The Riverhead Town Board is expected to adopt a number of project and personnel-oriented resolutions at tonight’s weekly meeting, including a $72,000 change order for costs of developing baseball fields at EPCAL, overruns of which were discussed at the town board’s work session Thursday morning.
Another resolution that will be voted on Tuesday night is aimed to adjust contracts with professional engineer services involved in the projects.
The change order includes money for fencing, bluestone screenings and reconstruction of the morning track areas, according to consulting engineer Vinnie Gaudiello.
“Typically irrigation is more or less one of the last things you do,” Gaudiello said of additional work that must be done due of sequencing errors made during the last five year’s construction at EPCAL.
“Unfortunately the irrigation went in first,” he said, making construction of fencing around the irrigation system difficult.
Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter asked Gaudiello, Town Engineer Ken Testa and Town Recreation Superintendent Roy Coyne, to lay out all additional costs the project is expected to incur, so the town is not “blindsided” with anything else.
After aforementioned projects, including installation of electric service and irrigation, the three said only the cost of the bleachers remained.
“We all want bleachers, but we need to make sure we have the money,” said Walter, adding he knew of many fields where people happily sat on the grass or on foldable chairs in the absence of bleachers.
Eight bleachers are expected to cost $29,287.67, according to Thursday’s discussion.
In the personnel arena, the town board is expected to adopt a number of resolutions Thursday hiring new employees.
The board is expected to ratify the appointment of Carissa Willis, retroactive to April 11. Willis has been on the job since Thursday.
The board is also expected to approve the appointment of: Eric Shaw, a new chef for the Seniors Program; David Zilnicki, a call-in traffic control specialist for the Riverhead Police Department; Amelia Spero, a temporary clerk to the tax receiver’s office; Melissa Messina, another Tax Receiver’s office clerk; Elizabeth Flood, a call-in beach manager to the Recreation Department; Ashley King, a recreation specialist to the Recreation Department; and Katelynn DeLuca, a call-in recreation leader II to the Recreation Department.
At its work session Thursday, the town board also discussed maintenance of the parking lot behind The Riverhead Project, which the town leases from restaurant owner Dennis McDermott, and a resolution to accept a $12,000 donation from Helen Duryea to paint a cupola on the Jamesport Community Center.
Family Community Life Center zoning hearing on hold
A resolution to hold a public hearing on amending town zoning code to create a “community benefit district” was pulled from the packet of resolutions to be acted on tonight, after Walter couldn’t secure three votes to schedule a public hearing. The new district would allow for the development of the Family Community Life Center on Northville Turnpike. The FCLC is a mixed use development proposal calling for the construction of a recreational facility, including an indoor pool, and rental apartments.
Councilman John Dunleavy says the development of the Family Community Life Center, as a nonprofit entity, might be tax exempt. This fundamental question should be made clear before proceeding to a public hearing, Dunleavy said.
“[The Rev. Charles Coverdale] said he’s tax exempt for everything because he’s a church,” Dunleavy said. “The most concerning thing about it is they’ve said they can’t build unless they get a minimum of 12 units and if we go forward and create this zoning and then they find out they have to pay taxes, then how does it work? We’re back to square one.”
At a January 2012 work session, representatives of the project discussed providing the town and school district with payments in lieu of taxes for the rental dwellings, but no details were disclosed.
Board members agreed to discuss the project again at next Thursday’s work session.
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