Full Transcript

Thank you. Thank you. 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, Bob.

Okay, for open session we have one matter today, and that's going to be the Matters Surrounding America 250 committee and kickoff event. It will be with Waski, Merrifield, and Burkowski. But before that, let me go over. Let's go over the announcements we have today. Friday, December 5th, Riverhead Fire Department is having their community blood drive. That's right here at the main headquarters on Roanoke Avenue. And that's from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. And this time of year, blood is always in short supply. So if you can come down and donate blood, that would be awesome. Saturday, December 6th, is a very exciting day for the town. The Riverhead Holiday Extravaganza will be taking over the town hall campus. A collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce, the Lions, the BIDMA, East End Arts, Townscape, and WLNG Bill Evans. He will live broadcast along with music groups. The events start at 3 o'clock, Free Hot Chocolate and Community Barn Fire, and shopping with the Merry Market. East End Arts will have two community art projects. 3.30 p.m. there's a puppet show and craft show. At 4.30 p.m. the Holiday Parade will start. 3.30 p.m. the Holiday Parade will start. 2.30 p.m. it's aай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай.ай to be a little chilly and then we will do the tree lighting here at the Town Hall campus which will be right out on the south side of this building that will be a 530 p.m. and all events will end at 8 o'clock also on Saturday December 6 the Suffolk Theatre will have a double feature 3 o'clock showing the movie elf and later in the evening at 8 p.m. will be violent night tickets are available online and at Suffolk Theatre also on Saturday December 6 the Suffolk County Historical Society is having a special holiday event their annual wooden wonderland and artisanal gift fair and that will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Suffolk County Historical Society then on Sunday December 7 Hallockville is having an open house and it's called holidays at Hallockville that will be from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. and we also have a nice announcement today a very exciting announcement and we have we have scheduled finally our town square groundbreaking ceremony and that's going to be held on December 12th at 12 noon and that will be at 127 East Main Street right across from the Suffolk Theatre this has been a long time coming it's very exciting and we have all the dignitaries from the state and the county and different organizations that have funded this project will be present along with elected officials and it's very exciting and we can't wait for the 12th to get here anybody else have any copy I have one so in the lobby of Town Hall there is a bin to drop off clothing shampoo you know glasses if you have readers that you have laying around for veterans and you can do it today and anybody that wants to do it tomorrow I'll be available three o'clock on tomorrow to to get you into the building for the drop-off so thank you I'll just mention our on behalf of our highway superintendent Mike Susky is doing a toy drive he's just done it every year has been very successful so please as a reminder you can stop by the highway yard and drop off a new gift for children and it's a he does a lot of great things and I think it's a great opportunity to do that. it's a great job collecting but I'm sure also on Saturday when you have the events here there's people coming bind want to bring it into it I'm sure it's here it out it's out for you it's out for you. it's out for you. it's out for you. it's out for you. it's out for you. it's out for you. it's out for you. it's out for you. area and they'll just be moving west after that. I just want to say thank you to the groundskeeping crew. The traffic circle over Roanoke is beautiful. The way they lit it with the Christmas trees. It just looks so festive and pretty. They do a great job. I think that's sponsored by the bid and the townscape. Am I forgetting anybody else? I think it's those two organizations. Chamber. Sorry. Yep. As I'm looking at Liz. It is absolutely gorgeous. It's beautiful. I saw it last night. So thank you guys very much. Okay. Let's move on to the matter we have for open session. Matter surrounding America 250 committee and kickoff event with Waskie, Maryfield, and Burkowski.

Yeah. Liz and Brian, why don't you guys come on up? Yeah. We need the team up here. Our town historian. Come on up. You can look on the right side. I sat in mine and it was like all that goes in kindergarten. There's a trigger on the right. Good morning, everybody. Just state your names and your positions. I am Debbie Burkowski. I'm the chief of staff. I'm Georgia Case. I'm the town historian. I'm Brian DeLuca, director of the Long Island Aquarium. Liz O'Shaughnessy, executive director of Riverhead Chamber of Commerce. Okay. Excellent. Do we have somebody online also or no? I'm going to call Megan. Okay.

Hi. I'm going to put you on speaker. Okay. So we have Megan Howard online. She's part of our committee as well along with Councilwoman Waskie, Councilwoman Maryfield, and there's several others that are part of the committee. So we started a committee. Several months ago, we put it out to the residents of the town, any businesses, groups that wanted to be part of planning this event. As we know, America is turning 250 next July 4th, 2026. We're working hard on putting events together and thoughts and things that we can do town wide, not only right here in the town, but from Wading River all the way to Laurels. We want everything to happen all year round. But we have a very exciting event to talk about, which Megan's going to talk, which is why we're here today. We're kicking off our first event.

Good morning, everyone. I'm sorry I couldn't be there in person, but I just wanted to share some exciting news. As Debbie said, coming up, we are asking that any and everyone save the date for Friday, January 23rd. We are going to be kicking off our our our our our our our our our our our our our our our our our our own our own will take place at the Seastar Ballroom, which is attached to the Long Island Aquarium. And it's going to be a really fun event. We would love everyone to wear their finest red, white, and blue attire. Or if you're feeling extra creative and you want to dress in historical or colonial fashions, you're welcome to do that. And we will actually have some prizes for a costume contest for those who are interested in participating in that. And as part of the event, we're going to have music. We're going to have a beautiful Tuscan table, which is charcuterie, meats, cheeses, salads, a pasta station, past hors d'oeuvres, and desserts. There will be a cash bar. And we are looking at some exciting things to include for that evening, including the potential for something called Cold Sparklers, which is a safe sparkler option that can be used inside the building. And we thought that might be very festive as a way to kind of kick off our 250 celebration and get everyone excited and involved in the town. And we will be giving you some more details on the event if everything comes together, including ticketing, prices, and how to purchase tickets. We're just finalizing some of those details. But our goal is to make this a very accessible event for anyone in the town who might want to attend. And we're super excited about it. Excellent. Very good. Thanks, Megan. Full disclosure, Megan is my daughter. Hi, Dad. She's been very good. I'm very excited about this 250 committee. And this is something that's being done, obviously, nationwide. But it's also on a local level. Suffolk County has put together a team of people. And they've reached out to each town and village in the county. And they're coordinating everything together. So there's kind of going to be, I guess, my understanding, some sort of a handbook explaining who's having what, when, where, and what's going on. Eventually, that's going to come out. So this is a big thing. Everybody's excited countywide. And most of the towns are participating. And I know Georgette has been going to meetings up west with the county. And do you have any updates, Georgette, you could give us with that? No, they're in recess until February. Okay. But everybody's coming together. And different towns are putting stuff together. And that's like a collaboration of what everybody's doing. So it's very exciting. 250 years is a big milestone for the country. Yeah. The county put together. Yeah. And they put together what they're calling a passport. And it's sort of like a regular passport if you travel overseas. But you can purchase it on Amazon. We're going to put all that information on our website as well. But there is a live map on the Suffolk County's website with stars that are events that are ongoing. So you can go to historical places. You can go see reenactments. You can go see talks about all sorts of different things. And you can go to places that throughout Long Island. But Suffolk County in general has this passport. You go there and you get a stamp from wherever you visited. And you can collect this kind of a nice key safe for the event. But this has been a process. I think the county's been working on this for like two years. So and Georgette has really been pounding to get going. And start scheduling events. And things. But so we're real excited. We are. We have a nice committee. The library is with us. East End disability. East End arts. BIDMA. And we have some residential historians that were either past teachers or professors at local colleges that really want to be a part of this. So we're hoping that we can really get some nice events going. And we had decided as a committee we would start in January and have something every single month. And hopefully we can do that town wide. Not just right here. If any organizations or groups throughout the town from Wading River to Laurel, you know, if anybody has any ideas of something that they would like to do to participate, you know, reach out. You know, Councilman Kern shared with me last week an old video from 1967. And. There was a ball here in Riverhead at the armory. And there was a thousand people in attendance at the ball. And it was a great, great video. Yeah. I think I'm going to ask Justin to run. There's three videos. One is the parade from the 175th anniversary, I think. And the other one is an interview, a tour from the supervisor from 1966 all around. Yeah. And I think that's the one that's going to be on the town. And there was one other. And I know. Oh, and the ball. And the ball, yeah. So it introduces people coming into the ball. And I would like to try to run it at 7 o'clock at night, like every night. So that people know, you know, that they can watch it, you know, like if you didn't see it, and I did, you could watch it at 7 o'clock. That was fascinating because the ball, everybody was dressed. Right. And like. That's where I was going with the ball. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've seen that on, I don't know if that was Channel 22 in the past or somewhere. I've. We've had it up in the past. Yeah. I've seen that. And they wear, are all wearing the costumes. It's really cool. Yeah. Yeah. It's just the energy that was in the room. And everybody was just a part of this great ball. And I really hope to see that with the ball in January and have everybody come together because it's always a great thing for our town. Yeah. So get your costumes now. Everyone. Yes. Red, white, and blue. Probably going to sell out. This is a great opportunity for Bob to honor a lot of his friends. Yes. Bob had a lot of . Thank you. People don't know Bob missed. You want to see the rest? Bob loaned his horse to Paul Revere. A lot of people don't know that. So Bob was very active back then. Yeah. I think he used to brought the at the ball. Well, I think that the ball is the great way to start and to have different events from, you know, January to January. Yeah. So we're going to have a parade leading up to the Fourth of July where we plan to have a parade with floats from, you know, our fire departments and surrounding departments, local businesses, historic antique groups, old cars. And then we will be having fireworks at South Jamesport Beach the evening of the Fourth of July. better way to have the fourth of july than to have fireworks on a beach or at a beach yeah it's a great location when i was a little kid that was where uh all the fires the town fireworks were at south james fort beach back in the day so we're very lucky we were able to get a fireworks uh company it's going to be out on a barge in the water so not only will you be able to pull up on your boat but be able to see it from the surrounding areas and then at the beach itself we're hoping that we get some festivities at the beach as well so well thank you supervisor i'm locking in that the fireworks it was because it's always the fourth of july the fireworks because it was like within days they were completely filled up for next july 4th and there was not going to be any opening so yeah debbie you've been instrumental with everything pulling this all together it's like i i don't know it's been exciting where you find your time you are one busy owl i sneak it in here and there very good now with the parade also is it it can be all different eras right in different decades in terms of participants in the parade you can be from a different you know maybe a 1920s car yesterday is history yes so all the way back all the way back for 250 years with different ways to participate and floats you can have in the parade different eras might have a vehicle in the parade we will yeah i'm sure you will good for you oh one of my vehicles too yeah yes for sure we'll have one of them the turtle i just want to mention um also that we invite any resident business any groups that are interested in participating in any of these events we have an email here at the town at town of riverhead ny.gov and anybody who is interested in ideas or they want to participate or they want to volunteer it would be great because we'd love to get the community involved and excited about all of this this is great another thing about getting the community involved is we've been talking about as a committee uh you know making the town festive so so the 250 there's a logo which is a ribbon right white and blue ribbon with 250 and and you go online is is endless things that you can purchase but so making the town look festive between main street the banners flags uh yard signs lawn signs and just really getting the community to really really embrace uh red white and blue uh so we're working on a sponsorship package that we would put together and you know sponsors starting with the fireworks and helping contribute to that from you know helping contribute to the dj for the event um but really to purchase flags and lawn signs and lawn um uh flags that go in the yard instead of the garden signs and have your your sponsor name on there and then you know the majority of that sign is america 250 and then having that red white and blue through all the communities so we're working on a kind of a sponsor package with different tiers to really have communities and neighborhoods just you know really look festive along with our main streets um and then you know those are those are different points uh for the amount of flags or banners you would have and then we're also looking at uh these stars i think they're 12 inch stores or two different size stars that uh people can purchase for 10 and 20 and then they'll will decorate town hall from the entire exterior of the building from the inside on the glass you put your name your family name you purchase that and it's kind of a contribution to america's 250 so you know this hub will be you know all full with stars um it's already has a bunch of stars so i'll say that but it'll be filled with stars nice right i just came up with that one i didn't write it down uh but you know i think so it gives us different levels for people to participate from ten dollars up to you know fifteen thousand dollars in sponsorships and and i think the town main street uh with with the flags the banners and community i think we really have a really cool opportunity to you know make riverhead stand out as uh celebrating our 250. the anniversary from those brits yes in the town with the red wine and boy yeah from those berry fields yeah lastly i just want to say we would be remiss not to say our partners here which we have lives from the chamber of commerce um we lisa from the lions uh townscape uh all of these groups we've been working together and they're part of the committee and everybody's really working as a community and so i'm wondering if you can tell us a little bit more about the to make everything so great not only for this Saturday's event which is the extravaganza but also for America 250 so thank you to your judges as you all know is a wealth of knowledge and you know just always been steadfast and I was trying to get on her dance card for the ball first got information there and it was an old dance card in 1970 so yeah so there's there's you know really a great archive of information there that's kind of helped in feeding us into transition to send to really great celebration for a six-month period to that that that crescendo of the 4th of July at the Jamesport Beach so I think we're excited about the things to come and you know the group's working and the kickoff is gonna be great but white blue is a great idea and we're excited and you know looking for a blessing from you guys to say let's keep you know going forward excellent you know I think that's a great idea and I think that's a great idea and I think that's a very exciting I have some history that I think we need to recognize and I've been asking three different businesses and a church if they would like a historic marker like a state marker that's big like this and one has already signed up and I'm waiting for the answer for that in January we are going to have a display in the exhibit this lobby yes and the Suffolk chapter Daughters of the American Revolution is going to have a display there and listen closely because we are going to have the names of it it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's there are a number of them. That's terrific. That's great. Some of the roads in town are named after these patriots and soldiers. So that's the history side of it. Very good. Thank you very much. Well, I thank you guys, and I know you're meeting on a regular basis, so keep up the great work. So on the website's going to kind of, you know, as we keep flushing out events, because I know that the Suffolk Theatre, April's looking at kind of a, right at 20's theme, you know, with their art deco. So I think as the committee keeps, you know, meeting, we'll keep flushing out different events to kind of keep the celebration rolling and forefront for this lead up to July 4th. Excellent. Very good. Very exciting. Yes. Good work. Good work. I don't know about the lawn signs. Thank you, everybody. Good work. Their flag, you know, the garden flags. Oh, they have a flag. Garden flags, yeah. That you put in your garden. Oh. They're nice, Bob. Thanks for clarifying that. Yeah. That's good. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for all of your work.

Between this and the extravaganza, my head's like... It'll be an exciting year. We've got people in town to put on events, so... Very exciting. Very neat. It's so great for the community, though, to see all of the groups coming together and working together and are doing a great job, I think. A lot of collaboration. Sue Young, I think, is the one from Townscape, right? Yes. Yep. Excellent. Very good. All right. In a moment, I'm going to ask to go into executive session to discuss under contractual matters surrounding contractual agreement between the Town of Riverhead and New York State DOT. That will be with Howard and Thomas. We will have matters surrounding the town of Riverhead, and we'll have a discussion with Howard and Thomas. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. have matters surrounding a possible sale of real property with Howard and Thomas. So if I could have a motion to close open session and go into executive session. So moved. Seconded. Okay, all in favor? Aye. Aye. All opposed? Okay, open session is closed and we will be going into executive session. People, don't forget about the holiday extravaganza this weekend, December 6th, right here on the Town Hall campus. It's all on the website. We hope to see many of you out there. So enjoy, stay healthy, and hopefully we'll see you this weekend. Thank you.