Full Transcript

Thank you. Thank you. Deputy Supervisor Higgins, would you mind leading us in the pledge? Sure. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Devin. Okay, a couple quick announcements before we get started. I'm sure everybody's aware of the massive fire yesterday up on Young's Avenue at the Crown Recycling Center. Just a huge, huge shout-out to over 30 fire departments and EMS units that responded. The job they did was tremendous. That fire was massive. And to see 30-some-odd units, different fire departments, come together and just battle that fire and work like they were like a well-oiled machine. And it's, you know, everybody trains basically the same, I guess. Yes. But. When they come together, they don't do training like 16 departments together. They don't go out and do a training together. So when the real action happens and they go into the fold and they knock that fire down, and incredibly nobody was injured, it worked out really well. So kudos, kudos, kudos to all the men and women of the fire departments and EMS that were up there. Suffolk County OEM office was up there. DEC was up there. Everybody had it. You know. We were concerned about possibility of toxins in the smoke. And everything seems to have worked out just fine. Thank God for that. And I want to mention that our own councilman, Ken Rothwell, was up there at 2 o'clock in the morning, right from the beginning, battling the blaze all night long. And we even got him to come back as soon as he left, because we did a little press conference up there. But thank you, Ken. Thank you. And thank you to all the members of all the outside agencies that came in to help out. We can't thank you enough for helping us. So very good. Thank you. [transcription gap] Friday, June 6, tomorrow, the CAP Say No to Drugs March, Pulaski Street Elementary School. New York Islander Kyle Palmieri will lead the march at 9.30 a.m. And then Sunday, June 8, is the historic Duck Pond Day in Wading River. And that starts at 11 and ends at 5. So a couple things to do around town if you're interested in coming out and watching. And at this point, we'll move right on to the first item. Thank you. Thank you so much. We'll head over to you next, so you can head over to your next head. [transcription gap] You guys worked with Mosaic as well? Yes. Yes. I've got to say, it was the most well-attended Mosaic I've seen in years. I left a message for Wendy yesterday. Same exact thing. It was the best one I've ever been to. The weather was good. The people were good. The vendors. Everything worked out really nice. So it was a great, some talented artists down there. It's amazing what somebody can do with a little square and some chalk. It's like they bring the street to life, basically. It was incredible. Yes, she did a really good job. Yeah, big thanks to East End Arts and Wendy. Indeed. Good job. Indeed. All right, so we're here today to discuss the budget. The long-awaited budget. So I've distributed the current budget that we received a couple weeks ago, and I'm happy to have you here this morning, so thank you for coming. Sure. We did discuss this at the last meeting that we had, and I'm hoping to be able to get the board to pass this budget. I thought that our last meeting was very good, and I look forward to all the great things that are to come in the future. And one of the only things with the budget is the $45,000 for the ED. You do not have an executive director at this point in time. Okay. We do not. So I think that that should be prorated for when that person comes on board. I hope that you find someone soon. Yes, we're starting after we do with our elections. And when are the elections? I'm sorry. Next meeting, three weeks, four weeks from now. Okay. All right, good. And then the general downtown sponsorships, it says Shakespeare, East End Arts, Cardboard, Boat Race. I just want to make sure that Alive on 25 is included. Yes, these are just... I see the dot, dot, dot. I just wanted to make sure that the bid will be supporting them, because we plan on having another great event. I think this is going to be the summer of greatness downtown. So I don't know if any of the board members have any questions or comments. I don't know. I don't have a comment. I just want to... I just want to say as your former liaison, and knowing what you're bringing next year, I think is brilliant. And I'm not going to mention it, because I don't want any other towns to say... Because you will start a trend, you know, like just the way Alive After 5 became a trend. Riverhead picked it up. Now they're done all across Long Island, because other towns have seen, oh, we should be doing this. So kudos to what you will be doing next year. That's all I can say. And I'm not going to say what it is. I don't want people to give us a waterboard. Top secret information. We'll get it out of them. Exactly. We just know that it's going to be great. Yeah. Well, it's all very art focused, so... Yes. And I'm fine with this budget. I just... A question. Are these based on actuals, like your insurance rates and stuff like that? Because in years past, it was just carried over the same thing every year, and then all of a sudden there's an increase. I'm just wondering if these are actual numbers or based on... These were based off of the record. I think they were based off of the record. [transcription gap]

But there's a lot of records that we had already given, so we had to go by what was originally given from the past, and we looked at the trends. That's what they were. Okay. Perfect. [transcription gap] And one other thing, Gary. Sure. I know we had a conversation, or you had a conversation with Dawn about Dawn doing some grants for you. And she's kind of waiting to hear back from you about... Oh, yes. Yeah. She wanted that in writing. Absolutely. So, yeah. But we'll have a DRI grant we will take because of the lapse in the agreement with the tax town that negated our insurance coverage so for the alley grant um give me i don't remember what that was right i can't remember all these afternoons right south valley grant right uh there but she's gonna take over good excellent okay perfect and otherwise i'm fine with this good job so i just want to say yeah excellent this is very well organized self-explanatory so i think this is exactly what we were looking for um much i would just i'll i'll simply ask that we have the same budget for next year if we could receive this like by december 1st so that we are right on track that we don't miss a beat next year you know going right forward so i just think that what was proposed prior you know just was very vague and i think lots of things were put in the same category so the way you broke it up is excellent it's very self-explanatory so it's great job thank you for doing it i have to say we've spoken also about this is i know it's i do a lot of budgets so i'm kind of like them so this is this will be far more detailed next year as well we've got a lot of work in as as a team and we went over each line collaboratively and just like really put it together and then with his computer skills he was able to put it on there uh gary is fabulous you know they're hard they're going to have an actual line it's a lot of conversation a lot of talking a lot of picking up you did great good you did great thank you and i'll make one recommendation that you guys take control of your quickbooks so things get categorized right because when i looked at the initial budget and i had a this goes back and i had a conversation with christy this whoever was your account the accountant was putting things like sponsorships and all this stuff and and which should have been security which wasn't even a line so i would say take control of your quickbooks so that everything is so well defined and it's just a printout more specific oh absolutely i'd just like to say i'd like to thank councilwoman waski very much for pulling this all together and getting it to the point where we have a budget that works and is accountable thank you very much thank you i agree but you know what to me most importantly i thank you guys for your work because you are all volunteers nobody's getting a paycheck and this is a lot of work that you guys have taken on to do so it's important for the public to know that this is a volunteer board and the work that you do is tremendous and it's a lot of work and we really appreciate it thank you and i would also like everyone to know that um you're putting together uh subcommittees within the committee to to handle various tasks that that need to be done and that's great you know it's you're you really have a very strong group now i i think and i think and i think that you guys are going to knock it out of the park we're excited for the future yes thank you very much wonderful okay excellent thank you very much thank you easy peasy thank you yes thank you so much so up next we do have um we're going to be discussing the alive on 25 if you want to stick around for 10 minutes and hear what's going on more than 10. that's okay but it'll be good it's a good conversation as long as it takes it doesn't matter all right all right next up we have matters surrounding an update on the live on 25 with councilwoman waski and diane tucci good morning that's diane tucci uh main street agency yes correct not to be confused with town board for which correct diane tucci or two separate entities diane tucci the other guy

um so thank you all i actually um i am missing a very important sidekick today which is amy fidelli who handles pretty much everything for me on a day-to-day basis i'm going to take this out for one brief second um i'm going to take this out for one brief second um i'm going to take this out for one brief second so she's head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head So a celebration of life today for Sarah Christ. She's a resident who died of lung cancer a couple of weeks back. She was, I met her years ago at Roanoke Avenue on PTO. Our kids went to school together. And so they're having a celebration of her life today at 11 o'clock. So Amy is going to be there and very much missed today. So, but I did want to take a moment. She was on the anti-literate task force. She is a big part of the Riverhead, part of Riverhead Civic Association and major role in Riverhead. So just, you know, acknowledge that and my love to the family today. So, and one thing that was great about Sarah and she always supported everything that I did at all my events. And I think she would be super excited about what we're doing here today. So it was kind of relevant that, you know, I think she'd be smiling and yeah, it's a little emotional, but just bring it down, bring it back up. But you know. Thank you for mentioning that. Yeah. Words and prayers to the family. Yeah, for sure. So she made an impact. Yeah. Anyway, so there is a lot to talk about and, you know, thank you guys for giving this to me in a very short period of time. I appreciate that. So first and foremost, I want to thank the town, the police department, the fire marshal, the town board, the town attorney, the CDA, Dawn Thomas. I can't praise everybody in the town, buildings and grounds. Everybody just really tremendously pulls together and works to get this done. And I think it's really amazing to be back on that side of it and see how, you know, you give somebody an idea and as crazy it may be, they really try to figure out how to make it work. And it's just, it's really amazing to be working with everybody. So first and foremost, reimagining this a little bit. And I think this is a concept that everybody really loves is that I've been putting it out and the 1125 is starting to get a little bit smaller. And we're reimagining it into the Riverhead Summer Block Party in Denver. And it's a little bit more of a downtown crawl. And it's kind of about as we move through planning and meeting with people and having discussions with different people and looking at the future, especially plans with, you know, the town square and what we have to come and conversations with people, some people think a lot of the 1125 should have gone away. Some people think there should have been something new entirely. Opinions about maybe it shouldn't be on a Friday. Maybe it should be on a Friday. Maybe there should be one. Maybe there should be two. Maybe there should be four. Good conversations with people in the planning that we could definitely talk about, you know, after we get through this. As we know, we just needed to get this done. But in the process, it started to mutate because of that. So first and foremost, I'm about to piggyback off of what you said at the board meeting on Tuesday is that we're not Patchogue. We're not any other town. In 2016, I'm wearing my OG shirt. Steve Schager had the red ones. Bob had the red ones. Bob had an orange shirt. You had an orange shirt. But we created this event working with Patchogue. Literally, we met with them and they gave us a blueprint. Vendor applications, the reasoning, the methods. Like we took a Live After Five and like copied and pasted it onto Main Street and kind of been running with that ever since. But it's kind of time to change it up because it's not Riverhead, right? So the whole idea is, again, in the very short period of time, keeping the event going, so that's what's so important about this event. I didn't do much about this so far. [transcription gap] I was all about music. I said I had to be a part of this. Since then I've been running more festivals. I've been running the Greenport Maritime Festival. I've been involved with things at Water Drinker and other places. So I've been able to bring in some perspective from other places that we can kind of tweak things and make things better. And also listening to people's what they've had to complain about over the years and what they'd like to see. So first and foremost is a lot bigger focus on music. And one of the things I've heard people say is there's not as much music for whatever reason it might be. So by the time this is all done and put together on this flyer it says 12 plus areas of live music but by the time it's done there's probably going to be about 14 different spots of live music. Still working on details so I'm trying to get it fleshed out as fast as we can. We've also expanded the footprint back to go to Cliff's Rendezvous. That was something that that whole block of business is when I met with them. They've been left out of that part of the event. I understand the reasons and I'm not here to knock anything that has happened. I'm just here to try to bring it back and solve that. So there's going to be a little bit less focus on vendors filling spaces and a little bit more on kind of having these music spots. And I want to encourage people to bring their lawn chairs, their camp chairs and kind of bring their own seating with them and sit and enjoy the music. Go into a restaurant, get something to go, get a beer, you know, from wherever and sit and watch the music, pick up their chair, go somewhere else. So these spaces are really more filled with people sitting and enjoying the music and having their own seat because that's a lot of people are sitting on the curbs. It's really during this time is not enough spaces for people to sit. And also pushing a little bit of the activity a little bit more towards the riverfront which I'm going to talk about in a second. I curated, I hired all the bands this year. I took a little bit of risk. I have financially committed to all the bands myself in hopes and I have started raising sponsorship but it was with the timing. It's a Friday night. That's a hot night for bands. I wasn't able to get a lot of bands that I wanted but this is, you know, I just had to jump in and say I need you, I need you, I need you, I need you so that we can make sure we had a good music presence. The other reason being the years that I ran the Live on 25. Sometimes I didn't know until the day event what bands were playing and that didn't help us in promoting it. So now we have pretty much a full music lineup so now I can go out because that's what's going to bring people is, you know, these bands and their following and promoting, you know, from reggae to country to blues to jazz to, you know, it's a and making sure that we have a nice blend. Kind of hard to get away from that duplication sometimes with Claps of Brock. It's, you know, just a little bit of everywhere but so I leapt in on that, you know, the leap of faith to book the bands and make that commitment and, you know, so sponsorship starting to roll in. Still need more. Still need more funding and also by doing that, tapping into all their social media and getting, you know, because without the sponsorship funds and, you know, marketing, we need, you know, everybody promoting it as much as possible. So I still have to pair up everybody and then I'm pairing them up with all the breweries in the different spots. So music everywhere. And I also think if this is pulled off the way that it should, I think it's a good idea to have a full 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 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 that are within the footprint that the event affects. And we have to go back and forth on this a lot to try and really define who should or shouldn't get charged. And again, certain businesses that would have beer gardens in the first year, it would cost them three, four, $5,000 by the time they paid for the square footage, the band, the pens, and all this different stuff, and now it's completely free to them. In fact, I'm giving away a lot of the event, but it's in faith knowing that all the things that I've been doing have paid off and I see it come to fruition. So I'm going for it out of my gut saying the right thing, but these guys are really impacted sometimes negatively by this event, particularly with it being on that Friday night. So it goes back to that initial conversation, there's a 50-50. Some people think it's great, brings in a lot of business, and then there's other people who they're busy already on a Friday night and this is actually hurting their business. So that's why there's a discussion that has to be had after we get through this to figure out, you know, great event, great model, we need events, we need events like this, but what's really right? Anyway, charging them more money is not right. So, and then paying for the bands and being able to curate that. And I was thanked for that because they're like, I don't know who to book. You booked the band, great. I don't have to worry about that. I don't, you know, I'm just going to be like, here you go. That's what you're going to do. And really, you know, the one thing I, you know, this event was not started as a fundraiser, so when it comes to the money. If we can break even, pay for all the expenses, you know, this was really created as an event to bring people downtown to revitalize and more importantly for our people in the community to enjoy the downtown. So I want this event to be something that people like, and the kids, like we have to, you know, not kid kids, our teenagers, our picky 19-year-olds who we have no idea what to do for them, like, you know, something fun for them. So I got some ideas for that too. But in that, we've met with the different businesses and, you know, I think that's something that they appreciated. And we've given the first option to downtown businesses to participate. I do want to touch on one thing. There's definitely a debate about food trucks and something to think about when people, for a Riverhead restaurant to participate, that's not within the footprint. And I think Bob will understand this as well. It is not easy to feel like, oh, well, why doesn't this run? Why doesn't this restaurant just come and serve? To move your operations and cook on the street and move staff out on a Friday night is not really feasible. If you're in that footprint and you're just going outside and serving outside, it's a lot easier. So when you're like, oh, why doesn't, you know, this guy come and do it? So working with the businesses in that area, but definitely the food trucks and the food tents and the other thing are Riverhead businesses. So we have Riverhead business owners, you know, residents who live in Riverhead and have food trucks. So the food trucks, with the exception of a few who are, you know, grandfathered in, been here forever, are all Riverhead businesses and are being placed strategically where there are gaps. You know, there's a whole stretch of Main Street where there's no food. Right. If you have 8,000 people come to Main Street, they have to eat. Because if you're not feeding them, they're going to hate the event and they're going to bitch about us. So, bleep. Anyway. So it's a lot of work. Right. It's a sore spot and I'm trying to, you know, address that and handle that as best as I can and balance it as well as I can. But, you know, a food truck and, you know, somebody like Heinz Catering or Dwayne Leaser, I mean, they have every right to be down there as well. But they are paying. That's not free to them. Right. So. And then moving to vendors. So we made a little bit of a shift midstream. When I looked at the vendor fees, among the other things that people were commenting on was not a lot of vendors, not a lot of good vendors. And so in looking to address it, I thought the vendor fees were a bit high. So the first thing I went in and did was cut the fees in half. And then I'm going like, you know, for all my, I have a list of like 800 vendors. I'm going like, I'm not really getting any action here. I'm like, what's going on? So starting to get feedback. All right. It's a little bit late in the game. Some people, they're not doing very well at the event. You know, the fee does, even at the reduced price, the fee people are coming to the event, they're just not shopping. This is not a good thing. This is not what people are going there for. So I'm going, well, what am I going to do? I can't have, I'm expanding it to clips. I can't have this immense amount of street empty and not have people here. So a couple things we did is we dropped it. Actually, I made a note to price it so low, I will not put it in writing. You have to contact us. But we've also decided to really curate it. There's a couple people who we've let in prior to this. But going forward, there's not going to be any of what Amy and I have fondly coined paper price. We're going to keep this under control. [transcription gap] ones like half shells for habitats. I was thinking of Relic. Relic, the organizations that are more environmental and really relevant to our local area. So it's not, you know, you don't have to walk down and be, you know, worry about the guy. Hey, you need your gutters clean. I think we've got one or two, but we cut it off and we're not letting them in anymore. So the vendors are coming in at a very, very reasonable rate. And again, so we're not making a lot of money here, but who will be there will be a lot better quality because we've dropped the rates so low that I'm like, come on. You know, you got to do it, you know. So, but again, this is more of the flavor if these farmers market people are going to be there, you know, because the farmers market, you know, they're usually paying like $25, $30, $40 for a spot. Right. You know, live on 25 last year, the vendor fee was $500 for two nights. You're knocking them out. Think about how much you have to sell to make that feedback. That's just a fee. It's not your insurance. Your gas. Sure. Everything else. So, so that's a big thing. And then the downtown crawl. So here's what we came up to in speaking with the downtown business owners where I was just really, really challenged to figure out what do we do about these businesses that are just outside of it? And the idea came to, you know, this year the fund goes beyond the street closure. And I think this is really where the future of this is going with this Riverhead Summer Block Party in downtown. So this is something I'm still working on fleshing out. Me and Councilwoman Waski met yesterday and we, it's not ready to put out there yet, but this is going to be, if you will, like a scavenger hunt kind of thing. And also since I met with you yesterday, I came up with one for under 21 for, you know, the kids to do selfies and photo check-ins so that we can start to engage them. You guys can read this later, but I can't hand it out to you now. But the downtown crawl is really being more. Back to that Riverhead focus. So this is North Fork Brewery. So I'm at Mosaic, which absolutely amazing event. I agree. It's like I haven't emailed him. He's like, I know it's supposed to get back to you. He's like, I can't get there. I'll help you however I can. I said, great. Post some live music, stay open a little bit later and just be on my crawl. I said, whatever you need. I'm happy to do it. So the concept is, and who I have participating is Bowie One, North Fork Brewery, Montauk Distillery, Miles On Main, Jerry and the Mermaid and Seaside Grill and Riverhead Brewhouse. So the ones that really and at some point you're also maxed out. You just can't have any more breweries on Main Street. So they're going to be part of the downtown crawl. So the next step, which I have to finish doing, is the extra musicians that I couldn't get into the Main Strip. I have kind of queued up to pair up with all these other businesses. And we're also going to have two reflections. So on each of the two nights. I gave that one away because I didn't get to that part yet. But I have these extra musicians who I have. So I'm going to pair them up with all these businesses. So now there's going to be live music everywhere. And that's why I said when I'm done, there's going to be 14 or more places where there's live music. But this is all going to go on a map online, possibly like a little fun interactive digital map. And the concept is that you travel around, you check in, look for some prizes, we'll figure it out. People are like, oh, we'll get prizes for all the businesses that are participating. I came back and I said, how about we get prizes from the businesses that are not in downtown? Because we keep asking the people in downtown, we keep tapping into the same people to give and give and give. Like let's ask businesses like Scott's Point, Splish Splash, and people who are, you know, like let's ask other people to give to the prizes. Whatever it might be, cash or whatever. So we still have to flesh that out. Again, how long have I been working on this? Four weeks? About that. I don't know. I think I sleep like three hours a night. Every day she comes in with something. Oh yeah. But it's really been very exciting. This concept, Diane, is I think it's fantastic. I think it's absolutely what's needed because in the past, the Live on 25's, when the street starts closing up at 9 o'clock, and people are like, alright, you know what, I didn't get anything to eat, let's stop and get something to eat. And most of the places were like, no, the kitchen's closed, we're done, whatever. Right. But now, we're able to get beyond the normal time. I think it's great for the businesses. Yep. And it's great for the people coming, too. Right. Because it just, there's more to it than just going home at 9 o'clock now. And that's the whole point. And even for me, right? So at the end of the night. And reaching out to the extreme ends of Main Street like that is awesome. Yeah. Because there's some great restaurants and gathering places in those areas. Oh my God, the whole area's phenomenal, right? Absolutely. Because the bid includes all of that, you know, that district. Right. And the people are coming and going, like, you know, I'm hurting. I'm like, so let's not make you hurt. Right. So with that, the plan is to push people. And so there's a couple strategic things with this, right? So I'll add on the other part and how it all comes together. So came up with the idea to do the fireworks in the river on July 18th as opposed to in the park. And that is what we're going to do. This is where the fire marshal and police department and everybody just came together. And there's some concerns that we have to work on, primarily with safety at the river. But the fire marshal was very happy because it solved some problems, creates some problems. But the first foremost thing is that if this is executed well, what it's staging us for is the future with the town square is what I see. Because it's going to be directly behind that green area. What's great about it from the logistics point is that leaves us to park. To do. So to use what's what's been paid for with reflections illuminated, turn on the lights and use Grangeville Park during those two events. We may do music in there, have to get to that. But it also on a safety side, they have to worry about kids trying to get into the park and the fireworks. Fireworks are going to be on a barge out of range where, you know, safety wise from that. They figured out, you know, distance range and things like that. So it brings people to the river. So the event is five to nine this year, not to five to nine thirty. I was after doing research, all these different alive ons and block parties. Nobody goes to nine thirty. So at nine o'clock, nine fifteen, the fireworks will go there, which in hopes now helps everybody shut down on Main Street. I'm going to have the show mobile in town square, but the show will be able to stay open to ten so that again, there's more to do after nine o'clock. So when people are still kind of like they're all rallied up and excited, you know, we'll see. We'll see. You know, we'll have this map. We'll have this downtown crawl where some of the businesses really can't say open past nine or ten. But at least there's definitely something going on to ten o'clock. This helps Jerry's Seaside Grill and everybody down by the river and just kind of starts pulling everybody to the river, which is our best asset. Right. Right. And starts moving it there. And then Seaside Seaside and Jerry's, they usually say open later. So the whole idea is just kind of move people around. So at nine o'clock when everything is over, you know, there's nothing there. you're not like okay now what right and so we're gonna move that all around and that happens with marketing um so we're excited to be welcoming back i was you know i was very excited about this long island brewery james fort farm brewery twin fork brewery and uber geek so i'm really happy to have back again some of our original breweries who um haven't participated in a while they're friends and i went back and i said you gotta do it um we're going to be having some new and returning favorites uh again reflections gonna have some laser tag from cousins paintball box pickleball have easton arts is going to have their stage school of rock lions club is working on kids activities um peconic bay medical center is one of our bigger sponsors if you want to mention them riverhead building supply apple honda industrial threaded products and riverhead rotary cherry creek uh beth hanneman of all state insurance um we've got some great sponsorship um packages here i you know do i want more money i could really use more money but um the coolest and best thing that i came up with i thought was one i have a stage sponsorship where you can name one of my eight stages uh that is twenty five hundred dollars but like so peconic bay medical center um is going to you know to be the peconic bay medical center stage so instead of stage one or two so hopefully that's something that'll grow as people get it and they're um so 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 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 you did also engage me to take on Halloween Fest. So I'm officially doing a call out to all the people who have run coffins in the past years. Spoken with Ray Castronova and he owns that little piece of property. I don't know if that's what it's called. Okay so there's a corner piece of property with a white fence in over by the Jamaican place. We are allowed to use that piece of property and what I'd like to do is put all the coffins that people have raised in prior years on that property during the two Alive on 25s and I'd like to stage it for Halloween and get people pumped up for Halloween Fest. We want to decorate it for Halloween. One of our crazy river headers and I'm not going to name her name wants to do like a haunted house downtown. We're gonna have to talk about that one. But so we want people to get the coffins out and so we can start really getting people excited about that. So a lot of people have not destroyed their coffins and they're sitting in garages and getting them dusted off. So you know that's a public shout out that we want coffins. So thank you for I know it's weird right. Yeah and there's also the not real coffins. Okay no no no no no. Not real ones. So your coffin is the last thing you'll need. And no challenge this is not you do not we would like to see the cardboard boat race as you race at. There is no you guys do not need to do the coffin races. And do you want to mention the possibility of bringing back the car show? Oh shoot that was on my list. Yes so we do have the classic car show on the first night and Riverhead Raceway. I'm sorry because I did write all these things down but I start to not read my notes and that's when I forget things. Well they can be there now because of location has changed. Right. So that works out really good. Yes so the classic car show I have some people helping me work on that. Riverhead Raceway is stepping up their involvement. So they're gonna take the second night. They'd actually like to expand more. So again and this may be shifting a little bit more out of like that younger age group. I don't know you know I mean I think we have Halloween for like the younger younger kids and I don't want to exclude them because but you know but this is gonna be more about Riverhead stuff right so and whoever do it's anyway the Riverhead Raceway would like more area on Main Street where they are. So they're gonna be there with all their cars on August 1st. I do have something and Lucharitos is gonna have their food truck there. Oh. The local business. Yes right and there's more local businesses have food trucks. So again that was really the goal is just and and to keep working on that as people kind of get that idea. Again going back to it we have to have you know I really it's rather it's all Riverhead businesses providing the food and beverages but if they don't step up and do it I have to fill in those gaps when you have that many people coming. And also I'm gonna have a food truck and something down on Peconic Avenue too because I'm gonna have to fill in the gaps. And it won't conflict with Bowie 1 because Bowie 1 it's just fish. So I'll have something down there so people are going into reflections and over that way. You know it'll be it'll be it'll be a little a little bit of the same and a little bit different logistically. And Riverhead Raceway is gonna bring us some special surprises on July 18th. Maybe a monster truck because they have their monster truck show on July 19th. That's a great way to end the day. And I know somebody who will be down here right Jim? Yeah. Yeah. And one of their demolition school buses on July 18th and some other stuff that were you know again just working on. So I think you know and I'd really like to look at some stuff again for that that in-between age group that 18-19 you know those kids who you guys know. It's true. What do you want to do? I asked my teenager all time so what would be fun? I don't know. How about this? Nah. Nah. Come on mom. They were so much easier at this. Like you want a balloon? And no balloons. Oh I'm sorry. No balloons at this event. We're not having any political campaigning and we're not having any religious what's the word? You know people looking to get people to join. This is pure. Politicians of course it's election season. Politicians would be there. You're welcome to talk to people but there's no active booths for this. This is really the vendor booths like I said minus those couple that we kind of had in. This is really about our makers, growers, artisans, craft people. Mm-hmm. And things that are fun for people to enjoy. As a tribute. And our elected officials you know hopefully will be there and enjoying that and engaging with people. I'm excited about it. It sounds terrific all these ideas. Yeah it looks great on paper. And I appreciate you're very thoughtful. Justly. Where you're putting the food trucks and such because of the chamber's concerns not blocking your restaurants and stuff so thank you for that. They're very you know there's a lot of people here trying to make sure that. That we're taken care of. Right. I appreciate that. Well. And I know they do. You want to tell them to put it up now? I'm going to have them. Yeah it's on here now. Well you know I mean coming into this and whoever may not know my background is you know I was executive director for the bid and executive director for the Chamber of Commerce crazily both at the same time. So I have that perspective of I really do and I'm a business owner. I understand that. And working in Greenport for Maritime Festival. Yeah. Which is going 34, 35 years and being able to see how they work and where I'd really like it to go. So in Greenport the way the Maritime Festival is structured first of all all the vendors there is no what we call flea market vendors. And I kind of like the flea market-ish vendors because I think it's fun to get sunglasses and some I think everybody likes a little bit of that stuff. But it's really we're so strict about certain types of items nautical. But the restaurants have first priority. But the restaurants. The restaurants are out there participating. Right. So it's really the food trucks all go down a separate area and very much are because there's a food truck population and that's something that you have to really balance. There's people who just like to go out and get that greasy sausage sandwich and you know it's a festival. So it's up for both. I love the gyro. Or the gyros. You know and that's really what you're looking for or and these food trucks have followings too you know so you have to respect that all. But I really would hope that. I really would hope that we can get to that balance one day as we grow that we're really seeing more restaurants downtown and that they really are taking that priority. I just want to say thank you so much to Main Street Agency. You guys have really put something phenomenal together in such a short amount of time. And the level of creativity that we see here today is just incredible. Thank you. I really look forward to this event. I'm excited about it. I really like I said before I think downtown Riverhead is just going to shine this summer and moving forward with so much positivity and I appreciate all that you and your agency have. Thank you. I'm sad that I don't have my team here because really you know it takes an entire team and you know yeah I'm you know I'm the crazy one. I come up with these ideas. I don't know where they come from but you know it really it really takes an army to do this so. And this is one of the reasons that originally when the bid was running this it's exhausting it takes so much effort to do this and when they said that they would like to focus more on what they have coming up in the future it's it's almost impossible to balance doing you know the Alive on 25's and the Halloween and to also be able to do the art stuff that they have. Yeah. The Art stuff that they would like to incorporate downtown. So I think that this is a perfect balance between. The. Downtown events and what the bid. Has in store for. And. Specifically. Marketing. And. Community Events. To. To. Drill. Amy. And. My.

day in and day out. So it's not trying to split yourself into different jobs and focuses. It's, you know, okay, one email is maritime festival, one email is water drinker, one email is alive and 25. It's just, it's rolling into you know, and because they're not competing events, it's not, you know, I mean they're completely entirely different, different times of years and whatnot, but it's it makes sense. And again, we're a bid tenant, been in the bid for 10 years and chamber member and everything else. So it's, you know, it works. Can you use volunteers to help day out? Oh yes, so please. I can use volunteers and even events staff. And honestly, if anybody's got like again that teenager group, I love, I love interns or anybody who wants to come and learn about running events. I mean, I've had kids come in and you know, the older teenagers, it's really a great learning experience for them and they love coming and seeing behind. A lot of them need community service time for college and stuff, so this is an ideal situation. Yep. Okay. Yeah. And who would they contact or how should they contact somebody? I think they could just go to aliveand25.org. Okay. I believe, and I have a new intern, I think she's from Croatia, which is really cool, but she lives in Flanders. I have to double check that. I'm so excited to have her on board. Her name is Shakia. I think she just set us up with a TikTok. I'm not on TikTok. I'm not even involved. I believe our TikTok and Instagram is Riverhead Block Party. So again, we're going to start kind of shifting. We can all talk about that again. Post-mortem. So what we all feel that should kind of look like. And I'm not, you know, just moving forward. But, you know, that younger generation should be able to find us. They'll find it on TikTok. Yeah. Oh yeah. You know, TikTok is, you know, I mean, Facebook is for like people that are getting ready to retire. TikTok is for the audience who wants. Oh. And still Instagram. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Yeah. I still have AOL as my email account. Yeah. Me too, only because I have to. I got my daughter, Natalie, I said, you know, you want to help me? I'm like, you're crazy. Why don't you help me run my social media? I'm like, look at how much I pay people. She's like, oh wow. And I'm like, she goes on Facebook. I'm like, did you accept, there's a notification. She's like, where's that? I'm like, okay. I'm like, we got to start from the beginning. Yeah. But it is an exciting opportunity. Even for anybody who's not on TikTok, it's a great opportunity. Even for anybody who wants to learn about marketing and, you know, stuff like that. Again, you know, we have an office right on Roanoke Avenue and there's an opportunity for anybody or anybody in general. You know, we have fun. There's lots of perks. And, you know, that's it. So. Good. AliveOn25.org. So you can just push everybody there. There's an email address, phone number. Perfect. Can't wait. Yeah. Don't call Town Hall. Excellent. Well, I'm excited. Yes. When you first showed this to me a couple weeks ago, I was like, oh my gosh. Yeah. That's a home run. Cool. That's a home run. Awesome. I really love it. Just expanding it and going a little bit later. I think it's going to be great for all the businesses down there. Great. And I think two is a good number. That's my personal feeling. Two a summer is good. Yeah. But if somebody wants more. Well, I don't want to work more on that. Right. I don't blame you. But there's models to look at. Right. And again, it's another discussion once the town square is in because you have things like, you know, Mattituck where they have first Fridays. Right. And it's not on the scale of AliveOn25.org. Right. But it's really, and again, it's another conversation. It's about a constant activation downtown. Right. Where maybe a consideration is that this is one big massive event a year, a festival, and there's more smaller ones or something. Sure. Absolutely. You know, I'm just saying there's a discussion to be had, but let's see how this all goes. And through it, you know, there's a new bid in place. There's a lot of new things happening. So, and… And it's all positive. Yes. It's liquid today. Right? Yeah. It's got a new… Absolutely. All right. Yeah. Thank you. Great. Thank you. And thank you all. I mean, I appreciate your trust in me because you really, you know, you just let me run and, you know, I've gotten nothing but positive support and thumbs up. Well, you've done it before. Oh, I've done it before. You are the original, so it only made sense to go back in that direction. Well, I want to say to people, I go, congratulations. I'm like, I'm what? I'm like, I have three months to plan one of the biggest events on the East End. And I'm like, thank you. I'm really excited about Halloween, so people need to start thinking about that. Good. So, thank you all very much. Thank you, Diane. Great job. Thank you, Diane. Take it outside. All right. Last matter we have on open session is matters surrounding Riverhead in action video regarding the town historian. And that was with, I think, Denise Merrifield spent some time with Georgia at Case. Did you skip community benefits only? That's off. That's canceled. We've removed a couple of them. Mr. Brasser, just mention that we're going to remove that. Yes. If you have the actual agenda, we have canceled two of them. We had a hearing pursuant to CSEA contract. That was canceled. We had matters surrounding a proposed community benefit zoning. That was, it's got to be amended and postponed. And that leaves us with the last item, again, matters surrounding Riverhead in action video with the town historian. Yes. Can I? Yes. I just request on the matters surrounding proposed community benefit zoning use district that we get this like a week before the work session, the review. Thank you. Hence the postponement. Yes. That's exactly what's being done. Perfect. Thank you. That's the work. I'm Tim Hubbard, supervisor of the great town of Riverhead, and you're watching Riverhead in Action, a media campaign designed to highlight the incredible work of the 350 plus employees that come to Riverhead every day. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. [transcription gap] and thank you for watching Riverhead in Action. Hi, this is Riverhead Town Councilwoman Denise Merrifield, and we're here to meet the town historian Georgette Case. Georgette has been the town historian for 23 years. She has written nine books, and she has a wealth of information about the town of Riverhead. So let's come on inside and meet her and learn some things about our town. Hi, Georgette. Hi, Denise. Hi, good to see you. It's great for you to come. Yes. I'd like to tell you a little bit about the town of Riverhead. We separated from the town of South Pole in 1792 because traveling to South Pole for business was too far for the people in Wading River and Riverhead. And from that time on, we never looked back. We've done a lot of different things here in town, and we've done a lot of different things here in town. So this is my office, and I've laid out some items for you to look at and for the town residents to see. Now, this office is open for anybody to come down and visit. Is that right? Yes, I'm open on Wednesdays from 9 to 3. You can always contact me by email or telephone. Okay. Would you like to show us some of the things you have set out for us today? Yes. This is a cross. It's a cranberry picker. Cranberries were a big thing in the town of Riverhead. How long did that industry last here in Riverhead? It started about 1880 and went through the 1950s. Where did they farm them? It was in a bog. There's several bogs near the railroad tracks in Calverton. How would you use that? There's a handle in the back. And you scoop. Like a comb? Yeah, you just scoop it up. Oh, great. This is the Long Island House Registry. And this is a postcard of the Long Island House. Oh, that was a beautiful building. Where did that sit? It was on West Main Street and Griffin Avenue. And this is interesting. On this side, look at the ads. Oh, wow. Look at the car. That's from 1915? Yeah. The cars they were advertising? George Morrell's business was right over the Peconic River. And look, harnesses for your horses. Right. How amazing. Oh, wow. The ads are almost as good as those at the hotel. And cattle. Look at that. Yeah. Smoked meats. And my goodness, look at the bottom here. For a carriage and wagon. That's a fantastic ad. What else do you have for us? I have a Civil War Spur. This was donated by Susan Reeve. And it's from the Reeve family. He was a private. His name was Oliver Terry Reeve. And he was a soldier in the 5th Heavy Artillery. And a private. And he was a private. And he was a soldier in the 5th Heavy Artillery. And a lot of young men from Sound Avenue, it was called North Road at that time, joined the 5th Heavy Artillery. And they went through at least eight battles of the Civil War. Wow. I think you also have other information about the Civil War here today as well. Yes. I have this book that I wrote. We will not forget. It's Civil War Soldiers and Sailors. And among them is a black Civil War soldier by the name of David Shippey. He belonged to the 29th Connecticut Infantry. And he was very well known here on Long Island as a chef. His obituary praised him for the fine cuisine that he put out. Yes. And I understand he's buried right here in the Riverhead Cemetery. He is. He is. And there is a marker on his grave. And it faces the schoolhouse. There was just a commemoration at his grave site, I think within the last year. Yes. By officers dressed in uniforms from the Civil War. And they had done a cannon salute to him as well. That was fantastic. Yes. I have a Civil War letter. Do you have it? [transcription gap] letter written by A. H. Terry. He was from the North Road again, and it tells about him being in South Carolina with his unit. This one is for a discussion on fixing the bridge across the Iconic River. And this is 1808. Wow, this is a letter from 1808. Yep. How amazing. I understand you have some other town documents as well. I have over 5,000 original documents. Just a few. I like that they vary. Okay. Well, Georgette, thank you so much for giving us this really terrific tour of this wonderful, wonderful asset we have from the town and being the steward of it. We greatly appreciate all your knowledge and information. Thank you. Thank you for everything you do. Thank you. Nice job. Very nice job. She really is a wealth of knowledge, and she is downstairs on Wednesdays, and I would recommend to anybody in the town, come on down. She'd be happy to show you this rows and rows of archives of photos of homes. It's really, it's something else. When she was showing the one postcard there of a downtown back in the day when it was dirt roads and horse and buggies tied up. I'm thinking, boy, if I had a time machine and I'd go back to that time, I would love to have seen what it was like. But of course, I would want air conditioning. And I would want, you know, good medical, you know, certain things. I'd have to bring in that time machine with me. But it would be so cool to just go back to live in that era for a little bit. And it was hard time. Yeah. [transcription gap] Yeah. [transcription gap] Yeah. Yeah. session in a moment to discuss matters under personnel, matters surrounding change in terms and conditions for an employee. That will be with Howard. So if I could have a motion to close open session and go into executive. So moved. Seconded. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Okay. Open session's closed. We will now go into executive session. Thank you everybody and have a great weekend. A lot of good things going on. Weather looks good. So we'll see you all next week. Thank you.