The Riverhead Town Board held a brief special meeting Tuesday morning to act on two resolutions: one to replace a Highway Department dump truck that caught fire during the season’s first snowstorm earlier this month, and another to modify the town’s 2024 and 2025 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) budgets.
New plow truck purchased to replace one that caught fire
The board unanimously approved a resolution ratifying a budget adjustment and authorizing the purchase of a 2025 Kenworth T480 plow truck for the Highway Department at a cost of $331,485.
The resolution authorizes moving $331,485 from the department’s appropriated fund balance to its machinery and equipment line. It also notes the town plans to submit an insurance claim to determine whether it will receive proceeds to replenish the highway fund balance.
During the meeting, Supervisor Tim Hubbard said the purchase is intended to replace a “relatively new” dump truck that caught fire during the first snowstorm of the year and was destroyed.
Highway Superintendent Mike Zaleski said in an interview after the meeting that the truck was a 2019 model. He said it caught fire while workers were plowing on the north end of Roanoke Avenue near the beach. The cab “went up in flames,” Zaleski said.
“Thankfully no one was hurt,” he said. He added that the town fire marshal’s office was not able to pinpoint the cause.
CDBG budget modification tied to Vail-Leavitt work by the Jazz Loft
The board also approved a modification to the town’s 2024 and 2025 CDBG budgets, reallocating a total of $75,000 from two budget lines for parking lot improvements to a budget line for the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall.
Officials said the funding is needed to repair the roof of the historic theater.
The work is expected to be undertaken by the Jazz Loft, which is under contract to buy the theater from the town for $150,000. The organization plans to begin repairs as soon as it takes title and has permits in hand, Jazz Loft President Thomas Manuel said following the Dec. 16 contract-signing ceremony at the theater.
Councilwoman Denise Merrifield said at the meeting that the $75,000 grant to aid the Jazz Loft was needed because the town “recently learned” a $250,000 capital improvement grant awarded to the Council for the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall is “no longer available” because the organization “went out of existence.” Merrifield said the grant was expected to be used for roof repairs, and that “initially the Jazz Loft, when they were first in negotiations with us, believed that there was a $250,000 grant that could be transferred over to them.”
The Council for the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall was dissolved by court order in August 2024, after the town petitioned State Supreme Court to dissolve the entity. The dissolution followed the town’s lawsuit seeking to regain title to the theater.
The $250,000 grant was announced on Nov. 3, 2023, at a news conference inside the theater by then-Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone. By that time, board members of the Council for the Vail-Leavitt had resigned rather than contest the town’s lawsuit. On Oct. 2, 2023, the Vail-Leavitt board voted to surrender the corporate entity and the theater property to the town.
On Nov. 9, 2023, the Town Board appointed itself as the interim board of directors of the Council for the Vail-Leavitt “so as to continue the operation of the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall on an immediate basis and take actions to ensure protection and restoration of the subject premises,” according to the adopted resolution.
The court granted judgment to the town in the title-claim case on April 30, 2024. On May 8, the town recorded a deed conveying title to the town; the next day, Town Board members resigned as members of the Vail-Leavitt’s board.
Merrifield said private donors have pledged a total of $160,000 toward the roof repairs and that the town is transferring $75,000 in CDBG funds to provide the balance needed to undertake the work.
Council Member Bob Kern, who has opposed selling the theater to the Jazz Loft and has questioned its financial ability to renovate and operate the venue, voted against the budget transfers.
Kern said that the Jazz Loft, at its “qualified and eligible” sponsor hearing in November “did not say, we don’t have the money if we do not get that grant money.” He said the town should hold another qualified and eligible hearing to determine whether the Jazz Loft has “the money to open this place up.”
The town is required to hold a hearing and determine that a prospective buyer of town-owned property in an Urban Renewal Area is “qualified and eligible” to buy the property for urban renewal purposes if the sale is taking place without a bidding process. Kern voted against the qualified and eligible determination and the contract of sale.
“The Jazz Loft is a wonderful economic boost to this town, and they will get off the ground and get running right away, and that will help the commercial economy in our town, because they will bring the crowds,” Merrifield said. “They are a wonderful known entity.”
The resolution transferring the CDBG funds passed 3-1, with Kern opposed and Council Member Ken Rothwell absent.
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