Plans to develop next-gen MagLev and freight village at EPCAL aired at Town Hall

Money was the word of the day at Thursday’s work session, where Supervisor Sean Walter presented an overview of his 2012 proposed budget and Community Development Director Christine Kempner got the go-ahead from the Town Board to spend some existing grant money on a downtown playground and to apply for millions more to help fund three major projects, including a proposed research and development facility for the next-generation MagLev transportation system.

MagLev coming to Calverton?

MagLev technology was invented right in our backyard, at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the 1960s by physicist Gordon Danby and nuclear engineer James Powell. The two scientists, now retired from BNL, hold the patent on the original technology and have been working on the technology’s next generation.

Their work is the basis for a 320-mile Tokyo to Osaka route approved for construction by the Japanese government in June. The high speed transport system — cars travel at top speeds in excess of 300 MPH — would reduce travel time between the two cities to just over an hour. The first portion of the Japanese MagLev route is expected to be in operation by 2027, according to the Japanese government.

Kempner has been working with Danby, a Wading River resident, and Powell on a plan to site a research and development facility at the Calverton Enterprise Park.

They have a prototype vehicle and need a facility for testing, research and development, and they’d like to do that at EPCAL, Kempner told the board Thursday.

The Danby-Powell technology can utilize existing rail infrastructure and can  carry freight as well as passengers, Kempner said.

“We are looking to partner with a research institution, aerospace firm and a lab for joint investment into this facility and project,” she said. 

The plans have the support of First District State Senator Ken LaValle and the State Senate’s chairman of the transportation committee, Senator Charles Fuscillo “thinks it’s an interesting idea.”

MagLev transportation is faster, more efficient and more economical than conventional rail transportation, Kempner said. “We’re goig to try to push it along while the governor’s regional economic development councils have an open proposal process,” she said. “They are looking for game-changing new industry and this qualifies.”

“If we could get the design and develop of this technology done at Calverton, that would be a home run,” the supervisor said.

From MagLev to monkey bars

Kempner also reviewed plans to investfunds from an existing grant to build a playground on the land between the newly renovated comfort station and the community garden on West Main Street. The cost of the fenced playground will be fully covered by urban renewal grant monies.

River and Roots Community Garden founders Laurie Nigro and Amy Davidson have been pushing the idea.

“It would be a great addition to downtown, especially with the garden and Grangebel Park,” Davidson said in an interview earlier this summer, referring to the refurbishment of the downtown park completed by the town this year.

“This is part of our quest to reclaim downtown,” Walter said.

Funds sought upgrade sewage treatment and develop a “freight village”

Kempner got permission to submit an application for funding to upgrade the town’s “scavenger waste” treatment plant — which treats cesspool wastes — located at the Riverhead Sewer District facility on River Avenue, off Riverside Drive. The existing plant was built in the early 1980s.

The community development director will also submit a grant application seeking funds for the establishment of a “freight village” at the Calverton Enterprise Park, which would take advantage of the recently completed rail spur going into the site. Development of rail-oriented manufacturing and shipping points is something looked upon with favor, since it has the potential to remove thousands of tractor-trailers off the state’s roadways, she said. A freight village at EPCAL would also make the site more attractive to companies looking to invest in new facilities.

The budget proposal in summary

The supervisor took to the podium for a slide presentation of his proposed 2012 tentative budget, which he submitted to the Town Board and Town Clerk last Friday.

His $51.6 million spending plan increases town-wide appropriations by $1.65 million over the Riverhead’s 2011 adopted budget for the three town-wide funds (general, highway and street-lighting.)

The town’s tax rate will increase 2.36 percent over the three town-wide budget lines.

He said he was making the presentation “to correct a lot of misinformation that’s out there,” but did not elaborate on what the “misinformation” consisted of or its source.

The story of the town’s budget problems, Walter said, is the town’s debt associated with the failed landfill reclamation project. The town’s $3.4 million landfill debt nearly doubles its outstanding general fund debt (currently at $4.9 million), the supervisor said, showing a slide on which both debt totals were plotted from 2001 through 2011.

“We’re not going to cut our way out of it,” Walter said of the town’s fiscal jam. “The only thing we can do is produce our way out of it.”

Past spending increases that he said averaged 7.5 percent a year were “unsustainable,” the supervisor said.

“Some of those were unfunded mandates we were straddled with,” Councilman James Wooten said.

One big ticket item passed on by the state is the town’s contribution to the state pension system, which was hiked by 4.2 percent this year. The cost of that contribution is exempted from the 2 percent tax levy cap adopted by the state this year.

The tax cap also has a “brick and mortar exception,” for new construction on the tax rolls, Walter said. “New construction brings a demand for more services,” he  said, “so the state made an exception.”

Walter said the town could have increased the tax levy by 2.2 percent because of these exceptions to the cap, but his proposal increased the tax levy by $75,000 less than what the exceptions allow.