The Town Board wants us to believe they didn’t do something they clearly did — right in front of us, livestreamed and recorded for replay, backed by public documents that prove it.
“Gaslighting,” from the 1938 play Gas Light, means denying reality to make others doubt what they saw. That’s exactly what happened at Town Hall Thursday, as officials tried to rewrite history to evade responsibility for a vote taken two nights earlier.
Their target: the journalist who reported what happened. That would be me.
On Tuesday night the Town Board adopted a resolution “off the floor” — meaning it wasn’t on the agenda — approving a Pre-Possession and Lease Agreement with developer Joe Petrocelli. The supervisor himself said demolition of 127 East Main would begin “as soon as next week.”
I reported that. Accurately. And my story was supported by public records posted the next day.
But at Thursday’s work session, the board publicly scolded the “local media” for misleading the public. No names were mentioned — ours was the only outlet that reported the vote.
Watch the board’s discussion of this at its Oct. 23, 2025 work session
What they said versus what they did
Town Attorney Erik Howard claimed the resolution “doesn’t authorize demolition.” He said demolition would require a permit, suggesting my reporting was false.
Let’s check the record.
The resolution states the board “approves and authorizes the Supervisor to enter into a Pre-Possession and Lease Agreement … including demolition of the existing structure located on the site of 127 East Main Street.”
The agreement itself begins Article IV with:
“The purpose of this agreement is … (1) demolition of existing structures … (2) installation of improvements and limited construction to prepare the site for the Town Square Hotel.”
That’s as clear as it gets.Yes, a permit must follow — but the vote authorized the agreement that authorizes demolition. That’s what I wrote, and it’s true.
The supervisor even said before the vote, “We tentatively have set Oct. 30 as the date. … barring bad weather, it looks like Oct. 30 will be the date.”
So when the board sat in the same room 36 hours later insisting the resolution didn’t authorize demolition, the lights were already dimming.
“Nothing behind the scenes”?
Howard told the board, “We’ve been talking about this twice a month for five years. Nothing was done behind the scenes.”
Maybe they have. But those conversations weren’t public.
Here’s what was public:
- April 2022 – Petrocelli presented his concept for two mixed-use buildings, a plaza and green space.
- August 2022 – The board named him master developer.
- November 2024 – Dawn Thomas tells board the master developer agreement was expected to be completed by the end of the month and the required “qualified and eligible” hearing was expected to be held in December.
- July 2025 – The draft master developer agreement was finally posted and the required hearing was held.
- August 2025 – Petrocelli is determined “qualified and eligible” by the board
- October 2025 – The “pre-possession and lease” agreement added to agenda at the board meeting without prior notice and unanimously approved
That’s not transparency. That’s choreography.
During this time, board members did hear from the town’s planning and community development chief Dawn Thomas about funding opportunities for the town square, including a potential grant for the hotel developer. And they also adopted resolutions for environmental review of the entire town square project.
About that “surprise vote”
My headline — “Riverhead Town Board takes surprise vote to authorize demolition of 127 E. Main” — was accurate. The resolution was not on the agenda or in the packet posted online. The public had no advance notice. That’s the definition of a surprise.
Council Member Joann Waski complained people only read headlines. Maybe on Facebook. But according to our site analytics, nearly 5,000 people actually read the article — spending an average of four minutes on the page.
Social-media noise isn’t journalism. Facts are found by reporting and researching, reading documents and digging deeper — not reacting and hollering.
A brief word on Facebook
Since 2017, when I sat in Facebook’s Manhattan office at an invitation-only news publishers roundtable meeting, hearing executives pitch “Instant Articles,” I’ve understood exactly what that platform is: a parasite on local news. Since then, I’ve concentrated on building RiverheadLOCAL’s readership without it.
Today, 86% of our readers come directly to the site or from unpaid search engine results, only 12% from social media. And our overall site traffic hasn’t suffered one bit. We don’t need Facebook, and neither do Riverhead officials scrolling through comment threads for validation.
Spend less time there. It’s bad for your health — especially if you’re a thin-skinned politician in an election year.
The real motive?
Don’t gaslight your constituents. Don’t scapegoat journalists for reporting what you said and did.
If your actions reflect poorly on your judgment, that’s on you.
Maybe the rush to approve the resolution had less to do with “procedure” and more to do with getting a photo-op before Election Day — a demolition backdrop for campaign fodder.
You’d already set the date. You figured the TV cameras would be there.
So own it. Be honest. Talk straight. Act above-board.
And please — stop dimming the lights.
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