Full Transcript

Thank you. Good morning everybody. Today is Thursday, September 17, 2026. We're here for a work session. Before we go any further, we're going to stand and say the pledge together. Councilwoman Merrifield, would you lead us please? 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 very much. So, I wasn't sure if we had any council people that had announcements this morning. I actually do. So, I have good and bad news. So the good news is the BID is producing a haunted walking tour throughout October, which is going to be based on actual stories that did happen here in the town of Riverhead. and it's kind of like a theater kind of walking vibe thing and we'll take you all down Main Street and it's going to be fantastic. The bad news is that it's already sold out. I was shocked it went on sale the first week of September and the other day, done. So you're going to have to wait until nearly next year if you want to go to it, if you didn't already get tickets. I did not get a ticket. I'm very disappointed. But I think that it's going to be a great event. There's nothing like having a sold-out event for something that we've never done here and we've never had before. So that's just one of the great things that the bid is working on. And more to come. It was too scary for you. Is that what you're saying? I'm shaking a little. She wasn't scared. That's the truth. I wasn't scared. Good stuff. exciting to anybody else? I actually have something. It's not currently in the town, but it's going to be. This is the Jazz Loft. This Saturday over in Stony Brook Village on the Green, they're going to be doing a lot of their outdoor concerts. And I just thought if anybody in the neighborhood wants to go check it out, this is the kind of thing that they're going to be bringing to our town, hopefully very, very soon. So I just, if you have a chance, you can kind of see what great performances they can give, and they're going to be giving eventually here when they finish. And I know they've been working on the revitalization of the building over on at the Vale of it. So I just give everybody a little taste of what they're going to be bringing to Riverhead. They're going to be on Saturday performing outdoors at the Village Green there all during the day. The jazz loft. I mean, yes, the jazz. Thank you very much. That's awesome. Good to hear. Anyone else? So we have one more announcement this morning about the town historian Georgette has a special announcement for us on this very special day and let her come to the podium and share that with us. In honor of the 237th birthday of the United States Constitution, I would like to read the preamble to the Constitution. And if anybody remembers it, please join me. We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, to ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America. Thank you. Thank you, Chet. That was really good.

Thank you very, very much, Georgette. So with that, we will go to our open session items. As we co-roll our first one, we'll be doing our reports today. So we'll have matters surrounding the monthly report from the police department with Chief Frost.

Good morning, Chief. Good morning. Morning, sir. Morning. So this will be for July and August. You guys, I see you guys have it.

Obviously, July was, compared to last year, was a little bit busier. We were up almost, we were up 328 incidents. We had 177 criminal incidents. and a big factor, which is great to see, and our alarm billing finally is kicking in. I brought that to you guys last time that we were having to manually do it, so we were able to get the mailings out, and we are now collecting the false alarm fees again, which raises our revenues up in that section. So looking at the criminal instance, I took a look at it, and there's nothing really. You know, obviously it was July. You know, simple assaults were up, which is harassments and assault thirds. That was up from June, and shoplifting was up, obviously, you know, in the 58 corridor. You know, that's kind of common. Those are the two biggest areas that I see that is up, and there's no correlation to anything really leading to it. It's just July is busy, and we're ahead.

DWI enforcement actually jumped as well, so it went from 14 to 20 people, individuals. We had one, sorry that's August. Did it go to August? No, it was, yeah, it would go to August. Anybody have a question? Just July, we had one non-fatal. It was a 32 year old man. That's pretty much it for July. So you don't have any questions about July? People have one question. I don't know how complicated this is, but I really think it's important for the public to know. Out of all these arrests and incidents, how many of them, because of bail reform, just keep walking the street? Is there a way to add a column here so that the public knows all the work you're doing, and as a result of bail reform, these people just get released the same day? I can track that because we track how many people we hold overnight in our detention. I think that would be really important for the public to see at this point, because the cost of that is ridiculous. and I know it puts a huge burden on you guys because from my understanding you can arrest the same person two or three times a week and they know there's no ramifications and they're back out on the street I would say that's a larger portion to be honest yeah that's at this point I mean that's a huge problem and I think it's also important for the residents to realize that's why we increase the police force yes you know otherwise this would be the same effort in And all the paperwork that goes into it for a case to go to prosecution with the district attorney's office and go into justice court or end up in grand jury across the river is time consuming. And yes, they do, unfortunately. Just because of bail reform laws, it's a mandatory release where years ago we could hold them based on bail. Can I also follow up that topic? Councilman Curran, following up with what you're talking about, the bail reform, I also want to ask the Chief, too. In years past, we would be able to hold people with ice holes, correct? Detention holes, where if you would be able to notify the federal authorities if you had someone in custody, is that correct? Well, that gets sent automatically when they get printed. It gets sent to, it goes to NCIC. and usually by the time, unfortunately back then, we've never, in my time, we've never held anybody for ICE overnight or even delayed them getting released. The only way it would be is what it currently is, you need a judicial warrant. That would give us where we could hold them, and then we would just notify the Department of Homeland Security to respond and take custody of them. So that has not changed in, I'm going to say, years, to be honest. Right. That's what I was getting at. And same thing with regard to the Suffolk County Jail. They used to be able to notify ICE when they were going to be releasing someone, right? Is that correct? They did, and they got sued and lost. So they actually, a group of them, I guess a judge said it was improper for them to do that. Right. But there were, in the past, there used to be a way, a mechanism where the federal authorities would be notified that someone was going to be released and that violent criminal who was being released. Years ago. Right, years ago. I just wanted to get the public aware of that concept that there was a way that you could hold people in custody there and wouldn't be releasing them out onto the street so we wouldn't have the situation. They usually would have a New York State penal law charge or a vehicle traffic law that would get them to go to jail to be held for trial. And at that point, the Suffolk County Jail was notifying the Department of Homeland Security that this person is in custody. Yes. But again, that went to a trial, and it was unfortunately, you know, Suffolk County was found to be liable for like millions of dollars. So cheap. Just to let people know with regard to also the bail laws that you're referring to, Councilman Kern, that, you know, that's releasing people back on the street right away, and they're not being held. so there's no way of really notifying anyone by the time you have them. They're let right back out, right? Correct. Well, hopefully on January 1st we have a new governor, and you'll be able to do your job again. You know, you have obviously Governor Hochul came down with a whole bunch of new laws this year, and we're adjusting our policies to be in compliance with them. But you also have, I think, 15 or 16 upstate sheriffs that are actually, you know, put a lawsuit in on those policies. because there are actually elected officials as well. And obviously they're mandated now. They can't have the 287G policies. There's a lot of things that law enforcement in New York State can't and will be in violation of law. And these would have been ways to make sure that individuals would not be getting out on the streets so that they wouldn't have to be apprehended out in the street with the general public by ICE. So I just want the public to be aware of that concept when some people believe that ICE is creating so much violence and fear in the communities, there are ways if individuals are actually apprehended at the facilities where they're initially arrested or held, that it would be a much safer way to do this. But the state, New York State, and Governor Hochul does not allow that. So I would just recommend people, if they're concerned about that, contact the governor's office and ask for changes on that level. And I also want to just follow up, Chief, with regard to domestic violence. I see there's a big uptick in the July and also the August. And I wanted to ask if that is related to individuals in the immigrant population that might... I'd be unable to make a comment on that. I just think July and August, it's usually hot outside. And, you know, unfortunately, spouses and boyfriends and girlfriends, they, you know, argue. I don't see anything in regard to the immigration or the, you know, that population. I just want the public to know, too, that U visas are still in effect. Is that correct for individuals? That's a policy where if you are not legal but you are a victim of a crime, You can report that crime to the police and you can apply for a U visa so that you're not in trouble with the fact that you're not legally here in the country. Because we want to make people aware that you can always report crime and do that without fear of retribution. I just want the public to be aware of that. Well, I mean, our numbers, obviously, I know individuals have stated that, but our numbers remain consistent throughout the years on the total number of incidents that are coming into our department. it's I mean actually we have higher even in August where we're up we're up 100 we're up 300 from last year so it's not like we're losing you know we're losing incidents so it's just if I could go back now to it if I can go back so with bail reform how long does it take an officer off the street in other words they get arrested for shoplifting they have to do the report to the DA's office. They have to wait for the DA's office to respond. How long does that take? I would say a normal pedant lawsuit arrest probably is going to be about three hours. So that takes an officer off the street for three hours. So this is more than reckless because it's costing the taxpayers a fortune what Cuomo started and Hochul continues. And this has nothing to do with politics. This has to do with taxpayers having to, you know, pay for more police because of the ridiculous laws that are in place right now in the state. Thank you. Yep. All right. We'll go to August. Like I said, we're up again from last year, the same month. We're up 100 total incidents. Domestics are pretty much the same as last 2025. criminal incidents were higher it's 197 compared to 155 and again you see the simple assaults up, shopliftings up that's one of the biggest jumps again driving under the influence we went up 10 individuals for that from 20 to 30 um yeah it's just those are it's the summertime you know it's kind of kind of normal to be honest more visitors coming into the yeah there's a lot more a lot more people in the on the roads a lot more people visiting the town and you know we were definitely busy this summer um so um the revenue is still going with the like i said we're we're up because of the alarm billing which good so I mean that's pretty pretty good hopefully stays steady now in that area anything you need from us that in terms of it helping your department no I mean I can use seven more people which I'm losing no like like quickly no I'm like I said you know we there have just the public is aware there's seven people took the early retirement incentive now gonna be leaving very shortly I am in the process of I already had called for a list and we're starting that process you know we'll wait pretty much mid through that process now so hopefully in December we'll be able to replace the seven down that we lost retired as soon as possible so and in the spring there's a new police test coming out that people can take and posted it to the town posted it on their websites and I asked Justin to put it on the roll for 22 and as a QR code that you anybody you can scan for the information for it you know it goes to Suffolk County Civil Service and there's another informational page and it gives a little breakdown of you know the job and what's required and chief and just to say that thank you for the work with regard to the parking that really that really helped a lot with the enforcement and those back lots five and six I mean yes five and partial of six and also on Main Street I was just with the Chamber of Commerce this morning and they said there's been a big reduction on Main Street that there are spots opening up and in that back lot too so thanks for the efforts there and continuing forward okay also I was requested by the Beach Committee which We have our chair, Mark Eldaff, is here today. They had asked me to please thank you and your department for all that you did over the summer with the beaches. They're very, very pleased with everything, so they asked me to say thank you. Thank you. Did you ask Mark to say thank you?

Thank you very much. Thanks. Have a good day. So our next report will be with our Justice Court. Have our counselor come forward and walk us through that.

Good morning. Okay, so does everyone have copies? If not, I've got six of each. All right. Oh, I do. I'm sorry. It's under here. I know you have an extra. Oh, thank you. Everyone else looks like they have it. Okay. July was pretty strong. We collected 47, 780 in town code and parking. 11, 8 of that was blight mitigation. 22,500 was fire marshal. And 11, 325 was just other categories in town code. August, I'm just going to do an overall and then I'll take questions. August was a much later month. They had a one-week summer vacation. and on the 18th, court was abruptly canceled. So we did not get to resolve as many cases as I would have liked to in that month, but we did make up for it this past Tuesday, all of those cases. So September will be pretty robust. So combined, July and August is $63,750. As always, I just want to emphasize dollar amount isn't everything. It's getting them to court. It's getting them into compliance. It's having those trials, it's certifying the cases, and it's putting pressure on those who are violating the code to get everything into compliance. So I'm averaging about one trial a month. I had one trial in July, one in August, and I have one coming up next week. And what else do I want to say? Body cam has been very helpful in our open alcohol and public urination cases. I can't thank PD enough for getting me the body cam on short notice and it's really helping this whole process be very transparent and it's it's making everything much better on my end so that's what I have sure I don't mean to put you on the spot blight mitigation the blight that we have downtown buildings that have been vacant for decades that is hurting our downtown businesses that are trying to survive down there what can we as a town do to hold the property owners accountable so code you go there they could put up a notice of violation to put the owner on notice that they need to clean up their property they can issue tickets right off the bat they can also post the property for a cleanup and then you know put there's a photo friend oh yeah I was going I was gonna bring this up with you as well but then when I saw Victoria had the okay so if you want to add anything to that so yeah when we get blighted properties we there's a there's a code actually for blighted properties and we established by a point rating and so when they exceed a certain amount of points on a property we can charge them commercial properties $5,000 residential properties is $2,500 I'm specifically talking about downtown Main Street sure these buildings have been sitting there for years and it's disgusting and I don't think that $5,000 is enough at this point I would like to see those fines increased for offenses after the first offense is given if it's not mitigated I'm telling you I've had it I just I see what's happening and these businesses are trying to keep their doors open and the landlords of these other buildings that are charging an astronomical rate to lease these buildings people cannot afford that and they're just sitting there empty and it's a major problem and I really want to advocate for the downtown businesses that that are open and trying and get rid of the the blight that's down on main street because it's not fair and i sincerely want to change that yeah certainly don't want five thousand dollars just to be a cost of doing business yeah they're getting tax write-offs at the end of the year because they're they're going and saying that they you know they can't rent out their space you know when when you're asking for eight seven you know ten thousand dollars in rent a month that's ridiculous they're playing the system and I've had it I'm not sitting by and watching this happen anymore sure we can explore the raising the fees code yeah and also the cleanup actions yeah so maybe I'd like to put that on the agenda for uh code revision for this month okay all right on a friend is out

victorian did you okay so we answered that questions we have a plan for that that do we have anything else about justice court trials your conditioning works it is very cold in there now okay you're doing a great job thank you yes you are thanks okay I'll leave it in your capable hands Rich do you want to stand in case he has to phone a friend I'll sit in the wings here if you need anything just to Joanne's point that's why you know in terms of the tax write-off that is why downtown sat vacant for over 15 years because they were charging so much in rent knowing nobody was going to rent it and it was write-offs pure and simple yeah and I do want to mention we are aware of a couple of buildings already down on the Main Street area that have become blighted and we're in the process of doing the flight of properties right now so if you want to see me after we can discuss any specific ones that you're concerned about and we'll put that you know thank you on the agenda for us it's not fair it's it has to come to an end yep good deal very rich bamboo yes bamboo has been a hot topic Yes, it has. We need panda bears. So, code enforcement report for July, August. We investigated a total of 179 complaints for those months. The larger areas of activity for the two-month period were property maintenance violation. That's always one of our highest, 41 for that. residential building without permits we had 21 rental verifications we did 16 we had streets and sidewalk violations were 11 noise ordinance violation we had 10 and transient rentals we had nine rich I got a question on docking regulations is that we talking about the boat that's down yes yes specifically that what's define on that I'd have to revisit it I know we were trying to do a code amendment to change the penalties we need to do that yeah we got to revisit that yeah code amendment we're discussing it now yeah how was hired two part-time code officers yep individual yeah we just interviewed for it this week this week and we got a good candidate I'm not sure whether or not he accepted the position but like specifically we took that specific action to have two additional part-time code for us what all this is I kind of really want to narrow in on how that's exactly what we want to say is that based on what we're paying them and based for the summonses but more importantly bettering the quality of life in Riverhead so that's what you're doing thank you very much but how is that working out tell me a little more about you know the sport took yeah we were again I was gonna get into that but yeah we're actually it's paying off we are seeing an uptick on this we have one nighttime part-time guy that's going around just doing regular patrols and he's coming up with plenty of notice of violations and we're getting we're getting to those houses not just complaints that we received but he's actually proactive out there looking for certain things people parking the cars on the lawns people parking cars on the lawns property maintenance code violations that's part of our uptake here when the property maintenance code stuff so yeah it is definitely paying off he is working on Sunday I hope I drove through town this past Sunday and shaking my head as I was I'm like on a mission today I'm a little ticked off it's okay transient rentals are you getting the information I know that the new code that was established that you know gives that prima facie if you're putting this out on Facebook and all these other have you gotten any results with that so we're just bringing those to court now so we'll see what happens in court but yeah it's been a big help to us with the presumptive evidence right yeah so you are catching people with that yes we are okay good yeah I wonder what point we have to hire an assistant to the assistant town attorney's office to do the court proceedings that's a good question for Eric again I firmly believe that you know when the charge on getting these additional code enforcers and then we said that I just I think we're turning you know around a corner where the town of Riverhead is now being proactive as opposed to you going out and we can see the things we shouldn't solely be relying on our residents to call in on their neighbors and report things and so I'm going to commend you on that that working and we're seeing things before yeah thank you else needs a phone and that's what's making a difference and that changes again and I knew that with tickets and summonses that you cover the cost of those officers but more importantly change a better quality of life here so yeah we're really at this point now you know I'd like to sit down with you and just see how we're doing what's max it out the whole town that we're doing a nice clean sweep yeah perfect yeah we're trying to break it down to sectors so we only have one guy now but we hope to have the second guy and he'll hit the ground running and we'll have him in a different sector between his school yeah Richard very qualified guy by the way which I think it's really important for the residents and know that the reason why parking lots, the potholes get paved, is because of your department. And I'm going to use two examples. One is at the Dunkin' Donuts, which was a disaster. And the other one is behind Firestone, which was an unbelievable disaster, which is now fixed, and that's because of you guys. So thank you for that. Yeah, we got another one that we're working on. Yeah, it's so important because some of these some of these holes are absolutely large enough to break axles on cars Yeah, they're pretty bad. Yep Yep All right. So moving on with the tickets and violations that we issued we issued 147 that we reported Some of the items listed are you know included with building without permits certificate of occupancies rental occupancy permits that were required, unregistered vehicles, unpermitted signs, solid waste violations. Those are dumpings and litter. And some zoning and land use violations, including some stop work orders that we issued.

We'll move on to rental properties. Rental applications that we received between July and August was 128 our revenue that we collected was 77,290 inspections that we completed were 155 and the total rental permits that we issued were 237 I don't mean to put you on the spot but it's the new code that we've enacted that talks about the accessory dwelling units is that helping get these illegal apartments in compliance now with that that's is that creating the uptick so the new code that we did for accessory dollar units now require them to get a rental permit right we haven't seen a whole lot come in yet because the program is fairly new but we expect to see an uptick in that I was wondering if that's what was helping with the uptick on the number of permits this is not yes but I'm sure I'm sure it's going to reflect yes yeah year-to-date rental applications received is 538. Rental revenue collected 294,605. Inspections that we completed 617 and total rental permits issued to date 893. some additional notes I included there I won't go through everyone but as I discussed earlier property maintenance remain the largest category and that's primarily because of the extra part-time officer that we have hitting those hitting the streets thank you very much thank you All right, next one will be with our town clerk, Mr. Wooden. But you only have one month because we squeezed you in for a dog license. I can't wait. Oh, boy. Well, either way. We're really not punitive. We're more compliance officers. We make sure you have the proper rabies shots and dog licenses and fishing licenses. We're reactive. We're just here to serve. that's what we do in the clerk's office but yeah of course we're the routing officer for foils and sort of saline and dated with about 250 dollars that we have to route every month and they're getting better we're not getting as many complaints with the new system that we're going to be implemented that's going to help with a lot that's our hope and I certainly will be watching that hunting license are up of course as service just started for those and the end of August so hunting licenses are up fishing licenses are up and of course marriage licenses are up August and September a big marriage I am still working with IT and Chip I've done a lot of marriages this month I'll be honest with you and more to come I am working with IT and we're still investigating different companies that might be able to complement our agenda software for AI services as far as transcripts go I mean there are a couple people in town that would like to see verbatim minutes it's a core center that we really can't afford nor is it needed but there's an AI service that can present that that would be great so we're looking at that other towns are starting to investigate that so I'm hoping that we can maybe kick something off the first year with that just keep being amazing that's it you know you deserve you can get those bingo license revenues up great job sir thank you very much for our next matter we'll go to we actually have sherry Davis and mark matter surrounding possible addition of artwork to honoring first responders people at home may not know but Sherry did our woven flag that we're so proud and thankful and humbled to accept here at Town Hall and so we also have from CDA miss Krista Collins and from our engineering department can test to help guide us through this so Sherry introduced a project to us a sculpture that she was working on for first responders and we met downtown she was looking to have it somewhere along the riverfront so Ken and I and Dave met downtown to discuss a couple of possibilities for the location and I think we narrowed it down to two and Sherry was going to do some renderings for which one would be best

Sorry, I was looking over there. So what we're, well, first of all, I want to thank everyone for all your help. Carissa, Ken, Dave, Wendy Weiss was involved at one point. Actually coming up with the idea of putting it downtown in the first place, which got me down there. And then Debbie, Dawn, and Devin have been like remarkable in just helping all this happen. So Grateful Turnout is a public thank you to first responders. And it's a place where people can come and reflect and their memories and gratitude for our first responders, specifically in this community. And next page. Sorry, I'm watching this and not that. Okay, so the sculpture, the materials that I'm using in the sculpture are retired and decommissioned fire hose, turnout gear, a variety of different kinds of materials, reflective tape that's actually sewn on and used in the first responder. Your bunker gear and stuff? Your bunker gear, yes. I'm sorry. Sherry has historically worked a lot with material that she upcycles, repurposes, and she sort of looks and feels the history of the material. Sometimes she wants me to talk about it, so excuse me. And Sherry really, she feels like, I don't want to use the word soul because it's sort of like a little maybe not religious um but the the material itself like inherits what these people worked on it and when you look at it and you look at these hose you know they're burn marks they're aware marks like you understand you know and just the weight of the hose i mean personally i've had to handle a lot of it we had donations from all over from all over particularly at the end all over long island yes um we got a lot more comforter good wonderful that's great fdny gave us one ton of hose which i personally moved to their their tool room in long island city they've been so incredibly generous and also with turnout gear too and there's been other local departments that have been giving turnout gear And the material, not just the turnout gear, but the hose, if you're actually physically working with it, you start feeling what these first responders are actually dealing with. I don't know if any of you mind firefighters. It's tremendously heavy, just the suit and pants, the jacket and pants, let alone trying to move. I mean, I've been unloading some of this fire hose, and I can't imagine just being that physically strong to do that. It also has a beauty. It's not traditionally clean and beautiful, but it has something built into it that makes it really resonate. And people who have seen it, and you can look at the picture there, that's mostly not AI. You can see, you get a feeling for, that's the work in progress. You get a feeling for what it's like. 23 years in the fire service, and I always say that in the beginning when I first came in, your bunker gear, you know, when you put it on for the first time, you're the shiny bright one on every fire scene. You can't wait to get into that first fire and come out a little scuffed up. Because it's like kind of badges of honor, you know. honor you know and so for many years we didn't wash our gear we protected our helmets because it would they were storytelling and OSHA comes in and says gotta wash that gear and I'll go and so a lot of fire firefighters you know kind of feel like that that history storytelling you know gets taken away when you clean the gear but it's for safety and we have to remove any type of toxins and so I get exactly what you're saying but but there are some certain scars you know on the gear that is like you know we see this batches of honor right and some of it you know you'll notice i noticed like on some of the reflective tape there's been repairs made on it yeah so the gear has been used and used and fixed and things like that we found interesting things in the pockets people forget and like you realize like you know it's like gloves yeah some of it we have to be careful with but it was some really odd like we found candy there was candy And, you know, it's like all kinds of things that, like, in fact, we have firefighter friends, and we're like, what is this? Oh, that's a chalk, you know, whatever, yeah. Yeah, I was actually sewing some of the strips together of the turnout gear, and all of a sudden I'm finding, like, change falling out of a pocket. So I have, like, 26 cents on my table. Where did that come from? But the material really does tell a story, and the more you work with it, the more I work with it, the more deeply I feel what these individuals have gone through. And to me, that was like, that's an important story to tell visually to our community. Cool. Should we talk about the actual structure? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, okay, the structure. So in the picture you'll see there are three S shapes that are kind of, they're not necessarily interconnected, but there's going to be walkways between each of these. So they'll be at least four feet wide. So a person can easily get through this. And that's tensioned fire hose. We built a rig to tension it. So that forms sort of the warp or the weft. That would be the weft. The weft. The weft of, because Sherry is actually a fiber artist weaver, so this in a lot of ways is like the flag was woven, this will be woven. I was actually trained on a loom, but I don't really weave much on a loom anymore. I weave on like really large kind of odd things, and I love to take these materials that have some kind of a use prior that relate to like a particular group of people. So this may not show the scale so well, but that's actually, they're 45 inches high, and that's about 36 feet long. The whole length of the little project? Yeah. You'll see we have some more renderings. Yeah. So part of this is there is three sections of these S-shaped serpentine kind of pieces in the sculpture, and each one of them will have thin lines of recognition. One will have red in it to represent the fire department, one for white for the emergency medical service, EMS, and then blue for public safety and police. So each piece will have kind of a way to honor each of those groups. So one of the ideas I have for this is that the public can add their own thank yous. And I don't know if you remember at the Christmas, the Merry Market, I did this big sculpture with the community where they wove this package and then they put thank yous and different messages of what they wishes they had for the holiday season and so I I did that as a way to test out how this would work on this sculpture and so for this sculpture I want to do just artists led events where people can write a message and then they'll be writing it on a piece of reflective tape and attaching to the sculpture so as time goes on it'll have more and more messages and imagine if you're driving in through heidi way or out heidi bear way heidi bear way and you see these reflective kind of things off your headlights and it's not just the tape reflecting it's the people reflecting these messages it's so you have like the reflective message on the reflective material actually physically reflecting so i think that makes the whole message a little bit more powerful okay cool in particular there'll be an opening event where probably majority of these will be populated yeah and that was very um well received at the merry market there were a lot of people writing messages. They were amazing. We read them later, a couple of them, like some people talking about their dogs dying. It was like heartbreaking. And then people, one kid strategically, like I think they got a pet from this because they like wrote it and then they're like, show my dad. They were very, very sweet. And even though that sculpture is no longer here and over by East End Arts I saved all the tags and I'm going to photograph them all because they're all so meaningful that they just can't disappear just just so sweet so that's something that I want to do with this as well as have have that happen so what kind of benefits for River Hood I see it as a way to let the community thank our first responders and recognize their service. I think it's really important. This is an important group of people that really they sustain us. They make sure we're safe, and I don't think they get enough recognition personally. So working with the material and having a sculpture where people can come and maybe reflect and think about what's being done for them in our society, I think is really important. Mark, do you want to jump in? Sure. And obviously it's also distinctive and nice looking, so we think it will be an attraction, a destination. We saw that with some of Sherry's other work, which we'll talk about in a second, where people come, it's very Instagrammable. It's a unique thing. It's like, wow, it's like hundreds of feet of fire hose, tensioned, and it's really cool to look at. So we're pretty convinced that it will be social media friendly and publicity friendly. I'm pretty good at publicity. Sherry got some of her other work, features in Newsday, features on the radio, tons of local East End media. And magazines. And tons and tons. It was really fun. She did some gallery shows about her other work, which we'll show in a minute. And like people, we have a photo of someone taking a photo of their motorcycle in front of one of our works because it was like so compelling a spot. So we really think it'll be really good as a destination downtown and yet another reason to come downtown and see stuff. And particularly, like I said, Instagram. And that piece we were talking about was obviously Harvesting Memories in Blue, those of you familiar with it. It was there for two years on Sound Avenue. it generated a huge amount of publicity really became a destination it was cool like it was listed someone listed it on Google Maps so it was a destination there some anonymous drone person took like hours of drone footage of it from like way up in the sky it was really cool probably violated a lot of laws doing so and it was featured in gallery shows both in Riverhead and in Huntington like the creation of it works inspired by it it was really really a fun piece and this also was supported by a New York State grant in 2024 so and similar to the way she honored first responders that was a honored the agricultural community you folks might be familiar with this so yeah I'm so honored that to make this and actually be able to donate this to the town I think it's wonderful and I was really moved and honored by it being at the 9-11 memorial service that meant so much so and this was like the first piece that I did with fire hose just to kind of get the concept of how working with it actually you know what does it entail poor mark and similar to the you know sure he likes to get the community involved into pieces and harvesting memories a lot of people will have triangles I'm sure he had like basic classes for United. We weave, we did stuff at the Hallowkill Fiber Festival as well as Mosaic Festival. So some of you might even have a hand in there. I did. I think it's the third stripe. And the sculpture that we're proposing right now for Riverhead, Grateful Turnout, there'll be a community weaving event next week. So we want to get a lot of people involved in actually physically handling this material because I think that they they should people should know how heavy and how difficult this material is like what to our first responders really go through and I think if you're weaving like you know a good long piece of fire hose it's a physical workout I know way too well so um this is our proposed location right now is um on heidi bear way the little island between that and mcdermott avenue it's it works well you know people will see it both driving in and out as and we've worked with uh ken and b and g and made sure that it works for them um in fact that's their preferred spot and there's that nice little walkway right by so people can easily get to the island and see it that we that won't interfere with that little sidewalk there that's a perfect spot yeah we're going to remove the grass and put down some blue stone so they don't have to weed whack around it and damage it so we figured we'd do a nice oval around it there's really no utilities in that center island we checked it there's a tree that might partly be in the way that we may have to trim but not a big deal i think it'll look nice there they great perfect spot some additional views and if anybody's interested uh if you go to tinyurl.com grateful turnout you can see it on google earth there's a special google earth link you can fly around it yeah it's kind of fun um the footprint um this is technical i'll just do it quick the oval will be about 40 feet by 9 feet might be a little narrower um we're exploring that with that's with B&G can the overall sculptural length is about thirty four and a half feet you'll notice that little white dot that would be a little post with an interpretive sign and there's each one of the units is about 45 inches high it might be a little taller because of the gravel and so the site preparation we have to clear the print approved footprint spread the gravel, B&G, placement and anchoring. We do want B&G to help move the sculpture, but we'll anchor it. We're going to use an anchoring system, which we give technical details, and I have more if you want, of what we're using. It's what they use at places like Burning Man, you know, with like extreme. So it's really going to, there'll be 12 things that each of them hold about a ton, so it should be fine. We did some modeling, engineering modeling with wind, and it should be great it's also flood proof so harvesting memory in blue that was a 12 foot sphere on Sound Avenue and we are using the same kind of anchoring system because we know it worked there with this huge sculpture so it should easily work out open the open area where the wind would have if it was gonna move it would have moved there. I do the AI image of it rolling down. Give her a heart attack. I was about it for a long time until I was like 100% sure that the anchoring was 100%. We've done more engineering modeling on this based on wind speed. They're not solid, so wind can go through them, but even if they were solid, they would not move. The frame is galvanized steel. It's about one and a half inch tube. It's not going anywhere. And it's also the weave is not completely solid so like rain water wind everything will kind of can flow through it We don't anticipate any routine maintenance If there was any required maintenance sherry's committed to it And she's already coordinated with Dave how to make the mowing Make sure the most important thing yeah easy for you guys if in fact we adjusted things a little bit to make sure it works it'll actually have to thank you for those suggestions it's really perfect nice and we might even be able to put a light on one of the adjacent poles shining down on it you know an LED light to try to get idea yeah one of the adjacent poles like maybe put solar on it so that you know yeah no if we can absolutely thank you so much for doing this and thank you for bringing the attention to what our first responders you know go through and you know how heavy they have you know they're uniform whatever you call what do you call it thank you their turn out thank you I should know that because it shows our commitment to the art community it really it helps reinforce that with everything that's happening with the East End Arts and have that sculpture there like this I revitalization downtown I think it'll be peaceful yeah they just put the piece pulled down there there's so many you know and this is with the RBAC it'll come in it'll come to being with the coordination with the new location maybe I'll be done in time that would be great Jerry's been trying to reach out to them to get donations of something that the get stuff from EMS is hard because it's all bio you know so she wants something so like a strap or something she talked to them actually at the 9 11 ceremony so hopefully we'll get something are you still taking donations of uh hose and absolutely okay absolutely so that's important that all of our departments realize that you need them yeah absolutely trying to empty out my garage here oh yeah full hours even any kind of like uniform that is not being used anymore i'd be happy to take that make that into strips and have that woven into i think that would be really great you have a lot of yeah i'm sorry no we have a lot of supply like if you're looking to do i love the your idea of putting those little notes and so forth on them it might be hard to attach to the fire hose but firefighters we use webbing often to carry out Drag out a victim, carry other pieces of equipment, lower things to and from windows. Every firefighter has webbing in their pocket. I could give you, like, a lot of webbing if you'd like. It's a very thin cloth, like, you know, something that's about, you know, one inch wide. And you could use, almost if you put that between some of the hoses, just as an idea, it would be easier to affix, like, notes or something to that. Absolutely. You know, trying to get something through a fire hose is extremely difficult. It is, and that's a really great idea. I love that. And it still stays with fire departments. equipment I don't think you see it in this well this is suspenders and I don't have a lot of them I wish I had a more because I think they're beautiful the other thing is the the waistbands of the bunker gear the pants they have like little snaps and the jackets have the hooks so those are actually being made into strips to weave into so you can hook onto those she I think I correct me if I'm wrong but the idea is that one side is going to sort of be almost pure hose maybe the line and then the other side will be more chaotic it's sort of the ideas that reflects like you know uniform discipline and then having to tame chaos on the other side and the other side would probably have more of the reflective absolutely so creative you know one thing you would mention and know I believe you had gone your colors that you're done and Riverhead one of the things that we do have is we do have our own public dispatchers for police and fire and I believe they're yellow. Are they yellow? I thought it was gray. Colorblind, so yeah, I mean, if possible, these are awesome. I do have some really thin yellow hose. Yeah, we have that yellow hose on the bottom of the police one. On the police one? On the very bottom one, maybe put some yellow in there. If not, yeah. Knocking down the old ambulance garage in the very near future. We'll have plenty of materials. Maybe walk through and introduce something. That's a good point. Might have something on that. We're going to take some things out of that, like the new heating unit we just put in last year, the year before, and we're going to get whatever we can out of there to reuse somewhere else. But there might be something emergency services related that you could, the one on Osborne Avenue where the ambulances are and then across from . Across from . There's going to be a new building there and they're going to be taking that building down within the next month or two. You could take even a piece of slate out of there, maybe and engrave it so I can get it engraved for you. sign like a logo that's really nice before it comes down I almost have to sign on order I'm not moving this forward and sounds like you have a great plan and we look forward to to doing that you're gonna be working with Chris thank you so much for doing it means a lot to everybody so thank you

to know no cash contribution is needed uh the new york state has given a generous grant so um yeah so next steps um is we would i would like to be able to donate this to the town um and then get the location approved by the town and then also um installation support um other than that i think at some point we need to come up with the dates for when we would do this and and have like an opening so everybody can come whenever you're ready i can't think of it okay no they aren't opening day when you do your dedication ceremony i'm certain we can get all four fire departments oh wow that's great oh my god that would be amazing i spoke to somebody james for you ready if you're doing that so thank you very much better like a saturday or a sunday or any particular day of the week yeah they'll be excited you know I think the location is absolutely amazing and you said something about people working on this next week do you have any dates in mind

there's an Instagram real schedule we can post I just wanted to have the meeting here first to make sure so I could just send it out to the group yeah then we can share it and if you yeah definitely it's exciting so thank you thank you thank you this is great stuff thank you so much well yeah thank you chris you said so much so there was uh

just a second we'll ask for a oh it's so cool to see how it works at work session this is actually all right so we will move into our executive session with the first and second in just a moment and we'll have legal matters matter surrounding the disposition of real property with councilman Kern and Howard matters surrounding possible disposition of real property with again with Kern and Howard and then personnel matters matters trying to change the status of an employee with Kern Shandell and stripling to have a motion to go into to exact all in favor thank you everyone have a great weekend

Thank you.