School board lays groundwork for plan to replace ‘crumbling’ bus garage with new one in Flanders

Riverhead school district voters will be asked to approve two ballot measures in May that will allow the Board of Education to use proceeds from the sale of district-owned land, as well as future undesignated general fund balances, to purchase land near the Phillips Avenue Elementary School for the purpose of eventually building a new bus garage there.

School board members approved both ballot propositions at last night’s meeting.

Superintendent Nancy Carney said the district’s bus garage was in “extraordinarily bad repair.”

“It’s a very old building,” Carney said of the existing Osborn Avenue structure built in 1920 as a horse barn. “The wiring, the infrastructure, the pavement, the ceilings, the roof, the walls, the doors – they’re crumbling … I invite the community to take a tour to see what it looks like.”

Photos of the building shown at Tuesday’s presentation included those showing holes in the ceiling revealing sunlight from outside and a rotting structure that, in some places, is “beyond repair,” Carney said.

Because of the state of the building, Carney said she hopes the project will come to fruition far before its projected 10-year timeline.

Carney said the project, if approved by voters in May, will not result in an increase in taxes, nor will it impact the budget or result in additional debt.

The first proposition would allow the board to establish a capital reserve savings account of up to $10 million, using money from the sale of district-owned property on Tuthills Lane and undesignated, unreserved fund balances to pay for the project, which would include a new bus garage and maintenance area, as well as improvements to athletic fields.

The second proposition would also pull funds from the Tuthills Lane property sale to allow the board to purchase two parcels of land, referred to by Carney as the “paper road,” to improve access to the proposed site of the new bus garage, located on three district-owned acres of land behind Philips Avenue Elementary school.

The parcels, totaling 60,000 square feet, would allow vehicles at the proposed bus garage site access to Route 24/Flanders Road via Enterprise Zone Road.

Carney said she has already met with Suffolk County Legislator Al Krupski to discuss the possibility of selling both the land and development rights of the Tuthills Lane property to the county in order to start saving for the new bus garage.

“He’s looking to put that legislation forward,” she said. “We had a very positive meeting and we’re confident that he’s going to support legislation that’s going to allow Suffolk County to acquire the land.”

The district hopes to be able to use the current bus garage site for additional athletic fields, if the area can be safely used for that purpose.

School board nominating petitions are now available at the district office. The terms of trustees Amelia Lantz and Jeff Falisi expire at the end of this school year. The deadline for filing petitions is April 22. The term of office runs three years and the position is a volunteer — unpaid — post.

The superintendent’s presentation on projected revenues and tax levy for the 2013-2014 academic year was postponed until April 9 because the tax levy numbers were not yet ready, the superintendent said.

Editor’s note: A previously published version of this story reported that the school board passed both ballot measures unanimously. The district clerk confirmed that was how she recorded the vote. “I didn’t hear any vocal opposition,” clerk Barbara O’Kula said Wednesday. But board member Thomas Carson told RiverheadLOCAL Wednesday he voted “no” on the second proposition. In a subesquent conversation Wednesday, O’Kula said the district’s record of the vote would be changed to reflect Carson’s “no” vote, after the superintendent conferred with the board member about it.

RiverheadLOCAL file photo by Peter Blasl

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