Full Transcript
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor. 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, Councilwoman.
Councilman Rothwald, do we have somebody here for invocation today? We do. Once again, we are fortunate to have Kathy Berenzi here. She is the chaplain of the Riverhead Fire Department, ladies' auxiliary. So if you would come forward to lead us around in invocation, and thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Dear Heavenly Father, the seasons has changed and the leaves are falling, and as the days get shorter, our nights are longer. We are here this afternoon as a public body, seeking guidance, wisdom for decisions. Let us be open-minded, as well as our hearts, to new ideas. May the words be filled with love and respect for one another, and may the actions reflect the unity we strive for. Let us make our Riverhead community a better place for all residents. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Kathy. Okay, under announcements, I have one. It's regarding the Riverhead holiday extravaganza. It's going to be a big one. It's going to actually be December 6th, one month from today. And it's going to have a little different twist to it than it's had in the past, as you see on the flyer. The parade will come down through Main Street and then wrap back up through Second Street and end here at Town Hall. The tree lighting ceremony will be on the front, or actually it's on Second Street. We call it the back door, but it's really the front door, where there are two nice-sized Christmas trees out there. The lighting will be there. The bonfire will be back here in the parking lot. And there's going to be different food entities, and the showmobile will be set up. I believe we're going to have some entertainment, and there's a whole bunch of good things that are going on that day. So with the construction going to be starting downtown, we didn't want a chance of that not being available, so we moved everything to up here. And that will be Saturday on December 6th. And I believe the parade starts at 4.30. It's really shaping up to be a great event. We have so much help within the community that's been working on this. The bids involved, chambers involved, the libraries involved, the Lions Club. So it's kind of an expansion of what we've already had with our previous parades downtown. We'll still have the Santa House for photos and the Merry Market. You'll be able to come out and do some shopping. The music. We have a lot of fun. We have a lot of radio personality will be here to entertain everyone and get us through the flow of what's going on with the parade and the tree lighting. It's really shaping up to be a great event. I hope that everybody can be in attendance. Thank you, Joanne. Anybody else have any announcements? I do. Okay. And I just want to publicly say thank you so much to everybody that showed up for our anti-litter fall clean-up this past Saturday. We had groups that we've never seen before come out and be a part of the great day. So I just want to say thank you to all that participated. And we look forward to the next one in the spring. Good job, Joanne. Thank you. Okay. Clerk Wooten, do we have any correspondence or reports? We did. We don't have any reports. But under correspondence, we received three letters that made the packet this meeting. One letter was from Paul. One from Patricia here. It was a reference retail marijuana dispensary. One from Kathy McGraw from Northville, comments on a work session. And one from Paul Spina, Jr., of Calvert, in reference to the budget. There were also several letters that came in in reference to the public hearing being held today on the community block grant. Those have been circulated and given to the CDA as well. They'll be in next meeting's packet. But they didn't make this packet because of the deadline on that. So, that's it. Okay. All right. That brings us up to public hearings. We have two public hearings scheduled for today. I am going to reverse the order of them. So the first one we're going to do today is the public hearing regarding the overriding the tax levy limit and adopting the 2026 preliminary budget. And I would ask Jeanette DiPola to come on up and lead us off with that. Good afternoon. So we're here today for the public hearing for consideration of the adoption of the 2026 preliminary budget and to override the tax levy limit established by and set forth in Article Section 2C of the General Municipal Law. As everyone knows, we need to adopt the 2026 preliminary budget to adopt a local law in order to pierce the cap. And that's what today's public hearing is for. So I guess we want to kick off the public hearing, unless any of you have any questions or comments before we get started. I would just clarify, the public hearing is on piercing the cap and on the preliminary budget. Correct. Okay. I'll open it up to the floor. Does anybody wish to comment on this public hearing? Afternoon. Claudette Bianco-Bading-Hallow. I'm here today to express my consternation regarding the proposed budget for 2026. Despite repeatedly being told by taxpayers time and again that taxes are too high, this Board and others did not heed what we had to say. The residents have complained about taxes increasing year after year and the public has been very concerned about the tax levy that's being imposed on them. The budget has been increasing year after year, overdevelopment being pushed down our throats by aggressive developers and the lack of affordability. Once again, the budget as proposed not only increases but also goes above the 2% cap for the eighth time in nine years. At the same time, an additional $12.3 million is added to the fund balance, making the total a whopping $67.18 million. Thank you. Thank you, Judge Judge. Judge Judge, Judge Judge, IN THIS PROPOSED BUDGET, BUT NOT ENOUGH. AND I KNOW THAT SOME FUND BALANCE IS NEEDED, BUT THIS IS EXCESSIVE. IGNORING THE TAXPAYERS IS DISRESPECTFUL AND COSTLY. AS EVIDENCE, I SUBMIT THE RESULTS OF TUESDAY'S ELECTION. PEOPLE ARE ANGRY AND FED UP. ON A DIFFERENT ISSUE REGARDING THE BUDGET, THE PUBLICATION OF THE NOTICE OF THE PUBLIC HEARING FOR THIS MEETING DID NOT INCLUDE THE PROPOSED SALARIES OF EACH MEMBER OF THE TOWN BOARD, THE ELECTED TOWN CLERK, AND THE ELECTED SUPERINTENDENT OF HIGHWAYS. NOR DID IT CITE WHERE THE BUDGET MAY BE INSPECTED BY THE PUBLIC OR THE HOURS THAT IT'S AVAILABLE AS REQUIRED BY SECTION 8, CHAPTER 62, ARTICLE 8 OF STATE LAW. I UNDERSTAND THERE ARE NO CONSEQUENCES FOR THE OVERSIGHT. HOWEVER, I RECOMMEND THAT THIS BE CORRECTED IN THE FUTURE AS IT IS ONCE AGAIN DISRESPECTFUL TO THE TAXPAYING PUBLIC. THANK YOU.
THANK YOU. GINA, WOULD YOU CORRECT THE ERRORS THAT WE JUST ALL LISTENED TO? ABSOLUTELY. SO I JUST WANT TO ADDRESS THE $12 MILLION FUND BALANCE INCREASE. THAT IS EVERY SINGLE TOWN FUND. THAT IS NOT JUST THE GENERAL FUND. WE ARE NOT PIERCING THE CAP IN ANY FUND EXCEPT FOR THE GENERAL FUND. THE GENERAL FUND CONSISTS OF A 50% BUDGET FOR OUR POLICE DEPARTMENT, AND THAT IS WHERE THE MAJORITY OF THE TOWN IS GOING TO THANK YOU. THAT IS WHERE THE MAJORITY OF THE TOWN IS GOING TO BE. THAT IS WHERE THE MAJORITY OF THE TOWN IS GOING TO BE. AND THAT IS WHERE THE INCREASES LIE. THE INCREASE YEAR OVER YEAR FOR PD WAS 3.1 MILLION, WHICH IS A 10% INCREASE OVER LAST YEAR. WE ARE NOT INCREASING FOR FRIVOLOUS OPERATING EXPENSES. WE ARE INCREASING FOR CONTRACTUAL SALARY INCREASES, PAYROLL TAXES THAT GO HAND IN HAND WITH THAT, NEW YORK STATE RETIREMENT INCREASES, WHICH ARE MANDATED BY NEW YORK STATE. WE HAVE NO CONTROL OVER THAT. HEALTH INSURANCE INCREASES, WHICH IS EVERYBODY KNOWS, ARE DOUBLE DIGITS EVERY YEAR AT THIS POINT. SO ALL OF THE INCREASES THAT WE ARE DOING ARE BASICALLY CONTRACTUAL RELATED. SO EVERY SINGLE LINE ITEM IS LOOKED AT IN DEPTH. AGAIN, WE DID NOT INCREASE THE FUND BALANCE FOR THE GENERAL FUND BY 12 MILLION. THAT IS EVERY SINGLE FUND. WE ARE NOT PIERCING THE CAP ON ANY FUND EXCEPT FOR THE GENERAL FUND. AND AS I SAID, WE ARE NOT GOING TO BE INCREASING THE FUND BALANCE. YOU HAVE A POLICE DEPARTMENT. WE LOVE OUR POLICE, BUT IT IS VERY COSTLY TO HAVE A POLICE DEPARTMENT. WE HAVE 100 OFFICERS IN THE POLICE DEPARTMENT. AND, YOU KNOW, THAT IS AS HIGH AS IT HAS EVER BEEN, BUT IT COMES AT A COST. SO, YOU KNOW, AS THE SUPERVISOR MENTIONED, HE DOESN'T WANT TO CUT BACK ON PUBLIC SAFETY. I DON'T THINK THE RESIDENTS WOULD WANT THAT EITHER. SO I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE EVERYBODY UNDERSTANDS THE CONTEXT OF THE BUDGET. TO SAY THAT WE ADDED 12 MILLION TO FUND BALANCE IN GENERAL FUND IS NOT AN ACCURATE STATEMENT. SIMPLY NOT TRUE. WE HAD AN INCREASE IN GENERAL FUND OF ABOUT 1.8, 1.9 MILLION. HOWEVER, WE HAVE A LOT OF TOWN SQUARE PROJECTS COMING UP THAT WE WILL NEED TO FUND. WE DON'T HAVE THE FUNDING IN PLACE, SO WE ARE EITHER GOING TO BOND FOR SOME OF THEM, AND WE HAVE MATCHES, EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE GRANTS. EVERY GRANT COMES WITH A MATCH. SO WE HAVE A $23 MILLION RAISE GRANT THAT WE HAVE A $7 MILLION MATCH FOR. SO WE HAVE A $7 MILLION RAISE GRANT THAT WE HAVE A $7 MILLION MATCH FOR. SO I'M SAVING THAT SO THAT WE CAN PAY THE GENERAL FUND MONEY OUT FOR THOSE KINDS OF THINGS, INSTEAD OF HAVING TO INCREASE THE DEBT, YOU KNOW, YEAR OVER YEAR FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS COMING. SO WE ARE JUST TRYING TO BE SMART ABOUT HOW WE APPLY FUND BALANCE. SO WE TRIED NOT TO BALANCE OUR OPERATING BUDGET WITH GENERAL FUND BALANCE MONEY, BECAUSE ONCE YOU DO THAT, YOU ARE COMMITTING THAT TO BALANCING YOUR BUDGET, AND THEN THE NEXT YEAR, YOU HAVE TO KEEP ADDING FUND BALANCE TO YOUR BUDGET. SO YOU ARE NOT ADDING FUND BALANCE OR LEAVING FUND BALANCE IN THERE OR SLOWLY DIMINISHING IT, BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T, WITHIN FIVE TO SIX YEARS, YOU WILL UTILIZE ALL OF YOUR FUND BALANCE FOR THE GENERAL FUND. BACK IN, LET'S SEE, 2017, I BELIEVE IT WAS, OR 2020 EVEN, FUND BALANCE WAS AT 17%, WHICH IS JUST BARELY ABOVE OUR 15% MINIMUM. SO OVER THE YEARS, WE HAVE BEEN DOING THAT. WE HAVE BUILT IT UP BECAUSE WE BUDGET CONSERVATIVELY OR TRY TO ANYWAY. IT'S GETTING MORE AND MORE DIFFICULT TO BUDGET CONSERVATIVELY AND HAVE ALL THESE EXTRA REVENUES BECAUSE IT'S JUST, YOU KNOW, IT'S HARD TO DO THAT THESE DAYS. SO UNFORTUNATELY, WE ARE FINDING OURSELVES HAVING TO PIERCE THE CAP FOR THE LAST FEW YEARS. AGAIN, IT'S MOSTLY CONTRACTUAL ITEMS THAT WE ARE BUDGETING FOR, SO A LOT OF THEM ARE OUT OF OUR CONTROL. I THINK PEOPLE, TOO, NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT THE HALF OF THE TOWNS IN BROOKHAVEN ARE UNIQUE. WE ARE PROUD OF OUR INDIVIDUAL POLICE FORCE, BUT WHEN YOU GO FURTHER WEST INTO BROOKHAVEN TOWNS AND FURTHER WEST, YOU FIND THAT THE POLICE FALLS UNDER THE COUNTY TAX LINE. SO WE ARE PAYING LOWER COUNTY TAXES, BUT WE ARE PUTTING OUR POLICE FORCE ON OUR TOWN BUDGET LINE. THAT SIGNIFICANTLY CHANGES THE OVERALL APPEARANCE OF A TAX BILL, THINKING THAT IT'S ALL RIGHT HERE AT HOME, BUT WHEN YOU LIVE IN BROOKHAVEN AND YOU'RE IN SHORHAM AND YOU GO INTO ISLIP AND SMITHTOWN AND HUNTINGTON, ALL OF THE TOWNS THERE, POLICE FALLS ON THEIR COUNTY TAX LINE. AND SO THAT NEEDS TO BE UNDERSTOOD, HOW IT WORKS. AND THEY DON'T OPERATE A WATER DISTRICT EITHER IN THOSE TOWNS. THEY ALL RELY ON SUFFOLK COUNTY WATER AUTHORITY. WE HAVE OUR OWN WATER DISTRICT. SO THOSE ARE TWO HUGE EXPENSES. ABSOLUTELY. IF YOU'RE COMPARING APPLES TO APPLES, YOU GOT TO DO IT PROPERLY. I DON'T THINK THERE'S A TOWN BOARD THAT WE DON'T HAVE PROBABLY AT LEAST TWO RESOLUTIONS REGARDING THE WATER DISTRICT. WHAT FRANK MANCINI KNOWS. WE HAVE TO MAKE SURE THAT WE HAVE THE RIGHT CONSERVATIVE NEEDS TO MAINTAIN OUR TERRIFIC POTABLE WATER THAT WE HAVE HERE IN THIS TOWN. I'D JUST LIKE TO FURTHER ADD PIGGYBACKING ON WHAT YOU JUST SAID, COUNCILMAN ROSWELL, AND YOU, JEANETTE, THAT WE LOVE OUR POLICE DEPARTMENT. I THINK THAT'S UNIVERSALLY CONSIDERED BY THIS TOWN. WE DO NOT WANT TO BECOME PART OF THE SUFFOLK COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT BECAUSE ONE, YOU DON'T KNOW HOW MANY SECTOR CARS THEY WOULD ACTUALLY ASSIGN TO THE ENTIRE TOWN. I CAN TELL YOU THAT PROBABLY WOULD NOT BE MANY AT ALL. AND GEOGRAPHICALLY, WE HAVE A VERY LARGE TOWN. SO YOU HAVE TO WEIGH THINGS LIKE RESPONSE TIME. HOW FAST DO THE POLICE RESPOND IN RIVERHEAD TO YOUR CALLS? I WOULD BET YOU WOULD ALL SAY VERY QUICKLY, HOW NICE AND GOOD ARE THE POLICE OFFICERS THAT YOU COME IN CONTACT WITH WHEN YOU DO? I'M SORRY, IT'S NOT A QUESTION, BUT I JUST WANT TO POINT THESE THINGS OUT, THAT WHEN PEOPLE GET UPSET AT OUR TOWN BUDGET, IT IS MOSTLY BECAUSE OF THE POLICE. AND WHAT IT IS TO Maintain A GOOD POLICE FORCE. AND ANOTHER PIECE OF THIS, IN ORDER TO KEEP GOOD POLICE OFFICERS, YOU NEED TO PAY THEM WELL. YOU DON'T WANT THE BOTTOM OF THE BARREL OF THE POLICE DEPARTMENTS, RIGHT? YOU WANT TO HAVE VERY PROFESSIONAL, VERY GOOD POLICE OFFICERS. SO ALL OF THESE THINGS ADD INTO THE COST. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, PRESENCE. WE LIKE HAVING A PRESENCE OF OUR POLICE DEPARTMENT AT OUR PARADES, AT OUR TOWN SQUARE GROUNDS, AT OUR CITY CENTERS, AT OUR TOWN SQUARE EVENTS. IT MAKES PEOPLE FEEL VERY COMFORTABLE AND HAPPY WALKING AROUND IN THE TOWN KNOWING THERE'S SOMEBODY WATCHING IN CASE SOMETHING HAPPENS. THESE ARE, HOW DO I SAY, INCALCULABLE. THESE ARE THINGS THAT ARE HARD TO MEASURE BY DOLLARS AND CENTS. BUT IT'S WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU HAVE YOUR OWN POLICE DEPARTMENT. AND I THINK WE HAVE A FANTASTIC POLICE DEPARTMENT. I WORKED FOR MANY, MANY YEARS AS A PROSECUTOR WITH THE SUFFOLK COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT. THEY'RE GOOD, BUT I THINK OUR POLICE DEPARTMENT IS MUCH BETTER. AND I'M VERY HAPPY TO BE ON THIS TOWN BOARD AND SUPPORTING THEM. AND THE STATISTICS SHOW THE CRIME IS DOWN SO IT WORKS. AN INCREASED POLICE FORCE MAKES US A SAFER COMMUNITY. SO WHEN PEOPLE GET UPSET ABOUT THE FACT THAT THIS IS INCREASING, IT'S CONTRACTUAL. IT DOESN'T, IT'S NOT AS THOUGH WE'RE JUST THROWING MONEY AT THESE PEOPLE. IT'S CONTRACTUAL. AND IT ALSO HAS TO DO WITH THE TOWN WORKERS. IT'S CONTRACTUAL. AND AGAIN, YOU NEED TO PAY PEOPLE IN ORDER TO STAY AT A JOB. IF YOU DON'T HAVE SOMEWHAT COMPETITIVE SALARIES, THEY'RE GOING TO KEEP LEAVING. AND THE MORE THEY LEAVE, THE MORE INSECURITY YOU HAVE IN THE JOBS AND THE FUNCTIONS THAT THE TOWN DOES FOR YOU. SO IT'S KIND OF LIKE A SNOWBALLING EFFECT. I JUST DON'T WANT PEOPLE TO THINK THAT WE WILLY-NILLY JUST THROW TAXES ON TO YOUR BACKS. THIS HAS A DIRECT IMPACT ON THE QUALITY OF THE WORK THAT WE DO. AND I THINK THAT'S WHAT WE NEED TO DO. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. AND I JUST WANT TO POINT OUT, BECAUSE NOT EVERYBODY IS AWARE OF THIS, BUT, YOU KNOW, SOME OF OUR OTHER FUNDS DO VERY WELL. THE WATER DISTRICT IS COMPLETELY A SEPARATE, IT'S A BUSINESS TYPE ENTITY. SO THEY RUN ON CONSUMPTION RATES EVERY YEAR. SO IF THEY NEED EXTRA FUNDING, THEY RAISE THE WATER RATES AS NEEDED. FRANK IS VERY GOOD ABOUT BEING CONSERVATIVE AND NOT DOING THAT UNLESS HE ABSOLUTELY NEEDS IT. AND I THINK THAT'S WHAT WE NEED TO DO. AND I THINK THAT'S WHAT WE NEED TO DO. AND I THINK THAT'S WHAT WE NEED TO DO. BUT THE OTHER POINT OF THIS IS THAT EVERY FUND IS SEPARATE AND DISTINCT FROM ONE ANOTHER. YOU CANNOT JUST TRANSFER MONEY IN THE ACCOUNTING WORLD FROM ONE FUND TO ANOTHER. SO YOU CAN'T ALL OF A SUDDEN PAY FOR SOMETHING FOR POLICE THROUGH THE WATER FUND OR THE SEWER DISTRICT. IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY. THE GENERAL FUND IS FUNDED BY THE TAX LEVY ASSOCIATED ONLY WITH THE GENERAL FUND AND THE REVENUES THAT ARE ALLOCATED TOWARDS THE GENERAL FUND. SO IT'S NOT LIKE WE CAN HAVE ONE OTHER FUND DOING SO GREAT AND USING THEM TO DO SOMETHING THAT'S NOT GOING TO WORK. WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DO THAT IN THE ACCOUNTING WORLD. SO I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE EVERYBODY UNDERSTANDS THAT. MS. DIPULA, I JUST WANT TO MAKE ONE OTHER POINT JUST FOR EVERYBODY TO UNDERSTAND TOO. WE KEEP TALKING FUND BALANCE, FUND BALANCE AND LETTING THAT NOT GO LOWER. DOESN'T THAT ALSO AFFECT YOUR BOND RATING? YES, IT DOES. PLEASE EXPLAIN THAT TO EVERYONE AS WELL. THEY LIKE WHEN THERE'S A HEALTHY FUND BALANCE. YOUR MOODY RATING GOES UP. SO IT'S IMPORTANT TO HAVE A HEALTHY FUND BALANCE. BUT YOU KNOW, YOU DO HAVE TO BE CAREFUL. YOU DON'T WANT TO OVERFUND EITHER, WHICH AT THE MOMENT I DON'T BELIEVE WE ARE BECAUSE WE ARE INTENDING ON USING THIS IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF YEARS FOR ALL OF THESE TOWN SQUARE PROJECTS. SO AND AS OTHER CAPITAL PROJECTS COME UP THAT NEED FUNDING, THAT'S HOW WE FUND THOSE KIND OF ITEMS. WE DON'T USE IT TO BALANCE OUR OPERATING BUDGET. AS I'VE SAID BEFORE, THAT WOULD BE CARELESS ON MY PART AS THE FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATOR TO RECOMMEND DOING THAT EVERY YEAR. AGAIN, IT'S IMPORTANT. THAT'S NOT MY ULTIMATE FINAL DECISION. SO WHEN IT'S DONE, YOU KNOW, YOU KIND OF HAVE TO JUST DEAL WITH IT AND MOVE FORWARD. BUT IT'S NOT SOMETHING I RECOMMEND DOING, BALANCING THE BUDGET OF YOUR OPERATING FUNDS WITH YOUR FUND BALANCE. AS I SAID, IN 2020, THE FUND BALANCE WAS ONLY AT A 17% OF OUR BUDGET. THAT'S BARELY ABOVE OUR 15% MINIMUM. SO WE BUILT IT UP SO THAT WE CAN FUND THESE TOWN SQUARE PROJECTS COMING UP AND WE'RE NOW AT 43% AT THE END OF 2020. THANK YOU. I WANT TO MENTION SOME OF THE THINGS I WANTED TO MENTION BEFORE. BUT, AGAIN, HOW QUICKLY THAT GOES UP, CAN QUICKLY GO DOWN IF YOU START ALLOCATING TWO MILLION TO YOUR OPERATING BUDGET EVERY SINGLE YEAR, YOU'RE TALKING IN A FOUR OR FIVE YEAR TIME, $10 MILLION EASILY. SO THAT'S HALF YOUR FUND BALANCE GONE FOR THAT. SO IT'S VERY IMPORTANT TO WEIGH THAT. WHEN EVERYBODY SAYS USE FUND BALANCE, USE FUND BALANCE, IT'S NOT THE SMARTEST THING TO DO IN MY PERSONAL OPINION AS A FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATOR. I didn't say the percentage for non-PD for the budget. So although PD is a 10% increase, non-PD for the general fund is only going up 3%. And that's mostly, again, contractual salaries, benefit increases, including retirement, health insurance. The police budget overall for 26 is $34.9 million. $31.8. Ma'am, this is a town board meeting. This isn't a Q&A. So you can come up and ask those questions at the podium. You're more than welcome to. The mistakes that you cited that I made? Apparently, I was told she cited that I made mistakes. Number one, I never said that there is only a fund balance in general fund. I never used the two words general fund. I said fund balance. That encompasses all of it. And number two, I never said the two words police department. Everyone loves our police department. We want it. We want to keep it. Nobody is suggesting to do otherwise. But there are ways to tighten the belt. Everybody else lives within their means, and you should too. When we can't do things we want to do, we don't do them. There are other ways you could correct this and do funding in a different way. You need to tighten the belt because it's real easy to just pass it on to the taxpayers. And we're tired of it. Thank you. Just a question. Just a question. Just a question. Just a question. Just a point out where all taxpayers do. We pay the same taxes. This is my first town hall meeting. I'm Deborah Freitag. I'm from South Jamesport. Folks, we have somebody at the microphone to speak, please. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi.
thousand in the last four years and um you know i really appreciate everything that everybody said all the detail definitely appreciated the police department love our police department but these increases are coming on really it feels like solely on the backs of working families and retirees it's killing us i mean it's really killing us it's very very hard like the the life that i i we moved out here from from new jersey and the life that i thought we would have is like being really impacted by the craziness of the tax increases so it'll be 23 with this proposed tax increase and uh tim you said that it's not a q a but just a question have you looked at any other ways to balance the budget besides pushing it onto the tax payers backs is there anything else we've increased fees we've increased permit uh permit lines we've increased everything we can to try to offset it but honestly with the increases we've made and some of these increases were 10 15 years old without being updated to current time fees and we tried to put a value on each one of them as to how much work is put into it from a town worker and how much it actually costs to do this so we're not over inflating also and we we painstakingly did that councilman uh kern worked very hard on that so we have done that to raise revenue but that is a mere pittance in a hundred and twelve thousand dollar budget yeah i appreciate it it's when we get hit by a double-digit increase for health insurance you know for 300 employees or 350 employees that's hard you know that's a lot of money any of anything else i mean it feel it feels like this is going to just go through is there anything else that can be done to look at it again we're looking at all things including looking at what a reassessment might do um those are like bad words out of somebody's mouth when they say it but it's been many many many years since a reassessment of the town has been done and honestly there are people out there paying lower taxes than they should be because they have not been reassessed in a long time thanks for giving me the floor you're welcome thank you lauren mcknight here riverhead uh everybody's worried about taxes uh that's the least of our problems uh this is important i'm asking everybody here and a lot of people came here today but how many people contacted our senator and our congress people to say the people in this poor people in this town can't afford to get wick to help their babies get formula how many people can't get their food assistance and how many people are not waiting for heat assistance write your senators everybody here right council ask i quoted it here section article one section eight the senate and the uh congress should promote promote the general welfare they're not doing it we i i wrote schumer two times i spoke to his aides they're ignoring us so for god's sakes get out everybody write a god damn letter sorry thank you warren
cindy clifford riverhead and i want to start by saying uh kathy bresni's opening comments were so beautiful and so moving and i think that that's the nature that you know certainly i come forward in wanting this town to be working together out all right as consumers and riverhead residents we're facing rising costs on food utilities insurance prices and other financial problems we're facing rising costs on food utilities insurance pretty much everything there's no passing those increases on for some it's only an aggravation of having to pay more but for families living paycheck to paycheck seniors on a fixed income anyone struggling as every dollar coming in is already accounted for there's only reconfiguring the budget cutting out surplus spending turning the heat down a couple of more degrees looking at where else you can cut so you can still make what you have work that doesn't seem fair and it doesn't seem right as the town is going to be able to make the cut that's what we're going to do so i'm going to as the town's expenses go up that you're raising our taxes to pass on the cost of inflation leaning on residents to make up the difference instead of looking closer to reconfigure how much money is being spent and where and how it's being spent for instance while we're inexplicably paying the electric bill for the ice hockey rink do you think about how another tax hike could impact a resident's ability to keep current on their electric bill i believe the quote was there's no fat to trim but this isn't about a !
of and for respect for our community and with food assistance now on hold perhaps you might consider organizing a town-wide effort with every business organization and resident who is able to do what we can to support our neighbors thank you
hi my name is nancy murphy and i'm from aquabog um i have a question and you said we have 100 police offices and the increase in the number of police officers that are in the town are due to the fact that the police department is not the only one that's going to be in the town and the increase was three million dollars for the year does that mean that they each got a thirty thousand dollar raise
no i don't know what you're trying to say you were saying the budget it was basically for the the policeman's salary isn't that what i heard earlier that part of the increase the increase was based on the entire budget of the police department not just the salaries oh so that includes the cars the administration fees yada yada yada we got new cameras for officers this year but the cost to store that data is astronomical and that comes at a large cost that has that gets incorporated into the police budget so although we worked hard and the police department did a great job in getting grants to help cover the cost of the cameras you still need and have the ongoing expense of the storage for that okay i'm happy that was explained you know that that question was cleared up another thing you're saying that you're finding it hard to increase that you do the you increase the uh permits you increase here you increase there but yet the town finds i find the town where you could increase your tax basis is allowing adus for example that's just one example in my opinion where you can automatically get an increase because you now have another building on a property um this town has allowed adus for years but isn't it isn't it now that it has to be attached to your existing house it cannot be free standing it can be detached it can be detached it is detached and what does that square footage go up to do you know 750 square feet or six it can't be more than i think it's like i think it's it can't be more than 40 of the square footage of the existing structure and there's no three-year weight you have to have an empty building first where where is that used to be there still is a three a three-year weight i believe it's still yeah it hasn't it hasn't been changed yet and then because otherwise it's not going to be a three-year weight because otherwise it's not going to be a three-year weight because otherwise it's not going to be a three-year weight Otherwise you would have outsiders purchasing Otherwise you would have outsiders purchasing all those properties and immediately putting all those properties and immediately putting multiple people on site the owner has to be multiple people on site the owner has to be on site to establish ownership on site to establish ownership for that property and then you can do for that property and then you can do an accessory dwelling unit for an accessory dwelling unit for you know somebody else but we don't want you know somebody else but we don't want we don't want all our properties going up we don't want all our properties going up and being non-owner occupied and using it as a, you know, or just turning it into a rental business. I don't understand. When the owner's on site. I live on my property and I put a unit up, okay, and let's say it's not a shell, that my three years is up and I'm still there. Now I can turn it into an existing rental unit. Right. Yeah. I don't understand the difference if I'm living there, okay, when I do an existing rental unit. It's not like I'm just going to turn around and instantly sell it. That's a pretty big project. It's a pretty big project for people just to say, oh, I've lived here for 35 years. People will purchase the property and immediately make it a multi-use property and walk away from it. And then we have code enforcement issues when we have non-occupied properties, owner properties. Well, can you do an agenda or something like a clause that said that you have to stay there for X amount of years? You have to be there for it to be a legal ADU. It has to be tenant-occupied. Sell your property? I mean, three years is a pretty long wait. Yeah, so if I could just jump in real quick. My- My office, the planning department with Don Thomas and code enforcement have been working on a revision to our ADU code. I got a final draft or a proposed final draft of it on my desk today. It hasn't been circulated to the town board yet, but I think that we're pretty close to presenting it at a work session. So I would just- Would that be here, a meeting? The work sessions are at 10 a.m. on Thursday mornings. So that's something that I think we're going to be asking to put on the agenda pretty soon. And should answer a lot of your questions. So I would, you know, just keep an eye out for that. I also think, too, and I understand the raise. And even when I voted on that bond package, that 2%, I knew that wasn't going to hold. The only thing that encouraged me to do that bond passing back then was the fact that it would have to come to a meeting like this if it exceeded the 2%, okay? It's ridiculous to think that inflation's not going to increase by that much over 30 years every year. I get it. I get it. I get it. But you have to understand, too, you're paying extra for all this health insurance to your people, but now we're all going to be hit, double whammied with health insurance. Because I own a home, sometimes I feel like I'm being punished, okay, with the property taxes. It might be better if I just sell my property and go rent and be at the mercy of the landlord. It's kind of like the same thing, only I don't have to fix it, keep it up, and pay my taxes to you. I don't know. I don't know. You guys are really- It's really between a rock and a hard place, but hopefully you can somehow just make it a little narrower, because this is going to happen next year, and the year after, and the year after. Just to say the- Thank you. Just to say the corrections to the code with the IDUs is an effort to help homeowners stay in their homes and be able to afford their homes. I also think your rental agreements are a little skewed personally, but this is not the meeting for that. Thank you. I thought you just meant it as- We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it. We fixed it.
Good afternoon, Mike Foley, Reese Park. Can you hear me okay, Tim? Yes. We can hear you, Mike. Thanks. I read an article in the Riverhead News Review that came out this morning about the police crime rate that was reported in the last, I guess, report. That crime is down 28% this year. That they discussed, Ed Frost had mentioned that over the course of the last three or four years, the police force has gone up from 80%. And I know that a lot of that was done prior to you getting elected, Tim. But the accountants just threw a number of $31.8 million in the Riverhead budget. So understanding that it's not all for salaries. But if you just allow approximately $300,000 per police officer per year, which would come up to the $31.8 million, the extra $12. Police officers cost $3.6 million of itself. So I know that's not just for this budget. But I think the people need to understand and consider those numbers. Employee salaries. I've been going to the podium for many years saying that our Riverhead employees are underpaid. And because they're underpaid, they tend to go elsewhere once they're qualified. Which is a tremendous strain on the heads of the Departments. I know Frank Mancini, for the Water Departments, spends an awful lot of time training people. And a lot of them loyal to the town and like working for Frank. But as the numbers prove out, within two towns' worth, they can get a 35% raise by leaving our town. So they're here, but we have to pay them. And it's not just the water company. Everybody's got to get paid. paid. And certainly, looking into this budget briefly, there wasn't any room for those kind of raises necessary. And I hope the employees understand that. And I hope at some point in time that'll change. But we also have to take a look at why this tax burden continues to pierce the cap on the homeowners. There's a price to be paid for open space, because open space doesn't provide any revenue for our town. Just about everybody here loves it out here because of the open space. So we have to understand there's a price to be paid for that. And certainly, right now, the homeowners are paying more than we want to. Nobody wants a raise. But when you consider that, I think you have to consider that that's the price to be paid in living in a beautiful area like ours. Smart development takes time. And I don't need to remind anybody that's listening. You're in the room. How many projects were objected to by the citizens of this town? And not necessarily that the town board endorsed those plans, but they came up for discussion. And they were knocked down by the citizenry because we didn't want that kind of development, having developers put things where they don't belong in the opinions of the citizenry of this town. And thankfully, for the comprehension of the town, we didn't want that kind of development. And so we fixed it and fixed it without being fixed. We fixed it without being fixed. We fixed it without being fixed. We fixed it without being fixed. We fixed it without being fixed. We fixed it without being fixed. We fixed it without being fixed. We fixed it without being fixed. We fixed it without being fixed. We fixed it without being fixed. We fixed it without being fixed. We fixed it without think we have to understand that smart development within the footprint delays revenue being brought into the town, but it's what we want. So we have to understand that when it happens. And of course, the biggest issue right now for this town is EPCOW. We have been locked into litigation for over two years now. We have a thousand acres there, six, seven hundred acres that we're hoping to develop into revenue producing, environmental friendly, societal beneficial lands. That if we do this the right way, not only are we going to raise enough money that we'll never have to pierce the tax cap again, but we might actually be able to generate revenue by generating energy, by doing some of the things that Ken Testa has discussed in a committee that I'm thankful to be on. So we have a lot of great ideas about future EPCOW development because we've got tremendous department heads here that have got great ideas. And we have a Dawn Thomas who has connections with the state and keeps those lines of communications open. There are all sorts of conversations now about land like ours that can generate tens of millions of dollars in town revenue a year. Now, I'm not here being looking at Nirvana, saying that we're not going to get that we're going to end up with tax deductions for our homes. Because I don't see that ever happening. But who knows? Maybe if we do everything right in a Pollyanna world, that would happen. But that's not what I anticipate. What I know will happen is once EpCal comes on the books, we'll never have to pierce that tax cap again. It'll just never happen. And certainly, when you take a look at home values, we all talk about the cost of living. We all talk about the increase in taxes that we're paying as homeowners. How much have our homes appreciated in the last five years? Have they gone up 40%, 50%? One of the speakers mentioned that her real estate taxes went up from $11,000, $18,000 in four or five years. That sounds an awful lot to me. I have a couple of small homes in Reeves Park. I think my taxes have gone up in the last five years on a dollar-for-dollar basis, not just on a town basis, about 26%. So how much has my property values gone up? Probably double that. So I think when everybody takes a look at the overall picture and doesn't cherry-pick a fact here and a fact there, but looks at the overall quality of life of our town, the position and the path that it's going on, I think we're going on the right path. I'm confident that we're going to win the EPCAL case, and then hopefully we'll get smart minds in there that will not only generate revenue, but become environmental-friendly and beneficial to the entire town. So on that note, I wholeheartedly support this budget. I think you did the best you could to keep the numbers down. I hope that next year we have more revenue so we can pay our great employees approaching what they were to remain competitive in our town and in our county. Thank you very much for the time and the work you guys do, town board. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Foley. Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Mike. I really appreciate what Mr. Foley said because he's spot on with so many things, almost everything that he said. Remember the no warehouse sign that were all over the town? We put a moratorium on the warehouses. That comes with a price at the end of the day. You're taxing that land as vacant land. If you don't allow development, you're not going to be able to have tax revenue come in to help. So everything that we've listened to in the past, when you're coming forward and say, we don't want development in Calvertown, and I understand that, but unfortunately that's the area that's for our developments. And we kind of lose sight of the fact that, we don't want anything to change. We want the open space. We want the open farmland. But if we don't have that extra tax revenue coming in, that comes on our shoulders. And that's the negative effect of not allowing development. You're so right. Mr. Foley's remarks and yours, I love the point he made. There's a price to be paid for open space. That's the bottom line. We want to have the open space. We want to preserve that land. That means you can't tax it the way you would if it were industrial, or if it was a commercial. Industrial is the highest paying taxes. We don't have a lot of that, because the town has chosen not to have those big box warehouses that were the signs everybody had a few years ago. So these are, quote, the consequences. And I wholeheartedly agree that we would choose open space over that. It's called smart economic growth over just growth. Anybody can go to Brookhaven and see, there's huge warehouses everywhere, all along. On Vets Highway, by the airport. They look horrible. We didn't want those things for our town. But you know what? They produce a lot of revenue for the town of Brookhaven. We don't, it's a choice. It's a choice the citizens of the town made not to want that kind of industrialization in our town. And I wholeheartedly agree with it. But these are the things you have to recognize when you have the open space and you want to even purchase more open space, as many of the residents in the town will agree we should do. There's still, how many thousands left? 6,000, 7,000? About 6,000. That we want to continue purchasing and preserving. That's going to keep that off the rolls as far as producing revenue for the town. I just need everybody to understand those things. Thanks. That's where smart growth sometimes comes into play, where we looked at the agritourism, where we did a 70-30 split, where 70% of the parcel would be preserved and 30% could be developed. Right. That way you're still preserving land, but you're still getting tax base came in, and the people showed up in hordes and didn't want it. So when people say to us, what are you doing about the taxes? You know, we've tried different things, and we get a lot of pushback from the community. A few years back when I was a councilman, we talked about doing away with the leaf pickup that the highway department does every fall. Well, people came out in droves and said, don't you dare. We want that. We pay taxes in this town. We want that leaf pickup service. We want that fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed fixed overloaded no department has real heavy supervision we don't run that way and that's a big part of if I didn't pierce the cap to stay within the cap I had to lay off 15 employees I was not about to do that these are these are people that live in our town that have families and it's always when you lay people off it goes back to the last ones hired so you're looking at younger people with young families and our services can't afford to be trimmed to lose 15 people town-wide it just can't be done and I refuse to do it so and when you start doing that it creates a trickle-down other employees get insecure in their jobs and worried and decide we're gonna go somewhere else they're cutting staff here they're laying people off I'm not staying here I may be next so again you deplete your workforce and then your services suffer you lay off that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Local
Local Does the town have some type of a lottery that you can play? Like, the state has it. Okay, why couldn't the town do this? You're smiling and you're laughing. Because it's been asked before, and we think it's a great idea, but absolutely not, the state won't allow it. The town cannot get into anything like that whatsoever. Because it's due to the state not giving permission? Well, it's the municipality. We're not allowed to make money, like, as a profit. We're supposed to be running at it. It wouldn't be a profit because you wouldn't be getting it. It would be going to the town. Yeah. No, I know. Hey, I love thinking outside the box, and sometimes some of these things do work. Open land. Why can't you have a festival on open land and charge admission? There are things I'm sure that... We can, but as a municipality, we can only charge admission to cover the cost of the event. We can't throw another $10 on the admission price to make a profit. And you legally have gambling? You can't do gambling at these things, like a... You know, like, you can do Chinese auction, door prizes, stuff like that. Can you do something like that and incorporate it? There's got to be something. Okay, you're saying 15 people, and I know the 15 people for $3.5 million, we're back to... What is the increase anyway, the total increase on this that you're proposing? 6.74%. Okay, almost 7%. Which is, you know, a hefty... Is that over the 2%? That's over the 2%. So it's almost 10% when the numbers are really regular. It's 8.74%. 8.75%, I think, because it was 2.1 on the cap. Okay, the other way it sounds a little better, but it's also, in my opinion, kind of misleading. There has to be something. I think, you know, do a contest with the people. Have them brainstorm. Do things like that. Get the town involved. Make everybody realize, like I said, I'm a homeowner. I've been here for a long time. I love it here. I'll mention something. It's not going to be popular, but we're looking at paid parking. That's a way to increase revenue for the town. That's not something everybody is going to want, but that's something that we're going to be looking into to help with revenue for the town. So this is what we mean. Paid parking. Been successful in... Paid parking on the street. Yes, both. Yes, both. Both. Much like Port Jeff, Patchogue, other places you go. It helps. Greenport, you've got to pay for your parking. And that's one way of raising money. What I object to, too, is the fact that I feel sometimes I'm being punished because I am fortunate enough to own a home. Can you speak into the microphone? I'm sorry. Because I'm fortunate enough to own a home out here. Okay? The burden comes on us. I'm a great grandparent, luckily, many times over. Okay? My children have not been in school for... A zillion years. Yet I'm a firm believer in education and supporting our school system. I usually vote to pass the budget. But my Social Security is not going up. By what? 2.8% compared to this? I was living on a... Listen, I'm not... Destitute. Thank you. You know, by any means, thank goodness, but it doesn't say it couldn't happen soon. I'm saying is you need to brainstorm a little more before this is passed. Even if it's a tiny, tiny pullback on it, I think that would encourage people to say that you listened, that you went back and looked at it, and this was cut. It may not be as far back as we want, but at least we did something. I would ask you to share these same thoughts in May when the school budget is proposed before the people, because that is the majority of your tax bill. I know it is. So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... So... And you do have a lot of elderly people here, but the fact that there are so many elderly people and always have been in Riverhead, okay, our future for increases in money and means to live and be comfortable are being pulled back more so than people that still have jobs, can still hope to get a raise, still hope to do this, still hope to have their insurance paid for. So, again, you know, you're affecting the worst population here in this town by increasing it like this. So please go back and try again. I would like to say that I wish that they didn't call this the supervisor's budget because this is the town board budget. We all worked together on this, and we made sure that all the fat was trimmed on it before we presented it to you so as not to waste anybody's time. I have three children in their 20s that all want to live here in this town, and taxes are a major problem, and I would never support this budget if it wasn't down to the bones what has to be. For my own children, I would not vote yes to anything except for what we are presenting today. We also trimmed $600,000 out of this budget for equipment and supplies. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So we did go through this budget, and that's not the only thing we cut out, but those are just easy points for me to tip on right now. Warren, go ahead. Yes. The town board has the least authority of all elected governments, the town government. The county, the state, everybody else has it. But this lady's worried about her home and everything else. There's a fact, and it's happening right now. The billionaires are getting richer. The middle class is shrinking. The poor are growing larger and getting poorer, and there's nothing we could do about it. Unless maybe you could come up with an answer or at least get Congress to move, but the billionaires tell the Congress what to do. I believe that. That's my opinion. I'm sorry I was upset before, and that's about it. Thank you. I love your desire and love for our town, Warren. Don't ever apologize for that. Pam, you have to come up to the microphone. I just want to know if you could... This is just on this public hearing still. Open comments come at the end after we do all our resolutions. Any other comments? None online? One online. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry, can you hear me now? We can hear you. We have trouble seeing you because of the sunlight, but go ahead. Okay, yeah, we're, we're. That's much better, John. Back from Virginia. So let me just say something. I mean, I think that everybody involved on the budget process does the best they can, but every year we have these discussions and there's like a disjuncture between the knowledge that you have and the knowledge that the public has, and that's not the fault of anybody, but I wonder whether in the stage of this process, it would be useful for perhaps the staff person to have an open session and walk through the budget section by section and answer questions at that point where people can say, oh, we don't know, we hadn't realized that that was being done by the town and maybe that isn't a priority, but it's very hard. People would have to study the written document very well and know what they were dealing with, or they come into these discussions in a board meeting, I think with too little knowledge to say anything very useful. But that's, so that's just a process question that might be worth considering. So, so. So people have a handle on what is actually in the budget, but it's not taking up the whole, the time of the whole board. Is that it, John? That's it, yeah. Okay. Thank you. I mean, it's not, I don't. You don't, you froze. Okay. You have one more. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Oh, we have one more online? Okay.
Hi, Kathy McGraw from Northville. Just following up on something John said, and as you probably know, I am a bugaboo about process and following the law, and the public notice for this hearing, and I'm not going to go into too much detail, but I just want to say that the budget that was put on the budget was inadequate. Contrary to law, it didn't include the salaries of the five people on the board and a couple of other people in the town. And it also didn't tell the public that they could actually view the budget in the town clerk's office. Maybe they wouldn't have gone, but if they'd been told it would be there and they could go see it, they just might have. And so I simply don't understand. Why this town can't follow the rules, the regulations, New York law when it comes to publishing a notice, a public notice about something as important as the budget. And maybe it would be helpful if you all told us what your salaries are. Thank you very much. John Aucott Thank you, Kathy. The salaries. The salaries are all in the preliminary budget. It's posted online. They're all there for everybody to see, correct? Kathy Decker Correct. So the tentative budget and the preliminary budget have been posted online for quite a while now. As soon as the resolution went in, the preliminary budget was posted the same day that the MISLA was adopted. Town clerk received a copy that morning as well. There is a page dedicated to the elected official salaries. It's a requirement. We have to put it in there. It's in there. I don't know if Eric wants to address anything else with. Eric Green I would just say, you know, the notice that was published is the same notice that we've used the past two years. So if something's been lost in the carryover of the resolutions, that'll be corrected by my office going forward. Kathy Decker But it was posted so that it is out there for the public. Eric Green So the resolution that authorized the posting, that published and posting of the notice included in it, resolved the copy of the entire text of the proposed local law may be reviewed at the office of the town clerk between the hours of 830 and 430 p.m. Monday through Friday and can be accessed on the town of Riverhead website at the town's website under agenda and minutes for the October 7th town board meeting. And a copy of the preliminary budget will be available in the office of the town clerk for West Second Street Riverhead, New York between the hours of 830 and 430 p.m. Monday through Friday. Eric Green So the resolution that was posted to the public was that the public would be able to access the public notice at the office of the town clerk between the hours of 830 and 430 p.m. Monday through Friday on Thursday, October 16, 2025 and can be accessed at the town of Riverhead's website. So that was in the resolution to authorize the public notice. And as Jeanette said, the salaries were part of the preliminary budget. And if the notice needs to be reviewed and corrected going forward, we will certainly do that. And all salaries are always a public record. Okay. Go to that. Jeanette Savoy Did I hear Mr. Polis say that there was fund balance in there for the town square? Jeanette Savoy So we do have a fund balance, obviously, a reserve that we have to keep a reserve and fund balance. It's not specifically dedicated to the town square. But that is the intent of the board and myself is to use that money towards the grants that are coming. As I said, the $23 million or $24 million raise grant has a $7 million match. That's not part of our operating budget. So that $7 million as of today will have to be funded with fund balance. So that's a $7 million chunk of money right off the bat that will be dedicated to that. You know, things can change from today to tomorrow. Maybe we'll sell a property that would help that. But there's no guarantees. So we don't want to overspend our fund balance and then not have it available for a grant match that we have to go through with because we've committed to that. So that's what I meant by the town square. Joe Mohorovic And there still may be other grants forthcoming too that will help offset that. Jeanette Savoy Right. We can sometimes match grants with other grants, but not always. It depends on, you know, the specific grants. Joe Mohorovic You'll still have to keep the grants. Jeanette Savoy Right. Joe Mohorovic And that's the other thing. You know, we can't keep money in fund balance overall. We have been fortunate that we have not had any severe hurricane disasters of that magnitude. But you see what happens down south and other places. But look at what happened in Hurricane Gloria. You can't just deplete fund balance and then leave everybody as victims and not have anything to restore power, streets, road, infrastructure. We're fortunate and we're blessed that we haven't had anything. But you can't just use up fund balance and hope for the best and roll the dice. That's not the way you properly govern. So we protect our citizens by keeping a substantial in fund balance in case of emergencies as well. Jeanette Savoy Thank you. CHAIRMAN BRYANT Okay. I'm going to, are we going to keep this open until the 16th? MR. Yes. CHAIRMAN BRYANT Right. That's it? MR. That will be the 16th. Yeah. CHAIRMAN BRYANT Okay. MR. Open to it. CHAIRMAN BRYANT This, we're going to, I'm going to make a motion to close this. MR. Okay. CHAIRMAN BRYANT Okay. MR. Okay. CHAIRMAN BRYANT So I'm going to close this public hearing and keep it open for written comment for the next 10 days until October, until November 16th. Can I have a motion to close the public hearing? MS. So moved. MR. Seconded. CHAIRMAN BRYANT All in favor? MS. Aye. CHAIRMAN BRYANT All opposed? Okay. The public hearing is closed, yet it will be open for 10 days for written comment. Next public hearing we have is scheduled at 2 o'clock. It is 3 o'clock 7. It's a public hearing regarding C. CHAIRMAN BRYANT Okay. MR. Okay. CHAIRMAN BRYANT And I'm going to ask Carissa to come on up and open this up for us. MS. Yes. Good afternoon, Supervisor, members of the Town Board. Today is our annual public hearing for the Community Development Block Grant funding. It's funds that come from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It's administered through Suffolk County. Every year we are awarded funding for the Community Development Block Grant. It's funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Last year we were awarded around $229,000. This year we're anticipating requesting approximately $250,000. It's used for public service groups that help our town residents, public and park pedestrian and park improvements, and our home improvement program, which helps the elderly that meet certain requirements for health and safety repairs for their homes. Today is the opportunity for various public service groups to request funding and state their cases to the Town Board. Usually, public service groups are awarded between $5,000 and $8,000 in the past. The comment period was opened on October 16th, which is the publish and post date, and it's going to end on November 14th. MR. Okay. CHAIRMAN BRYANT And anybody who is looking to request funding? Certainly. CHAIRMAN BRYANT. COME ON UP TO THE MICROPHONE. MS. Hi. Good afternoon. My name is Theresa Rodin. I am the Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of an organization called I try. So, we presently, we're a nonprofit organization that empowers middle school girls through the support of triathlon. MS. since 2010 the program started in spring school with ten girls and we've grown consistently over the years to the point where we work now with 13 public schools on the East End from Montauk to mastic we've been in Riverhead middle school since 2019 we've had approximately a little under a thousand girls from the middle school participate with us and each year we open it up to any girl in seventh grade at the middle school they can continue on up to about 20 to 25 girls each year have the opportunity to participate and we've seen huge growth in their social-emotional learning many of our kids go on to stay with us and we have a program where we train them to become swim coaches and then they we pay them as coaches so we're just here to kind of you know to kind of get them to the middle school and then we have a lot of we have a lot of people that are not in school we have a lot of people that are not in school we have a lot of people that are not in school we have a great working relationship with the school and that funding is tough right now and it costs us approximately three thousand dollars per girl the program runs for six months from February through July where they do a race we provide everything that the girls and the families need so all they need to do is is show up and be committed and we take care of everything whether that means they need a bike to train on or not and we are working with all of the schools that they need feminine hygiene products we you know any anything they need while they're in our program we're there to help with and so any any funding that the town of Riverhead could help us with would be more than appreciated this is Jennifer folks she is our development professional and she can tell you more hi thank you guys so much for opening this public hearing to us as to reach as Teresa mentioned I try has been around since 2010 we've been in Riverhead schools since 2019 and I just want to kind of piggyback on the point that Teresa mentioned that we provide every single thing for these girls to be successful and imagine being an 11 or 12 year old girl and completing youth distance triathlon it's not just about the triathlon it's not about the running they're not the fastest runners or the best swimmers half of them in fact kind of do the doggy paddle for the swim but it's about the empowerment and the feeling that the girls have that they can actually accomplish anything that they set their minds to it's it's about making sure that our the next generation of girls is empowered is healthy mentally physically emotionally and a lot of these girls bring these lessons home to their families and we see we see the families one the older sister will do I try and then two years later the younger sister will do I try the you know alumni will come back and help and speak to the girls and the girls will try and you know we're going to see if they can do it and we've heard from families from you know across Eastern Long Island from Mastic to Montauk that it's really impacted their family life as well in a positive manner nutrition etc and I do want to make the point that not to make it this a competition but East Hampton Town and South Hampton Town also help support us financially the bulk of our girls do come from up west up here Riverhead West Hampton Hampton Bays so we thought we would like to get Riverhead Town Council involved and see if you guys would be willing to support us in any way possible thank you so much I just had a question sure does the school district help you as well not the Riverhead School District East Hampton School District is the only one that's able to help us at this time and they support us through their mental health fund to the tune of about five thousand dollars a year but as Teresa mentioned it does cost us about three thousand dollars per girl to put the program on and lit everything that they need sports bras sneakers period supplies snacks whatever they need transportation because a lot of our girls come from lower income families and transportation is hard you know it's hard to hard to get around and we don't want to set any barriers in place for anyone to not be able to participate where do they train to swim they train here at the Suffolk County Riverhead Aquatic Center for the girls in the western part of the program and the eastern part of the program uses the YMCA in East Hampton at the college yeah the college yeah sounds like a wonderful program it's a good one and it's also a good time being able to go and practice and practice and practice and practice and practice and practice and practice and practice and good moments every single day because it really does make a difference. Do you have a record of how many girls go on to continue with the triathlon? So we don't really keep track of the triathlon. We're not really training them to be future athletes. I know, I'm just curious. But we've worked with over 1,600 girls over the past 16 years. We just celebrated our sweet 16th birthday this past season. So we've worked with over 1,600 girls, and many of them do become lifeguards as well, which is really important, especially in our communities out here. And it's really nice. The majority of our girls are girls of color, and it is really nice to see the representation that we've been able to help promote in the first responder sphere in the lifeguard world as well. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. That's for you.
Okay. Good afternoon. My name is Diana Bellito. I'm from Long Island Head Start. Long Island Head Start is a nonprofit organization that provides early childhood, quality early childhood services to children under five in Suffolk County. We've been on Long Island for 60 years, starting in 2026. So we're celebrating our 60th anniversary. We have a Head Start center right around the corner at St. John's Church. And we're here to help. We have 88 children that we serve there. All our children are from low-income families. And Head Start is a comprehensive program. So we don't just provide early childhood education. We provide health, nutrition, disabilities, mental health services, along with family support services. So we try to help families become self-sufficient in the time that they're with Head Start so that they can tap into the community resources when they leave. And we also want children to be prepared for kindergarten when they leave our program. So we have a center, as I said, in Riverhead right around the corner. We had to remove some trees in the playground. And really what we're requesting is $5,000 to put up some shading in that playground since we have limited shading now. So we have had submitted a letter with an estimate for that shading. It's going to cost about $10,000. So we were going to pay the balance out of our own operating budget, but we were requesting the $5,000. So we're going to pay the balance out of our own operating budget, but we were requesting the $5,000. So we're going to pay the balance out of our own operating budget, but we're requesting the $5,000. So we're going to pay the balance out of our own operating budget, but we're requesting the $5,000. We would also demand that we would plea plea plea plea plea plea plea plea plea plea plea plea plea plea plea with somebody or just a letter and give it to clerk Wooten. Oh, okay. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You too. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Felicia Skakoza. I'm the Executive Director of Riverhead Community Awareness Program. Since 1982, CAP has been the major provider of prevention programs for the town of Riverhead and Riverhead Central School District. And we are grateful for the past support from community development block grant funds to help support alcohol and drug prevention, education, counseling, and community services for students and their families in Riverhead schools. Specifically, community development block grant funds from the town of Riverhead have been used to support our school-based social worker at Roanoke Avenue Elementary School. It is the most impoverished school in the town of Riverhead and the New York State Department of Education identified 73% of the students and families there as poor. Our CAP social worker works with students who experience stress, trauma, and what's known as adverse childhood experiences or ACEs, which are linked to chronic health problems, mental illness, and substance use issues beginning in adolescence and across the life span. ACEs can also negatively impact education, job opportunities, and learning, earning potential. However, this is preventable. The connections of these students and families to community resources is vital for their children's emotional and academic success. And the CAP social worker provides services that these students and families would not be able to access outside of that environment. The success of Riverhead children will have a direct impact on the economic well-being and economic future of our town. Allocating community development block grant funds to support these prevention programs and services is entirely appropriate under this funding and an investment in our town's youth, families, and future. Thank you. Felicia, your organization is amazing. I'm the liaison for the last two years. Done the walk with the children from Pulaski Street all through town. Been involved with you guys at the stop. Thank you. Where you collect the drugs, beach cleanups and everything. You do amazing work. Thank you. Thank you. Felicia, how many years has CAP been in existence? It's been a long, long time, I know. So CAP was started actually under the auspices of the Riverhead town. It was part of the town initially to get the initial funding in 1982 through a grant through Senator LaValle. And in 1986, CAP incorporated. So we've been incorporated since 1986 and we've been providing services since 1982. And I don't want to mention how, because I don't know the number, but you have received numerous awards over the year for this program. Nationwide type awards, statewide awards, and I commend you on an excellent program. Oh, thank you very much. It's awesome. All five of my kids went through it and my grandkids hopefully will go through it. So thank you for what you do. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you, staff and a lot of volunteers. Thank you. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. I love the way you guys get the athletes, nationally known athletes to come and speak at the events too. That's terrific. Thank you. You just need to get a New York Met for me. We did have one, Bud Harrelson, years ago. Oh, no, no, no. Recent, recent. They're free and available now, actually. Before they leave the team, please. Okay. Do we have anybody else to speak on the CEP? Nobody. Okay. Let's speak on the CDBG funds. Nobody online. Okay. Same thing here. I'll ask for a motion to close the public hearing. Keep it open for ten days for written comment until November 16th. So moved. Seconded. Actually, we only need to have it open until November 14th. Oh, that's right, because you've got a date. There's a time limit on this one. Okay. 30 days. Yep. I stand corrected. This will be open until November 14th, because it's time-restricted. So, motion for the 14th? So moved. Seconded. Okay. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Okay. But that public hearing is closed, but it will be open for written comment until the 14th. Okay. Now we're to the point where we're at comments on any resolution on the agenda today. Comments on any resolution? Okay. Any resolution? Okay. Any resolution? Okay. Any resolution? Okay. Not seeing anybody. Anybody online for comments on resolution? Nothing? Okay. Clerk Wooden, would you mind going through the resolutions? Sure. Resolution number one is resolution number 895. Highway Department budget transfer, garage doors. So moved. Seconded. Vote, please. Waskie? Yes. Merrifield? Yes. Rothwell? Yes. Hubbard? Yes. We were talking about the
Yes. We were talking about the Yes. We were talking about the Yes. We were talking about the Local Local Local improvements at Two Bears Park. So moved. Seconded. Vote please. Waskey. Yes. Merrifield. Yes. Rothwell. Yes. Hubbard. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Resolution number 898. Water District Capital Project 82518 Sandy Pond Links Town Hydrant Budget Adoption. So moved. Seconded. Vote please. Waskey. Yes. Merrifield. Yes. Rothwell. Yes. Hubbard. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Resolution number 899. Water District Capital Project number 82335 437-483 Young's Avenue Landfill Solar Project Budget Adjustment. So moved. Seconded. Vote please. Waskey. Yes. Merrifield. Yes. Rothwell. Yes. Hubbard. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Resolution number 900. Yes.
Waskey. Yes. Merrifield. Yes. Rothwell. Yes. Hubbard. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Resolution 902. ratifies the acceptance of resignation from a public safety dispatcher. So moved. Seconded. Vote, please. Waski. Yes. Merrifield. Yes. Rothwell. Yes. Hubbard. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Resolution 903. Accepts the resignation of a maintenance mechanic, too. So moved. Seconded. Vote, please. Waski. Yes. Merrifield. Yes. This is what we were talking about. This person has left after receiving all kinds of training from Frank and doing a great job and moved on, I believe, to go to Brookhaven Laboratory. So moved. Vote yes. Rothwell. Yes. Hubbard. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Resolution number 904. Appoints police chief to the Riverhead Police Department. So moved. Seconded. Vote, please. Waski. One of the best yeses that I'll probably have in my career. Yes, yes, yes. Merrifield. Yes. Rothwell. I'm going to give a more yes than yes. As Councilwoman Waski did, just so that we all know. Absolutely yes. And you're doing a great job. Thank you for everything. And Hubbard. Chief, absolutely. Great job. Best move we could have made. Thank you so much. Yes. Yes.
I guess it's accepted. Resolution 905. Amends terms and conditions for employment of H. Kronberg. So moved. Seconded. Vote, please. Waski. Yes. Merrifield. Yes. Rothwell. Yes. Hubbard. Another awesome employee we have that runs our IT section. Congratulations, Chip. Thank you. Yeah, he is a good guy. Resolution is adopted. Resolution 906. Chip, you can keep his mic going. Just, you know. Authorizing the hiring of an administrative law judge to conduct stop arm cases against a person who is not a member of the public health system. The ! ! Resolution is adopted. Resolution 907. 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, Article 2, Traffic Regulations. So moved. Seconded. Vote, please. Waske. Yes. Murrayfield. Yes. Rothwell. Yes. Hubbard. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Resolution 908. Authorizes the town clerk to publish and post public notice to consider a local law to amend Chapter 231 of the Riverhead Town Code entitled Fire Prevention, Article 1, General Provisions, Enforcement. So moved. Seconded. Vote, please. Waske. Yes. Murrayfield. Yes. Rothwell. Yes. Hubbard. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Resolution 909. Authorizes the town clerk to publish and post notice to bidders for construction of well number 2A-1. So moved. Seconded. Vote, please. Waske. Yes. Murrayfield. Yes. Rothwell. Yes. Hubbard. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Resolution 910. Authorizes the town clerk to publish and post notice to bidders for general hardware items. So moved. Seconded. Vote, please. Waske. Yes. Murrayfield. Yes. Rothwell. Yes. Hubbard. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Resolution 911. Authorizes the town clerk to publish and post notice of request for proposals for audit services for Town of Riverhead Community Preservation Fund. So moved. Seconded. Vote, please. Waske. Yes. Murrayfield. Yes. Rothwell. Yes. Hubbard. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Resolution 912. Reject bids for food and meat and authorizes town clerk to publish and post notice to bidders for re-bid for food and meat products. So moved. Seconded. Vote, please. Waske. Yes. Murrayfield. Yes. Rothwell. Yes. Hubbard. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Resolution 913. Ward's bid for CVE, U.S. New York Riverhead 215 LLC Riverhead Landfill Water Main Extension. So moved. Seconded. Vote, please. Waske. Yes. Murrayfield. Yes. Rothwell. Yes. Hubbard. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Resolution 914. Corrects Resolution 2025-848. So moved. Seconded. Vote, please. Waske. Yes. Murrayfield. Yes. Rothwell. Yes. Hubbard. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Resolution 915. Ratifies the authorization for the supervisor to execute a stipulation with Local 1000 AFSC. The Sub-CMECAFL CIO Riverhead Unit of the Suffolk Local 852. So moved. Seconded. Vote, please. Waske. Yes. Murrayfield. Yes. Rothwell. Yes. Hubbard. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Resolution 916. Authorizes the town attorney to execute an agreement with Municipal Valuation Services, Inc. So moved. Seconded. Vote, please. Waske. Yes. Murrayfield. Yes. Rothwell. Yes. Hubbard. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Resolution 917. Ratifies the authorization for the supervisor to execute a professional services agreement with Interfluve Engineering for the Meeting House Creek stormwater, wetland, and habitat restoration project. So moved. Seconded. Vote, please. Waske. Yes. Murrayfield. Yes. Rothwell. Yes. Hubbard. Yes. Otherwise, would Supervisor Yaucho and Judge !
Otherwise, would Supervisor Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho and Judge Yaucho for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation on May 30, 2026. So moved. Seconded. Vote, please. Waskey? Yes. Murrayfield? Yes. Rothwell? Yes. And Hubbard? Yes. Resolution is adopted. Resolution 920. Hayes-Bill. So moved. Second. Vote, please. Waskey? Yes. Murrayfield? Yes. Rothwell? Yes. Hubbard? Yes. Resolution is adopted. That concludes our resolutions for this meeting. Okay, we are now going to open it up to comments from the public on any matter. Comments from the public on any matter.
All honor and praises to God who allows me to do all that I do. Good afternoon to the board and all in attendance.
I am Sarah Bullock. And I'm a homeowner for over 30 years on Northville Turnpike and Riverhead. Paid up taxpayer. Law-abiding citizen. Upstanding citizen. I've worked hard all my life to help make this town, beautiful Riverhead, a great place to live. Now I'm retired and wishing to enjoy it by doing whatever I want. Relaxing, sleeping. Morning, noon, and night. Which is impossible living here on Northville Turnpike, especially up to date. Traffic unending. Noise beyond unbelief. I spoke to the pastor a couple of weeks ago about the noise and the traffic coming down there. And he informed me that they have been at noise traffic study three years ago. And they said, traffic wasn't that bad there. Well, that is passe. And that needs to be updated again. I came to town hall three weeks ago about this situation and I asked to speak to the supervisor. And I was told that he was in a meeting. The officer outside took my name and phone number and said that he would get back to me. I said fine. I said, he's not here. He's not here. He's going to call me back? Yes. He said, yes he will. Well, I'm still waiting. The officer asked me what did I want to speak to him about. And I said, complaining about the traffic and noise and my quality of life at this point. I've worked hard and as a senior, I want to be heard. That traffic, I'm sure. That, I don't know whether you have all heard. I don't know whether you have all, any of these have driven down on Northfield Turnpike. But let me tell you one thing. It is horrendous, the noise on there and the traffic. I have one mile to go to my doctor's appointment. And I can start out there, seven minutes to get there. I can't. When I get to the doctor's office, I'm late because I can't get out of my driveway on Northfield Turnpike. At night, they come down through there. They start about nine o'clock. And it doesn't end. Five o'clock, they're still going on. It sounds like an airplane sometimes has crashed out in front of your door. And I mean, it's ridiculous. I know some things don't, if it doesn't apply to some people, it doesn't bother them. But we have to start using more compassion in this world. Just because it does not affect you, that doesn't mean that something doesn't need to be done about it. And someone asked me today, when I asked him if he could come to the meeting. Now I can understand people are working and whatever. But she said to me, what are they going to do about it? Well, I don't know because this is not my question to answer. But I'm sure there is something that they can do about this. And I invited the officer that was at the desk, an officer. I said, if you work anywhere in this town, I'm quite sure that at one point, two points, three points, sometime during the month, you have driven down Northfield Turnpike and see what goes on down there. Okay. Never mind on Thursday and Friday. Forget it. You can't hardly get out of your driveway at all. And I said, you know what you can do? Go get your car, park down there by the church there behind those bushes somewhere over there. Don't let them see the white on that car. And just sit there. I said, and you and every other police officer in this town can get their quota for tickets for the whole month. Just by sitting there. That's just how bad it is. So now what is the protocol, supervisor, if someone comes in with a question? Could you tell me what that is? And the man told me that you would give me a call back. Well, first of all, I apologize that nobody got back to you. But I will tell you, I never saw any message from you or with your name on it or anything else. This is a simple fix because we're going to talk to the chief of police who is here right now. And he's going to provide a setup where he can work up there and help you with this traffic problem. Whether it be monitoring speed, doing radar, writing tickets, that's going to be a big part of the process. And if he's going to give you any tickets, that's up to him to decide. But he will certainly take what he has heard here today and put together something for Northville Turnpike. So now, since I've been here 30-some years, this is the first time that anybody has brought this situation to the town? About Northville Turnpike, chief, I don't know. I haven't heard of any other. But that light there, there's so many accidents, it's not even funny. All you do is get the police reports out there and you'll see that. Long road. What corner does it take? It's unbearable. How you doing? The blinking light is currently getting studied by Suffolk County. Northville Turnpike is a Suffolk County roadway. That's their purview. And I've been told that the survey, the study is going to come in, whether to change it to a full-time light or to leave it as a blinking, it will come in like the end of March, the first quarter. It's been already requested this past year through the Traffic Safety Committee. And I will address sending officers in. And I will address sending officers up to enforce speed on Northville Turnpike. Excuse me, officer, I'm not talking about the blinking light. I'm talking about the study light, Northville Turnpike Middle Road. That's also Suffolk County. They would have to make the decision on what to do with it. What is your direct question? Who is they? Suffolk County. Okay, the buck. Suffolk County Department of Transportation. I want to know what I can do to get the buck to stop where it's supposed to stop. What can I do? That's Suffolk County Transit. They operate. It's Suffolk County Department of Works, you know, transportation. That's where you would, I'll get you a contact, a person of contact. If you give me your phone number when you leave and I will have them, you know, get an email for someone or contact a public person that you can speak to. Well, I just want to say call Suffolk County today. Okay. And they are going to initiate a traffic study with that light and speed limit signs. You have to come up to the podium. Can't do that. I'm sorry. Yeah, the folks at home want to hear what you have to say too. My name is Jacqueline Tappley. I live at 1095 Northfield Turnpike. There are no speed limit signs on Northfield Turnpike from Roanoke to Sound. None. And my neighbor complains correctly that people go very fast up and down that road. So we did request a traffic study for Suffolk County Highway 9. Okay. Good. I'll also just mention the next traffic safety meeting you are always welcome to come to. We have those meetings each month and you can always come in and make certain requests and we follow up on them and you are welcome to come on a continuing basis. But the next traffic safety meeting is on Thursday the 27th although that's Thanksgiving. So forgive me but I imagine it's going to be Right. We need to know when those dates because I was told the next one was November 5th for this one. Yeah. When I called the agency. Okay. So we are not going to be able to get all of those meetings. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. to verify if it was that and they said oh no it's two o'clock tomorrow afternoon now look and see if you have another rescheduled date where can we find that yes that date when it's going to be the correct one i know there's one on december well and they're falling on holiday so i'm going to have to get back to you on the dates because i can't be the only one in this town that's not seeing what's going on down low for a turnpike i just cannot and after 30 some years i just can't keep my mouth shut because everyone knows a closed mouth don't get fed but they also do not get hurt and i have a mouth on me and i can speak someone needs to go down there sit across there at that church there and see what goes on that night and i'm telling you if it was anybody in here they would not take it they would call the police or whoever else and do something about it because it is terrible ma'am have you called the police when this is going on no okay that would be a good good time to start you don't you don't even have to give your name just call them up and say look the traffic is ridiculous up right they're speeding whatever and they'll send the car right up there yeah okay what about a handicap parking there's very very little of that in this town and some places as i understand part pardon me if i'm wrong don't have any at all now i've gone to two places and i got there the traffic wall and i said where's your handicap parking uh we don't have any i said that's against the law am i correct yeah anyway public uh parking lot has to have x number of spaces depending upon the number of total spaces have to be allocated to handicap is it just it's just where is this at that you're referring to i'm not going to call names is it just there or does that mean anywhere any establishment that you go to it should be it may be the other large businesses it depends what where the location is because it could be something from a long time ago that was up operating with a parking lot before the handicapped public public public public public
like I have to read any because I really covered it all, but I implore you, please someone go down there and see what's going on. We will. Please help seniors. Almost everybody down on that, from that light down to Southern Avenue, almost everybody on that street are seniors. Not only seniors, handicapped seniors, and they couldn't even possibly get out of their bed to come here today. Impossible, and it's not right that we have to live like that. Seniors who have helped build this town, most of them out there built their houses there and lived, been there longer than I have, and now that I want to enjoy myself now as a senior, this is what I'm going to go through. I've had to go down Southern Avenue to get to an affair. It was so much traffic I couldn't even get down on Southern Avenue. I turned around, came back to 25, still couldn't get down to where I had to go, down in Meditat, so I stayed home. That's not the way to live here, and maybe it doesn't affect most people here because maybe they don't drive. It has to be. Some of these people, the things that they're doing now and all this building that they're doing with these stores and all, it's impossible to realize that they're not going to be able to live here. It's impossible to realize that they are doing no traffic control. The buildings here, beautiful. The homes and everything they're building up now, beautiful, and who doesn't want that growth? But Riverhead is being growth over growth. There's nowhere to park. Where is the parking? Where is it? Where's the traffic control here? You got your hands and your life in your hands every time you go down on those circles here. Why should we have to live like that as seniors? That's not right. Where is there no parking? Excuse me? Where is there no parking? I don't know what you mean. I said no parking. You just said there's no parking anywhere around. Where are you referring to? We have plenty of parking. You said there's no parking around? Yeah. Is there any... I'm making a full statement that there's not enough parking with all these buildings that they're coming up with. You have no way to park. There has to be. It's part of the code that there has to be a certain amount of parking spaces for the square footage of the... Building. Or the plaza or the... Whatever it is. Okay. Well, I'll just look forward to seeing... If you want to tell us where off camera and we can investigate it and look into it or let the chief know where it goes... I'm just talking about this traffic on 58. Now they're building another big store that I don't know what it is. And you can't even go down there and shop, got your life in your hands the whole time. And there's not traffic control down there. That's not traffic control. To get to those stores and everything, it's not traffic control. Something has to be done. They keep saying, oh, we're going to build a bridge and go over here and go over there. That was years ago and they haven't done anything yet. They have to see that something else has to be done instead of building all these buildings up and, oh, nice river. Come on out there because this is the county seat. We want to be happy here and be able to travel out here and be happy and feel safe. Let me put it that way. Okay. Please do something about it, please. Thank you. I beg of you. Thank you. Give the letters to... I'm a clerk. You can be on record if you want. Okay. She's a terrific lady. I have the same problem, but I solve it this way on 58. I take the road I live on, Middle Road, go into one shopping center, do my shopping there, and from that one shopping center, I go on Middle Road around, I shouldn't tell, there's a traffic increase, and then I go other one. And sometimes from one shopping center to the other shopping center, I have to go on Route 58. You don't have to go on Route 58. Really, I could show you. They have cross-access, Warren. Yeah. And we require that of any of the new shopping centers going in, that if there's one next to them, they have to have cross-access so you don't have to go out onto 58 and get snarled in some of that traffic. You can just go from plaza to plaza. Exactly. Exactly. And another thing is our assemblywoman, Jody Giggily, was a terrific person. You tell her, a staff, Mark is a wonderful guy, you tell them about that, they'll, you know, and plus the chief, maybe he'll contact the state police. I've seen a state policeman down there once, but the state policeman is always at the end of the expressway just, you know, taking tickets. Besides taking tickets, if they go on Northville Turnpike, they've got to speak to Paul. So, the state senate of Palumbo. If they go on Northville Turnpike, they could get tickets and they could save lives. Exactly. So, everybody, I'm sure the chief will suggest, you know. Exactly, sir. So, those are the things we could do. We could work together and we have a new county legislator. They're both people, Mrs. Starr was terrific. Warren, Warren. Hello. I'm sorry. Can you talk to us? Yeah. I want to hear what you have to say. I just wanted to help her out. But, you know, we got two new, you know, we got a new legislator and he would be eager to help. It's right over by Suffolk County Extension Building. So, and you know, as far as that goes. So, you all have to act proactive. These people here have the least power and they do their best. And not only that, I could see you. I could see you twice a week. Try and see Puma. His staff ignores me for weeks and months. I'm not complaining, but that's the way it is. And, Leota, if you want to see the congressman, this is what you got to do, people. If you want to see the congressman, you go down to Rocky Point at the VFW and they have a certain day a week you can meet their aides there. So, we all have to do something. You know. We just can't talk to you guys. We have to talk to all of them. I'm trying to help. Thank you. Okay. Thanks, Warren. Do we have any other open comments? We have one online it looks like. Okay.
I'll try to get through this. Okay. You hear me now? I can hear you, John. All right. I'll try. So, we have a couple of questions. One is, while we're driving, several things quickly. One is, because we've been away for the last week, has the building been demolished or is it still standing with the demolition dates set? We're still waiting on a date when all that works for all of the dignitaries that are going to attend. Do you have any sense of when that might be? I don't know. I haven't been in the governor's office yet, so we're waiting for them. Oh, you don't. Well, I would, of course, advise some consideration of what the election results were as a possible indication of dissatisfaction in the community about the intended plan to demolish the building and the intended plan to stick a big hotel into the town square. And would hope that the building would be demolished. Okay. Thank you. We would also would like to see if the existing board would maybe put a pause on things and reevaluate how that space could most productively be used. The other thing I wanted to say is that there was, at a work session, quite ten minutes of criticism of me, of Denise, of Kathy. You've read Denise's published response. Kathy's letter is on the agenda today. You've seen my letter, but it's not on the agenda because of timing. It can't get on until the next board meeting. And so I want to hold up on discussion of that topic until the next board meeting when people would have a chance to actually look at the letter. And I wouldn't be redundant. The final thing I wanted to say is totally personal. There's a young man who spent his summers growing up and his teenage years growing up in Riverhead, our son, John, who was elected on Tuesday as a member of the House of Delegates in Virginia, the lower house of the Virginia legislature. So I think Riverhead can claim some influence. And in his approach to local politics and in Virginia and his success of being elected. So so thank you, everybody in Riverhead for that. Congratulations, John. That's very nice. But we'll come back.
OK. Anybody else? Nobody online. Thank you all. Thank you for coming to the meeting. We appreciate it. And have a great evening and a great weekend. To. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I got to close the meeting. Oh, boy. Motion to close the town board meeting. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. OK.