After community rallies, Riverside traffic circle reconstruction funding is restored to county’s 2016 capital program

Funding for reconstruction of the Riverside traffic circle in 2016 has been restored to the county’s capital program.

The expenditure had been pushed back to 2018 under the 2016-2018 capital budget plan presented to the legislature in April by Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone. The project was originally to have gotten underway next year.

The Suffolk County Legislature voted yesterday evening to advance $4 million for construction of intersection improvements at the circle to 2016. The Riverside project was one of dozens of changes to Bellone’s capital program approved by the legislature at its June 2 general meeting in Hauppauge.

Bellone’s move drew criticism last month from Assemblyman Fred Thiele, (I- Sag Harbor), who accused county officials of reneging on a commitment to begin the project expeditiously, charging county government with treating the East End as a “step-child.”

Deputy Presiding Officer Jay Schneiderman (I-Southampton), a member of the capital budget working group, was able to convince fellow legislators to put the funding back into fiscal year 2016.

Traffic circle is failing, Schneiderman told RiverheadLOCAL in an interview last month. “It’s a priority project for me, for the town and for the state representatives. We’ve been waiting for 2016 to get it done.”

Southampton Town officials, the Flanders-Riverside-Northampton Community Association and Riverside/Flanders area residents lobbied the legislature to put the funding back in the 2016 program.

FRNCA president Vince Taldone said delaying the project till 2018 would sidetrack the ongoing revitalization effort in Riverside. He told RiverheadLOCAL last month he couldn’t conceive how the county would “seek to hold up public improvements that are the key to major private equity investment” in “a long-neglected corner of the East End,” which is finally the focus of a serious redevelopment effort.

“By delaying the SR 24 traffic circle reconstruction, the county is saying that Riverside and indeed downtown Riverhead can wait because other priorities have been moved ahead of us,” Taldone said.

Riverside Rediscovered, the revitalization project launched by Renaissance Downtowns, the master developer chosen by Southampton Town in 2013 to redevelop the Riverside corridor, helped organize community support for restoring funding to the 2016 capital program. The group gathered 250 signatures on a petition to the legislature demanding restoration of funding.

A contingent of local residents and representatives, including Taldone, Riverside Rediscovered’s Siris Barrios and Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst and Councilman Brad Bender, attended the legislative meeting in Hauppauge yesterday morning to advocate for the funding before the final vote.

The capital budget amendment resolution was approved — with several additional amendments to the resolution made on the floor — by a vote of 16 to 1, with Legislator Rob Trotta (R-Fort Salonga) casting the lone no vote. A move by Trotta a three other legislators to cut all capital spending by 10 percent across the board was defeated 13 to 4.

Taldone said afterward he is “thrilled” that the funding was pushed up to 2016.  Delaying the work until 2018 would have delayed the environmental review of the Riverside redevelopment project, he said.  “So millions of dollars in private investment would have been placed on hold until the county authorized the construction of the new circle delaying new jobs, housing, taxes and many amenities planned for this renewed hamlet center,” Taldone said.

“I am very grateful that the legislature grasped the importance to the entire project of getting that circle done in 2016,” he said. “Once they understood that this infrastructure project is really the key to getting the rest of the redevelopment going, they did the right thing for Riverside, the region and for the county.”

Correction: A previously published version of this story did not state that Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst was at the legislative meeting and incorrectly stated that Councilwoman Christine Scalera attended.  A statement from the councilwoman was read into the record by Councilman Brad Bender.