Riverhead Town prohibits parking on Youngs Avenue in Calverton

After hearing residents’ concerns, the Riverhead Town Board voted last week to prohibit parking along both sides of Youngs Avenue in Calverton to remediate dangerous conditions caused by idling and parked vehicles.

All vehicles on the south side and semi-trailer trucks on the north side of Youngs Avenue, including idling of any vehicles on either side, are now banned, extending from the eastern intersection with East Meadow Road to where the road ends at Osborn Avenue.

The town’s decision reflects two recent incidents that took place on Youngs Avenue this past month: the Crown Recycling Facility fire on June 4 at 472 Youngs Ave. and the dumping of unknown materials by Patriot Recycling trucks a few doors down, next to 302 Youngs Ave.

“This addresses a concern that was brought to the traffic safety committee, as well as multiple complaints from residents in the Calverton area, of trucks entering or exiting Crown Recycling Facility and parking on the side of the road,” Riverhead town attorney Erik Howard said. “Creating dangerous conditions for motorists based on the curve of the road, and particularly at times where there are school buses coming down to pick up kids in the surrounding communities from Old Orchard Road and East Meadow Road.”

Toqui Terchun, president of the Greater Calverton Civic Association, submitted a letter to the Riverhead Town Board six days before the Crown Recycling fire occurred to draw awareness to the “life-safety issue” residents were experiencing with the consistent Youngs Avenue traffic.

The memo detailed an extensive analysis of Crown’s 2022 operations plan, in which the manual stated that “no truck traffic, other than garbage trucks that collect residential waste along Youngs Avenue, will be permitted to utilize Youngs Avenue.” It also said that with adequate on-site queuing space for trucks entering and leaving the facility, “there should be no need for trucks to queue on Youngs Avenue or on any other nearby street.”

In its letter, the Greater Calverton Civic Association called the reality of the traffic on Youngs Avenue “a nightmare,” and said the semi-trucks would continuously block the flow of traffic on the public street. Due to lack of room on the site itself, the trucks would be forced to back into the property, the letter said. With photos included in its analysis, the civic claimed Crown could “not handle the amount of truck traffic that it was attracting” and used the public roadway for staging.

“I appreciate you getting right on this, and I’m sure the neighbors are going to start to feel some relief from it,” Ms. Terchun said. “Even though what we’re experiencing right now is the demise of Crown’s traffic because of their explosion — but this law will make it so the residents feel more secure going forward.”

A little way down the road on the former Warner Nursery property is Youngs Avenue LLC, run by Joseph DeFigueroa, who also owns the Oceanside-based waste-recycling facility and transfer station, Patriot Recycling LLC. 

A stop work order was issued to Youngs Avenue LLC on June 24 after several neighbors expressed concerns about an overwhelming odor spreading through their neighborhood.

The odor wasn’t the only issue. Prior to the enforcement of the stop work order, up to eight trucks would line the road outside of Bob and Carolyn Hering’s house each day since May, the couple previously said, and had idled there as early as 6 a.m. With each truck passing by or pile dumped, dust filled the air, and unpredictable winds kicked it up even more, Ms. Hering said. The smell of the diesel fuel from the trucks was also potent.

“It’s a narrow road, and these guys are parked right in the lane … right in front of my driveway, it’s a curve,” said Mr. Hering in a previous interview about the Patriot Recycling trucks. “Everybody’s speeding and then all of a sudden, they’re right on top of the truck and the trucks on the opposite side of the road are making a wide turn. Sooner or later, somebody’s going to get hurt just doing that.”

Mr. Howard confirmed that extending the parking ban to the East Meadow Road intersection with Youngs Avenue was an intentional decision because it goes beyond the Patriot Recycling property.

“I just want to thank Counselor Howard … the traffic safety committee and town attorney’s office moved very quickly on this to write it up and to put it together so we can take immediate action,” Councilman Kenneth Rothwell said.