The laser light show planned by the Chamber of Commerce at the Calverton Enterprise Park has been postponed, chamber president Robert Kern told RiverheadLOCAL this morning.
Kern said the state took so long to green-light the event’s COVID safety plan, the chamber did not have time to process the proper permit paperwork with the Town of Riverhead.
The chamber filed the safety plan with the state a month ago, Kern said.
“We’re not the first ones to feel the frustration of dealing with the state. Whoever the team is re-imagining the state,” he said, referring to the “re-imagine New York” commission established by the governor, “I’m not sure what they’re imagining. But I look at the city and it tells me everything I need to about the state. And our poor little town has to suffer.”
Kern said the chamber will look to put on the laser light show either later in the fall, or — more likely — in the spring.
The chamber was already offering tickets for sale on its website and the show’s producer, Dean Del Prete of Owl Eye Events, was already promoting the three-night laser light show event scheduled for for Sept. 24, 25 and 26 on one of the Calverton Enterprise Park runways.
As reported by RiverheadLOCAL yesterday, members of the town board said this week they had not yet heard anything about the event, despite the site being owned by the Riverhead Community Development Agency, which is governed by the town board.
Del Prete said yesterday the chamber had obtained an assembly permit from the chief of police for the event, but the chief said he had not signed off on anything, noting that the state’s approval of the safety plan had only been received on Friday.
Councilman Tim Hubbard questioned whether the event could proceed with an assembly permit rather than a special event permit — which entails a more involved review process — and a license agreement that’s typically been required for use of the town site.
“This should definitely come before the town board,” Hubbard said.
Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller agreed. “I’m not signing off on it without town board approval,” he said.
Yesterday afternoon Kern acknowledged there had been “some confusion.”
He said today the producer had filed the required paperwork with the FAA — necessary for any type of outdoor laser light show. But the state took so long to approve the safety plan, there was not enough time left to get everything in order with the town before next week’s show dates.
In an interview this morning on WRIV radio, Supervisor Yvette Aguiar told host Bruce Tria that the event was good to go after getting state approval on Friday.
“They got the OK to go. We received the plans. The chief reviewed them. We discussed them. People are supposed to be in their cars and it’s a light show with a large screen TV,” Aguiar said.
She said there might be additional similar events this fall for the holidays or Halloween.
“Hopefully it will go well and we’ll see how it goes and if it goes well, maybe it’s not the last one,” Aguiar said.
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