Town board wrap: Colonial ball shelved, new deputy town attorney hired

The Colonial ball planned to celebrate Riverhead Town’s 225th anniversary has been postponed.

The event was to take place on Friday at the Suffolk Theater but lagging ticket sales forced its postponement, Councilman Tim Hubbard announced yesterday at the Riverhead Town Board meeting.

The 225th anniversary committee is working to reschedule the event for a date this fall, to take place on the same date as a 225th anniversary parade, Hubbard said. The date is yet to be determined, he said.

The town board yesterday, sitting as the governing body of the Riverhead Community Development Agency, approved a new set of rules for determining the eligibility of proposed purchasers and tenants of land at the Calverton Enterprise Park. (See prior story.)

Board members yesterday hired Erik Howard of Aquebogue as a deputy town attorney at the annual salary of $90,000, plus full health, dental and optical benefits paid by the town.

Howard fills the vacancy created by the transfer of Dawn Thomas to the position of Riverhead Community Development Agency director and will focus on code enforcement litigation.

Prior to his appointment he was a partner in the firm of Foster, Riyaz & Howard P.C. in Westhampton. A 2008 graduate of Hofstra University School of Law, Howard was admitted to the bar in 2009.

Hubbard abstained from the vote appointing Howard to the position because Howard is his son-in-law. The remaining board members unanimously approved the hire. Councilman James Wooten said he and members of the personnel committee interviewed five or six candidates for the job and Howard stood out.

In other action at yesterday’s regular meeting, the town board:

• approved settlement of litigation with the owners of 86 Creek Road and 125 Creek Road in Wading River. The suits had been brought by the town over alleged violations of zoning code provisions banning short-term rentals. In the settlement, the property owners, identified as David C. Sayer at 86 Creek Road and Wayne Wadington at 125 Creek Road, agreed to refrain from short-term rentals and to pay the town fines of $5,000 and $7,500 respectively, according to Supervisor Sean Walter.
• approved a fireworks permit for the Riverhead Business Improvement District Management Association to have a fireworks display in downtown Riverhead on Monday, July 3 at approximately 9:15 p.m.
• approved the expenditure of up to $50,000 in recreation trust funds for the emergency replacement of playground equipment at Wading River Beach.
• approved a Downtown Revitalization Initiative funding application for $10 million to be submitted jointly with the Town of Southampton for the Riverside/downtown Riverhead revitalization and redevelopment.
• adopted a local law to ban parking on the south side of Peconic Bay Boulevard from South Jamesport Avenue to a point 200 feet east of the entrance to South Jamesport Beach.
• denied the special events permit application of Rugged Races LLC to hold a “5K Obstacle Course and Festival” at the former Calverton Links Golf Course site on Edwards Avenue, stating that the owner of the property does not have site plan approval for holding such events at the site.