After months of discord, board to hear $11M armory proposal

Mr. Russell said the town’s space needs have been evaluated periodically by various town boards. Although more space would be nice, he said, now is not the time to buy land and infrastructure.

“We would like to retire some debt over the next year or two before the town takes on new debt,” he said.

•

Mr. Walter says that starting in 2017, anticipated debt reductions will be one of a couple of key factors that will help Riverhead afford the $11.3 million plan to relocate the justice court and police stations. He estimates that $700,000 to $800,000 in annual debt service will be retired by then, which would make the estimated $860,000 annual debt payments for the armory plan affordable, he said.

“It’s my responsibility to do this without increasing taxes on residents,” he said. In addition to a drop in debt, Mr. Walter is banking on future land sales at the Enterprise Park at Calverton.

“That will happen by [2017], without any doubt in my mind,” he said.

Other board members aren’t so sure.

Councilman John Dunleavy said last week that Mr. Walter “thinks he can sell a map,” pointing to the subdivision map currently in the works for the enterprise park.

The town paid consultants about $460,000 in 2011 to complete a study that will split the town-owned land at the former Grumman property into 48 different parcels of varying sizes. In tandem with state-sponsored “fast track” legislation that facilitates approval or denial of permit applications within 90 days, the supervisor has already hinted at EPCAL projects so large he can’t even talk about them in public.

Again, Mr. Dunleavy expressed skepticism.

“EPCAL is his savior,” he said. The councilman pointed to vacant commercial land still for sale farther west — in Yaphank, Ronkonkoma and Central Islip — that makes reliance on future revenue from EPCAL ill-advised. Rather than spending more than $11 million to renovate the armory,he sees a $4 million to $5 million project involving Town Hall, the justice court and police station as “a better course for the town.”

Mr. Gabrielsen said he would support roughly the same total cost mentioned by Mr. Dunleavy.

Rather than updating the entire armory, Mr. Gabrielsen said he’d like the town to explore the cost of renovating just a portion of it — say, only the first floor — and consolidating current Town Hall and Town Hall West offices there.

Mr. Walter said he’s open to the possibility of moving town offices to the armory, saying Riverhead’s spread-out operations are “fractured as a town organization. Accounting. Payroll. Purchasing. Engineers. They’re all across town. It’s not efficient government.”

The supervisor said if the town were to incorporate the Second Street firehouse or Town Hall into a future study involving moving the justice court and police station, he would again want to hire the Cashin/EGA firm.

But, he noted, the board’s recent disagreements about where to place town offices aren’t the best sign of things to come. He says the discord and wavering among board members about how to handle town buildings doesn’t bode well for getting EPCAL developed.

“If the Town Board can’t make decisions about simple things, like selling an old firehouse or selling the East Lawn Building, I’m really fearful about how they will react when they see the sheer magnitude of what we’re doing at EPCAL,” Mr. Walter said. “It’s very problematic at this point.”

Councilwoman Jodi Giglio said she’s not committing to anything until she knows the cost of renovating the Second Street firehouse. She has attempted to get a cost estimate for that work, but said Mr. Walter blocked town engineers from doing so, she said.

“Without that information, we can’t even think about” moving the justice court, or any other departments, she said. “We changed our minds on the firehouse when we found out it was going to cost $11.3 million to renovate the armory,” she added. “After that we wanted to take a step back and try to look at other options. We’re examining everything.”

Councilman James Wooten is the only one of the four council members to express openness to the $11.3 million armory renovation.

But if that doesn’t happen, he said, he won’t be an “obstructionist” to alternative ideas.

The former Riverhead police detective said if the town needs to wait a few years for the $11.3 million move to happen, he’d still favor that over rushing into another plan.

“I know everyone wants to look out for the taxpayer, but I think public safety really should be paramount,” Mr. Wooten said. “I think we can commit to [the armory], but wait until the timing is right.”

Mr. Wooten said getting everything, all options, out in the open is the only way to move forward.

“We’re going to have to compromise on a lot of issues,” he said. “I think the way to move forward is to have everybody put on the table what they’d like to see and let’s work together to get something done.”