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Sale of Second St. firehouse on the table — again

R052611_RHTown_BE_R.jpgAfter hearing her comments, Supervisor Sean Walter — who had planned to use the money from the sale of the firehouse for a number of downtown projects, including resurfacing parking lots, buying a new parking lot and buying security cameras for downtown Riverhead — immediately sought to call a special meeting to sell the firehouse to Mr. Castaldi.

He also agreed to increase the proposed sale price from $375,000 to $500,000.

The vote on that resolution was 3-2, with Ms. Giglio and Mr. Dunleavy opposed.

Ms. Giglio said the town should have a new appraisal done before it sells the firehouse. The last appraisal done on the building was from 2009, when the town and the Riverhead Fire District were swapping land on Route 58 in exchange for the firehouse. That appraisal came in at $1.8 million, but included the entire property and was based on zoning that never was enacted. The current proposal is only to sell the firehouse building, and not the parking lot.

“This is a haphazard way to sell a town asset,” Mr. Giglio said, noting that the board made numerous changes to the resolution before voting on it.

Mr. Dunleavy also felt a new appraisal was needed, as well as a new request for proposals, voting against the measure as well.

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While the resolution puts no restrictions on what type of use Mr. Castaldi could have at the firehouse, town officials are hoping he agrees to a plan to have a Suffolk County Regional Agritourism Visitors Center there.

The Town Board already authorized applications for grants for the Agritourism Visitors Center, which could potentially include “a farmers market and office space for agriculture and tourism related businesses and non-profits in the Town of Riverhead to serve all of eastern Long Island in partnership with Suffolk County,” according to the May 21 resolution supporting the grant application.

The resolution states: “This tourism center would offer information to tourists about Suffolk County agritourism options including, but not limited to, vineyard tasting rooms, agricultural educational tours, seasonal special events, fresh baked produce, farmers markets, petting zoos, and ‘pick‐your‐own’ operations.”

The deadline for the grant application is June 16.

But is the dinosaur theater still an option if Mr. Castaldi buys the building?

“They were interested, but we haven’t really spoke about this in the last month or so,” Mr. Castaldi said. “I’ve got a lot of homework to do. My interest is to save and restore these historical buildings in downtown Riverhead. That’s what I believe makes the downtown interesting.”

Mr. Castaldi, who owns a building restoration company, also has submitted a proposal to buy and restore the town-owned East Lawn building on East Main Street, which officials say is in dire need of repairs.

As for the town increasing the sale price of the firehouse from $375,000 to $500,000, Mr. Castaldi said, “I’ve got to think about it. The building needs a tremendous amount of work. I don’t think people realize how much work it needs. It comes down to simple math. How much is it going to take to fix it up, how much are you going to get back and how long is it going to take to get it back? Either it works or it doesn’t work.”

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