Riverhead Town Board wrap: Nov. 5

Five public hearings drew zero public comment at Wednesday afternoon’s Riverhead Town Board meeting, presided over by 11-year-old Supervisor for a Day Aidan Tobin of Wading River.

The meeting was held on Wednesday since Town Hall was closed for Election Day Tuesday.

Among the public hearings that opened and closed without comment was the hearing on the town’s preliminary budget— a hearing that is mandated by state law to be held on or before the Thursday following the general election.

Since the town board did not amend the supervisor’s tentative budget delivered Sept. 30, his tentative budget became the town board’s 2015 preliminary budget by default. It proposes just under $91.5 million in spending and a property tax levy increase of 2.08 percent, which is within the parameters of the property tax levy cap imposed by the state.

The budget estimates revenues of just over $39 million and anticipates using just over $5.5 million in fund balance money — including $2.9 million from the Community Preservation Fund appropriated fund balance, to be used to cover CPF debt service — to help keep the 2015 tax levy under the state limit.

Unlike in years past, the town board has not held a single public budget discussion of the budget since the supervisor delivered it.

The board has until Nov. 20 to make any changes to the preliminary budget and adopt a final budget. If it fails to adopt a final budget by resolution on or before Nov. 20, the preliminary budget offered for public hearing this week will become the final budget by default. That’s what happened with the budgets for fiscal year 2011, 2012 and 2013, though the board did pass a resolution adopting a final budget last November for the current fiscal year.

Private roads hearing set
Town maintenance and snow-clearing on private roads in the Town of Riverhead will be undertaken pursuant to official guidelines if a revision to the town’s highway code becomes law.

The board set a Dec. 2 public hearing on new code provision that addresses “highways by use” under section 189 of the state Highway Law. The new section is intended to formally address the 70 or so private roads within the township, many of which have been plowed and, to some limited extent, maintained by the town’s highway department over the years.
The new code allows the town board to certify, by resolution, private roads as “section 189 highways” if they’ve been used by the public for at least 10 years and if the town has performed certain maintenance (plowing, sanding, patching) on them for at least 10 years. Certified “section 189 highways” will continue to receiving plowing, sanding and patching
services from the town, but the town will not be obligated to install drainage, widen the roads or repave them.

The board decided to amend the code to officially sanction the maintenance services after Highway Superintendent George Woodson, concerned about the growing number of requests for repaving by residents on private roads — and a couple of threats to sue — announced this fall that his crews would no longer plow and sand private roads. His announcement — in a letter mailed to residents — sparked controversy in several communities and prompted residents to contact the town board to complain.

The Dec. 2 hearing is scheduled to begin at 2:10 p.m.

Two ‘forgotten’ public roads made official
Flagg Hill Drive in Baiting Hollow and Holly Tree Lane in Jamesport were incorporated into the town highway system by resolution Wednesday. The action regarding both roads had been the subject of public hearings in 2004 and 2007, respectively, but no action was ever taken by prior town boards to incorporate them.

Walter said at last week’s work session the follow-up action must have been forgotten.

Holly Tree Lane residents were on hand to urge the board to act. Laura Elling said residents were not even aware that the matter was still open until recent news reports brought it to light.

ArtPlace America grant sought for WaterFire Riverhead
The board Wednesday authorized a $350,000 grant application to ArtPlace America for WaterFire Riverhead.

ArtPlace has announced plans to fund $10 million next year for “projects that involve cross-sector partners committed to strengthening the social, physical, and economic fabric of their communities.” The organization’s mission is “to position art and culture as a core sector of comprehensive community planning and development in order to help strengthen the social, physical, and economic fabric of communities.” It focuses on “creative placemaking, the set of practices in which art and culture work intentionally to help to transform a place.”

ArtPlace has previously funded a grant to WaterFire, according to the organization’s website. WaterFire founder Barnaby Evans suggested the town seek a 2015 grant fromt he group, community development director Chris Kempner said.

In other action Wednesday, the town board:

•  granted the special use permit of North Fork Coffee Co. to convert an existing 963-square-foot retail building on Main Road in Aquebogue to a cafe-bistro;

•  adopted a code revision that allows the planning department to deem inactive site plan applications “withdrawn” if they are incomplete and/or have no activity for one year;

•  set a Dec. 2 public hearing on a code revision that would ban boats with gas motors from the Peconic River west of the Grangebel Park dam and boats with electric motors in excess of 10 HP;

•  appointed part-time police officer Kaley Castantine, who has already successfully completed the Suffolk County Police Academy, at the hourly rate of $21;

•  appointed part-time police officers Christie L. Smith and Robert T. Sproston and placed them on a leave of absence to attend the police academy;

•  appointed the law firm of Smith Lundberg Isler and Yakaboski to represent the town before in connection with the processing of its permit applications and development plans for the Calverton Enterprise Park subdivision;

•  approved the special event permit of the Lions Club for its annual Santa Parade on Dec. 7, beginning at 1 p.m.

Supervisor for a Day
Aidan Tobin, 11, the son of Gerald and Helen Tobin, wielded the supervisor’s gavel at Wednesday’s meeting, opening and closing each of the five public hearings and calling the vote on the resolutions. The Riley Avenue fourth-grader stayed on the dias through meeting’s end, even voting on resolutions with the supervisor. He spent the day shadowing Walter, a privilege he earned by his participation in the Riverhead Free Library’s summer reading program.

“It was interesting,” Aidan said after the meeting ended. But the meeting was not his favorite part of the day. He most enjoyed sitting behind the wheel of a front-loader with Highway Superintendent Gio Woodson.

“That’s always their favorite part,” Walter said of the young charges that tag along with him each November. “Maybe they should make it highway superintendent for a day instead,” Walter joked.