know we had a lengthy discussion about that at the town board meeting on Tuesday night. I reviewed every complaint that's come in on that property with Rich Downs and Nicole Buckner. And we are, you know, very aware of the issues that are happening in that neighborhood and code enforcement has been there multiple times. We have violations pending in Justice Court. If there comes a time that we need to take any of those properties to the Supreme Court, we're prepared to do that as well. Thank you. Wonderful. Very good. Thank you, sir. You're very welcome. All right. Thank you. Next up we have matters surrounding the monthly town clerk report and that will be with Vanessa Lacan. She's off today. Is he making you do this? I'm going to make you do this. Vanessa has been a great deputy and I don't know a lot of public know her from coming into office. Maybe there's a lot that don't know who she is. So it's important that we start exposing her. Right. Exactly. She'll be shadowing me at the next town board meeting. Good. To learn how to do all of that. Is that right? Yeah. So we take care of quite a bit in the class. We're very strict with the staff. We're very strict with the staff. We're very strict with the district's office. Our report just shows four requests that come in. Two special permits. Our handicap tags we do quite a bit of those as well. We stay pretty busy with marriage licenses. I see that. We issue 21 of those. We have a big part of our revenue in the clerk's office. I know that. Now is this 358 people that passed on or is this because you give 10 copies out or whatever? No. Those are the certificates. We're up to about 135. But it's not just rivets. It's from the clinic. Right. Dog licenses. A lot of those come from the shelter. Are they staying in town? I know you had a big concern. Yes. Only Riverhead residents. I don't automatically license North Fork animals anymore. Only if they live in Riverhead. I know you've been talking about this. But we do sports mechanical because their dogs are here until I go to the farm. Yard sale permits were still a little bit low but they're picking up already for April. No. Just working. Not a lot of shellfish or games of chance. I do know we're going to have some more bingo permits coming in for April. And then taxi cabs. Those renewals just come in monthly. And they have a lot of special event permits coming in. Yes. Those are also picking up. I guess I got a speak up last time. I said something. You're mumbling. Special events permits are big. Yeah. They're busy this month coming April. And I know there are some because some people want to do stuff on the riverfront. I know that there's staging areas so I told them that they really should coordinate with maybe a town attorney or maybe CDA to find out what's even available because I don't want to tell them to go ahead and put an event in if it's not going to be available. I don't know when the groundbreaking happens but I think this summer we're probably going to get started with it. I would think. There were two new taxi businesses that opened this past month? I think it was just one. AMS which is a part of Starlight. That's their medical side. Their medical side. Okay. So that was just recently approved last month. And of course we're excited about the new software. Yes. We're slowly learning that. Yes. Purple foil and the agenda. So that will be coming up. It's going to be huge. Next month I believe. So you're already working on it. We're practicing. There's a lot to take in but we're confident that it's going to be an easy transition. And the only good thing is that Vanessa and I are going to take a ride. Rookhaven has been using this program for quite a few years and we're going to go sit down with their agenda manager and just play with us for a day. Because they know the ins and outs of the program from using it. And that's a little different than trying to follow a tutor. Yeah. I know it's always hard to start learning the program and it seems like it's taking more time. But once you connect with it and get it figured out. There's only so many trainings you can do. You have to physically go through each step. I've been here a year and a quarter or whatever and now I sort of mastered Metatrack. Yeah. Typical technology. You're going to get to the point where you're going to be like I can't believe we used to have that old program. You're right. You're exactly right. There's always the unknown of a new. There's always an issue with Metatrack. Well there's no support services and they're sunsetting it so there's just no support as a problem. The new one is web based, cloud based so it's really point and click. That's great. And that will help the residents also. Yes. Especially since it's coordinating with the website as well. So there will be a lot of information that they can get. Probably cut down on some of the foil packaging. Well I'm going to praise you and the New York State Department of Health and Commerce system. You guys are like right on it all the time. So we send in a request and sometimes I'm sitting right there and it's like well you have a permit. Well in my background. Yeah I'm up on that because I know how difficult it is to sometimes. They can't operate without a certified DC. They can't get a burial permit or a transfer permit. I come in on weekends and do it. You guys have been great and I noticed that too right on the weekends. Whether you guys are taking turns or something. Good job. No I have it on my phone. It was right down the street. So I just shoot in real quick. Excellent. Very good. Well nice job. Yes. Thank you. And this is Vanessa LeCann everybody. Just for the record I knew he couldn't sit quietly and do that. He would not be able to do that. No. It would be Jimmy. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you. Have a great day. You too. Okay. Last but not least. We have Matters Surrounding Monthly Justice Court Report with Counselors Saruth. No. Milo. Milo. Took me long enough to change it. I was going to say I thought that you were like married ten months ago. Everyone told me it was going to be so difficult to change my law license. All the stuff. I put it off. It was the easiest thing I ever did. There's that. The overhead camera is giving a look at the ring. Oh yeah. That's been there for a while. Alright. So pretty standard stuff for this past month. Total parking everything all together $35,545. So a little bit higher than usual. Which is good. And now we finally reached 12 full months since the judges were reminded to give those surcharges. So our total for blight mitigation. And again I sound like a broken record but again this is just what was imposed not what was collected. So blight mitigation if everybody did the right thing and paid their fines on time we would have $17,255 just in surcharges for the month. For the year. And then human services or open alcohol all that stuff $9,295. And then water quality is $250. We don't get too many water quality cases. And then hopefully next year at this time I can report on a fire marshal and we discuss maybe creating a fund for that so that they can get some surcharges. So that is in the beginning stages of discussion. That's pretty much it. Now it was a long morning so I'm sure that everyone is tired of asking questions. But if you have any. I'm fascinated. We had a meeting and the guy who owns that home that Councilman Rothwell is having a problem with with the ambulance apparently he's got 21 operations across 21 or 23 operations across Nassau and Suffolk County. So we had a hearing in Supreme Court about a week ago. A week ago last Thursday. A week or a week and a half ago. My days are getting jumbled. We did the hearing. We had one of the defendants came in and he testified to some of the details about the home. I had Nicole Buckner come in and I had her as a witness to testify as to what she noticed when she was there on a couple of times that she was there. Um so there were confirmed about 21 individuals. They did have a white board set up that were listing the individuals that they were collecting money from. That one went up to I think 26 or 27. There was a lot as as Town Attorney Howard stated there was a lot that the that the defendant admitted on the record of how many people were living there and how he did apply for a building permit while this case was pending. But he was not forthcoming in what he applied for. So we're back in Supreme Court on that this upcoming Monday. So provide more updates. Thank you. I know there was an evacuation order for April 7th but they, has that been extended? It was basically extended so that the owner could have the opportunity to get them out on his own. And as you said, he had about 20 other houses that he does this kind of activity. Um so I'm hoping that he can just move them to other homes and out of the town of Riverhead. Is it DSS that's sending them there? So it's DSS that's sending them there. Isn't it their responsibility to find placement? Correct. Like so why holding them off from, I understand you're in litigation but like why is he responsible? DSS should just remove them for their own safety. So I'm glad you asked that. DSS has been, is supposed to be subpoenaed by the defendant and they're supposed to be giving testimony in Supreme Court as to if they even inspected the place, what their, you know, what their findings were and then I'll have an opportunity to cross-examine them on, you know, the activity that they are on. And what prisons is he working under? What is he supposed to be? Is he a shelter or is he a domestic violence shelter? When the complaints first When the complaints first came in, we thought it was a sober home. We found out quickly it was not. He, he was a I believe, and I don't want to misstate what he said during the hearing, but I believe he said he's like some sort of homeless shelter. So, um, and we'll find out a lot more on Monday if the DSS worker is produced. Are all of the people living there, they're from DSS? So, um, one of the exhibits in our original papers had that whiteboard I was explaining. Um, a lot, some of them were marked as DSS and some of them were marked as self-pay. So it's unclear where that money is coming from, but a large chunk, I would say at least 10 to 12 of those individuals are being their housing is being paid by DSS. So, most, but not all. I mean, I can't believe that DSS would actually know that this is a single family Right. residence and that they would send that amount of people to reside in that home. Which is exactly why they're being subpoenaed and they'll have to answer that. Good. Great. The system is broke. Yeah. Yeah. It's, uh And just one other quick thing. I know we discussed OTAR. So I guess, you know, O-T-A-R, the state agency that oversees DSS. So will they get, maybe you need to see what happens in the Supreme Court. And then I'll call it. Yep. So I just want to see how it shakes out on Monday. In order to reach out to others. Good job. Yes. Thanks. Thank you very much. Alright. Until next time. Very good Victoria. Thank you. Okay. That concludes our open session. In a moment we will retire to executive session to discuss under contractual matters surrounding contractual agreement for police services with WASC-E. We have matters surrounding contractual agreement with RVAC and AXIS with Rothwell. And under personnel we have matters surrounding appointment for a committee with Rothwell. So at this time I would, excuse me, I would ask for a motion to close open session and go into executive session. So moved. Seconded. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Okay. Open session is closed. We'll go into executive session. Happy Passover. Happy Easter to everybody. Have a safe and happy weekend. Looks like Saturday we might have some near 80 degree temperatures. So that's exciting. Because I'm sure next week it will be 50 again. So have a great weekend everybody and we appreciate you tuning in. Bye bye.