Supervisor candidates trade barbs at News-Review debate
Who’s to blame for the minimal progress at the town-owned land at Enterprise Park at Calverton and what will you do about it?
Giglio: “Well as a leader, I don’t like to place blame. And I do like to take some responsibility. But I can tell you that the supervisor and Tony Coates were driving the car and Mr. Coates had his hand on the steering wheel going to Albany. They were meeting with the DEC and they were going over the plans and they were coming back to us telling us what the DEC said we could do at the enterprise Park at Calverton. We were over budget. I voted no on overspending the budget that we had to subdivide the EPCAL. I think that working with the environmental groups is a good thing, but we were supposed to be able to develop 2,300 acres within the fence and we were chopped down to about 800 acres and that’s the plan that my opponents came back with. I feel like the taxpayers are shorted out on $1,800 worth of development or preservation, where we could’ve sold those preservation credits. We can only built on 800 acres and sold 1800 acres for hundred thousand dollars per acre. That’s a lot of money folks, that would solve a lot of our financial problems. We could’ve invested that money, and we could’ve been living off of the interest. But that’s my plan for the future, to work forward and work with the environmental organizations and the DEC to move the map that we have now forward. And I worked on it until it’s done. I won’t stop, I will campaign, I will continue to work on that map until it’s finalized because we need to jobs, we need to development, and we need good things to come to EPCAL, that’s what I aim to provide. I will work with my board makes for you to make sure that happens.”
Walter: “First of all, Mr. Krupski wasn’t the legislator when they worked on Route 58. It was Legislator Romaine. Second of all, going back to EPCAL, it’s the largest single commercial industrial subdivision going on in New York State right now. And it’s done, for the most part. Think about the Heartland project up Island. It’s been going on for 10 years and we’ve been done in four years. The single biggest thing to happen to Riverhead right now, Suffolk County and I’m gonna say New York State, is Luminati Aerospace. We, my staff, brought aerospace manufacturing back to the town of Riverhead. Back to the town of Riverhead to a parent company that eventually we will be able to go to disclose who it is, and it’s going to make your head shake. How can they have did this? An aerospace company that’s going to bring military jobs back. All you have to do is look at Daniel Preston and realize he has been a military contractor for a long time. We’re not talking about jet planes, we are talking about solar powered planes that are very large and are four to ten horse power. Yes, the subdivision has slowed down a little bit. It has slowed down because we attracted a company that is going to have such worldwide acclaim, and I know it’s hard to believe and it sounds like pie-in-the-sky, but it’s not. The parent company is real and the project is real and we have to make sure the subdivision works perfectly for them. Because Luminati Aerospace, that’s the future of the town. That’s what’s gonna make your house values rise.
Coates: “My head is shaking, yes. Let me tie together a few of the things they were saying here. First of all, this is a unique situation. The private citizen who doesn’t sit on the town board is responsible for everything bad that happened in this town but the two folks who sit in the town board and have for the last six years been no responsibility. Somehow this is my fault. But the Luminati deal I hope we prosper from. I would never talk down about it. But let’s not wrap the Christmas presents yet. We don’t know anything about this company other than the fact that it was incorporated in July. We don’t know anything about this company other than the fact that it was incorporated as incorporation service in Albany shopping center. They may be backed by other folks or they may not be. They’re not saying. We don’t know. We know that they may be building a drone. We don’t know whether they gonna beat their competition to build that drone. We don’t know whether it will ever fly. Before we go too far afield, these deals tend to come up every two Octobers. Before we get too excited about this, and decide to rewrite history, let’s be realistic. Where is the fault line with the town board? With the people who’ve actually sat on the town board for the last six years and that’s part of why I’m running.”
Giglio: “I would just like to say that Mr. Coates was a paid political consultant for Mr. Walter. He gave him $1,000 a month and he was connected to his hip for the last seven years up until two months ago. As a matter fact, Mr. Walter supported Mr. Coates and encouraged him to switch parties to run against me two years ago. And that’s okay. So what I’m saying is that we need a leader that can put all that aside and put all the tabloids aside. We need Luminit and they’re gonna be a great company and I’ll support them hundred percent. I just wish the supervisor would’ve come to the board and told us about his deals.”
Walter: “The single greatest thing that’s gonna happen to this town. I signed the non-disclosure agreement. I wish I could tell you. I know who the parent company is. It’s going to rock your world. I’m not lying. What you have to do, you’ve got to figure out who you gonna trust. They’re coming, and it’s big.”
Coates: “I hope so but again we know very little about this company and we’ve heard these deals before. So let’s find out. When you’re on the town board and you’re the supervisor you have a fiduciary responsibility to the people you represent. Any responsibility is to make the best deal for the people of Riverhead. I’m cognizant of the fact that Ray Maynard use that runway three months a year and paid about $34,000 for it. We have a proposal now and a public hearing to give the same to accompany we don’t know.”
Downtown revitalization has been a hot topic in this town for decades. What are your plans for downtown Riverhead?
Walter: “Store by store, block by block. We started back in 2010. We started with the theory of having a meeting, a downtown summit, where we brought all the stakeholders in and said listen… We’ve been planning downtown, we had master developers, we did exactly what Southampton’s been doing and they’ve been doing it for two years and God bless them. I hope it works. It didn’t work here. And it hasn’t worked in other towns, all you have to do is look at the Ronkonkoma hub, which is getting started. We took a different approach and it’s working and I hope that if I get reelected, to continue this store by store, block by block approach. We identified businesses and we married stores with businesses. It’s been very very successful. In fact, Shelly Gordon is in contract with Georgica Green to sell 60,000 ft.² and build another 160 apartments and retail. That was a deal that took myself, Connie Lassandro, and several others, almost 14 months to make happen. So we have the master plan and the vision, we just have to implement it. Do you know where I learned all this? [Patchogue Mayor] Paul Pontieri. Go to Patchogue look at Patchogue. That’s what it’s coming here. Even the stores in Patchogue are coming here.”
Coates: “I think there’s been some gain downtown. But I’m very cognizant of the fact that we are cutting ribbons in front of the same stores for the second or third time. I think we really need to re-examine what the Master Plan is down there. Right now, what’s been proposed is these nameless, faceless, five and six story buildings. They’re going to strain traffic and they’re going to strain sewers. We don’t have any parking there, we didn’t even, over the course of the summer, fill in the potholes. So, I look across the river and — we talked about building a bridge over the Southampton and everyone on our side said we don’t want them coming here. But it may be that Southampton is actually ahead of us. They put in a completely coherent plan and we are now, the same building that the supervisor talked about, at at loggerheads over at historic district in which Councilman Giglio posed for the pictures with Mr. Wines that. So this is really sort of the left-hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. I think we made some gains but I think we have a long way to go. I think in downtown we proposed a public market, we proposed a place to make it a vital main street and the center of arts and Congress to come together. I haven’t seen a really coherent plan. It’s just whatever comes, we’ll cut the ribbon and we’ll take credit. And when they leave, w’ll pretend that we didn’t know who they were.”
Giglio: “One of the reasons why I ran for office is because I was proposing to build a building in downtown Riverhead. Based on Apollo’s dreams and their plans, I put together a partnership with some great people and we built a beautiful building downtown. And that was really, with Dee Muma at the corner, the start of it. Then people started saying ‘What’s going on in Riverhead?’ and let’s go to Riverhead and put something up. So I’m proud of it, and I am a stakeholder in downtown and I am committed to revitalization of downtown. Downtown does have a local historic district and that is what makes it unique and special. We are very lucky to have found volunteer that sit on the landmalk preservation commission that are dedicated. And we did make it a national district. And if you’re not asking for any benefits from Housing and Urban Development department or from the state and federal government and you want to knock down the building, you can. But if you gonna ask for money from the state of federal government, there are certain guidelines they want you to follow. ..They could paint the building pink if they wanted to. It’s just a matter of us giving them incentives and encouraging them to fix up these historic structures downtown. I went to the Business improvement District a couple weeks ago and asked them to write a letter asking the town board to say that there’s a parking problem and that they would like a parking garage and they are doing that. I should have that letter sometime next week after the BID board meets again and then I plan on going to the town board to ask them to put out a request for proposal for a parking garage on town property. I’m a solution oriented person. I’m a business person.”
Walter: “I can’t wait to have a parking problem. Look at Port Jefferson. There’s a parking problem. Look at Patchogue, there is a parking problem. Find a spot in Sayville. That’s a parking problem. Do you know what? Do you want to go back to Supervisor cardinale’s ways and have a master developer in Apollo again. Then vote for Mr. Coats because that’s what he’s advocating. It’s exactly what Mr. cardinale did and failed at that he’s advocating it. That’s what they are doing in Southampton. God bless them, I hope it works. I’m going to continue to move forward with Councilman Giglio’s parking garage and build downtown.”
Coates: “I think you’ve got to dial back and look at the overall vision. They said that anyone comes down town will come their tax-free. Tax-free to build a building downtown. There’s a sign in front of EPCAL that says you can come here tax-free. By the way, the phone number on the sign is disconnected. So is the website. They said there are no tax breaks on Route 58 but now they’re starting to give tax breaks on Route 58 again. They gave one to the Marriott Hotel, they gave one to an oncology Center, they gave one to a bowling alley. Who is going to pay the taxes in this town? The pieces in the vision have to fit together. I’m sorry they are a piece short.
Giglio: “I just like to say that I’m solution oriented. I take every opportunity when Southampton invites me to one of their meetings with their zoning or what they’re proposing on the south side. I attend these meetings with Councilman Dunleavy. We talk about those things and what we think Southampton should be. And I made a recommendation and they put a laundromat in the south side of their river. A lot of people come from the south side and walk down main street with their laundry bags and I said you need to provide for your people on the south side of the river. And I’m happy to say they did put a laundromat and made several changes to their proposed zoning based on my recommendations. So I believe in being proactive.”
How do you plan on balancing development downtown with the health of the Peconic River?
Coates: “I think again, it comes back to having a plan. All the pieces have to fit together. I think that’s where you started the debate by asking, I worked with this team and opposed this team. And it’s because I’ve seen over six years that again the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. So each project has to have sort of internally, all of the pieces of each department working together in almost an environmental impact sort of way when you are proposing a project. Conifer. Let’s look at that deal. There’s no thought out curb cut. There’s no fire protection thought out on that. it’s it’s right by the river, what is the threat it’s going to be to the river? I think that the pieces have to work together. And I’m sorry, I don’t wanna cast a negative tone, but I have to take exception to something you said, Jodi. You didn’t walk in to the BID board meeting and talk about building a parking garage and sending it out for RFP. You went to the BID board meeting and you said, ‘I know a guy, maybe we could get this guy a grant and he could build the parking garage.’ It’s in the paper that you knew a guy. I have a real problem when someone is in the permit expediting business and funded by up-island developers, as to what our downtown is going to be.
Giglio: “On the Peconic River, what I’ve done as the liaison to the Peconic Estuary Program, is found new ways to… right now, we’re getting ready to build a rain garden on the Riverfront to educate people that are situated along the waterfront, so that this can capture some of the oil in the parking lot so it doesn’t end up in the river. That project is underway and it’s fully paid for by the Peconic Estuary Program. So, I’m happy to have the support of the board on that. We’ve also done several things, working to get storm water out of the sewer drains so that when it goes through the sewage treatment plant, you don’t have all that storm water going into the sewage treatment plant. So we worked on that. I voted no on several projects that would add to the sewer district, high density development on small pieces of property that would affect the sewer district and the discharge. While our nitrogen levels may be low right now, after the construction is built, it would just add to it. I voted no to the flight boarding. Fly boarding would’ve disrupted the bottom of the river and created a problem. We had heard from a lot of environmentalists, and I listen to the people and I voted the way the people wanted to because I felt it would be detrimental to the river. So we pushed it out to the bay. So we’re doing things every day to protect the Peconic estuary and I’ll continue doing that as your supervisor.”
Walter: “This answer is going to be a little bit technical. We have a state of the art sewage treatment sewage treatment plant with sequencing batch reactors. That sewage plant is built in about 2000 10 2002. It is still by all accounts state-of-the-art. However, it’s not the best available technology. The DEC is requiring and we are building an upgrade to that sewage plant, which will allow the golf course to be watered (with treated sewer effluent). And that’s going to be a bio membrane filtration system…. That’s a 75 percent reduction in nitrogen going into the Peconic River. That sewage plant is roughly 1.4 million gallons. Yes there’s water that comes in from the storm water system although we do try to seal that out. That’s sewage treatment plant is going to make a huge difference in downtown Riverhead in terms of what we discharge . I know it’s a little sleepy, I see a couple people yawning, but that’s a big deal. A $22 million upgrade. That allows us to do the upgrade on Main Street, the Riverfront, along with upgrading all Pump stations. We are ready for that development, and do you know why? We planned it.”
Coates: “I don’t think the town planned. I think the major strides that the town made on denitrification, and I’ll applaud that. I don’t think we planned the downtown. I think that anyone who sits in a lot of traffic near a lot of empty stores, and imagine what happens when we fill that out. We don’t have adequate parking. It sounds like a cute cliché to say that Patchogue doesn’t have parking or Port Jefferson doesn’t have parking . It’s a problem we can head off and smart planning can do that.”
Giglio: “I just also would like to say that I put forth legislation that was supported unanimously by the Town Board to require anybody within a watershed area or within 150 feet of Peconic River or wetlands be required to upgrade their sanitary system if they are making a substantial change, like putting a second story on, or adding a kitchen or adding bedrooms. The Suffolk County Department of Health Services didn’t regulate those type of things. They are working with me. The Suffolk County Department of health services worked with me to look at this code amendment and they are reviewing those applications, which they were not before. I think that is a step in the right direction.”
Walter: We plan for the development downtown, that’s why we upgraded our sewage treatment plant and we upgraded our pump stations and fixed a lot of the piping downtown. When we build downtown and put the 500 apartments that were allowed to put in, we will have a vibrant downtown like Patchogue . It’s not going to pollute the environment, it’s going to be a very safe and clean place to be. So it was planning, and we did it.”
Is crime a problem in Riverhead? And if so, how specifically can it be dealt with?
Giglio: “I said that I would eliminate the deputy supervisor position in my office and use that funding to hire more code enforcement. Crime is a problem. We have several overcrowded houses in town. We have police who are spending a lot of time in parking lots where drug activities are taking place. With better code enforcement and was looking at overcrowded housing, with making sure that our communities are safe and clean and that all quality-of-life issues are addressed, we will reduce crime. And the only way you can do that is by hiring more code enforcement officers and putting code enforcement under the police department so that they can work together. I think that overcrowded houses are a big problem. I think they burden the police department, the school district, the hospital and the library. We need to move in the direction of more code enforcement which will eventually cut down on crime. So, I think that it’s been a problem and it’s a problem that I’m willing to take on and tackle as a business person and a leader, and I hope you will support me as supervisor so I can move my plan forward.”
Walter: “Crime doesn’t get solved by code enforcement. I’m glad you bring this up. This is the single biggest domestic issue that we’re facing right now. Look at this, (holding political flyers put out by the Suffolk County PBA supporting Ms. Giglio) this is what the Suffolk county PBA has brought against me to try and win the supervisor seat. This is my friend, is a big deal. Let’s count them or maybe not, let’s just go through them. There’s $100,000 of print ads right here and I don’t even get half of them. The bottom line is that my opponent wants to sell that the Riverhead Police Department to the Suffolk County Police Department. She’ll deny it, just like she denied a lot of things over her tenure. There’s not a single person that could believe that the Suffolk County PBA, after offering me the same deal, is going to spend between $100,000 to $200,000 because they don’t like me. Crime is down Riverhead by 10 to 15%. We became an accredited police department during my tenure. We used the police department in very specific ways in downtown and Route 58 to accomplish our goals of reduction of crime. But this, my friends, this is the future if she gets elected, (waiving the political flyers) because she is bought and sold by the Suffolk County Police Department. Nobody spends this kind of money without asking for something.”
Coates: “I think if you go back to Commissioner Brattan or Mayor Giuliani, to get a handle on small crime is what matters. We do need to crack down on overcrowded housing and to enforce the code. We do need to make downtown a place that has less blight, around the train station, and looks more attractive. We need to do the things like fix potholes because that creates a basic disrespect to the downtown. I think one of the issues that this Town Board has not tackled in better than a decade is something as simple as installing security cameras downtown. They’ve talked about it but they haven’t gotten it done. Councilman Giglio has chaired the code committee and I’ve heard her say all these things, but again, and I don’t mean to keep bringing this up, but you have been on the town board for six years. I completely agree with the supervisor. This is New York, people have a keen and native sense, and you don’t get a couple hundred thousand dollars from anyone without something expected in return. I completely support the Riverhead Police Department staying the Riverhead Police Department. What do you do to solve crime? Have great response times. What do you do the soft crimes? You have people that know the neighborhoods. You have people that can get out to the community and know the community. We would lose that (under Suffolk County police). Every battle we ever had with UpIsland, we’ve lost. We’re supposedly the county seat, but all the buildings moved up to Hauppague. We have to keep a police here intact in Riverhead.”
Giglio: “I support Riverhead Police Department and giving them the tools to do their job effectively and safely. I have never told Suffolk County that I was going to endorse Riverhead Police Department going to Suffolk County police department. As a matter fact, I can’t even do that. It would have to be a vote by the tax payers. It would have to be on the ballot and you would vote on it, not me. So let’s just put that away. I’ve said it at every debate and every chance I get. I support Riverhead Police Department and I’m proud to have the Riverhead PBA’s endorsement. When it comes to cameras downtown, Mr. Coates, you said on the BID board for five years why didn’t you put cameras downtown?”
Walter: “There is no doubt and there should be no doubt in anybody’s mind that if the Suffolk County PBA spends this kind of money, then somebody’s not telling the truth. Nobody spends a couple hundred thousand dollars. They are going to put a public referendum on, they will come up and excuse, and when that happens Suffolk County PBA will spend whatever it takes to win the referendum because they believe it’s manifest destiny to take over the entire East End. This didn’t come for free.”
Coates: “Councilwoman, I don’t mean to bring up this issue, but during the primary, you said that our police cars are held together with gum. Why in your six years in the town board did you never submit a resolution to buy new police cars?”
Giglio: “We did, we bought five new police cars.”
Coates: “Well, which is it ? Police cars held together with gum or we have adequate police cars? If you really believe that the police cars held together with gum and you really support the Riverhead Police Department, try supporting them. Why not submit a resolution?”
