Recap: Water ski plan dead, firehouse sale moving forward

A plan to create a slalom water ski course in Terry Creek appears to be dead, Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter said at the end of Thursday’s Town Board work session.

“I’m done with water skiing,” he said. “We’re not doing it. It was a trial balloon. We wanted to float it and see what happened, and it raised the ire of so many people.”

A Jamesport woman brought up the idea two weeks ago, but it subsequently faced opposition from neighboring residents.

Also at the work session, board members appear to be moving toward approving the $500,000 sale of the Second Street firehouse to Suffolk Theater owner Bob Castaldi, who is interested in building a farmers market there. Mr. Castaldi also would like the town to change the zoning of the property from DC-4 to DC-1, to conform to downtown Main Street’s zoning.

He’d also like the town, which had planned to sell him just the building and not the parking lot, to also include some peripheral land around the building, including a small shed to the north of the firehouse.

Mr. Walter asked that $125,000 of the sale price go toward recreation funding. Councilwoman Jodi Giglio raised some concerns about the sale price, but the board appears to support the sale.

The work session also featured a presentation on the 100th Anniversary of the Riverhead Water District, complete with some old pictures as well as some pictures taken from on top of the tower.

To read what else was discussed, click below to read a recap of reporter Tim Gannon’s live blog of the meeting.

June_26,_2014_-_Agenda by Timesreview