Town Hall Notes: Need a shopping cart? 108 to be auctioned off
Riverhead Town is planning to hold an auction of shopping carts — 108 shopping carts, to be exact.
“This sounds a little odd, but unfortunately, shopping carts are all over the town and our highway department has to go and pick them up,” Councilman Tim Hubbard said at last Thursday’s Town Board work session. “Nobody claims them, so we’re going to make a little money off of them and auction them off. They are unclaimed goods at this point.”
The town code actually includes a section on shopping carts that authorizes the highway department to remove abandoned ones from public places. If their owner doesn’t claim them after 10 days, the town can auction them off.
The shopping carts will be auctioned off and sold on Wednesday, June 27, at 9 a.m. at the town highway department, located at 1177 Osborn Ave.
“Who’s going to buy a shopping cart that’s been abandoned?” Councilwoman Jodi Giglio asked.
“Actually, the stores will buy them and reuse them,” Mr. Hubbard said.
Northville Terminal expansion
United Riverhead Terminal is seeking a special permit from Riverhead Town to allow them to construct a new 28-by-45-foot pad with six biofuel tanks totaling 108,000 gallons on their Northville property.
The proposal will be the subject of a public hearing at the Town Board’s June 19 meeting, which starts at 7 p.m. in Town Hall.
The proposal requires a special permit because it is considered to be an expansion of a pre-existing use that doesn’t conform with zoning.
At last Thursday’s Town Board work session, attorney J. Nelson Happy, the vice president of URT, said the project is needed because of a new state law that requires biofuel to be mixed with home heating oil.
Biofuel is ecologically better and has less emissions, he said.
“No question, it’s better for the air,” he said.
The new state law takes effect July 1.
