Letters: Many good things ahead for Vail-Leavitt Music Hall

RIVERHEAD

Best days ahead
for the Vail

On behalf of the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall, we thank the community for the many successes of this year’s Riverhead Blues and Music Festival. While attendance numbers were less than we had hoped for, I was encouraged by the overwhelming support voiced by everyone involved, audience, crew and many local businesses.

As most know, Vail-Leavitt Music Hall provides a venue for fundraising events supporting charitable groups like Toys for Tots, East End Hospice, Riverhead Move the Animal Shelter, as well as medical benefits helping locals in need. We presented programs for the East End Arts, I Love Riverhead, and every year of the annual Riverhead Idol competition as well as public forums, Business Improvement District meetings, graduations for Riverhead Charter School and town inauguration ceremonies.

These and other events have been presented without charge for the community’s benefit. We appreciate all support in our continuing work.

I thank the Town Board for approving the festival and the fates above for two days of great weather. Many people complimented the free performances given in Grangebel Park, showcasing acoustic acts in a beautiful and relaxed setting.

We thank Joe Lauro of Historic Films for previewing the opportunity beginning next month when the Vail brings movies back to downtown Riverhead (albeit in digital form). Unique performances at the Vail will help establish the downtown as an entertainment district with an active nightlife.

With insufficient space here to express thanks more fully, a complete version of this statement may be found on our website at vailleavitt.org.

Finally, I would especially like to thank my colleagues on the Vail-Leavitt board. I encourage interested community members to contact us via our website — vailleavitt.org — or email us at [email protected]. Whether offering suggestions, assistance or volunteering, I ask you to help us grow and develop through your participation in this community. With your involvement, I believe the best days of the festival and our Music Hall still lie ahead. Thank you.

Robert Barta

president, Council for the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall, Inc.

co-director, 2012 Riverhead Blues and Music Festival

BAITING HOLLOW

Here’s why
we stayed home

I and seven to 10 other friends missed the music and fun times at this year’s Riverhead Blues Festival, our first absence ever. No, it was not the Mattituck Strawberry Festival or the Shelter Island 10K Run that was the reason. It was the short-sighted policies of Vince Tria and the festival organizers.

What was once free admission became $5 per person, then $10 and now $15. What was a “bring your chair and cooler” was now a “no-no.” What was once a rare opportunity for Riverhead Town to showcase its riverside venue for residents and visitors is now just a continuing political squabble and another money-making event.

Ed Goldstein

WADING RIVER

Not Emperor Walter

This is in response to the June 21 News-Review article entitled “Walter says he’s sorry after tirade.” Mr. Walter has attacked so many people over the past few years that I can’t believe he is the least bit sorry about anything, except that he can’t deny it this time. He says, “When you are a public figure, sometimes you have public things come out that you don’t want to come out. So, obviously, I said some words that I regret …” He doesn’t say he didn’t mean what he said, he just seems to be sorry it was made public. He’s been a lawyer for years; you can’t convince me that he would be so careless with his words if he didn’t mean them.

Even when he said he was sorry to Councilwoman Giglio, he said only that he was out of line, and he shouldn’t have done it, not that he didn’t mean it. What a cheap shot to quote from the Bible, which doesn’t change anything he said.

Painful words are not that easy to forget, and judging from his past treatment of the people around him that has already been made public, this will not be the last time he tries to intimidate those he believes are beneath him, because that’s the mode he uses to get what he wants. He forgets that he’s working for us and is our supervisor, not our emperor.

I just hope all residents finally see this for themselves.

Helga Guthy

AQUEBOGUE

Get moving on EPCAL

Fortunately, it would appear that cooler heads in Albany have put the brakes on Supervisor Sean Walter’s new EPCAL bureaucracy. Unfortunately, Mr. Walter is likely to use this setback as another excuse to delay sales and development at EPCAL and any chance of tax relief for our town.

Rather than his Don Quixote quest to chase a bad idea to supplant established agencies that have development and environmental expertise with Riverhead’s notoriously inept Town Board to control the site, perhaps Mr. Walter and the council members might consider some ideas that could actually work in Riverhead.

Here are some suggestions:

An Indian casino: Governor Cuomo has already given the green light to gambling and it’s been a tremendous success at Aqueduct and Empire City. Casino workers get real wages to support families. The Shinnecock Indians already tried to do something in Riverhead and were rebuffed. Mr. Walter needs to get beyond his personal views and at least consider this as a possibility.

Motor sports: NASCAR is the fastest-growing sport in America and the town turned down a $150 million offer to create a facility in Riverhead to pursue “sand mine mountain” brought to the town by alleged criminals involved in prostitution and money laundering. There is no excuse to blow off a legitimate deal by real players to bring a world class facility to Riverhead.

Aviation: With FedEx down the street and a working rail spur, it’s just a shame to see $500 million of U.S. government-built runways wasted. Limited cargo use with tight control over hours of operation to protect the public could generate hundreds of high-paying jobs. And plenty of the rich and famous from Long Island’s Gold Coast and the Hamptons would love to have a place to keep their Gulf Streams for easy access for those quick trips to the South of France.

With thousands of acres available, there’s plenty of room to pursue all these opportunities and other good ideas as well. But under Mr. Walter and his predecessors, Riverhead has gained a reputation as “The Little Town that Can’t.” If anything, the supervisor has displayed (sometimes misplaced) passion and intensity in what he does. It’s time for the supervisor to jettison his past failures and use those skills to get something moving in EPCAL that works and can lower taxes.

Ron Hariri