“It’s slowly diminished,” said Riverhead Councilman Ken Rothwell, who lives in Wading River.

The main culprit: motor oil that has run off from roads.

“There’s visible oil that runs off and is appearing in the ponds,” Mr. Rothwell said, adding that the water “comes down like a raging river” during heavy storms.

“It doesn’t look so good,” said Sid Bail, longtime president of the Wading River Civic Association, who watched the recent town meeting on the subject from home. “But up close and in person, it looks much worse.” For many years, there have been efforts to restore the pond, but none of them worked, mainly because of the cost of the job, officials said. Riverhead Town officials passed a resolution on Oct. 4, 2023, authorizing its Community Development Agency to seek federal grant money for work on the Duck Pond.

The town plans to collaborate with neighboring Brookhaven Town to get funding for dredging and replacement or repair of the bulkheads at Duck Pond, which straddles both towns. In 2005, Riverhead and Brookhaven planned to cooperate on repairs there, but Riverhead didn’t have enough funding, according to Riverhead town engineer Drew Dillingham, so the work was never done. The majority of the pond lies within Brookhaven Town, but most of the runoff and bulkheading issues are on its Riverhead side.

Mr. Rothwell said there no estimates for the necessary work, but he believes it will cost over $1 million.

Officials noted that Riverhead has been very successful in securing federal grants in recent years.

“I’m optimistic,” Mr. Bail said. “It’s been 30 years, but [the pond is] a great asset for the town.”

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The architectural firm hired to help design downtown Riverhead’s new Town Square and riverfront park unveiled plans and drawings at a public information meeting last Wednesday that was met with both support and opposition.

 The meetings come on the heels of the town’s receipt earlier this year of a $24 million federal grant that complements a $10 million state grant secured two years ago — both keys to a massive downtown revitalization initiative.

The $10 million grant will go towards the construction of the Town Square, improvements to the walkability on Main Street and a portion of a proposed playground. Another $500,000 in state grants and $150,000 in private contributions, will also go towards the project, according to Dawn Thomas, who heads the town Community Development Agency.

Three lots on Main St. were purchased, and two buildings were removed (at 117 and 121 East Main St.) using both an $800 state grant and a $ 5.5 million bond the town has taken, Ms. Thomas said. The existing business at the remaining building — Craft’d bar and bistro at 127 East Main St. —  is expected to be relocated, before the property is sold to J. Petrocelli Development — the plan’s master developer — for the construction of a boutique hotel with restaurants and retail bordering the new town square.

The downtown revitalization plan also calls for a 28-unit apartment building behind The Suffolk theater and a 504 space parking lot on the far north side of the existing First Street parking lot.

Consultant Alexia Friend of LVF Landscape Architects said a holistic approach to a Town Square and riverfront park is the best strategy. 

Ms. Friend said people are more likely to go places that are already built up and successful.

Changes town officials have said are in the works include relocation of the East End Arts building and construction of a splash pad for children to play in during the summer. An amphitheater and rowing facilities are also being considered for the new Town Square and riverfront park project. 

Town officials have not yet said what they intend to do with the Long Island Science Center building, although the Town Board indicated in May that it planned to acquire that property through eminent domain. 

“The objective is really to just activate this entire area, and to draw people to the things and places that are there, ” Ms. Thomas said at the meeting.

She said that the town is working with the Army Corps of Engineers to “flood-proof” the proposed riverfront park area. Ms. Friend said the lower-lying areas will be raised five feet to mitigate flooding.

Councilman Bob Kern said he felt there was too much emphasis on attracting children and not enough on appealing to adults. 

“What do we do for the people who are between ages 20 and 40, who come at night?” Mr. Kern wondered aloud at the meeting. “The people that can actually afford to go to restaurants?”

Steve Shauger, former head of the town’s Business Improvement District, said his own young children are drawn to areas with kid-friendly attractions like playgrounds. He said many places, like Patchogue, are ghost towns during the day but thrive at night. Mr. Shauger added that more people are coming to the restaurants downtown and staying in town longer. 

“They are not just going to the aquarium and leaving,” he said.

“You are making my point,” Mr. Kern responded. 

Mr. Shauger concluded,“We still need the ability to activate it at night, so we can compete with places like Patchogue and Port Jefferson.”

Gary Hygom, executive director of The Suffolk, also expressed skepticism about the new plans, saying, “My audience is not dumping out into a playground.

“Grangebel Park is a beautiful place, but it’s filled with drugs,” Mr. Hygom said. “And now your problem is how is [a new riverfront park] not going to be filled with the same?”

Another public information meeting about the project is being planned but is not yet scheduled.

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Riverhead officials said at a Town Board meeting earlier this month that Island Water Park Corp. received some approvals but not others for work on the 42-acre property — but went ahead with developing the property anyway. The go-kart track and pickleball courts are on land that was supposed to remain wooded, according to the complaint filed last week, which calls for the owners to return the property to its “pre-violation status.”

“I’m not going to stand for this anymore,” said Riverhead Supervisor Tim Hubbard said at the board meeting.

Mr. Hubbard said he and other town officials are fed up with developers building illegally and later seeking variances for projects that don’t have permits, and are now turning to the courts for relief.

“This won’t be stood for by anyone in the town while I’m supervisor,” Mr. Hubbard said. “I can’t stand that.”

Other construction projects recently launched in Riverhead without first receiving approvals include the Riverhead Ciderhouse and expansions at the Riverhead Charter School.

Eric Scott, owner of Scott’s Pointe, acknowledged in an interview that he made a mistake.

“The only thing I did wrong was that I built the tracks first and then applied second,” he said.

Mr. Scott, who has owned the property for 28 years, said he’s also paid double the fees and will pay fines, as well.

He said he started building the go-kart tracks early because he was hoping to be open by summer.

The Scott’s Pointe facility offers indoor and outdoor activities, according to Mr. Scott.

Island Water Park originally began as a proposal for water-skiing on a man-made pond off Youngs Avenue in Calverton.

That proposal encountered opposition from neighbors, and Riverhead Town urged Island Water Park to relocate to town land at the Enterprise Park at Calverton, which they did, buying 42 acres for $714,000 in 2002.

One resident who attended the recent Town Board meeting suggested that officials rescind previous approvals for Scott’s Pointe and that the town’s Industrial Development Agency claw back tax incentives it has granted to the project.

Additionally, the Department of Environmental Conservation issued tickets to the facility late last month citing multiple violations of approved land uses. According to the citations, Island Water Park is subject to a penalty of up to $8,000 for each violation with an additional civil penalty of $2,000 dollars per day for each day the violation continues.

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Riverhead Supervisor Tim Hubbard said he was hoping not to have to file the lawsuit.

“We met with the county executive, and we met with Southampton, together and then separately also, and we just weren’t able come to any reasonable agreement,” Mr. Hubbard said. 

“It kind of forced our hand to go this way,” he added. “I don’t think any one of us wanted to sue Southampton to stop a sewage treatment plant from being built. But with the way it’s being done, we felt this is the only way we could legally address it.”

The dispute centers on Southampton’s proposal to create a Riverside Community Sewage Treatment Plant, including the adoption of a Riverside Sewer District. It is expected to cost $35 million, which Southampton officials said would be entirely funded through grants. 

“Riverhead has expressed numerous concerns to the Town of Southampton related to direct and negative impacts that the proposed project will have upon the Town of Riverhead,” the pending lawsuit states, “as well as negative impacts on the school district.”

The hamlet of Riverside is part of Southampton Town but draws many of its municipal services, including schools and libraries, are provided by Riverhead. 

Southampton Town has been trying for years develop plans to revitalize Riverside, one of the poorest hamlets in Suffolk County, but officials say they have been hindered by the lack of sewage treatment. 

Riverhead currently supplies sewage treatment for the Suffolk County Center, the jail and the court facilities that are located in Riverside.

“I’m very disappointed that they’re pursuing this,” said Southampton Town Supervisor Maria Moore. “I don’t know what their claim will be. The Town of Southampton hasn’t done anything wrong. We’re just trying to lift up our community, just like Riverhead is doing with theirs.” 

The Riverhead Town Board is hiring attorney Steven Barshov to handle the lawsuit.

Southampton’s plans also have encountered opposition from the wider community, including a recent protest from teachers at the Phillips Avenue School, which is adjacent to the proposed sewage treatment facility, citing concerns about the health and safety of the school’s staff and students.

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On June 29 at about 2:40 p.m., Riverhead police received numerous calls reporting that a woman had been robbed in the parking lot of Tanger Outlets. 

Police responded to the scene and were able to immediately detain the suspect, who was found hiding behind a bush near one of the Tanger parking lots. 

Town detectives also responded and conducted an investigation, which determined that the female victim, 44, was visiting from out of state and had fallen asleep in the backseat of a friend’s vehicle that was parked in the lot while her friends were shopping, police said.

The victim reported that she woke up and saw a man’s arm reaching through the open passenger-side window, then holding her down as she was lying on the backseat of the vehicle, police said. 

While forcibly holding her down, the suspect reached into the vehicle with his other arm and attempted to remove the victim’s purse, which also contained her debit card. 

A struggle for the purse ensued, and the suspect was able to take it from the woman and flee on foot. 

The victim, who reported minor injuries as a result of the incident, said she exited the vehicle and chased after the subject, screaming and alerting others in the area that she’d just been robbed. 

Two good Samaritans observed her, and the fleeing suspect, and assisted by chasing after the suspect, police said. Additional witnesses also observed the subject’s flight and alerted the victim and Riverhead police. 

The suspect was identified as Shawn Collins, 35, who is homeless but frequents the Riverhead area. He was wearing a black ski mask when he was apprehended. Police were able to recover the victim’s purse and debit card. A Riverhead K-9 unit also recovered a GPS ankle bracelet that had been removed and discarded by Mr. Collins, police said. 

Mr. Collins was subsequently arrested and transported to Riverhead police headquarters, where he was processed on a charge of third-degree robbery, a class D felony, and held for arraignment. 

Anyone who may have witnessed the incident or has information pertaining to the case is asked to call Riverhead detectives at 631-727-4500. 

All calls will be kept confidential.

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The 13-member BID board has 10 elected members, comprising five property owners and five tenants from within the district, which extends east-west from the police station to the library and north-south from the train station to the Peconic River. Three additional members are appointed, one by the town supervisor, one by the Town Board and one by the town’s chief financial officer.

BIDMA’s newly elected members are Alberto Lenghi of The Preston House and Hotel, Jason Breitstone of Hildreth Real Estate Advisors, Gary Hygom of Suffolk Theater, Amanda Capobianco of Richmond Realty, Lisa Pickersgill of Robert James Salon, Sean Kenna of Cucina 25 and Craftd, Steven Amaral of North Fork Chocolate Company, Larry Oxman of East End Commercial Real Estate, Linda Lombardi of M&T Bank and Mark McLaughlin of Assemblywoman Jodi Giglio’s office.

Michael Butler, who restored the Woolworth Apartments, was appointed by Supervisor Tim Hubbard, and Kathleen Ruscick was appointed to the vacant resident position. One seat remains vacant.

The positions of BIDMA president, vice present, secretary and treasurer will be chosen from among the new members at the BID’s July 17 meeting. 

Currently, Mr. Kenna is president and Ms. Pickersgill is vice president.

The BID was established in 1991 as a way to finance supplemental services and programs beyond those the local government provides and is a special taxing district paid by residents within the BID. It aims to improve business for merchants by generating additional foot traffic and drawing more customers to the historic downtown area. 

The BID’s first big public event of this season will be the Alive on 25 summer street festival on Friday, July 5, in conjunction with a fireworks show. This has traditionally been the biggest BID event of the year. 

The BID is doing only two Alive on 25 events this year: Friday, and a Laser Light show Aug. 9. 

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“This is not an appropriate place to put a sewage treatment plant,” said high school teacher Garrett Moore. “It’s between an elementary school and a Head Start facility. It would never fly next to Southampton High School.”

“For me, as a teacher, we just have a lot of questions about our safety and the safety of our students, ensuring that when we have our students outside for recess, that the sewage plant doesn’t have any negative affect on them,” said teacher Dan Estrada.

The proposed sewage plant has been in the works as part of Southampton Town’s plan to build up development in Riverside. 

The plan didn’t seem to get much attention until a few weeks ago, when several speakers — most of them residents — at a Southampton Town Board meeting mentioned that they were unaware of the proposal. 

The town never raised enough funding for the proposal until this past year. After receiving state and federal grants, the plan is moving ahead.

“We just found out about this a couple of months ago, so we’ve been looking at it and we decided we wanted to bring this to the community’s attention,” said RFCA president Greg Wallace. “It’s an impoverished area of the town and we want to make sure the people in this area are aware of this and their voices are heard.

“We just want to raise awareness of the fact that there’s a treatment plant scheduled to go right next-door to the school,” Mr. Wallace said. “So we want to raise awareness in this community to make sure there’s no adverse effects to our students and members.” 

The proposed location is the former site of a drive-in theater that has recently become an industrial park. 

Mr. Estrada said the issue “kind of snuck up on us, and now we’re getting a lot of questions that we don’t have the answer to.” 

Southampton Town Supervisor Maria Moore was not available for comment. 

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“Flat rates offer customers the same price regardless of the hour of the day or the day of the week,” said Brian Kurtz, manager of customer service, who was among PSEG officials who spoke at a recent Riverhead Town Board work session.

Up to now, PSEG-LI customers have routinely been charged a standard flat rate per kilowatt hour for residential electric service. By contrast, Mr. Kurtz said, time-of-day billing would charge customers a lower rate for electricity consumed at specific off-peak times.

Under the new time-of-day system, electric usage on weekdays between 3 and 7 p.m., considered peak hours, will be billed at the standard rate. The other 20 hours of each weekday will be billed at the new reduced rate.

All electric usage on Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays will also be billed at the lower, off-peak rate, according to Mr. Kurtz, who said a shift to off-peak power usage will help reduce reliance on backup power plants, which are less efficient to run.

Mr. Kurtz noted that not all PSEG-LI customers are eligible for optional time-of-day billing, including those whose homes do not have “smart meters.” Visit psegliny.com for more information.

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This follows a $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) grant for similar projects from New York State that Riverhead was awarded in 2022.

This time it was a RAISE grant, which stands for Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity, a federal program that municipalities nationwide can apply for.

RAISE funds will facilitate the reclamation of the downtown riverfront for three transportation projects, officials said. 

The majority of the grant funding has been earmarked for the construction of a new parking garage to shift parking away from the riverfront, town officials said. 

In addition, $4.8 million will be allocated for flood protection and $4.6 million will go towards improving area streetscapes.

“I am beyond excited that downtown Riverhead was awarded federal RAISE funding in a highly competitive selection process,” Mr. Hubbard said in a press release. “I am grateful that the application prepared by the community development team was so well received by the federal Department of Transportation after being strongly supported by our entire Congressional delegation.

“On behalf of the entire Riverhead Town Board, and more importantly every Riverhead resident, I want to thank Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Congressman Nick LaLota for their diligent advocacy and support of Riverhead’s application,” Mr. Hubbard continued.. “It is bipartisan efforts such as this that prove that government on all levels can come together for the betterment of residents.”

The town has applied for the RAISE  grant every year since 2020, said Dawn Thomas, Riverhead’s director of economic development, planning and building. “The complex application was entirely undertaken by town staff,” who have “been relentless in improving the application each of the last five years,” she added.

Ms. Thomas said the RAISE grant is the largest single funding award in town history.

The RAISE program provides funding for investments in surface transportation infrastructure that will have a significant local or regional impact, officials said.

The funding will allow Riverhead to reclaim the Peconic riverfront for public enjoyment, install necessary flood mitigation measures, spur mixed-use development and make downtown safer and more accessible for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists, officials said. 

“I have been glad to work with Riverhead leaders to secure funding for these improvements because I know they will supercharge Riverhead’s renaissance,” Sen.Schumer said.

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The resolution directs the town attorney to take all actions “necessary and appropriate” to obtain the land. The town’s efforts could include the use of eminent domain, a process by which the government can seize private property for a public use, in exchange for just compensation as determined by the courts.

The owners of the LISC property say they were surprised by the town’s resolution and are still interested in keeping the property in order to expand the museum and potentially build a planetarium, according to Larry Oxman, president of the Long Island Science Center.

“I was very surprised by the resolution,” he said. “This came out of left field.”

Mr. Oxman said he had not heard from the town before the board’s vote on the resolution.

Supervisor Tim Hubbard disputed Mr. Oxman’s claim that he wasn’t aware of the town’s plans. “He had an idea what’s going on,” Mr. Hubbard said. “I don’t know if anyone specifically told him per se. But he wasn’t surprised.”

Asked about the town’s plans for the LISC building, Mr. Hubbard directed the question to Dawn Thomas, who handles economic development issues.

Ms. Thomas also declined comment. The building at 111 East Main St. is in the area where the town has begun a multi-phase project to build a new Town Square. Two other buildings have already been demolished to create a green open space across from The Suffolk.

The nonprofit Long Island Science Center was founded in 1990 and opened in 2019 at its current location at 40 Peconic Ave.— on the ground floor of the Summerwind Square apartment building, which formerly housed BNB Bank.

Several years ago, the LISC acquired the former Swezey’s building in downtown Riverhead, where it planned to expand. Currently, LISC is using space at Tanger Outlets. LISC has been awarded more than $1 million in grants toward the expansion project.

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