Plan to move Riverhead PD and justice court to former armory site lacks town board support

There’s no support on the Riverhead Town Board for moving forward to renovate the former state armory building for use as a police and court complex — at least not any time in the near future.

The proposal, put together by a committee appointed by the town board, working with a consulting firm hired by the town board, comes with an estimated $11.3 million price tag. See prior story.

The cost estimate has a majority of the board balking at the idea. council people want to pursue other plans and a third wants to wait until next January to decide what to do.

“I just don’t think we can afford it,” Councilwoman Jodi Giglio said today.

Councilman George Gabrielsen said he couldn’t support bonding the $11.3 million expense, as suggested by the justices, even if the debt service wouldn’t come on the books until after some of the town’s existing debt comes off.

“We’re in a $4 million hole. If we knock some debt down and ring up new debt, we’re still in that hole. We can’t just replace it,” Gabrielsen said.

Councilman John Dunleavy also said he’d want to see the town eliminate its $4 million deficit before accruing additional debt.

“I don’t think we can do it by cutting back services or through attrition,” Dunleavy said. He said he believes the budget gap will be plugged through the sale or lease of land inside the Calverton Enterprise Park.

“I’m for it,” Dunleavy said of the armory renovation plan. “But I want to put it off till January, because by then we’ll have a better idea of where things stand with EPCAL.”

Giglio favors an approach that looks at all town buildings, not just the armory. Town Hall and the police/court building both need new roofs and infrastructure upgrades.

“Those things will still need to be done, even if we renovate the armory,” Giglio said.

The councilwoman said she thinks it makes more sense to move the offices currently in town hall and town hall west (on Pulaski Street) to the Second Street firehouse. It would require building a second story, maybe even a ground floor extension, on the current firehouse building, she said. Town Hall west could then be sold, she said. The justice court could be relocated to the current town hall building and the police department could take over the entire building it now shares with the justice court.

The armory, Giglio said, could be leased out for use as a recreation facility, perhaps by the Peconic YMCA. The councilwoman acknowledged that the state law authorizing transfer of the armory to the town would need to be amended, since it requires the building to be used as a police and court complex.

Giglio said she does not have any estimates on the work that would be needed to convert and/or renovate all three buildings, but she believes the town engineering department could work up estimates. The town would not have to hire outside consultants again.

The board last year authorized, by a unanimous vote, an $87,500 contract with EG Architects/Cashin Associates to study the feasibility of the armory renovation and develop a reuse plan.

“We hired them because they are experts on the codes that courts and police stations must adhere to,” Giglio said.

Gabrielsen and Giglio both said they believe the sale or lease of land at EPCAL will eventually fund most or all of the costs of needed renovations to town facilities.

Councilman James Wooten supports renovating the armory as a police and justice court complex.

“We’ve known for two decades that the current facility is woefully inadequate,” Wooten said. He said he was a court officer there 15 years ago and knows firsthand the problems that exist.

“I think the justices and the commtitee showed how the town with the reduction in landfill debt, it would be almost like a wash,” Wooten said. The sale of land at EPCAL will close the town’s budget gap, he said.

“It’s forward thinking,” Wooten said. A brand new police and court complex is an asset to this town, even if we spend $11 million on it. Sometimes you have to just bite the bullet,” he said.

Wooten acknowledged the plan might have to be “mothballed” a year or two, but said the town should stay focused on it.

The councilman is still pursuing his idea to move the town historian and some other offices into the Second Street firehouse, which he says can be renovated for that purpose for about $100,000. He does not favor moving town hall to that location, he said.

“The money you’d put into the firehouse under Jodi’s plan… By the time you do all that it would cost millions,” Wooten said. “And we’d have to find more parking for the jurors,” he said, since the firehouse parking lot is being offered to the county for jury parking promised by the town long ago.

“The best thing for that building [the firehouse] is to accommodate services that can readily fit there,” he said.

“I think Mason [Haas, Riverhead Republican leader] was pushing for the town hall to go there.”

In an interview Wednesday evening, Haas said he was concerned about the town bonding more than $11 million to convert the armory. “It starts out as $11 million, but what is it after you pay interest over the years?”

Supervisor Sean Walter said this week he supports the armory plan, though he said it came with a higher price tag than he originally thought. He agreed that the town board should explore other alternatives, including moving town hall, to see how they stack up.

The armory committee members have briefed the town board members individually on the plan, but have not made a public presentation to the board as a whole. Walter said he planned to put such a presentation on a work session agenda in the coming weeks.