Riverhead sets lottery for bow-hunting on town lands: Sept. 3 Town Board meeting wrap-up

The annual lottery for the upcoming bow-hunting season for deer will be held at Riverhead Town Hall on Thursday, Sept. 18, at 6:30 p.m.

Participants must be Riverhead Town residents or property owners in possession of a New York State deer hunting license, big game tag and bow hunter education certificate. Participants must be present in-person for the lottery.

Bow-hunting for deer will be permitted, from sunrise to sunset, on the following locations and dates:

• Oct. 1 to Jan. 2: Calverton Enterprise Park (EPCAL) (Tax Map #: 0600-135.00-01.00-007.033)
• Oct. 1 to Jan. 2: 1751 Sound Avenue (Tax Map #: 0600-060.00-01.00-002.000)
• Oct. 1 to Jan. 31: Middle Road (between Herrick’s Way and 1458 Middle Road) (Tax Map #: 0600-080.00-02.00-010.001)

The lottery is run by the town’s Wildlife Management Advisory Committee, which sets rules for the conduct of the hunt. Qualified hunters shall be required to review and execute a revocable license agreement at the time they apply to participate in the bow-hunting lottery.

Additional information about the lottery can be obtained by contacting Karen Occhiogrosso in the Town Attorney’s Office at (631) 727-3200 Ext. 651, or at occhio@townofriverheadny.gov.

The Town Board authorized the hunt during its meeting on Wednesday. During that Sept. 3 meeting, the Town Board also:

• Scheduled a public hearing for Sept. 16 at 6 p.m. on a proposed amendment to the special permit granted to Kar-McVeigh on Oct. 3, 2023. The owners of the critically acclaimed 18 Bay restaurant on Shelter Island want to create an 82-seat fine dining restaurant at the Dimon Estate property in Jamesport, which they are purchasing from Kar-McVeigh. The previous special permit granted by the board allowed a slight expansion of the preexisting, non-confomring restaurant use within the Agricultural Protection zoning district. The application seeks to allow dining on the second floor of the building — which was prohibited by a condition in the 2023 special permit. It does not seek any physical expansion of the building, or to allow catering uses on the property; parties at Dimon Estate, particularly weddings, previously drew noise complaints from neighboring residents. Read more here.

• Adopted a local law amending the Community Benefit zoning use district. The zoning amendment, which was requested by the nonprofit Family Community Life Center and developer Georgica Green Ventures, will finally allow a long-envisioned affordable housing and community center project to move forward on Northville Turnpike. Read more here.

• Held a public hearing on an alleged unsafe structure at 39 Pye Lane in Jamesport, and passed a resolution requiring the structure to be demolished or repaired at the owner’s expense, as provided by the Town Code. Town Board members said they would wait five days before ordering the demolition because a representative of the trust that owns the property said they were hiring a contractor to demolish the home on the property.

• Held a public hearing on an amendment to Town Code Chapter 301, Zoning and Land Development, which increases the fines for violations related to an approved site plan. The fine was increased to a fine not to exceed $1,000, to a fine between $1,000 and $5,000.

• Adopted a capital budget, using $175,000 from the town’s General Fund fund balance, for improvements at Two Bears Park in Riverhead.

• Authorized the use of $212,270 in revenues collected by billing for ambulance calls in 2023 and 2024 to pay for architectural and civil engineering services related to the planned new Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps headquarters in Riverhead.

• Authorized the town clerk to publish and post a request for proposals to manage the construction of the new Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps headquarters.

• Ratified the promotion of Building Inspector Robert Muller to the position of senior building inspector effective Aug. 24. Muller will be paid $100,047, pursuant to the salary schedule negotiated between the town and its civil service union.

• Appointed John Condzella to the Agricultural Advisory Committee for a four-year term that will expire July 1, 2029. The vote was 4-1, with Council Member Denise Merrifield dissenting. Condzella and the Agricultural Advisory Committee have been requesting the town remove an easement from a property being farmed by Condezella in Wading River. However, town officials have refused the request because, according to their attorneys, removing the easement would be illegal. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for that particular person to sit on a committee that [] is related to the very issue he is seeking from that committee to influence the Town Board [on],” Merrifield said.

• Reappointed Eve Kaplan, Jeff Rottkamp, Matthew Pendleton and Phillip Schmitt to the Agricultural Advisory committee. 

• Authorized an agreement with Brad Hammond as a building permit consultant “on a temporary and part-time basis to review building permits.” Hammond, a former Riverhead chief building department official, will be employed under the agreement for three months, at a pay of $225.00 per hour, not to exceed $10,000 for all such services. Council Member Bob Kern attempted to table the resolution because he favored giving the work to former Senior Building Inspector Andreas Sofolkis, who he said would do the work for a cheaper price. Kern’s motion to table the resolution did not receive support, and the Town Board passed the resolution giving the work to Hammond.

• Ratified an agreement with Certilman Balin Adler & Hyman, LLP to appear on behalf of the town, the Town Board, the zoning board and its employees in the Supreme Court case brought 1086 OCR LLC, Brian Stark Enterprises LLC and Brian Stark. That case was filed after the plaintiff, a recreation cannabis licensee, was denied a variance from the zoning board to site a dispensary at 1086 Old Country Road, a former paint store on the commercial corridor, because it is too close to the Riverhead High School property.

• Adopted a local law to increase the minimum and maximum penalties for town code traffic infractions and parking tickets.

• Adopted a local law to increase the minimum and maximum penalties for violation of the town’s fire prevention code.

• Adopted a local law amending the town’s noise ordinance to add a definition of “physical noise or emission barrier.” The law prohibits motor vehicles from 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.