Town board wrap-up: New highway yard storage building, East Lawn proposals, controversial hearing to go forward

New equipment and building for Riverhead Highway Department

The highway department needs a building to keep equipment and trucks indoors, especially during severe winter weather, Highway Superintendent George Woodson told the Riverhead Town Board this morning.

Woodson says a building would protect the department’s equipment during severe winter storm events. Having space to keep trucks indoors would also expedite the process of getting them out on the roads in weather emergencies, he said.

“Leaving equipment outside, it’s hard to start the motors,” Woodson told the town board at its work session this morning. “The belts freeze over. We have to wait half an hour, 45 minutes just to get the equipment warmed up.”

Woodson met with a local builder who gave him an estimate of about $180,000 for the construction of a 100 by 66 foot Butler building at the department’s Osborn Avenue yard.

Town board members agreed that a building to store equipment is necessary. They will now run the project by the town engineer to see if he can design the building, or if the town will need to hire an architect or an engineer to design it.

The highway department’s existing budget includes a portion for professional services, which would pay for an outside architect or engineer.

Woodson also requested the purchase of a new front-end payloader after one of his other payloaders failed this winter. “It costs between 62 and 70 thousand dollars to repair,” he said. It makes more sense to buy a new one, which would cost about $120,000, Woodson said.

The department’s 1956 Walter snow plow also bit the dust this winter.

The total estimated cost of the building, a new plow and a new payloader would be about $563,000, Woodson estimated. The highway department currently has $2.8 million in reserve funds, Woodson said.

East Lawn building proposals

The town board met again this morning with two prospective buyers for the East Lawn building on East Main Street.

Isabelle Gonzalez, owner of destination marketing company I’m A Ruralpolitan, and Robert Castaldi, owner of Castle Restoration and Construction, first presented their proposals to the town board at a January 8 work session.

Since then, both bidders have had more than a month to assess the state of the building, which has fallen into disrepair under town ownership.

“It needs a lot of work,” said Gonzalez. She has reduced her offer from $250,000 to $130,000, due to the cost of renovations necessary to restore the historic building to its original state.

The work would cost about $200,000, according to representatives from CCI Construction, the contracting firm Gonzalez would hire to carry out the renovations.

Castle Restoration and Construction, meanwhile, is offering the town $125,000 for the building, but claimed their renovations would be “a little bit more heavy duty” than Ruralpolitan’s proposal.

“What Bob and I are looking to do is what we did at the theater and bring it to the East Lawn building,” said Frank Sommers, a contractor who would work with Castaldi on the building. Sommers was also the general contractor who worked with Castaldi on the Suffolk Theater restoration. Castaldi was not present at the work session today.

Sommers pointed out that Castle Restoration would replace most of the windows in the building, while Gonzalez said they would repair the windows rather than replace them altogether.

“If you do things at the right time, you get the most out of your money,” Sommers said. “If we only go halfway right now, we could be in the same place we are today in ten years from now.”

Both Ruralpolitan and Castle Restoration estimated about 4-6 months for construction.

United Riverhead Terminal hearing to go forward

A request by the attorney for the Northville Beach Civic Association to postpone a public hearing on United Riverhead Terminal’s special permit application got a thumbs down from the town board today.

The association asked to put off the hearing, presently scheduled for March 18, because many residents in the area winter in the south and won’t be back in time for the public hearing.

United Riverhead Terminal, which operates the fuel storage and distribution facility in Northville, is looking to convert two existing tanks, currently used to store heating oil, to gasoline storage. The gasoline will be received from tankers at its off-shore platform and delivered to the terminal via URT’s existing pipeline, according to company officials. The company has already obtained a state Department of Environmental Conservation permit for the conversion. It now seeks approval from the town to build two 19,000-gallon tanks for ethanol storage at the site.

The construction of the two new tanks requires a town board special permit because it constitutes an expansion of a pre-existing, nonconforming use at the site.

The board opened a public hearing on URT’s application on Oct. 21. After a lengthy session, during which neighboring residents turned out in force to oppose the proposal and an attorney hired by the Northville Beach Civic Association questioned the town’s adherence to the requirements of the State Environmental Quality Review Act, the board adjourned the hearing to Dec. 16. It was then adjourned again at the applicant’s request. (See prior story.)

Northville Beach Civic Association Neil Krupnick asked the board to consider the group’s request for an extension. “Had the hearing been held on Dec. 16, as originally scheduled, many more people would have been able to attend since a lot of families wait until after the holiday season to head south,” Krupnick said in an email sent to RiverheadLOCAL Monday. “It seems only fair that if URT was given an extension to answer all of the serious questions we raised last October, then the property owners, taxpayers, and voters should have the opportunity to hear those answers and respond in person.”

Walter said the hearing record will be remain open for written comment for 30 days after the March 18 hearing.

“I really want to hear what they have to say,” the supervisor said, referring to the applicant. The town board could decide to adjourn the hearing again at conclusion of the March 18 session, Walter noted.