In an effort to improve communication between Riverhead Town’s three boards, Town Supervisor Laura Jens-Smith has scheduled an intergovernmental meeting for next month. READ
Tag: Riverhead Town Hall
Riverhead Town Supervisor Laura Jens-Smith, who took office earlier this month, announced she will offer office hours, by appointment, on Monday evenings, starting next week. READ
There are so many things wrong with what passes for a “courthouse” in Riverhead that it’s hard to know where to begin describing them. The place is a tragedy waiting to happen. (more…)
More than 50 people rallied at Riverhead Town Hall Saturday to support bring Verizon FiOS to Riverhead. (Cyndi Murray photo)
Although Verizon officials have already said they won’t be bringing their FiOS service to Riverhead, more than 50 people rallied at Town Hall Saturday morning in hopes of getting the company to change its mind. (more…)
East End Arts is sponsoring the Town Hall exhibit. (Credit Barbaraellen Koch, file)
Paintings by Greenport artist Marla Milne will be on view June 6 to Sept. 4 at the Riverhead Town Hall gallery, in an exhibit co-sponsored by East End Arts. (more…)
Riverhead Town Hall (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch)
Last year, as candidates for the Riverhead Town Board, we sounded the warning bell about public officials also serving as high political party officials.
Often, in the rough-and-tumble and prism of a political campaign, issues like this are seen as personal. But as the movie line goes, “It’s not personal … It’s strictly business.” (more…)
TIM GANNON FILE PHOTO | Supervisor Sean Walter reading a Bible verse in Town Hall in 2012.
Back in 2010, during Supervisor Sean Walter’s first year in office, he proposed that the Town Board begin its meetings with an invocation, or prayer, recited by a local member of the clergy, with a different clergy member each meeting.
There was some initial concern about violating separation of state and religion requirements, but the idea took effect in August of 2010 and has been in effect even since — with little or no objections.
The board has had Catholic, Jewish, Baptist, and other clergy leaders do the invocations over that time.
Now, a dispute in the upstate Town of Greece could bring this issue back to the forefront.
A lawsuit brought by an atheist woman and a Jewish woman challenging that town’s pre-meeting prayers is before the U.S. Supreme Court.
That case, called Town of Greece vs. Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens, was heard before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Ms. Galloway and Ms. Stephens claim that most of the prayers read before that town’s meetings are Christian prayers. They also argue that people at these meetings may feel coerced to participate in the prayers.
The Supreme Court has yet to render a decision.
Mr. Walter mentioned the case prior to Wednesday’s Riverhead Town Board, where Pastor Scott Kraniak, the chaplain of Riverhead Raceway as well as the pastor of the Centereach Bible Church, gave the invocation.
“Today the Supreme Court is hearing a case about whether towns can introduce a Town Board meeting with an invocation,” Mr. Walter said. “I find it interesting that at all other levels of government this has passed constitutional muster, yet at the town level, for some reason, it’s before the Supreme Court.”
Mr. Walter said Congress, the state Legislature, and the county Legislature all begin their meetings with a prayer.
“I say this to let everybody know,” Mr. Walter said. “We do this, and it’s non-denominational. If somebody comes in, they will pray what they wish to pray, and if somebody wants to come in from any particular sect or religion, we’re open to that. And we’ll either sit or stand, whatever they want us to do.”
The supervisor then added, “I hope that God’s wisdom is with the Supreme Court in making this very interesting decision.”
The Supreme Court in a 1983 case called Marsh vs. Chambers upheld the practice of starting legislative meetings with an invocation.
BARBARAELLEN KOCH FILE PHOTO | Riverhead Town Hall.
With Town Hall closed for election day on Tuesday, the Riverhead Town Board’s first meeting of the month will be held on Wednesday afternoon, with public hearings slated on the proposed 2014 town budget and on the proposed Community Benefit zoning district that is needed for the First Baptist Church’s planned Family Community Life Center on Northville Turnpike.
The meeting starts at 2 p.m. in Town Hall.
• The $54.5 million preliminary budget that will be the subject of the public hearing calls for a 3 percent increase in spending and a 2.17 percent tax rate increase in the so-called townwide budget, which includes the three funds that all residents pay into. There are also a number of special sewer , water and garbage districts that vary by area, and those would bring total town spending up by three percent to $91.9 million, under the budget proposal.
Supervisor Sean Walter is proposing to use $3.5 million of town reserves to keep taxes down, leaving only about $3 million left in the reserve account. He says this is necessary because the town is paying $4 million in debt on the town landfill reclamation, which went over budget during the previous administration.
The proposed budget would not increase salaries for Town Board members. A final budget must be adopted by Nov. 20.
• The Community Benefit zoning district hearing is on a proposal to create an overlay zone that would allow a community center and workforce housing on land where the new zone is placed. In order to qualify for having this zone, a site would need to have 10 or more acres of land with at least 800 feet of frontage on a county or state highway, as well as public water and sewer connections.
First Baptist Church’s 13-acre campus on Northville Turnpike meets this criteria. The church is proposing a mixed-use project that would include an Olympic-size indoor swimming pool, a 25-seat theater and media center, adult and child day care services, an indoor walking track, gymnasium, fitness center, classroom space and 132 affordable apartment units intended as “workforce housing” for the area. First Baptist has been planning the Family Community Life Center for more than 25 years, and says the income from the apartments are needed to offset the costs of the community center, which would be open to the public.
The proposed zone only allows one unit of housing per acre, unless transferred development rights from farms, or affordable housing credits from open space purchases are used. The church is hoping to receive enough affordable housing open space credits from Suffolk County to make the project feasible. The county provides the credits at no charge, unlike the farmland development right program.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone last month pledged the county’s support of the project at a gathering in Riverhead, although he didn’t specifically mention the affordable housing credits.
The Nov. 6 meeting also has a public hearing on the annual Community Development Block Grant requests, which are distributed to local charities and non-profit organization.
