And that’s the way it was

It’s time to turn another page in the book of life as 2013 draws to a close. That means it’s time to look back on the events and people in the news here in the county seat. It was an eventful year at that.

Here’s the month-by-month recap of 2013 in review:

JANUARY

• Middle Island man charged in Dec. 28 fatal hit-and-run on East Main Street

• Men charged in the Nov. 7 2012 armed robbery of Barth’s Drug Store
• Riverhead High School senior Shanice Allen breaks the school’s all-time girls scoring record set in 1991 by Felecia Hobson who scored 1,195 career points.
• Southold Councilman Al Krupski defeated Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter by a landslide in a special election for county legislator.
• Blaze destroys Calverton home Jan. 20
• New pastor took the pulpit at the First Congregational Church
• Demetri Hampton, 20, shot to death in Flanders home invasion early in the morning of Jan. 27
• Riverhead BID board announces plans to install surveillance cameras downtown
• Firefighters respond to a spate of dumpster fires
• County Executive Steve Bellone announces a new policy for the county’s homeless sex offenders that will end use of controversial Riverside and Westhampton trailers

FEBRUARY

• Bellone’s sex-offender legislation passed by unanimous vote of the legislature
• Blizzard Feb 9-10 dumped up to 30 inches of snow across Riverhead. Storm paralyzes region; I-495 closed in both directions east of exit 57
• Four people arrested in a drive-by shooting on Third Street

MARCH

• Riverhead Town enters contract with North Fork Animal Welfare League to operate town animal shelter and handle animal control 

• Suffolk Theater celebrated its reopening with a gala event on March 3
• South Jamesport civic activist Angela DeVito announces candidacy for town supervisor
• Riverhead Town Board bans booing at board meetings, drawing national attention; then changes its mind
• NYS comptroller tells Riverhead its administrative chargebacks are improper
• Assemblyman Dan Losquadro elected Brookhaven highway chief; steps down from assembly post
• Riverhead Charter School granted expansion to add grades 7 and 8
• Save Main Road sues Riverhead Town — again — over “Village at Jamesport”

• Peconic Bay Medical Center announces largest philanthropic gift in its history, a $5 million donation from the Louis Feil Lead Annuity Trust to establish the Louis Feil Campus for Ambulatory Care in Manorville
• Suffolk County purchases land from developers at the corner of Sound Avenue and Park Road for 9/11 memorial park

APRIL

• Proposal by Boy Scout camp to erect a COPE course stirs controversy 

• Riverhead Town Board hires new coordinator, its third in sixth months
• Riverhead High School star linebacker Miguel Maysonet, passed over in NFL draft, immediately signed by Eagles after the draft ends 

MAY

• Plan to build new bus garage in Flanders draws fire from residents
• Miguel Maysonet released by Eagles, picked up by Browns
• Riverhead school district voters approve $117.5 million budget; Chris Dorr unseats Falisi
• Riverhead Democrats nominate Angela DeVito for supervisor, Bill Bianchi and Millie Thomas for council, George Woodson for highway superintendent and Greg Fischer for assessor. Ann Cotten-DeGrasse announces she will run a primary for the supervisor nomination.
• Riverhead Republicans nominate their incumbents for re-election; Walter ally Anthony Coates wages primary battle to unseat Councilwoman Jodi Giglio
• Homeless sex offender trailers are padlocked
• Riverhead library director Lisa Jacobs resigns for new post at Longwood Public Library

JUNE

• Middle Island man charged in Dec. 28 fatal hit and run pleads guilty
• SCNB announces termination of oversight by Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
• Suffolk Theater announces cutback in programming
• Developers of Costco site clear-cut 42 acres of woodlands, causing community outcry
• School district appoints high school principal David Wicks assistant superintendent of curriculum, names Charles Regan high school principal and Sean O’Hara assistant high school principal
• A kitchen fire at Cliff’s Rendezvous closes iconic downtown eatery
• Michael Hubbard returns home to Riverhead, moving from Blythedale Children’s Hospital to Peconic Bay Medical Center Skilled Nursing Facility
• East Main Street Gulf Station owner and wife arrested in alleged social services scam
• The Athens Grill is destroyed by fire that started in its kitchen, less than a week after the Rendezvous fire
• A bill creating EPCAL commission, providing for umbrella permits and fast-track approvals of compliant development proposals, passes State Legislature

JULY

• Joseph Plummer, who admitted to driving drunk when he struck and killed pedestrian Dec. 28 and fled the scene, sentenced to 2-6 years for leaving the scene of the accident.
• New Riverhead fire chief elected: Joseph Raynor succeeds Tony White, who stepped down
• Federal court rejects challenge by helicopter pilots group to new route regulations aimed at reducing noise over the East End
• Pedestrian Kristina Tfelt struck and killed by car on Route 58; driver flees the scene on foot, eludes police.

AUGUST

• Riverhead Town Board gives its blessing to the concept of a footbridge spanning the Peconic River, connecting county parkland in Riverside with downtown boardwalk
• Suffolk Theater executive director Bob Spiotto is let go; theater owners hire general manager, former Riverhead IDA director Anna Maria Sfora Villa
• Riverhead library welcomes new director, Joy Rankin, former Roosevelt Library director
• Controversial homeless sex offender trailers are moved
• Summer renovation work at Riverhead’s three elementary schools completed; phase one work at the high school is begun
• Work on 9/11 memorial park nears completion
• Vince Tria, longtime treasurer of Vail-Leavitt Music Hall, resigns from its board
• Maysonet released by Browns 
• Town board decides to seek proposals for redevelopment of the Second Street firehouse, passing over proposal by • Councilman James Wooten to convert building into offices for town historian and others

SEPTEMBER

• Cliff’s Rendezvous reopens following June 25 kitchen fire
• L.I. Sound closed to lobstering for the first time in history; three month closure Sept 8 – Nov. 28
• Angela DeVito defeats Ann Cotten-DeGrasse in Democratic primary for Riverhead supervisor nomination
• Incumbents Jodi Giglio and John Dunleavy win bitterly contested three-way race for two Republican town board nominations, defeating challenger Anthony Coates, a close ally of incumbent supervisor Sean Walter
• Anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks observed for the first time in the town’s new 9/11 memorial park
• Maysonet signed to Colts practice squad, released nine days later
• Riverhead assessor Mason Haas named chairman of the town Republican committee
• Riverhead ZBA denies Costco developer’s request for a variance from the town’s “dark skies” ordinance
• Flanders Fire Dept celebrare 65th anniversary with a parade on Flanders Road
• Red Collection Consignment shop on East Main Street closes its doors

OCTOBER

• Town auditors warn board on “catastrophic” tax increase in two years due to open space preservation debt
• Maysonet signed to Sand Diego Chargers practice squad
• Riverhead police force, community shocked by sudden passing of two officers within one week, 32-year veteran  Det. Robert Boden, 54 and Officer Ben Goodale, 42.
• New consignment shop, initially dubbed “Blue Collection” opens in space vacated by Red Collection, by proprietor of 73 Main
• Maysonet released by Chargers, signed to Jets practice squad; released by Jets one week later
• Governor signs EPCAL bill into law
• Planes at Grumman Memorial Park get a facelift
• Suffolk Theater general manager Anna Maria Sforza Villa, hired July 22, leaves post after three months
• L.I. Farm Bureau elects its first female president, shellfish farmer Karen Rivara, owner of Aeros Cultured Oyster Company in Southold

NOVEMBER

• Riverhead Republicans are returned to office: Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter wins election to a third term, defeating Democratic challenger Angela DeVito 56 percent to 44 percent; incumbent council members John Dunleavy and Jodi Giglio defeat Democratic challengers Bill Bianchi and Millie Thomas; assessor Laverne Tennenberg defeats Greg Fischer.
• Highway Superintendent George Woodson wins re-election in a landslide over Conservative Michael Panchak, with 80 percent of the vote.
• Republican Anthony Palumbo of New Suffolk elected to represent the Second Assembly District, filling he seat vacated in March by Dan Losquadro
• Democrat Al Krupski won a landslide victory in his bid for his first full term in the County Legislature
• Baiting Hollow woman wins “Queen of Hearts” progressive raffle jackpot of $67,000 at Moose Lodge on Oct. 4
• Town Board holds a public hearing on proposed Community Benefit zoning overlay district, which would allow for the development of the Family Community Life Center mixed-use project — a community center with indoor pool, plus 132 apartments on a 12.5-acre Northville Turnpike site adjacent to the First Baptist Church of Riverhead. Following the hearing, only two board members (the supervisor and Councilman James Wooten) voiced support for the zoning; a majority could not agree on proceeding with a second hearing on a revised code, leaving fate of the long-sought plan in doubt
• First residents move into Summerwind apartments on Peconic Avenue
• Riverhead H.S. senior Carolyn Carrera is named one of 12 national finalists in the Wendy’s High School Heisman competition
• Four young men charged with unlawful taking of wildlife after they posted pictures of themselves on Instagram posing with live deer fawns
• Weapons charges against Phillips Avenue elementary school teacher Joe Johnson are dismissed; teacher pleads guilty to DWI on Nov. 13.
• Riverhead Blue Waves football team is Suffolk County D-II champion for second year in a row
State education commissioner and regents attend community forum on the controversial Common Core initiative at • Eastport South Manor High School Nov. 26
• Riverhead Town Board votes to approve a town budget for the first time since 2010; unanimously adopts $92 million spending plan presented by the supervisor Sept. 30

DECEMBER

• Community gives a hero’s welcome to Riverhead native Tech. Sgt. Frederick Ligon when he returns from Afghanistan.
• Temple Israel rededicates its newly renovated and fully handicap-accessible 70-year-old synagogue on Northville Turnpike

• Maysonet signed with the Washington Redskins practice squad Dec. 10
• Incumbent commissioners in local fire districts were returned to office, but challenger in Wading River files a lawsuit to invalidate the vote tally, which went to incumbent by one vote, after 10 ballots bearing his name were tossed out by election officials
• Fire destroys Flanders home, injures elderly resident
• The Simple Table, a new family-style restaurant planned for West Main Street in downtown Riverhead, obtains site plan approval
• Riverhead moves ahead with solar installation on its capped Youngs Avenue landfill and considers solar carports for municipally owned parking lots
• Riverhead Councilman George Gabrielsen reveals he’s been talking with power companies about building a gas-fired peaker plant at EPCAL, an idea endorsed by the supervisor; Garielsen says the deal could mean upwards of $2 million in annual income to the town.

 The Year in Pictures

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