Letters to the Editor: Take a pause on paid parking
JAMESPORT
Take a pause on paid parking
Hold on to your proverbial hats, my fellow denizens of Riverhead. It seems a new plan is being hatched by our illustrious supervisor and Town Board. Freshly invigorated by their proposed hefty pay increases and huge budget increase — and notwithstanding the ridiculous, wildly unpopular agri-tourism boondoggle — they have a great new plan to charge for parking downtown. But wait! It seems cooler heads have prevailed, and it was deemed necessary to postpone said plan — hopefully to avoid looking foolish again with another ridiculous proposal without considering unintentional consequences and widespread dissent.
I think the pause is good because on the face of it [is] a seemingly strange logic: We want more people downtown so let’s charge them to park there. It seems our leaders have now determined a longer study will give a “greater quantity of relevant data.” It’s always good to know what you’re doing before you do it. It seems there are just a few nagging little things to sort out, like the development and implementation of a digital system, payment method, enforcement/fines, things like scanning a code or downloading an app to park your car for a brief errand and my favorite: the town could waive the parking fee under “special circumstances.” Let’s hope that doesn’t include “special people” [We’ve been assured] it’s coming “because many, many towns and villages you go to, you’re paying for parking.” I guess the reasoning is we should do it because everyone else is. [The supervisor] insists it’s definitely coming, but “may not be for a year or two.” It may not come at all if, hopefully, we get a new supervisor and Town Board in there.
Jake Bennett
AQUEBOGUE
Hubbard’s budget disaster
I was denied my First Amendment right to express my concerns about reckless spending by Tim Hubbard and his all-Republican Town Board last week. Although I’m a little bruised today, it’s important for me to alert our friends and fellow taxpayers of the damage Mr. Hubbard and his predecessors have already done and what may lie ahead for our already overtaxed town.
Millions of dollars have been spent on a Town Square that is going nowhere because there was no “eligible and qualified” hearing for the master developer, who is a major donor to Riverhead’s GOP. The project is not defined and taxpayers are paying town officials to create a private hotel project for a GOP donor.
Millions more have been spent on a hockey rink that Riverhead Local reported only a handful of people from Riverhead have used. The town is not properly tracking the costs on this money pit; for instance, electric charges for the rink are listed as for Town Hall and costs like repairs and bathrooms are not segregated.
The town spent millions more for the Town Hall than what it could have been bought for a few years ago, even though the prices for office buildings have declined dramatically. It’s way too expensive to run; utility costs are about $1 million a year — not to mention multiple cops staffing the place at the cost of several hundred thousand dollars a year.
While Mr. Hubbard falsely claimed IDA benefits have nothing to do with the budget when he cut me off from speaking at the Nov. 7 meeting, millions in tax revenues are lost because of foolish giveaways by the IDA, appointed by and serving at the pleasure of the Town Board.
It’s no surprise that Mr. Hubbard needed to censor me from airing his years of mismanagement. He’s been on the Town Board for almost a decade and signed on to all these dumb decisions that are bankrupting our town. It’s time for a change.
Ron Hariri
CALVERTON
You can’t believe in democracy only when you win
How come under Donald Trump we only have a peaceful transfer of power when the election goes his way? Four years ago when Joe Biden clearly won, the Capitol was stormed at Trump’s direction and 140 cops were bloodied and beaten. Unlike this year, Joe Biden wasn’t invited to the White House nor did Trump symbolically attend President Biden’s inauguration to show the world that Americans share common values that transcend politics. This year, Trump said in advance of the election that if he lost it would be “bloody” and his party filed over 100 preemptive lawsuits claiming potential election irregularities that have now mysteriously gone away. If democracy is to survive, you can’t believe in it only when you win.
Jerry Silverstein
MATTITUCK
Why I’m running for reelection
My name is Kevin Byrne and I am running for reelection to the position of commissioner of the Mattituck-Laurel Parks District. The MPD board consists of three commissioners, each of whom serves a three-year term.
I am extremely honored to have been elected to this position three years ago and proud of the many accomplishments we have achieved. The thing of which I am most proud is the team that we have assembled to run and manage our parks. And I believe every member of this team would like me to return. We have an organization of employees and volunteers who are all working toward a common goal: to protect and preserve the park properties belonging to the residents of the Mattituck Park District.
Please vote on Thursday, Nov 21. Voting takes place at the Veterans Beach Park Community Room and polls are open from 3 to 8 p.m.
Kevin Byrne
Mattituck Parks District commissioner
ORIENT
Election integrity
In 2020 the Democrats won the presidency and the Senate, and nearly split the House of Representatives. Many losing Republican candidates claimed there was massive voter fraud for the ensuing four years.
This time, the Republicans took all three. Shockingly, there were no claims of any massive voter fraud. Or moderate fraud. Or itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny fraud. Nope. Nothing to see here folks; keep moving along.
Because there never was anything to see.
Ched Baker
CUTCHOGUE
Grateful
This Thanksgiving, for those of the so-called Boomer generation, I’d like you to think about our fathers and those who never got the chance to become fathers. If not for them, where would we be?
Then I’d like you to think of the names on the Wall. Some 58,000-plus of our generation — yet not there are those who came home from Vietnam and died homeless, of PTSD, suicide and are still living with Agent Orange maladies.
Then again, our children and grandchildren who went off to Iraq and Afghanistan. Many who came home disabled, and again suffering PTSD.
I am grateful to these men and women for their service, integrity, fortitude, and courage. I pray, in their names, that Our Creator will bring upon the Earth a time of peace for all the nations, and that that peace may last for generations to come.
Bob Bittnerf
CUTCHOGUE
Zeldin: A bad joke for EPA
You might as well take the P out of EPA if Lee Zeldin is confirmed to head the Environmental Protection Agency. He’s a climate denier and loyal advocate for his patron, the petroleum industry. Now he’s planning on deregulating them and other major polluters.
Zeldin would rather stay in power than protect his neighbors’ health or property — and don’t be fooled by his preservation of a remote undeveloped island. That’s an easy lift compared to refusing vast campaign contributions or a plum cabinet appointment.
The Suffolk Times article is written like a celebration of a local boy, when it should have been a eulogy for the environmentally sensitive East End communities. Shame on you.
Richard Parlini
