Full Transcript

Thank you. Thank you. I rise for the pledge, and Deputy Supervisor Higgins, would you mind leading us? Absolutely. 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. Okay, we're here for open session. The first matter up we have today is its Matter Surrounding presentation on downtown revitalization efforts and evolution of proposed town square with Dawn Thomas. There you go. Good morning. Good morning. So we're going to do a little trip down memory lane today. We're going to start in 1993 and bring it forward to 2025, which is 32 years, because that's the year my oldest child was born. I was going to say Alec wasn't even born then. Yeah, probably not. But it's important to understand the context that we're operating in now and I think there's been a tremendous amount of work done over the years and the direction really hasn't changed much in all of that time. So I'm going to touch quickly. We've prepared a document called Regional and Municipal Community Planning Initiatives. It's for a grant. They asked us to show how the project that we are proposing is consistent with all of those plans. Moving forward, we outline the plans. We give links to those. But in addition, we printed out copies and highlighted those sections. That were relevant. So I just wanted to quickly touch on a few of those. You know, there's 18 different plans. Urban Renewal Plan 93. Analysis of the Main Street Corridor 93. A Vision Plan for Downtown 95. Urban Renewal Plan Railroad Street Corridor 97. Revitalization Strategy for Downtown Riverhead 2000. Comp Plan 2003. East Main Street Urban Renewal Update 2008. The BOA Plan, which was 2016. Which had a creative placemaking supplement. Which most people would find interesting. It's very, it's very, it's a good foreshadowing of where we wound up. Strategic Parking Plan 2019. Pattern Book 2021. Preliminary Design of the Town Square 21. Amphitheater Preliminary Design 24. Feasibility Study 24 for the Amphitheater Downtown Activation Plan 22. DRI Strategic Investment Plan 2022. Comp Plan Update Town of Riverhead 2024. And the Army Corps Floodplain Management Study. Which was finalized in 2025. So there's a good amount of work that's been done since 93. And I'm just going to go through a couple things. East Main Street is an urban renewal area. That's permitted by New York State under Article 15 and 15A. The General Municipal Law. The purpose of that law is to allow blighted and distressed areas. Certain tools for economic development. To revitalize those areas. And so, just quickly. It grants municipalities the rights and powers. To correct conditions. And to eliminate or prevent the development and spread of deterioration. And blight through the removal, reconstruction, rehabilitation, conservation or renewal of such areas. For residential, commercial, industrial. Or community, public or other uses. And that was adopted in 1993. By the then CD Director Andrea Loneis. Who was a very forward thinking person. Her and her staff did that. Joe was on the staff at that time. And. That. [transcription gap] That plan was done with community engagement. And it talked about what we could do to help the downtown. Because at that point. I know Supervisor Hubbard will remember. Really and Joanne. People who have lived here for their whole lives. Really started to deteriorate. Because of the development on Route 58. So we're losing a lot of businesses. We have vacancies. And people are trying to figure out what to do. So. You know it involved objectives. Where relocation and upgrading of marginal land use. Stimulation of economic development in the Main Street improvement area. Promotion of tourism. And. River related development within the Main Street improvement area. And encouragement of private financing. State funding. Periodic subsidies and capital grants to achieve those goals. And those are just some of the goals. And I'm skipping quickly through. In 93. The public weighed in on this plan. You know one of the goals was development of one or more major tourism. Destination facilities. Encouragement of land uses. Associated there with restaurants, hotels, manufacturers, outlets, retail products. Indigenous to the region. Encouragement of commercial recreational uses more directly related to the Peconic River. Development of public facilities required to attract and support proposed land uses. That went on to really talk about maximization of the use of the Peconic River. Is a stated goal of the plan. The river has resources in its visibility. Particularly from buildings or sufficient height on the north side of Main Street. Riverview is considered a particular value in attracting certain land uses. Such as restaurants, taverns, professional offices. Substandard and blighted properties acquired publicly or privately may be cleared in order to accomplish one or more of the goals of the plan. And then acquisition of waterfront property continuous to existing public property in order to expand town's ability to encourage waterfront related activities is encouraged. Particularly if such acquisition serves to encourage and leverage substantial private investment. You're a graduate of the Evelyn Wood Speed Reading. Yeah. Sorry. I'm sorry. You know, just looking at that urban renewal plan and I think what a lot of people don't recognize is that the aquarium was an urban renewal project that was created in accordance with this plan and consistent with the goals and objectives of this plan by Petrocelli Development. Then we had a revitalization strategy for downtown Riverhead. That was done in 2000. Goals were waterfront parks should be expanded, better link to Main Street, becoming a major recreational attraction enhancing character of downtown. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And then working shifting the downtown focus from convenience and comparison shopping to entertainment tourism and cultural activities. Visitors have to be encouraged to visit other parts of downtown other than the aquarium is one of the comments. And then I'm going to skip a little ahead. One of the other goals is promoting stores and restaurants oriented to children and families. Aquarium Historical Society and Science Center are major children and family destinations. They are also the center of the ! ! The park building off the science under an aquarium as children's attractions. So these ideas were not, you know, as much as I'd like to claim credit, I cannot. These were ideas, you know, when we started looking at what we needed to do to bring these plans to life is really what we've been doing all the while. Preserving and enhancing pedestrian view corridors between Main Street and the Peconic River. Then that plan was updated in 2008. It talked about developing tourism and specialty shopping niches and a variety of tourist attractions, including the !

Waterfront Park, preserving and enhancing historic character. Then we're going to kick forward a little bit. Talks about alleyways and the narrow alleyways that we had that prevented us from really accessing the riverfront in a way that felt comfortable like you belonged there and it was safe. Spaces, these narrow spaces cause health and safety concerns for pedestrians. Then we talked about land acquisition, private and public land acquisition. And then we talked about the public land acquisition is recognized as an integral measure to revitalize the East Main Street urban renewal area and can be used to redevelop a deteriorated or other properties for the purpose of improving overall public safety and welfare. The urban renewal area properties north and south, west and east, west of McDermott are being considered for public and private acquisition. Again, this is 2008. Nothing new here. Then we go into this and I'll and I'll just show the board. But in 2008. Our two. 2016 in the creative place making supplement to the boa. There's the parking lot south of the town square identified as a creative place making potential location. So again, these were, you know, this was a ladder that was taking us to a place or a path that we were walking down to get somewhere. And then the pattern book was in 2018. And that talked about target redevelopment of a town square and that's where we really started and that's where the PowerPoint kind of kicks off. The update of the comprehensive plan talked about these things as well, but we all were here for that. So I just going to run through this slide show. How do I advance the slide just in that? He's got it. He like just tell him. I want to do it myself. Oh, I got it. I got it. Dawn, can I just make one point for everybody out listening to this or that have written letters that none of this is new. This is tried and true. Vision Long Island has been doing this to Main Streets in many ways. It's been a long time. [transcription gap] Vision Long Island has been doing this to Main Streets in many, many towns in Suffolk County that have been run down, and they've done a wonderful job with apartment buildings, hotels, entertainment. It's a pattern of how to revitalize. It's not like we're doing anything unique or different. We're following a very tried and true type of application to revitalize towns. People go to... If you go to Bashar, if you go to Patchogue, if you go to Lindenhurst, every year, because Every year, Vision Long Island is up showing how they've revitalized, you know, deteriorating. I don't want to say abandoned, but... And a lot of it was abandoned in our retreat. Slipping away. So I just want everybody to understand that we're not doing anything that isn't acceptable as a tried and true way to help revitalize towns. And what I would also say is all of these studies that I'm referring were all done with public engagement. Many public meetings, public surveys, you know, discussions, looking at documents, looking at other plans, idea walls, things like that. And so the other thing I would note is that, you know, Main Street is a living entity, right? So in 1850, when the town, around when the town got kind of busy downtown, there was no asphalt. There were holes. There were horse hitches. There were industry related to the river there. And that changed. And then in the 50s, it became a real setup for downtown commerce. And then businesses changed, and they continued to change. So over time, so while we look at what we saw on Main Street 30 years ago, we think, oh, we wish it was that way again. It cannot be that way because times are changing, and we have to adapt to those changes. And that's sort of what these plans have talked about all the while, and now we're really getting here. And so that got us to the Town Square Project. And when I started... Community Development in 2017, we started looking at these plans and how are we going to make all this stuff happen. The biggest attraction from our point of view was the buildings that were sort of in the center of Main Street, right across from the Suffolk Theater. They were underutilized or vacant. You have a slide in your presentation. Yeah. I saw it yesterday. We're going to get to that. Definitely. That got us started on the idea of a town square, like a place where everyone could gather. A place that we could be proud of our town. A place where we could connect to the river and get all these goals done in here. And when we were walking around downtown, we'd look up the little alleyway that was between 117 and 121 East Main Street. It was probably 12 feet wide. It had a little arch on it. It said, Hello, Town of Riverhead. See, that was the way you got to the river. I'm going to show you that in two seconds. And when you stood at the south end and looked north, you were looking directly at the Suffolk Theater marquee. It was like dead on. And we said, this is the spot. This is where it's got to be. So we took that. And so the town square project, just so you know, just overview six separate subprojects. Town square upper, town square lower, amphitheater, Main Street, Complete Streets, hotel, and First Street parking garage. So I'm just going to click through. So yeah, this is where we were. Looking at the building. This is 117 East Main Street. 121 and 122. This is 117. This building was vacant and smelly for many, many years. Here's the alleyway we're referring. This building was not well utilized. And this building had crafted in it. But other than that, really marginally used. And then we have the old Sweezy's over here. So that's another redevelopment. And then if you look to the right here, this is sort of what we have. We're a little ahead of here now. But if you look, here's the Suffolk Theater. We're dead on there. And the buildings, what's really just kind of, and I say it's like a divine, I think, intervention. You have this alleyway here, all the way to McDermott. All of those buildings are either going to be replaced or somehow revitalized. And it gave us a tremendous amount of opportunity to accomplish the goals of all these plans over the years. Click. And I just, in 2020, we did a virtual design process. I don't know if this link's going to work. Me and Justin have been working on it. Let's see if it works. It's a Riverhead Local article. Talked about that whole design process, what the town square might look like. Very conceptual. But it was really aimed at getting people's ideas in the community, what they wanted. It was done online because it was COVID. There were idea walls. There were surveys. There were meetings. The meetings were all housed on a website called Engage the Team through a company called Social Pinpoint. And it gave us a real, a tremendous leg up into what we might like to see. And Urban Design Associates did a bunch of renderings. And you'll see them in this article. This was when, before we demoed anything, this was our announcement of the grant. And it just, it goes into all these potential ideas down here, what we could do and what it might look like downtown. So just like here's one of the pictures. You know, larger buildings, smaller buildings. You know, not knowing what might happen. And in connection with this, we applied for the $800,000. We applied for $5 million. We got $800,000. Yeah. [transcription gap] Yeah. [transcription gap] Yeah. I don't know how to get out of here. I'm going to come back to my PowerPoint. Bonded $6 million to acquire those buildings during COVID and to move these projects forward finally. And that was the absolute most important thing that was ever done because the board invested in our town. And when the board invested in the town and the state invested in the town, it gave everybody confidence that these projects were going to happen. That was a huge step. That was a huge step in the process here. But interesting enough, you still have people coming to the podium acting like this is a brand-new idea. Right. Not at all. I sleep and breathe this stuff, and I can tell you that long before I was in the CD office, there were people who were visioning this stuff, other town board members. You know, the public had a tremendous amount of input into these studies, nothing new and exciting. So we did the virtual process. That got us to the activation plan. So in 2022, we had gotten the $800,000. The board had bonded. We did the activation plan. The activation plan was also done with public engagement. We had urban design associates who did our pattern book that recommended the town square back then in 2018. The activation plan was also facilitated by a gentleman named Phil Myrick, who was the president and CEO of the Project for Public Spaces. That gentleman is in the city. He's a very internationally renowned. These projects and the ideas that came from here were not... These ideas were good, and now they're being shown as how they could actually play out. And so you can see they talked about a playground. There's a playground, music and arts, the amphitheater. And these... The progress that we made through these plans helped us achieve the funding that we've been getting. So the upper square currently has 3.24 million DRI funding, which is a lot from J. Petrucelli development of 360,000, 400,000 from Suffolk County Jumpstart, and another 250 likely coming from the DRI money for a total of 4.25 million. The cost estimate right now, which we have fully developed construction plans on this project, all the infrastructure's designed, all of the flood mitigation portions of it are designed. Everything's ready to go. We really just need to go to bed. So we're waiting for the right time to do that. And that's the board's next step. And that's why we're here today. Really, this is all becoming real now. It's not... No longer piles of paper and meetings. It's really actually coming to fruition. So this is a little overfunded, but some of that funding is going to get shifted to the lower square, which is slightly underfunded. So... Can I just add another thing, Dawn? Yeah. I'm sorry to keep interrupting, but just in terms of when they pop up, like the playground and such, these were concepts and designs that architects came to us with, that... design plan companies that we hired came to us with. We didn't just sit in a room and say, you know, I'd like a playground over here. This was something that was well thought out. And the funding that we received was also as a result of letting them know the type of things we were looking to put in. So that's how we got the money as well that the state and the federal government... These were good design ideas for your area. Well, in fact, when we applied for the grant in 2018 that we received the $800,000, which was the kickoff for all of this, so... [transcription gap] so... Street and we'll get into that a little bit down the road here. These were some of the, this is Bob's favorite river down the middle of the square project. And then we have the current design. So these designs show you what the upper square and the upper and lower square look like together. We can fit about 800 people. These are designed to be integrated for big events, to be separated for small events. And these designs are renderings but they're not just pictures. These, all of these pictures are based upon the baseline drawings, elevations, infrastructure, where everything has to go. It's been worked on collectively between the town and our consultants. We have multiple consultants on these. We have Urban Design Associates who's our overseer but we also have LVF landscape architects who have done projects all over the country, great parks and recreation projects. You know, very, very talented people that we've been working with. And then this is how it's going. So when we, when we did the town square, people said, oh it might be like a needle park or it might be like a campground for homeless people. But it really didn't work that way at all because it's too wide open right now and you can see how we're using it. It gets used all of the time by different events and different people throughout the, you know, the concert series that go on there from Townscape. And then we have the town square, which is a little bit different. It's a little bit lighter. We have a full head room so you can head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head head concept plan and then in 2020 2022 with the activation plan we moved the amphitheater over to east end arts but the playground remains and as in the same location some people were saying somehow that the playground was up on main street that's never been true the plan has always shown the playground in exactly the same location um and then here's where we are now here's what that playground area looks like now not so great a little a little dumpy so um but this is uh where we're headed so this project has 500,000 from new york state parks 250 from dri uh 245 200 from boa 150,000 private match and 90,000 from suffolk county dtr for those splash pads total funding on the lower square is one point uh one four the total cost is around three so we're a little short there but the money that we're over on the upper square can be used for this too and we're continuing to look for other resources for funding so i'll show you this is what the current design of the playground looks like these blue areas are not lazy rivers they are in fact just a substrate surface where it's like a spongy surface so if you check children fall down this is also an adaptive playground so that children or adults with mobility issues that want to access the space they can go to the playground and they can go to the playground and they can go to the spaces can get to everything there are sensory uh uh not toys but sensory stations uh and then we have a really the centerpiece of this and this is the lower square so you can see the again the flood mitigation we step up from the river we work with the river the playground could be flooded and it would not nothing would happen to it but these areas are designed to not be flooded but all of that flood mitigation is built into these projects which is really helpful um not just for the project but again for the entirety of east main trails i'll show you later these are the we have very attractive um play equipment built into these projects there's a boat and then there's a kingfisher that's 16 foot tall that you can slide down climb up in will be lit in the evening will be a sculptural piece and it will be a unique feature of the playground that will help attract families to it from the aquarium draw them down main street like we've always wanted and get the kids doing outside healthy activities regardless of their mobility status and the splash pad is hard to see but it's right over here okay right outside the playground and that will be lit in the in the night time so you'll have another water feature that's lit at night and you'll you can see there's a plenty of gathering space over here on the right there's a lot of water in there and then you can see the water is going to be a lot more !

so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so brings you through that space and makes you feel welcomed and safe and comfortable. There's places to sit, there's places to relax, there's fun places to use, and then you get down to the river and you see the magnificent Peconic River. So this is the parking garage. This became evidently necessary over time when we realized we couldn't do parking beneath any of the buildings on the south side of Main Street because the river water table is too high and it already is flooded. You can see those parking lots and I'll show you that down a little bit further in the presentation. The parking garage, we had a consultant, we had multiple consultants, we had two parking plans that recommended a parking garage. And then ultimately the parking studies and our activation plan talked about the parking garage. It's tucked back into the northern end of the First Street parking lot. That used to be where homes were, so we're going to recreate that First Street pedestrianized area so it doesn't look like a big wide open parking lot. It's going to have signage, wayfinding signage, lighting, safety features, there'll be a police substation built into it, and people will, you can see the pathways to the riverfront are very clear. You have Benjamin Place, which is nice and wide. It'll come right out of that doorway. I don't know if you've seen it. And then you have the Suffolk Theater alleyway and those get you to the crosswalks. It'll get you to the south side of Main Street quick. That project has 15, almost 15 million, 17.5 million in total funding. We need about 20, let's call it 23, 25. We have a shortage there, but the parking work that we're doing should help us generate that and we, of course, we continue to look for funding for these projects. We're getting to the amphitheater, so the amphitheater we just applied again this week for another project. We'll head over to américano.org next week so you can head over to américano.org next week so you can head over to américano.org next week so you can head over to américano.org next week so you can head over to américano.org next week so you can head over to américano.org [transcription gap] of the Eastern Arts Council, the buildings were placed there. The two front buildings, the Moses Benjamin House, the Davis Corwin House, which are the eastern most is Benjamin House and the western most is the Corwin House, were there originally, but the other buildings were brought to the property and they were placed sort of randomly. And Eastern Arts, we've been working closely with them and their consultant to try to develop a better campus for them where they can have more gallery, more outside exhibitions, sculpture garden and a better walking pattern. And then the way this works is the buildings will be lifted up, level with Main Street because they're in a hole right now and it creates a bathtub effect when the flooding comes up in that direction and that will increase with climate change and that flooding will eventually go right through that property, right onto East Main Street and flood all of the historic buildings on East Main Street and make it really difficult. So this interaction will be a great way to build a really good building. And then the entire project from McDermott to the now Ben and Jerry's Alleyway, I'm calling it, is a flood mitigation project basically. Army Corps recommended that we create a flood wall. They said you could do a bunch of different things, one of which is you could build a 12-foot wall along the roof which we thought was really not attractive but effective maybe. So instead of that, they worked with UDA and they created a flood wall connecting the foundations of the buildings and all the projects from McDermott, from the Gallo building all the way to the Elk Hill building. So that's the first phase. And then the next phase will be that western parking lot that needs work too but for right now we're kind of busy with what we have going on. This project, this was the left design here was the design that was done in the activation plan. These two designs came through. We just got 1.4 million for the project in the winter of 25. We have a total of 1.75. The total cost is probably closer to 5 million for everything. So we have a grant pending with congressional, our congressional representatives. We have a grant pending with the state again. It's one of them is a climate smart grant which we are a climate smart community. Anthony works with the climate smart group and which is a flood mitigation project through the DEC and the other is through New York State Parks and Historic Preservation because this is a historic preservation project. The entirety of Main Street from Peconic Avenue to East Avenue, the entire area of Main Street, from Peconic Avenue to East Avenue, is on the National Register of Historic Places. All those buildings are threatened by flooding and climate change. So this piece of the project is the plug to the hole that we need to create. And so that's what we're aiming for here. And so you can see, you know, what it looks like now. You can see in the lower picture here, there's a fence here because if you fall off the sidewalk, you're falling into a hole. That's what we're talking about with the bathtub. And you can see in the next picture, we're gonna show you some flood images. And you can see the

these, they're hard to see here, but these are potential flood events over time. And so the projects that we have all along Main Street and the new buildings are designed to protect East Main Street for the next hundred years of flooding, which is good. Otherwise, if we don't, nothing good will happen. Let's see, we're gonna keep going here. And this is just to give you an idea what the FEMA flood maps look like and how devastating that flooding could eventually be. and how devastating that flooding could eventually be. And what we actually experienced now, this is Hurricane Sandy, the flooding's all the way up to the town square. So people who like that parking lot and wanna keep it, they could, but they would need to eventually trade their car in for a submarine because eventually that parking lot will be useless and full of water. So what we're doing is creating a new environment where the flooding is managed and we're creating innovative projects to deal with the flooding versus, you know, just building a wall. But there's also a lot of things that we're doing to make sure that there's no water or letting it happen, which is not a good solution. So here's the amphitheater flood mitigation plan. Again, we have preliminary design on this only, but you can see the blue on the lower part of this is where the water could go. And there are elevations there. So elevation eight, you know, the water could come up that high, but it would be managed in this project. And we hope maybe to create a skating rink down in this area. That's a TVD, but this is the new Heatherwood building that's under construction. This is there fire access lane, but you can see how high that water is going to be. could be and how we need to manage that as we move ahead and here's a little very preliminary design I know a lot of people didn't like the band shell here but it shows you how much elevation we need to create to protect Main Street from the flooding so and this project will get that done we're hoping to go into final design soon on it we have some potential private funding coming in for that just heard from someone today about that we can work on the design right 100% it's if this is preliminary it's just conceptual but I think the band shell design whether you like that actual design the location of the band shell was designed to deal with the Sun in the performers eyes to deal with the flooding you know it was very thoughtfully located and that all that flood mitigation put in place you know there's obviously things we would do differently we don't want grass tears we don't want a lot of maintenance in this area we want the you know it to be a little more durable but again it's more public space it's directly connected to the town square here's the lower square that you saw before right over here is the splash pad and it's all super interconnected this can be closed off for ticketed events if we wanted to charge it's designed to do that we also did a market study with this plan which helped right-size it for the market in the area what we could expect to get three to five hundred people is what they're saying you know but this is a project that we're working on and we're going to be working on it for a couple of weeks and then we're going to be working on it for a couple of weeks and then we're going to be working on it for a couple of weeks and then we're going to be working on it for a couple of weeks could accommodate a lot more people we could get you know these spaces over here can be used as well so it's it's planned to to work you know we're planned to succeed with these things and then streetscape so well I want to take streets but escapes all the way back to curb bump apps so everybody you know recognizes what went on in West Hampton Beach everybody likes what went on in West Hampton Beach removing overhead utilities creating wider sidewalks creating safer crosswalks this is a project that we're working on right now so this is a project that we're working on right now so this is a project that we're working on right now so this is a project that's the pattern book and that was done with a tremendous amount of public engagement the public specifically stated that they had concerns you know improving traffic calming measures on main street was very important uh and you know and it was important to almost all of the people who participated in that process and um you know as you when you look at crosswalk bump outs what they do and i'll show you this how this works and also sidewalk widening right so the pattern book talked about sidewalk widening you have an outer space for seating and lighting and landscaping which protects the walking space the walkers from vehicles and other possible hazards the yellow space on this slide is the you know clear zone and then this is the marketing zone or amenity space where people like Peggy Zylnicki can put her flowers and other merchants can put their wares and then after a point of time after a point of time after a point of time after a point because it's an advertising and attractive way to look at Main Street. And this is just an idea of what that would look like in action. So when we took this plan, we went into the DRI, which was with a local planning committee. That local planning committee was staffed with local people. We had a we had a very high level planning group, Perkins Eastman, that came from the state. We had six or seven public meetings. We had a full dedicated website. They even employed a public engagement specialist to work with us to make sure that the public had input on these things. It was determined that Main Street was way too wide. If you stand on anywhere you want to cross on Main Street, you see the cars racing by. They don't get to look at the wares. They don't get to see what's available. And it makes it hazardous for pedestrians. Narrowing Main Street is a tool that planners use to to make the to pedestrianize the street, make it more safe and attractive for people to walk, which is what we want. We want people to walk up and down Main Street all the time. And we want the outdoor dining. We want the amenities. We want the community space. And so they recommended and we were awarded $750,000 for that project there. And then we were awarded again a portion of $10 million from the RAISE grant to implement these changes to Main Street. So this again is in we have full construction drawings on these. We're ready to go to bid. We're just working with the downtown organizations and the board. We have to get the contract for RAISE, which is coming, we hope, very soon. But you can see in these renderings. This is based on actual distances and numbers, how those sidewalks and how our main street could look without the utilities overhead with additional lighting, with actual built in seating and new landscaping, how attractive that could look. And here's just another view of what it might look like. One of these is looking. You can see the hotel building is built into the back here. This is the new Heatherwood building. And then this is looking from east to west. Here's the. Town Square entrance here and the crosswalk to the Suffolk Theater. And so the bump outs, the crosswalk safety is that those curb bump outs come out. They bring the pedestrian out so the drivers can see the pedestrian. The pedestrian can see the drivers. When you walk on that crosswalk now, you're walking between cars and you're hoping to God no one's driving 40 miles an hour. I'm going to nail you as you walk across. The shortened crosswalk is safer and that crosswalk will have special motion sensor lighting. To help people cross and will have flashers and things that make it safe and make people feel comfortable using it. This is a proven traffic calming situation. I mean, that's exactly why they did it in West Hampton. And it works tremendously. It really does. And those the visual blight that's created by the overhead wires you see removed here. It just it just looks. Yeah, it's clean. Yeah. It's clean and crisp. And it forces everybody to drive slowly. Yes. And maybe they can read what's on the marking at the theater or. Things like that. The other thing that's important to realize is we're working with that grid work and working with PSEG. We're working with our IT department to make sure that all the fiber optics are located and set and we're working with Heatherwood. We're working with the Petrocelli group to make sure that all of these projects are dovetailed so we don't have any hiccups. We don't miss anything. It's been a tremendous group effort. I cannot tell you how many people have been involved in these things. You know, weighing in and adding input contest has been fantastic. And coordinating with the utilities and what's where and helping us, you know, locate things. So that's what that'll look like. And here's the science center right over here. And then. This is hotel. So initial concept of hotel. Just because it was. So also important to remember that when we did the market study that was connected to the activation plan that Phil Myrick and UDA worked on. We did this market study with a company called Street Sense. And Street Sense. At. A. Block. The. Of. The. Area. The. Of. Of. ! The. Area. Of. the number one use and that's how the Petrocelli group sort of got involved because we were you know doing these public meetings and having public engagement and the people involved in the hotel were there and the aquarium were there and you know recognized that this would be a good place for a hotel and they on their own came up with a design development plan and brought it to the board and so again you know that group has been here since 93 when the aquarium was developed developed the Hyatt place developed the Preston house also developed the Howell house developed the East Lawn building all historically sensitive development so the that background is here and I think that's why the group is the is you know seeking status as qualified and eligible under urban renewal law I think it'd be we'd be hard-pressed to find someone with more experience in doing an urban renewal project in downtown Riverhead and can you touch on how the urban renewal that you don't have to put that out for bid yeah so one of the tools that we get through the general municipal which is state law which is designed to you know help communities like ours get rid of blight and disinvestment is to draw investment so the tools that we have as a community are IDA or zoning we can give more height but one of the other tools that we have is we can actually give property away for a project that fulfills the goals of the plan so we're not developers right the town council is there to help us with the planning of the plan there's a lot of Should it be building things other than maybe parks and municipal structures? Private things like the things that would be needed to activate the town square, so retail or cultural galleries and things like that. What we'd like to see really is for the private world to develop. So in order to entice a developer and to get someone to invest in an area that has been very blighted and disinvested for a long time, which is risky, is you can reduce or give the property away for nothing to get that project that you want to spark the reinvestment and revitalization. So that was something. And if you look at where the aquarium was, that was the old riverhead building supply. It was blighted. It was a brownfield. It was a polluted property. That property was converted to an aquarium, which if we didn't have today, I really don't know where we would be in terms of revitalization. I remember when the aquarium looked like a bunch of Tupperware dishes with bottles in it. I mean, that was the aquarium. Yeah, we had an aquarium. And we were competing also. People don't remember that we were competing with other towns, Long Island, Bayshore particularly, to get the aquarium. And the plan that Petrocelli did was fought for by them and us and was landed here. And thank God for that because if we didn't have it, we would really be a long way from where we are now. That's the springboard. And that was done according to these plans and with these plans. And it's from the beginning. And so, you know, we're just, we're funneling down now to where we want to be. And so this project is privately funded. There's a $1 million Restore grant that goes with it. They have no shortage funding for it. And we're working with the State Historic Preservation Office on the design of this building because when we knocked down the other buildings, we entered into an agreement with them because it's on the National Register of Historic Places. They have a say in how this building looks and what it looks like. And they have given recommendations, which are now being made. And so we're working with the State Historic Preservation Office on the design of this building. And there's a lot of work being implemented by their architect, the developer's architect, to reflect the State of New York's historic preservation goals. And just to give you, this is the Street Sense Market Study. This is just, you know, talking about the Science Center, talking about hospitality as a submarket. And I think most people who've ever tried to get a hotel downtown or anywhere in town this time of year recognize how difficult that is. There's a lot of room for hotel development in downtown. not just this one there probably could be others you know what's nice about a hotel is it brings a new wallet to Main Street 90 times based on rooms every single day someone who's interested in seeing what's there someone is going to spend money someone is going to frequent the restaurant someone is going to visit the theater and make a weekend out of it and so that's the goal and that was confirmed by people not in the town people you know who do this for a living they study markets and they understand what will work and what won't work and hotels the number one evidently working goal and that's the current design development you could see it activating the town square hemming in that space making it feel intimate and appropriate it is done consistent with the goals and objectives set forth in the pattern book that the board designed the upper floors are step back so that when you stand on Main Street they sort of don't you don't see them it feels like a much smaller scale you can see them from this angle but when you stand in the square you will only see up to here right and so but again you know when we talk about and I would just go back to the very beginning when we talk about views of Main Street most people that went down Main Street never really even knew we had any river behind it and that's what we were looking at right here there was really no view and those were two-story buildings and so you can see that what we did was create cracked open the wall and we created that you created that pathway setting up the breadcrumbs for people to walk down to see the river feel comfortable at the river and appreciated river and activate these spaces in a way that we have been able to clear forces so she's kinda silly because she's people make these comments every once in awhile regarding well you know what do you have to go five stores when she's clear 3U taking out the riverview one story takes out the river view. Yeah, I can't see the river. There's no way you see in the river with a one story building. So whether it's one or five stories, the same view is there or not there. Just like we talked about the town's need to attract that investment by offering the tools and opportunities we have through New York State law, the developer also has to have a product that's going to create a return on investment. They have to make money and making money is not a sin. We want all the downtown businesses to make a lot of money, as much as they possibly can make and so, and hotels and brands of hotels also dictate numbers of rooms and things that need to be had in terms of amenities, the size of rooms, etc. What other things... And the size of the wallets of the people coming out here too. Correct, correct. And so those things are all part of that hotel plan and so yes, while the original concepts really hemmed in the space with a three story building, the reality is that a five story building consistent with the pattern book will be the best thing we could get, more wallets every day downtown. Well it will match, you know, when they actually do finish the Science Center, they're going to have that planetarium. Yes. So at some point that's going to be... And you can see that actually... About three stories high at least with that, it looks like almost like a planet. So in this slide you can see the original, the Science Center's original plans and this is the planetarium on top. They want deck space up above. Yeah. And eventually there could be rooftop things where you could see the river. You know, again, this is 2021, these things were discussed and long before that they were conceived in terms of ideas and ways to make things better and so, you know, we've really gone a long way in the last 32 years. That's amazing. In getting to where we want to be and we're super close right now. I just think it's great. I mean, because the whole overarching goal here is to create economic development and tax revenue. Yes.

! That's what the apartments, the streetscape, because then people will walk downtown, they'll utilize the stores downtown, they'll go to the restaurants downtown. So it's all pieces of a very large puzzle to help revitalize the downtown. Hotels, playgrounds, science centers, parking garages, it's all part of family tax revenue. All kinds of family-friendly activities to connect with the aquarium and if you see, if you ever stand on the corner of Ostrander and Main Street in the summer, those people walk a long way up and down on the street. Yeah. They walk a long way up and down Ostrander all day long with strollers and bags and children and we just want them to go way less. Right. That's it. And they will. If there's somewhere for them to take their children, they will go. They used to hit those two buildings, vacant, smelly, leaky, weird buildings and turn around. They just really didn't want to go any further and see what else we, even though the other side of East Main Street has a lot of things to offer, we want to keep people moving throughout downtown and highlight the things that are special about Riverhead. The slide you had with the sidewalks, showing the sidewalks, brings back memories to me of when I was a young cop walking Main Street. Every summer there was something called the sidewalk sale days. Yes. I remember those. All the stores would bring all merchandise and set it up outside. There would be, Warren McKnight would be playing with a three-piece band and the church would have a yard sale and they sold hot dogs. It was tough to walk up and down Main Street. There were so many people that came down to that. So I envisioned something just like this happening again, similar to that. Yeah. We want people to leave the aquarium, go to the science center, hit the playground, go to Ben and Jerry's, have dinner, go to a show at the theater, stay at the hotel. There's just, that opportunity is really here. Go to the jazz loft and stay at the hotel. Go to the jazz loft and stay at the hotel, exactly. So all of these things were not new ideas. They're new ideas. They're new ideas. They're based in solid long-term planning. They're coming to fruition and so it's good. So I just wanted to give that overview. Well, I think that it's important for the board to know that last night we had our monthly bid meeting, the business improvement district, and Dawn gave this presentation to them last night. And it was like they were seeing it for the first time. You saw the sparks. Yeah. They didn't just go off a little bit of wow, you know, this is what is going to be. And you kind of saw inspiration in, you know, around the table and in the room. They were very supportive of everything that's going on. They were happy with the, with the playground design. It was, it was really good so thank you for taking your time. Yeah, no problem. And, and, it was this, the exact same presentation. You spent so much time with them so. Thank you so much. [transcription gap] Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. [transcription gap] you for doing that at all i'm happy to do it i think it's just important for people to realize you know what work has gone into these things how many of the community members have weighed in on these things already so when people say oh facebook has x number of negative comments well that's all well and good the people that came to the meetings the people that participated in the surveys the people that did the work um to come up with these ideas and share their thoughts about what riverhead should and could be um were the people that are the the foundation of these plans from the beginning and so we're not doing it in a vacuum this isn't my idea or the board's idea this was a community effort from 1993 moving forward to today it continues to be a group effort we continue to do public engagement we will have more public engagement uh but as we move forward i just thought it was good to sort of right you know recap all of that um because we hadn't done a lot of work on that but i think it's important to think about that and i think it's important to think about it and a while and you know i hear people say things like oh well that's not actually accurate let's look back and see how that started i think it's good for them to see how it all fits together like this not just one like oh a hotel or oh a playground or oh street how they just see how all of this now meshes and if you do nothing eventually mainstream will be flooded so that's the other important piece of this it's not just creative place making and downtown activation and downtown revitalization um um um We're protecting our historic Main Street for the future. And so those things need to also be kept in mind when we do them. Things maybe look big or they look, we're lifting things up. Yeah, 100% we're doing that because if we don't, the Army Corps tells us, and they were just absolutely phenomenal, and we're working with them on further plans now for the riverfront actually to lift the boardwalk and the bulkhead, which will ultimately need to be done to protect from climate change. But this is 100% a great solution to a difficult problem, and it gets us where we need to be in the future. You know, it's funny. I listen to a lot of those negative comments, and then recently I just thought to myself, the people that are making these comments, I've never seen them downtown. They're not even going there in the first place. They're just complaining to complain. There's a lot of that. Yeah. Well, there's also a lot of positive comments. And I think that needs to be noted, that the negative comments seem to get the headline or the squeaky wheel gets degreased type of thing, but there's an awful lot of positive comments, and from very important people and businesses who it's going to affect. And that's what people need to keep in mind too. And look at the support that we got from downtown. Yeah. You know, downtown businesses. And I think when people say things, and I've actually addressed people who have comments that I think are maybe inaccurate, I say, come to my office. Let's go over the plans. Let me show you how we've gotten here in case you missed it for some reason or you're new to the community. You know, this is what the community has wanted forever, and this is what we're putting forward. So I think, you know, I'm always open for phone calls or e-mails on those topics. Our door is always open in community development. We're, you know, working hard to get more funding all the time. You've done a great job. Hunting it down and getting it. Because the town has, you know, the plans are plans that we're including other entities in. The state wants to do downtown revitalization. They see it as an important goal. They're partnering with us. The county of Suffolk is partnering with us. You know, local people now are partnering with us. They're coming forward saying they want to donate money to things. And so, you know, the more the merrier on that front. Well, keep in mind, there's hands trying to get into the state, federal, and county. We're so clear about what's going to happen next. We're clear about what's going to happen next. [transcription gap] We're clear about what's going to happen next. [transcription gap]

real and viable as you say and when we know that it's a good investment we want people to invest in Riverhead and that's what we're getting and and the board has shown that the board believes in Riverhead is willing to invest in Riverhead too so that's also important because you have that boat of confidence so so that's our story fantastic I'm excited I can't wait while we're on this I would like to bring up Eric Howard and Jeanette DiPaola the town attorney and the town accountant am I in trouble? Not yet. no. good morning. good morning. good morning. well while we're on the topic of the town square we might have some information from you. okay. yeah. so following the qualified and eligible hearing of Riverhead. what point of time. 25. 25. While we're on the topic of the town square, we might have some information from you. Okay, yeah. So following the qualified and eligible hearing last week, the board wanted myself, Ms. DiPaolo, and Ms. Thomas to meet with the applicant's attorney to review financial material pursuant to the CDA rules. So yesterday we met with applicant's counsel, Eric Russo, and he produced copies of audited, certified corporate financial statements for the year 2024 for J. Petrucelli Contracting and Affiliates and Atlantis Marine World LLC and Affiliates. And so we had an opportunity to look at all that, have questions about it answered. I don't know. I don't believe that we saw anything unusual or concerning. They also produced a letter indicating that J. Petrucelli Contracting has a $7 million line of credit that is renewed annually and fully available. How many millions? Seven million. Seven. Yeah. And that's separate and apart from what was submitted at the qualifying and eligible hearing into the record. And also a letter from an accounting firm sort of reaching out and demonstrating interest from potential investors and certifying that the person reaching out and interested in the project also has available funds in the tens of millions of dollars. That's good news. That's real good news. Thank you. I didn't expect anything different, but that's real good news. I'm not surprised. Right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. [transcription gap]

I can draft that resolution. Okay, yeah. I'm fully supportive of that. Board disagrees. I'd like to see it up for Tuesday. You know, I mean, the sooner is better. We've made enough on projects. Good. That's good news. The hotel that residents don't want but tourists want. What are you talking about? I love when I travel to be in a hotel that's right in the middle of the downtown. I've even stayed at one in New Orleans. It's like right in the middle of everything, and that was my favorite. So I don't know. Yeah, whenever you go to a destination, the hotel that's right there in the middle of everything is where everybody wants to be. Falmouth, Massachusetts and Cape Cod, hotel on the square. That's what it's called. Awesome. From my perspective, you know, the proposal complies with zoning and, you know, approved land use is in the zoning use district. So, yeah, there's no legal concerns on my end from the project. But as a land use. Okay. Wonderful. That's excellent. That's really good news today. Yep. What's that song Mr. Rogers used to sing? It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. A beautiful day in Riverhead. Yes. Nice. You know, I know that change is hard, but it's time for change. Yes. Riverhead deserves to have a great downtown, and we're headed in that direction. Well, we have 20 years of people complaining about the blighted downtown. I mean, how many more years? 32. No, but I'm just talking about. Yeah. You know, I mean. Yeah. Yeah. You know, crime, and we have no police. Now we have police. I mean, it's like, you know, we're doing what the majority of the people want, period. It's a heart transplant, and that's what we talked about. It's a heart transplant for the heart of downtown. That's what we needed. That's what we're getting, and it's going to work. And if you notice with naysayers, there's never been an alternative. There's just a, you know, a knock on what you are proposing. There's never alternative proposals. Yeah. And I think the people that worked on these plans. From the beginning were really, as we said, the best and the brightest. And so the ideas are not, you know, they're well tested in other places. They're unique to Riverhead. They take advantage of Riverhead's assets. And, you know, the things that everyone has said that they've wanted from the beginning. Excellent. Excellent. Has anybody ever been to City Place in West Palm Beach? I don't know if you've ever been there. To where? Have you been there recently? City Place in West Palm Beach? I was there when they started building that and stuff like that. It was amazing. I was down there in April. And they redid the whole area with pavers and a new splash pad. And we went there for dinner one day. And my husband and I were looking. And all the kids were playing on the splash pad. It was packed. And, you know, right before COVID, we were there. And it was, like, empty. And stores were not doing well. And it totally revitalized the whole area. I mean, it was amazing. And as I sat there eating outside, I thought, wow, this could be Riverhead soon. So. This will be Riverhead. Yes. Yes. Exactly. And we talked about the town square. We were like, we should build a town square. We have a town square. People talk about the town square. It's real. So I think that's, you know, we just need to keep going. And we're very close now. Exciting times. Yes. Exciting times. So thank you. Thank you so much for the update and the presentation. Thank you for the really good news. And I guess we'll move on to the next subject up here that we have. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. Next matter we have up, or matter surrounding discussion on Title 11 policy with Councillor Hurley. Title 6. Title what? 6. XI? XI. It's 11. It says 11 on here. It says 11 on here. It should say VI. Ah, okay. Just see it. Just proven I learned my Roman numeral. As soon as you learn. Right? Whatever. Yes. So it is Title 6. Title 6. Title 6. Do we have any? Okay. So Title 6 refers to the section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prevents recipients and sub-recipients of federal financial assistance from discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin in their programs or activities. So going back, the Town Senior Center received two buses from a 2020-2021 program. The first one was a 2020 grant, and that grant was from the New York State Department of Transportation. They also received another bus in 2022, also from a grant from the New York State Department of Transportation. The 2020 grant buses were delivered in 2022, and the 2022 grant bus was delivered in 2025. So this funding, it took a while to actually receive the buses. The federal funding provided for the buses was $1,000. So that's a lot of money. That's a lot of money. That's a lot of money. We provided 80% of the cost of those buses, and we did a local match of 20% per vehicle. So because we are a sub-recipient of the federal financial assistance from the Federal Transit Administration through the New York State Department of Transportation, we as a town are required to develop and implement a Title 6 plan and appoint a Title 6 coordinator. So when this project was brought to my attention, I offered to draft the new Title 6 plan, and to be appointed the Title 6 coordinator. So the question is, what is in a Title 6 plan? So included in our plan is the required notices to the public and locations where the notices must be posted. For example, the board right outside the town hall, the senior center board, and inside the vehicles themselves. The Title 6 plan also includes the complaint and the ! The [transcription gap] language assistance plan to provide language assistance to persons with limited English proficiencies and any public outreach efforts. So the plan that I drafted was submitted, reviewed, and approved by my contact at the New York State Department of Transportation and I have a draft resolution in the packet to adopt the Title VI plan and for my appointment as Title VI coordinator. Is that gonna come up Tuesday? I would like it to if that's okay with the board. It's fine with me. I'm good. Absolutely. They apparently think there's gonna be a lot of complaints, right? There's a complaint procedure. We haven't had any so far. I'm just saying that they've got a lot of mechanisms for complaints. You know, we have such a diverse community, you know, population. Like, you know, I can see that's why we don't have a lot of complaints. I mean, it's, that's what makes the community great. Yeah. Well, the one thing that I wanted to say is that, you know, we have a lot of people that are really interested in the Title VI plan. So, you know, one thing I would say is a lot of the, a lot of the requirements under Title VI, you know, the town is already compliant with. So this comes through State DOT as a result of grants, grants that are given to Senior Center. So in connection with that grant, they require the adoption of this formal policy that's more or less based on the template that they produce. Yes. So, you know, while the town has always been aware of Title VI and complied with, you know, the non-discrimination policies and everything, we have those policies in various, you know, procurement policy, internal town operational policies, that sort of thing, hiring policies. This sort of formalizes it for grant compliance. Can we get another bus? Maybe in the future now that we have the plan in place. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have a matter surrounding possible code change to Chapter 251, idling vehicle noises with Howard & Down's. Good morning, Rich. Good morning. How's everybody doing? Good. Good. How are you? Good. so I don't I think I can hold a candle to a presentation Don did. You don't have any color slides? No. Oh, okay. You're not going to need a puppet. Okay. So, does anybody have a copy in front of them of the... That's it? Yes. Okay. So, this is an amendment to Chapter 251, specifically relating to standing motor vehicles, and that's in our noise code. And the purpose of this amendment of the town code is to address complaints regarding prolonged engine idling by commercial refrigerated trucks operating near residential properties. Specifically, in cases where vehicle noise and diesel emissions cross into neighborhood backyards, the current code restricts idling noise between 8 and 7 a.m., but does not cover impacts during daytime hours. Okay. If the noise penetrates residential lots. So, to narrowly target this issue without affecting long-established businesses that have installed noise mitigation measures. The amendment maintains the existing nighttime restriction for all vehicles. Adds provision prohibiting idling noise or emissions from commercial refrigerated trucks at any time when it crosses into a residential property without adequate buffering. Okay. clarifies that simple fencing such as standard stockade fencing as you see sometimes between commercial properties does not qualify as an effective noise or emission barrier unless specifically designed or modified for that purpose so the goal is to enhance residential quality of life near mixed use boundaries without imposing undue burdens on compliant properties so we had properties such as the Stop and Shop Plaza who had similar issues that they eventually installed a fabric noise barrier so that will not affect them because that is a qualified noise barrier so with that being said we have defined physical noise or emission barrier in the code here so that there's no question as to whether what one is and the revisions sort of speak to themselves with that I'll take any questions regarding the amendment I don't have any questions I know this has been an issue in a couple of places so I'm glad it's being addressed because it is annoying for a tractor trailer or a diesel engine to be running and with no sound barrier and your back of your house butts right up to the property of the the store it's annoying and it's an issue and there's no reason for that to happen if they have to sit and with the truck running because it's a refrigerated thing then take it out front in the parking lot and maybe put it out there you know there's plenty of space in these parking lots away from the houses or where they're not going to bother anybody so I like this and it gives us teeth to be able to make that happen now because we really didn't have that before thank you good job thank you all right potholes are next potholes are next that reminds me I want to generate a letter from the town attorney's office I assume it would be from your office about the potholes in some of these establishments because that Staples Harbor Freight that one hole up there I mean you could go almost down to your knee in that one hole it's awful and I can't believe somebody hasn't been hurt on it or they haven't had claims submitted against them for damage to their cars yeah that may well have well I'm going to give you one more well go ahead before we go to another one go ahead I did earlier this year have contact with the owner of that parcel and he had assured me that he was going to have that parking lot paved by the end of April and that obviously hasn't been done no sir this week Nicole Buckner in code enforcement has been attempting to get in touch with the owner to address that precisely if we don't receive any kind of response or any firm date that they're going to perform that work working with Rich I think we're looking to have it designated as a blighted property so we can right I can spin off on that we've already designated it as a blighted property okay as of uh 725 which was what Monday okay so Friday okay I'll have top we'll have a we'll have a resolution to uh add it to the blighted property registry and that carries $5,000 we have to give them 30 days to respond and then we'll add it to a resolution can we in the meantime because I know we've been working on this for over a year um how often can we I was hoping we could hit them for a daily fine and I'm being told that we can't why can't we hit these people with a daily fine because it's just unfair to the residents driving to these potholes and I'm going to give you another one when you pull into Walgreens and you want to go to Target there's a huge pothole there not taken care of then I've been driving around then behind Peconic Diner but that's what it's called on 58 another big one and one and I went through this and I think you know if you go through the violation of site plan it takes like 10 years to do that but I liked it I think it's a 271 you're talking about is that what you 217 217 yeah uh that's the blighted property code but that gives us the ability to what fill a pothole they need to pave in Staples case the entire lot they when they restriped it they have one line this way I know it's double striping I just went to Staples on I think it was Monday Monday or Tuesday and you can't even tell where your parking yeah between these lines or we're supposed to go between these lines it was so what do we get to do compliance yeah parking signage the wooden stocking fence falling down in the back there's rubbish there's garbage there's pallets there's litter all over the parking lot there's there's a tremendous amount of violations and we're dealing with that though but how do we deal with that Rich do we that gives us the ability just to fill potholes I mean because that whole parking line is a lot of work so I didn't have clear so I didn't have clear clear clear process a couple times we're thinking that a 217 blighted designation and then assuming they don't respond or enter into whatever agreement or anything we can add them to the registry and that carries board can enter $5,000 annual penalty on their tax on their tax bill separate apart from that we can go to the Supreme Court and see conjunctive relief directing them to fill potholes take other actions you know essentially whatever we want them to do together with civil penalties for the ongoing violations which would be measured at leave it's a cap of 15,000 every two weeks we can't we can go after every two weeks well that's that's that's typically what you ask for I mean ultimately it's a in supreme but what can we do as a town right now is we can't do that right now we can't do that right now we can't do that right now because this this is a daily occurrence how often can we go and write a ticket for not fixing the pothole is my question well I mean we could do that every day my concern would be at what point is that really getting us to where we want to go with the property well especially if he's got default because yeah because if they're not if they're not responding in justice court we're just getting default judgments you know we can file those with the county clerk and if they ever try to sell the property or get a mortgage or something they would have to satisfy those those outstanding judgments but in order to get more immediate action on it I think I think going going to blighted property route and the Supreme Court route is probably the more efficient way to go to get to get their attention and get some action on the property we need some sort of a junk yeah okay so I think also and rich I talked to you about this we definitely need to do a pothole code I mean general I mean these people should be putting a comb to the one that Tim saw I'm familiar with it and to the one by Walgreens I mean it's if you went in there you you're breaking an axle no no question well you know we could look at is and maybe there's a way to do this under the code currently I don't know we haven't talked about this before I'm just sort of thinking of it but sort of doing some sort of notice to abate similar to what we do with high grass and weeds and then if they fail to do that we the town board does a resolution directing B and G to do it and then adding whatever the cost of doing that is to the actual spell that's good it's good idea yep thank you thank you and on the good side the parking lot at restaurant depot they did a really nice job rerouting it and recurving it and you know they could take a lesson from that point on because they that turned out really rather nice yeah yeah and the target shopping center they they seem to repave they do every couple years too and right next to this problem property the blockbuster I see that yeah much better you would never get away with this and it has it

! you know I don't know what just pick a town no I'm gonna pick a town that doesn't put up with it all right the last matter before we go to resolutions are matters surrounding an update on boards and committees so I'm gonna go first show sure good okay so anti litter if anybody's been on West Main Street you will see that at the river and roots garden there is a big giant bee it is there to collect recyclables for people to throw your your water bottles your empty soda cans into there there's also a QR code that you can use with your cell phone to learn about recycling learn about how important bees are for the environment and it's a great addition to to West Main Street so head head head head head head head head head head head head great and I've gotten a lot of great feedback from from them it was donated to us by the North Fork Environmental Council and if you haven't been on West Main Street go see it last night we had our bid meeting and there was going to be an election for renewal of officers they did not have enough of a turnout to to do that so they're going to have it again on August 20th it's a Wednesday night third Wednesday of the month of August and if you are in the business improvement district please do your part and come down and vote get involved you know just attend a meeting we you know we'd like to see as much involvement as we can I think some people don't even realize that they're actually involved in the process and I think that's a good thing to do and I think that's a good thing to do so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so beach committee we had music finally at south james port beach and councilwoman merrifield had music at waiting river beach last weekend it was a great turnout we had music donated to the town for the residents enjoyment no problems everybody loved it i believe that we both have been getting such great feedback yes thank you so much thank you thank you for for bringing it to waiting river that's that's wonderful so i'm hoping to uh i'm getting so many requests to do it again yes and um i believe up at iron pier the beach committee has um expressed interest in having it there as well so it's something so wonderful for for the town um code revision i was unable to attend the last meeting councilwoman merrifield might have something that she'd like to say about that and the last thing is i am the liaison for américans so américans have so much so so much so so much so so much so so much so so much so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so There's going to be great music again. If you weren't at the last Alive on 25, it was phenomenal. One of the best ones that I'm hearing most people believe to have been to. The wrestling will be back. I know that that was extremely popular, especially for some people that might be in this room. And Reflections in the Park over at Grangeville. That's going to be activated. It's beautiful to see everything lit up and all the art that's in the park there. And Riverhead Raceway is going to have a little presentation down there tomorrow night as well. So if you can come on down, we'd love to see you. Tom Gjeltenaer. Bob? Bob Gjeltenaer. Ag advisory did not meet. I am waiting, working with Matt Charters. To get some Southampton code. Basically for farmers that are landlocked, that don't have access to a main road to sell, to have a farm stand. So we're working on that. Alternative transportation. I don't know if it's been done yet, but that is basically the people that monitor the bike trail. And I know Joanne. Yeah. Two things. One is they will be paving where the bathroom was installed in Veterans Park. They'll be paving that area. And also, Joanne, I know you started this with the electric bikes. So I've spoken with Danielle. Thank you. Danielle is working in the attorney's office on a code that would deal with electric bikes on the path. And we have a resolution in our packet today to do the repairs up there on the path itself that were disrupted when a water line took off. Yeah. And they're very thankful and happy about that. And Supervisor, thank you for finding the funds for that. Yes. Emerging technology did not meet this month. We are planning a trip to Stony Brook incubators in Stony Brook, I should say, in September. I've invited the planning staff as well from Riverhead. Anybody that wants to go here can go. OK. Thank you. To look at all kinds of emerging technology that's being done over there. The Environmental Committee. Not sure what's going on there. Let's see what we're doing. I'm going to skip that one for now. Open Space, working on some signage for Open Space. Some signs have been stolen and we're replacing them. I think one has been replaced. Recreation. [transcription gap] Recreation. Recreation. Recreation. number one the other thing is there's discussions on recreation department doing events with outside vendors in order to raise funds for the recreation department so they might do something like something recently came up with like Lions Club wanted to do something they are going to do what I believe downtown but they would add five dollars to the ticket and that would go to recreation and that would be done like say that's Dodge before that that type of thing in addition working with PSC and G and East End Disabilities to and to get the the the old power station across some snowflake to get that to be a canoe and kayak rental place and we've had a really good meeting with PSC and G and the Recreation Committee you ! and I'll be meeting with LIPA etc and there is already an approved DEC DEC approved a ramp for handicapped to get it into boats so which is which is really good so working on that and TDR committee we've met they're very happy about the way the TDR is great utilized are being utilized at the Baptist Church really and the other thing is that the legal department here is working on a TDR bank resolution which would just be no outgoing money just incoming money I've spoken to Jeanette about this and we know well once we have the resolution we'll sit with her and show it to her and that's that's all I have okay and Denise you're up thank you supervisor first I'd like to again thank you Councilwoman Woskie for your Beach Committee and inviting me there and Thank you Supervisor. Thank you. everything worked out wonderfully at the Wading River Beach last Saturday night like to thank Ray Coyne and Ashley for helping set that up it was a huge success of over a hundred people there it was four piece band that was there it was really lovely people came to watch the sunset and listen to the music and it was terrific we had the police come by to ensure that people were making sure that the people that were in the parking lot had their Riverhead parking permits and that was enforced and it was a wonderful wonderful night thank you again Councilwoman Woskie I appreciate that thank you I'd like to also mention that I'm going to be going this August 6th to the with Georgia head case or river head historian we're going to be going to the Suffolk County kickoff of America 250 anniversary that's on August 6th in bayshore for ideas on what all the towns are going to do for the upcoming anniversary next year I also like to mention that a couple of the committees are changing over which is nice every couple of years different leadership the inclusion task force is meeting this August 6th and I'm sorry yes it is August 6th and Lisa Fertel will be stepping down as chair and the committee will meet to vote on who they'd like to have as their next committee person and that'll be brought before the board to vote on also cap is going to be under new leadership as well Isabelle has left she's gone on to her career in teaching she's wonderful administrator she's going to be teaching in the city and getting married and there's going to be new leadership and cap starting in September there one break this month for her yes she's also the senior committee we're working on next month getting together and picking a new director of the city council and then we're going to be working on the new chairperson and also we're still in need of a veteran a senior veteran if anyone out there is interested in joining the senior citizens committee we'd love to have you the personnel committee councilwoman waski and I are on that we're always having interviews with people we you know it's a great job to work for the town you have your benefits you have a quality of life where you work very close to your job and you don't spend half your day commuting to and from your job and it's great people to work for in the town and you and you feel like you're a part of the community and you're a part of the community and you're a part of the community and you're a part of the community and you're really are helping your community so just ask everyone think about taking a job with the town it's a great opportunity and take that civil service test yes yes absolutely it also with regard to besides that the anti-bias task force committee that's changing over Mark McLaughlin has just announced at the last meeting that he's going to be stepping down in the fall and that a new committee will be arranged to select the new person that they'd like to be the chair and the new person that they'd like to be the chair and the new person that they'd like to be the chair and the new person that they'd like to be the chair and the new person that they'd like to be the chair and the new person that will be brought before the board as well to vote on mark has done a wonderful job with the committee in the last two years and most recently with the butterfly effect and the anti-bias task force getting together with the Riverhead PD and the Suffolk County PD and the Suffolk County DA's office to help regarding an incident that happened locally here we wish you all the best mark we're not done with you yet but we are we just want to let the public know that we'll be stepping down from that position so also and as dawn has mentioned with the parking well that will that committee is is getting together and a presentation will be made on August 21st with dawn Thomas myself and Kevin would the parking consultant talking about parking enforcement and how that's going to roll forward gradually parking enforcement techniques that we the town can employ shuttles that the town can utilize to help the business while we go through all these renovations that was Thomas spoke about that are going to be happening in the downtown so that's going to be very exciting things and the parking committee is very active in discussions on all of that the Chamber of Commerce I meet with monthly again they're very interested in the shuttles that we are talking about and also code revision as councilwoman wasky mentioned that we're both on that two things are of interest are coming up with that payment for parking in downtown downtown downtown for apartments that may be something in the code there's code revision coming on that and also promoting events in the certain events private events happening we may be working on some type of fee structure for applications for that those are things that code revision is working on the climate smart committee that was mentioned that again is also being revamped the internal green team is now going to consist of dawn Thomas Greg Bergman Joe right he is a civil engineer that works with Ken testa can testa emery prudenti and myself Andrew Dillingham Joe right is going to be the new coordinator when we lost Jason we had to replace them he's a civil engineer at the town he's wonderful he's already showing us that we really are at bronze which is very important for grants that we're going to continue to get we just have to submit because we actually do have a lot of the points for that we just have to get them finally submitted so we're working on revamping all of that and that's about it that's what I have okay can I just add one thing to my anti-litter that I had forgotten I would like to give a very big thank you to Deborah Wetzel she was the chair of the anti litter committee she has stepped down as chair she's still part of the committee willing to help out she just wants to slow down a little bit and we welcome Joanne Rizzo as the new chair for the anti-litter so thank you to both of them for and the rest of the committee for all of their great efforts in town Deborah led that for years yeah thank you it was very much appreciate it okay those are the matters we have for open session at this point in time I'm gonna go over I just have a couple announcements to make and one Joanne's kind of touched on tomorrow August 1st is the second night of a live on 25 the first one was a huge success come on down the main street starting at 5 o'clock to 9 o'clock and we have well we have that okay Justin if you could put something on the middle screen of the overhead camera here we have racing streetcar shows wrestling at 8 o'clock as Joanne mentioned reflection in the park 14 bands throughout the square and downtown and much more it it was a great event the last one we expect tomorrow to be the same it is going to be a little bit cooler it won't be so hot which is nice too and so definitely come out and come around if you look at the flyer that's out here now for national night out it's the 42nd annual national night out with the Rivet Police Department and this year it's being held in the town square years ago individual neighborhoods used to get together and celebrate crime prevention they decided to get together in one area and the police department will be hosting a barbecue down there all residents are invited to join the crime prevention unit will be in the town square right across from Suffolk Theatre they will have besides the free barbecue they will have canine and drone demonstrations they'll have a police car there and they'll have the police boat there and McGruff the crime dog and ice cream ice cream and also they have a dunk tank who's gonna get dunked. We're kind of hoping it's gonna be maybe one of the police officers not sure which one. Yes so come on down and celebrate crime prevention week it's the first I think it's the first Tuesday in August every year and it'll be a nice gathering down there. The police department's doing a great job, so I look forward to going down there. I was McGruff the crime dog myself for a good number of years. I was a crime prevention officer when I was in the police department, and I was the biggest, scariest, and ugliest crime dog you could ever see, but it gets hot as Hades in that suit, let me tell you. Whoever's got to wear it, if it's hot out, it's not fun. But McGruff will be there. Okay. That's not the real dog. Oh, no, no. Could you imagine feeding that dog or cleaning up after it? Just one quick announcement. The Detour Show is going on right now at East End Arts, and I'm just going to say this. It is a lot of the art in there is by some artists that are known worldwide. This is a serious art show. I would recommend that you go down and see this. What's it called? The Detour Show. Detour. Okay. Good. Excellent. This is a big deal for Riverhead. I don't think people appreciate this is a different game now with East End Arts. They've got really good artists down there. Wendy is doing a fantastic job with East End Arts, I have to say. She is really doing a great job. It's changed big time. Good. Good, good, good. Okay, that's it on announcements. We'll move on to resolutions. And I invited myself up to the table because it's a big packet. I hope that wasn't too perverse. No, that's perfectly fine. I think I need a little room to spread out today. I kind of like it better here. You just wanted to sit at the table. I do. I just wanted to be with the big kids at the big table. At the adult table. That's right. At the adult table for once. Okay, so if we're ready, we'll get right into them because we have a big packet ahead of us. Yes, go right ahead. All right. Resolution number one, accepts donation to the Riverhead Police Department for the purchase of jerseys for police athletic league. Yeah, Mr. Ocho Grosso, thank you so much for that. That's well appreciated, much appreciated. Thank you. Resolution number two, Water District Capital Project number 82126, budget adjustment.

Number three, budget amendment for Capital Project number 72306, Veterans Memorial Park Bike Path Restoration. So you guys touched on this before. So kind of put everything back together up there. Resolution number four, authorizes budget adjustment for settlement offered to tenant of 127 East Main Street, SNR Bar 24. And the dollar amount is on the second page there, 120,000. Resolution number five, 2024 budget transfers. This is just kind of standard procedure. This gets done every year before the audit is finalized. We just bring all the accounts that went negative throughout the year into the positive. Resolution number six, authorizes the removal of fixed assets. Okay. Resolution number six, authorizes the removal of fixed assets. Okay. Resolution number six, authorizes the removal of fixed assets. Okay. Number seven, declares certain fire marshal vehicle surplus property and authorizes disposal.

Number eight, this was a little bit of a formatting error, as you can tell, because the resolution is blank. But if you go to the second page, the now therefore be it resolved, that's where the meat of the resolution is. It's just a formatting problem. They've already fixed it upstairs, but the copy that you guys all have that was posted yesterday didn't get fixed in time. So the meat and potatoes are what you need to do. So what you need for that is on that second page. Resolution number nine, appoints a harbor master. Number ten, appoints a call in park attendant to the recreation department. Number 11, ratifies the appointment of a call in recreation specialist to the recreation department. Number 12, ratifies the appointment of a seasonal recreation aid to the recreation department. Number 13, ratifies the resignation of a senior wastewater treatment plant operator 2A. We're told that he went to Greener Pastures at a different municipality. Number 14, ratifies and accepts the resignation of a traffic control specialist.

Number 15, ratifies and accepts the resignation of a traffic control specialist. Number 16, ratifies the termination of a maintenance mechanic 2. Number 17, authorizes the demolition of a dangerous and unsafe structure at 40 17th Street, Wading River, New York, Suffolk County tax map number 600-52-2-23.1, pursuant to Chapter 217, Article 4 of the Riverhead Town Code. Number 18, extending blighted property registration fee for 330 Baywood Drive, Suffolk County tax map number 600. Number 19, adopts the Town of Riverhead Title 6 plan related to federal funding assistance to local government entities. We just spoke about that a few minutes ago. Number 20, authorizes funding application to the Dormitory Authority of New York State for capital improvements to the George Young Community Center. If we're fortunate enough to get this grant up to 700,000. There is a match component to it. But I'm told that if we are successful. The plans include replacing the HVAC at the Georgian Community Center. Much needed. Mr. Correct. Much needed. Mr. Replacing siding on the building. Elevator. Resurfacing the parking lot. Adding a pavilion in the back of the structure. Resurfacing the basketball court. Mr. Correct. Mr. And also adding a. Mr. A. [transcription gap] handicap ADA component to the playground. Oh, that's great. We've got our fingers crossed there, and great work by CDA and Liz Keller getting us at least in the running for that. Resolution 21, approves fireworks application for Riverhead Raceway, August 9, 2025, rain date August 16, 2025. Number 22, approves fireworks application for Batting Hollow Club, August 23, 2025. Number 23, approves fireworks application for Lisa and Richard Baker annual summer celebration, August 16, 2025. They do that every year down there. I think it's her birthday party. Is that what it is? Yeah, they do a barge out in the bay. Very cool. Resolution 24, approves special event chapter 255 application for Water Drinker Farm Garlic Festival, September 13-14, 2025. Resolution 25, approves special event chapter 255 application for Kenneth Rothwell, Friends of Ken Rothwell concert event.

Resolution 26, approves special event chapter 255 application for Riverhead Lions Club music for meals. This is what you were referring to before, Bob? Yeah. In the Grand Rebell Park, you're going to set this up. Okay. Resolution 27, approves special event chapter 255 application for Riverhead Polish. Paul, Polish Festival.

Number 28, designates alcohol service vendor to service alcohol at the Polish Town Street Fair and Festival, 2025. Coming up. 29, authorizes the supervisor to execute an agreement authorizing the town to accept funds from Suffolk County Office for the Aging to supplement the town's expanded in-home services for the elderly program. County contract. It's like a phone book. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Resolution 30, authorizes the supervisor to execute short-term runway use agreement for Race Track Not Street 2025 Summer Motorsports Racing Series. And all the dates are listed with the rain date of August 17th.

Number 31, authorizes supervisor to execute short-term runway use agreement for Race Track Not Street 2025 Fall Motorsports Racing Series. Again, the dates and the rain date's listed. Back by popular demand. Yes, sir. It is. Okay. Resolution number 32, authorizes agreement nunc pro tunc with Cuse and Forth Development Inc. We're going to just make one change to this resolution. It's a one-year renewal. And in the paragraph that says, now therefore be it resolved, we're going to just strike the one, two, three, fourth line. So the part that says now and all future agreements, we're going to remove that verbiage. So this is only going to pertain to the one-year renewal. We're not going to talk about further. We're going to talk about future agreements in this particular resolution. All right? Okay. Okay. Number 33, we had a little formatting issue with this resolution. The notice is not included, but it's going to take place on August 19th at or around 6 p.m. It's either going to be 6, 6-10, something like that. But this one, authorizes town clerk to publish and post notice to consider local law to amend Chapter 3 of the resolution. Number 301 of the Riverhead Town Code entitled Penalties for Offenses. And we talked about this at the work session last time. So as I said, the notice is missing and the adopt is there instead. So they just got switched. So that's been taken care of upstairs already. Resolution 34, adopts a local law to amend Chapter 269 of the Riverhead Town Code titled Shopping Carts. Number 35, adopts a local law to amend Chapter 217 of Riverhead Town Code titled Building, Building Construction and Improvements and Housing Standards, Section 8. There are titled demolition permits. Number 36, this resolution needs to be removed. This is one of three. They relate to publish and post for code changes. But the planner that is kind of championing this behind this, he did present, Greg Bergman presented in June. But it's been a little bit of time. So we're going to ask Greg to come back. He's away on vacation this week. We're going to ask him to come back. Okay. And get back to work. Okay. And sort of just refresh everybody on this before we go to publish and post. So number 36 we're going to pull out of the queue. Okay. Number 37, authorizes Town Clerk to publish and post notice to consider a local law to amend Chapter 289 of the Riverhead Town Code titled Vehicles, Traffic and Parking Regulations, Section 29 thereof titled Penalties for Offenses. This will take place on the 19th at 610. We talked about that last week at work session. Number 38, authorizes Town Clerk to publish and post a local law to amend Chapter 289 of the Riverhead Town Code titled Fire Prevention. Section 66 thereof titled Penalties for Offenses. Notice of violation. We're doubling the fines. Essentially you'll recall. We talked about that last time. August 19th at 6.15 PM. For the public hearing. Resolution number 39. Schedules a public hearing regarding the unsafe structure located at 39 Pie Lane, Jamesport, New York. Suffolk County. Tax map number 600.70.1.22. 2, pursuant to Chapter 217, Part 4, Article 4 of the Riverhead Town Code. Public hearing will be September 3 at 2 p.m. for that. Resolution number 40 authorizes the town clerk to publish and post notice to bidders for street lighting materials for the riverfront.

Number 41, this is the second of three that we're going to remove for the reasons we talked about before. And 42 we're going to remove also. And again, we'll just revisit the issue and then they'll be in a future packet to publish and post. Resolution number 43, the packet you guys have, the notice was inadvertently omitted. It has been added. But this ratifies authorization for public hearing for the purpose of conducting the Monroe Balancing Test for the Suffolk County Water Authority's proposed North Fork Water Main Extension Project. So this... Public hearing is going to take place August 19th at 6 p.m. And the notice is attached and will be included in the final packet that will be distributed tomorrow at the end of the day and posted online. Number 44, awards re-bid for installation of Water Main and appurtenances 205 Osborne Avenue. Number 45, awards bid for disposal and recycling of municipal solid waste. And just so everyone's clear, that is not residential solid waste. That comes... To your house, pick up the garbage. This is for town offices, recreational facilities, and other town-owned properties. Number 46, awards re-bid for lubricants. And number 47, pays the bills. And that's it. Okay. Very good. That's it on the resolutions. In a moment, I will ask to close the open session. So go into executive session. Thank you. So at this point in time, can I get a motion to close open session and go into executive session? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Okay. Open session is closed. We're going to adjourn to executive session. Everybody have a great weekend. I hope everybody made it through the heat wave well. We went out and checked on our... I rode the beaches the other day and checked on all of our lifeguards and employees up there. Sitting in the hot heat and making sure everybody was hydrated and in good shape, and they were. And I was a little surprised the beaches weren't totally packed during that heat wave, but they were about usual number of cars there. But everything was well. We got through another heat wave. It's going to be a little cooler tomorrow and come down to a live on 25. And I might even let you say happy birthday to me down there tomorrow. Okay? All right. Thanks, everybody. Be safe and we'll see you next week.