Town officials are looking to shake things up in the Riverhead Business Improvement District.
The BID’s management needs to be “reformulated,” Supervisor Sean Walter said at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast forum Friday morning. Although the BID, a special municipal taxing district, is technically part of Riverhead town government, it is run by a management association made up of property owners and tenants within the district. The BID management association has a 14-member board of directors, headed up by president Vince Tria.
The supervisor on Friday called for the BID management association to work closely with the Chamber of Commerce to get things moving downtown. He said the Town Board wants to see some “cross pollination” with the Chamber on the BID board.
“We’ve basically given the BID a year to really accomplish something with the Chamber of Commerce. If the BID can’t do it, then we’re going to be looking in other places,” Walter said.
BID president Vince Tria, who did not attend the breakfast forum, said in a phone interview Saturday that he knew nothing about any of the town’s current plans for the BID and the Chamber.
But Tria might soon be asked to step down from his BID post. Since he became a BID management association board member, he has moved out of the geographic boundaries of the downtown district and no longer meets the association bylaw’s requirements to serve on its board. Tria said Saturday that the bylaws don’t require him to step down, but acknowledged that his residency outside the district disqualifies him to run for re-election to the board when his current term expires in June.
BID vice president Raymond Pickersgill, owner of Robert James Salon on East Main Street, said Saturday he would welcome changes to the BID board. He expressed frustration with the BID’s lack of action, noting that the BID hasn’t had a signed contract with the town and can’t access money in the BID account — money that’s raised by taxes levied on properties in the district. It raises about $140,000 in taxes each year, Pickersgill said. The unspent money has been held by the town.
Councilman James Wooten, the Town Board liaison to the BID, said Saturday that there’s about $316,000 in the BID account. Pickersgill said the money must be spent on projects within the district, or the town has no right to levy additional taxes on district properties. The BID management association voted last year to sue the town to gain access to the funds, but recently decided to wait and see what the new administration in Town Hall does.
There are a number of projects the BID could do to improve the downtown business district, which is the mission of the BID, Pickersgill said. He cited graffiti removal, sidewalk cleaning, snow clearing on sidewalks, retrofitting parking lot lights with LED fixtures, and replacing flower boxes and garbage containers. It’s in the BID’s and the town’s best interest to sign the management contract so these things can get done, he said.
“I want to see the Riverhead BID do things that BIDs across the state and country do,” Pickersgill said. “The BID is a powerful tool if it’s used properly.”
As for “cross pollinating” with the Chamber of Commerce, Pickersgill said the BID needs to make sure it meets its legal mandate, which is the improvement of the downtown business district. “The Chamber of Commerce is for the whole town,” he said. “I’d have to think about that.”
The breakfast forum Friday was the first in a series dubbed “Eggs & Issues,” presented by the Riverhead Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by The Riverhead News-Review. They are slated for the second Thursday of every month at 8 a.m.
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