Riverhead Town Board to discuss Calverton YMCA
A proposal to locate the Peconic YMCA at Riverhead Town-owned land at the Calverton Enterprise Park will be discussed at a Town Board work session next Thursday, according to Peconic YMCA chairman Joe Van de Wetering.
Supervisor Sean Walter said that date isn’t official yet, and added that he might not be able to attend if the meeting does take place then because of his mother’s illness.
The EPCAL proposal appears to have the support of the Town Board, but the Peconic Y board has not officially signed off on it yet.
Asked if the Y board has made a decision on the EPCAL site, Mr. Van de Wetering said, “They are not ready to say anything yet publicly. We have a meeting with the town at a work session next Thursday and I assume everything will be discussed in the open.”
The new proposed YMCA site is on 7.3 acres in between the Grumman Memorial and the Stony Brook Business Incubator on Route 25 in Calverton. Mr. Van de Wetering said the town is offering to give them that land. The town had offered land to Peconic YMCA further west at EPCAL in the past, but Peconic YMCA ultimately rejected that site because it needed to be connected to water and sewer systems and the town was having difficulty getting county approvals to hook up there. Peconic Y also considered that location too far west, as they hope to serve the Riverhead area. The new proposed site is in Calverton as well, but it’s two miles east of the prior site and closer to Riverhead. Mr. Van de Wetering said they like the new proposed site.
The Town Board also seems to like the site, which was suggested by Supervisor Sean Walter last week.
“According to the supervisor, we have all the votes we need, it’s a matter of whether we are ready to accept it, and of what kind of conditions are attached to it,” Mr. Van de Wetering said. “We haven’t heard any of that yet. He hope to get answers to our questions at the work session or at least acknowledgement that there are issues to be worked on.”
The new proposed site could hook up to a sewer system at the incubator and while it would need a subdivision to be separated from the town land and given to Peconic YMCA, the town has hired a consultant to subdivided the town-owned land at EPCAL and the subdivision is scheduled to be discussed at an April 19 work session.
Peconic YMCA still hasn’t given up on its proposal to build a facility on land it would buy on Main Road in Aquebogue, across from Vineyard Caterers.
However, that site requires a special permit from the Town Board and it also has met with community opposition and may not have support from a majority of Town Board members anymore either.
