L.I. Science Center president asks Town Board to explain its plans to acquire the organization’s property, gets no answers

The Long Island Science Center’s president wants to know why the town is apparently ready to start an eminent domain proceeding to take title to the organization’s East Main Street building adjacent to the town square.

After the Town Board last week unanimously approved a resolution authorizing and directing the town attorney to take all actions “necessary and appropriate” to acquire the Science Center’s property at 111 East Main Street, Larry Oxman took the podium to ask what the town was doing and why. He got no response to those questions, with the four board members present for the May 22 meeting listening silently to his comments and questions.

There was one exception: Supervisor Tim Hubbard did respond to Oxman’s query about whether the topic was ever listed on a Town Board work session agenda and whether the board actually discussed it. 

“I was very surprised about this resolution coming on. In fact, I wouldn’t have known about it if the press had not discovered that it was added to the packet after the [May 15] work session,” Oxman said. 

When reached by RiverheadLOCAL on May 17, Oxman said he had no knowledge of the resolution or the Town Board considering an action to take title to the property regardless of whether the Science Center is a willing seller.  

MORE COVERAGE: Riverhead Town poised to move forward on acquiring L.I. Science Center site on town square

“Did you guys discuss this at all?” Oxman asked at Wednesday’s regular meeting. “There was no discussion right now. There obviously wasn’t a discussion of the work session, because it wasn’t part of the work session. Did you guys discuss this?” he asked. 

“Discussions that were held on it were done under executive session under contract and real property,” Hubbard said. “It was definitely on the agenda.”

An eminent domain proceeding, also known as a condemnation proceeding, is a means by which the government can take title to private property for a public purpose without the owner’s consent. The government must pay “just compensation” to the property owner, as required by the U.S. Constitution. State law spells out the procedure to be followed to obtain title by eminent domain. The procedure includes a public hearing, a determination of findings, an offer based on the highest appraisal obtained by the government, and a court action to obtain an order to acquire title.

Town officials, including the former town supervisor, have voiced concerns about the nonprofit organization’s wherewithal to complete the renovation of the long-vacant building that lines the west side of the town square.

Former Supervisor Yvette Aguiar stated those concerns publicly, including during a meeting of the local planning committee tasked with developing recommendations for allocation of funding for the $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative state grant awarded to the Town of Riverhead in early 2022. Despite the former supervisor’s concerns, the local planning committee recommended $1 million in funding for the Science Center project. However, the project was passed over by the state in the final awards announced in December 2022.

MORE COVERAGE: What comes next for Long Island Science Center, after being passed over for $1M Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant?

Oxman said at last week’s meeting that the perception the Science Center “has been doing nothing or stalling, or whatever” and can’t renovate the building is “just not true.” 

“This is kind of coming out of left field,” Oxman told the supervisor, despite a meeting he had with Hubbard a couple of weeks earlier. I thought that this administration was different than the previous administration. And I believe that you had wanted us to be there,” Oxman said. 

Aguiar said in an interview in November that the town was exploring the possibility of acquiring the Science Center property through condemnation. Aguiar also said an appraisal authorized by the Town Board on Nov. 9 for an undisclosed property that officials declined to identify — due to potential litigation, the town attorney said — was an appraisal of the science center site. 

“For the record, we have received $1 million from the county. We’ve actually taken receipt and our first advance is in our bank. We are preparing to renovate the building. Our goal was to be open and running by the fall,” he said. The organization had been hoping to be open by the summer.

The renovation has been delayed because of “difficulty getting our building permits —not quite sure why that is,” Oxman said. The Science Center has provided additional information requested by the Building Department, he said. “As recently as today, we’ve answered and addressed some of their questions to help us expedite getting the building permits,” he said. 

“I’ve been trying to meet with Dawn Thomas since January —nothing,” Oxman said, referring to the administrator of the town’s Department of Planning and Economic Development, who has been overseeing the town square project. “That was as a result of a meeting with [Council Member] Bob Kern, who suggested that we and another other board member meet with Dawn because she would be familiar with what was happening at the town square. Can’t get that meeting,” Oxman said.  Kern was absent from last week’s meeting. 

He said he has a long chain of emails going back and forth with Thomas. “I don’t understand why we can’t get that meeting,” he said. 

“Dawn also said at a recent public meeting that the [town square] plans were pretty well underway, almost finished. We were never asked to participate in one iota,” Oxman said. “Originally we were working with UDA, Barry Long,” he said, referring to Urban Design Associates, the planning consulting firm that created the Downtown Pattern Book and developed the initial town square concept drawings.“We were coordinating how the science center would interact with the town square,” Oxman explained.  

In an interview after the meeting, Oxford said the Science Center’s architects need to know the final elevation of the town square, in order to plan the east-facing facade of the building, where the Science Center wants to have its main entrance — opening onto the town square. 

The town’s delay in releasing the town square plans, which the town square master developer Joe Petrocelli is said to be responsible for producing — a master developer agreement has not yet been finalized —has made it impossible for the Science Center to design and engineer the entrance on the town square, Oxman said. The delay has thwarted the organization’s ability to make progress with its permits, Oxman said. The organization decided to move forward using an entrance facing Main Street, temporarily, until the town square plans are finalized and an east-facing entrance can be designed.

Oxman said the Science Center was willing to make revisions to accommodate Craft’d, an existing tenant at 127 E. Main St., when the town bought the building in 2021, one of three buildings it  purchased from Riverhead Enterprises to create the town square. The town razed two of the buildings and plans to convey the third to Petrocelli, who intends to demolish it and build a four-story boutique hotel and condominiums in its place. 

The town needed to find a new home for Craft’d, Oxman said, and the Science Center was willing to help. “It looks like, from one of the resolutions, you’ll end up, I guess, buying them out. But we did that to accommodate the town. So there’s always been a dialogue on our part to work with the town,” he said. “I don’t understand why we’ve been left out.  Well, I guess I do now. But previously…I really didn’t understand why.” 

After a buzzer signaled the end of Oxman’s three-minute period for comment, he added, “For the record, I’m a volunteer and I don’t get paid for this at all. My joy is seeing children smile as we educate them. My joy is to know that there’ll be this type of facility … for the community and Riverhead. That’s what I get out of this. There is nothing monetarily,” he said. “So I guess I’ll wait to hear from the town,” he said. 

Other than the supervisor answering Oxman’s question about whether the board had discussed the resolution it passed Wednesday evening authorizing and directing the town attorney to move ahead with acquiring the Science Center property, Town Board members sat silent and expressionless throughout Oxman’s comments.

When Oxman concluded, the supervisor simply said, “Thank you, Larry,” and asked if anyone else wanted to comment on any matter.