Town Board Aug. 5 meeting wrap-up

The Town Board at last week’s regular meeting authorized budget transfers of more than $2.25 million to fund overspent budget lines in the town’s 2024 budget. 

The transfers were made to close out the town’s books for fiscal year 2024, which ended Dec. 31. With the exception of a $56,429 item to cover an overspent consultants line in the water district budget, and a $25,168 overspent information technology license support and maintenance line,  all of the budget transfers cover 2024 personnel expenditures. 

Fifty-nine percent of the transfer amounts were to fund police department overspent personnel budget lines. That includes a $791,000 transfer to cover an overtime expenditure for uniformed police personnel, over and above the $700,000 overtime expense budgeted in 2024. 

Since 2021, the Town Board has voted to grow the ranks of the police department from 87 sworn officers to 100. Expanding the force is something the board is committed to, for public safety purposes, board members have said. 

The Town Board in December 2023 approved a new contract with the  Riverhead Police Superior Officers Association after the 2024 budget was adopted. That agreement provided for a 6% pay increase for the superior officer association’s members, retroactive to July 30, 2023 and a 2% increase in 2024, as well as a 2.5% increase in night differential pay.

Other budget transfers covered overspent lines in various other departments, including Town Board, purchasing, town clerk, buildings and grounds, fire protection (fire marshal’s office) and information technology.

Funds to cover the overspent lines were drawn from other budget lines in the 2024 budget, the bulk of which were lines budgeted for health insurance and retirement costs.

The 2024 budget was former Supervisor Yvette Aguiar’s final spending plan, adopted unanimously by the Town Board in November 2023. Its passage required the board to vote to pierce the 2% state-imposed tax lavy limit for 2024. Total expenditures in the 2024 budget topped $111 million, including the three townwide funds and special district funds.

Also at its Aug. 5 meeting, the Town Board:

• Designated J. Petrocelli Riverhead Town Square LLC as a qualified and eligible sponsor for the purchase and development of part of the town square. See separate story.

• Authorized an agreement with Riverhead Town’s police unions concerning the deployment and use of body-worn and vehicle cameras by the police department. See separate story.

• Scheduled an Aug. 19 public hearing on a proposed one-year moratorium on the acceptance and processing of all applications for cannabis uses in Riverhead Town. See separate story. The hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m.

• Authorized the town attorney to hire the law firm of Siegel & Sitler as special counsel to appeal a State Supreme Court decision overturning Riverhead’s denial of a variance to Tink E & Co., which seeks to establish a retail cannabis shop in a vacant former bank branch building on Ostrander Avenue. See separate story.

• Authorized the submission of an application for funding of $700,000 to the NYS Dormitory Authority for  capital improvements to the George Young Community Center in Jamesport. The grant would cover replacement of the HVAC system and exterior siding, parking lot repair, and updates to the existing elevator. The grant would also cover the addition of ADA equipment to the playground, repairs to the basketball court and possibly the construction of a pavilion to provide outdoor instructional and gathering space. 

• Held a public hearing on an alleged unsafe structure on 17th Street in Wading River, then approved a resolution authorizing the demolition of the structure.

The Town Board last week scheduled the following public hearings:

• Aug. 19 at 6 p.m.: Hearing on a proposed amendment to the Shopping Center Zoning Use District to add several new uses to the code’s list of permitted uses, including retail stores, banks, health clubs and spas, personal services, bakeries with on-premises retail sales and cafés, banquet facilities and ice cream parlors. It would also add drive-through windows for restaurants as a new special permit use, and it would require a front yard minimum of 35-feet for landscaped areas. 

• Aug. 19 at 6 p.m.: Hearing on a proposed amendment to supplementary use regulations to require a minimum queue space of 10 cars for restaurant drive-through windows.

• Aug. 19 at 6:05 p.m.: Hearing for the  purpose of conducting the “Monroe Balancing Test” to determine whether, and to what extent, the Suffolk County Water Authority’s proposed “North Fork Transmission Line” comprising a water main extension from Flanders to Southold, New York, may be exempt from the zoning and land use. See separate story.

• Aug. 19 at 6:10  p.m.:  Hearing on proposed code amendment to increase the minimum and maximum penalties for town code traffic infractions and parking tickets.

• Aug. 19 at 6:15 p.m.: Hearing on a proposed code amendment to increase the minimum and maximum penalties for violation of the town’s fire prevention code.

• Aug. 19 at 6:20 p.m.: Hearing on proposed amendments to the town’s noise ordinance to add a definition of “physical noise or emission barrier” amend the section on prohibited acts related to motor vehicles to prohibit standing while the engine is running for more than 10 minutes for reasons other than traffic congestion where the sound of the engine is audible within 300 feet of a residential property boundary between 8 p.m.and 7 a.m. or where the sound “discernibly” crosses onto a residential property at any time where the sound source is a commercial vehicle equipped with refrigeration or auxiliary power units and there is no physical noise or emission barrier between the noise source and a residential property boundary.

• Sept. 3 at 2 p.m.: Hearing on a proposed code amendment to increase fines/penalties for violations of approved site plans, establishing a minimum of $1,000 per violation and a maximum of $5,000 per violation.  

• Sept.. 3 at 2 p.m.: Hearing on an alleged unsafe structure on Pye Lane in Jamesport. 

Also at last week’s Town Board meeting the Riverhead Police Department Crime Prevention Unit presented certificates of achievement and prizes to the winners of the department’s annual National Night Out poster contest. See separate story.