Riverhead RR station and storage yard ‘a deplorable mess,’ supervisor says; Democrats criticize town for inaction

Conditions at the Long Island Railroad station in Riverhead and its surrounds have troubled town officials for a long time.

The station has been closed for more than 40 years and though the MTA pumped about $1 million into renovating the 105-year-old building in the late 1990s, it has fallen into disrepair — though the LIRR insists it is “still maintaining the station site.”

“They just don’t care,” Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter said of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the LIRR.

Indeed, the station and the rest of the MTA property is the picture of neglect. Paint is peeling off the long-vacant wood-trim brick building that once housed a waiting room and ticket office. Weeds on the LIRR property surrounding the platform regularly grow unchecked. The leafless remains of dead shrubbery planted long ago stand amidst the litter-strewn weeds. A portable lavatory placed adjacent to the shuttered station is overflowing with litter and human excrement. The brick walls of the station house and the sidewalks adjoining them are stained with and reek of urine.

“It’s disgusting. It’s just disgusting,” Walter said. “This is not how we want to say ‘welcome to Riverhead’ when people arrive by train or park in the nearby lots to do business at the courts,” he said. “It’s a deplorable mess.”

Walter said last year he arranged with Sheriff Vincent DeMarco to have inmates from the county jail clean the place up. He made the same request again this year. A spokesperson for the sheriff said today a cleaning detail is planned for later this week.

Salvatore Arena, an LIRR spokesperson said Friday the station site is “cleaned at least once a week and given a heavy-duty, power-washing at least once a month, with unscheduled visits made when necessary.”

“On an average weekday, Riverhead Station serves 53 customers who travel west and 22 who travel east, making it one of our lesser used stations,” Arena said in an email. “We will continue to maintain the station accordingly.”

Local residents and officials blame low ridership on the railroad’s service schedule, complaining that infrequent service at inconvenient times made utilizing train service impractical.

Citing ridership numbers, the MTA in January 2010 announced plans to eliminate service on the Main Line east of Ronkonkoma. That plan derailed after vocal opposition, including the introduction of legislation in Albany that would establish an alternative transportation authority for the East End and Brookhaven. The opposition led to service being maintained and even increased: a new “jury train” was added to the weekday schedule. The railroad did eliminate weekend service to Greenport during winter.

While trains are infrequent, the site is a hub for several Suffolk Transit bus lines, which discharge and pickup passengers there

The adjacent LIRR property on the north side of the tracks between Osborn and Griffing avenues is a LIRR train yard and storage area, Arena said. It serves as headquarters for the LIRR track and signal forces responsible for maintenance on the east end of the Main Line, which runs from Ronkonkoma to Greenport.

“It’s more like a garbage dump than a storage facility,” the Riverhead supervisor said.

“The railroad material stored there is consistent with our storage practices,” Arena said in response to a question about the condition of the area in question.

The Railroad Museum of Long Island has been permitted to store vintage rolling stock there, Arena noted.

He said the railroad has “long worked cooperatively with the Town of Riverhead to address conditions” at the station.

The LIRR signed a 10-year lease with a taxi company last year, but the tenant abandoned the deal, according to MTA spokesperson Salvatore Arena.

“The LIRR was forced to retake possession of the property last month,” he said. The town earlier this year inquired about renting the building to the Guardian Angels, Arena said, but it wasn’t available due to the lease with the taxi company.

“We are now exploring our options with regard to that facility, including possibly offering it publicly,” Arena said.

Prior to offering the 1,500-square-foot station for lease when it issued a request for proposals for the space in 2012, the MTA had leased it to the town rent-free in 2002, conditioned on it being occupied by a nonprofit group. The Riverhead Business Improvement District Management Association moved its office into the building, but moved out shortly afterward, with the then-executive director of the organization saying she was afraid to be there.

The station and the area immediately surrounding it have been a trouble-spot for crime in Riverhead Town. The supervisor asked the Guardian Angels to patrol that vicinity in reaction to a string of violent attacks on Latino men in the past 18 months.

The Town Board last summer discussed warning the MTA that if it didn’t clean up and maintain the site, the town would do it and bill the authority for it, the way it has done with certain privately owned properties. That action was never undertaken.

Democratic Town Board candidates say the conditions at the station is a result of the town’s lack of code enforcement and officials’ lack of follow-through.  During a “walking tour” of downtown Riverhead in June, they called for the town to site a police substation at the vacant railroad station.

Democratic supervisor candidate Anthony Coates said out-of-town visitors arriving in Riverhead by train looking for “wine country” are greeted instead with “a paint-peeling ‘Riverhead’ sign with a vodka bottle sitting next to it, with urine all over the place, with cabs which probably don’t have the proper permits.”

“This town should be ashamed that they’ve allowed an area that’s so obviously sketchy to exist this way for so long,” council candidate Neil Krupnick said.

Krupnick called the LIRR in June to complain about conditions there and was told they would be attended to. Last week he was told the sign was on a list for replacement and would not be replaced for about five years.

“It’s just ridiculous,” Krupnick said.

A few days after RiverheadLOCAL sent photos of the train station to the MTA press office, following inquiries by Krupnick, MTA workers mowed the weeds around the platform. But as of this afternoon, there was litter all around the station and the platform near the station house reek of urine.

A man who sought to use the porta-lav in the parking lot next to the station quickly shut the door after opening it, recoiling from the sight and odor within.

“That’s bad, very bad,” he said, shaking his head and walking away.