Concerns expressed by Riverhead officials and consultants included confusion over the exact placement of the water main extension, a lack of inclusion in planning of the pipeline, and a general distrust for the consideration of local impact of the project. 

“There’s virtually no other information other than this line on a map, which makes for me, as an analyst, very difficult to determine what the impacts might be and also what they really should study in the scope,” said Jeffrey Seeman, environmental consultant for the Town of Riverhead. 

Mr. Seeman added that no tax map numbers had been provided to Riverhead Town to evaluate whether the project would go through private properties with underground infrastructure such as gas lines or existing water lines for the Riverhead Water District. Impacts of the pipeline could stand to affect Riverhead’s own development plans in the future, he posited. 

“We have been requesting that information, and we haven’t received anything yet,” Mr. Seeman said. “And to put it in the draft impact statement is a little late, to say the least.”

The notion that Riverhead Town has not been treated as an involved agency for the proposed SCWA pipeline is something Mr. Seeman disagreed with on the grounds that “all of the land that this will run through in Riverhead is owned by the town.” He compared the project to someone building a fence on private property, with the property owner not having a say in the height, construction and placement of said fence.

“I don’t think they are up to speed on the requirements of really what the SEQRA standards are,” Mr. Seeman said. 

Riverhead Town will conduct its own Monroe Balancing Test on Tuesday, Aug. 19, at 6 p.m. at Riverhead Town Hall to determine whether or not, and to what extent, the SCWA pipeline project may be exempt from local zoning and land use regulations. The test was originally developed in 1988 after a New York Court of Appeals decision between Monroe County and the City of Rochester. 

It is a nine-pronged test that weighs a host community’s impacts, effects on local government authority, land use regulation, the potential of improvements, and the extent that the public interest is to be served by the improvements, among other considerations.

“The SCWA’s initial position on this was that they were going to conduct a Monroe Balancing Test through their DEIS scoping, which I believe is legally insufficient and procedurally improper,” Riverhead town attorney Erik Howard said. 

The decision to list the Town of Riverhead as an interested agency instead of an involved agency in respect to the project is something Mr. Howard said is a “majority deficiency in the proposal.” He added that the pipeline, meant to service Southold and improve its water infrastructure, is something that would not serve to benefit the Riverhead community. 

Southold Town Councilman Greg Doroski noted the importance of both Southold and Riverhead towns working as “a unified front” on this matter. 

A similar informational meeting was hosted in Peconic in June where community members listed hundreds of concerns about the pipeline — concerns that Southold Town officials noted and submitted in a six-page questionnaire to the SCWA, Mr. Doroski said. 

“There is a fundamental question for us all to ask, you know, ‘Whose water is this?’” Mr. Doroski said. “They’re taking water from Southampton, bringing it through Riverhead to serve Southold. 

“I think we need to look at this together, because it’s not just about this one well; I have similar questions whether there is capacity in that individual well to supply the water that they say they need now and potentially in the future,” Mr. Doroski said. 

Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski commended Riverhead for its informational and municipal efforts regarding the pipeline project. He said some of the concerns Southold officials brought up regarding the impact on Southampton and Riverhead of the proposed project have not been openly discussed. 

“For anyone to propose to move water that far, through different boundaries and through different watersheds and different aquifers, without considering the work of the United States Geological Survey, doesn’t seem to make any sense at all from a resource management standpoint,” Mr. Krupski said. He stressed the importance of considering the recent scientific studies when creating the project plan. 

“There’s a finite amount of water,” Mr. Krupski said. “I don’t know who’s done the work to really determine is that enough water.”

The post Riverhead, Southold officials question North Fork pipeline appeared first on Riverhead News Review.

“Diane has been a treasure,” Supervisor Yvette Aguiar said in an interview, describing Ms. Wilhelm as one of the warmest and most talented professionals with whom she has ever worked. “The entire community loves her.” 

Ms. Wilhelm was appointed town clerk in November 2008 then elected to the office a year later. Prior to that she served as the town’s records management officer, registrar of vital statistics and marriage officiant.

“She’s like the most amazing person ever,” said colleague Carol Del Vecchio, a senior account clerk in the town clerk’s office. “She’s very dedicated to the town, to the employees and to the people of the town. She’s very caring and understanding. She’s always trying to help everyone. She goes the extra mile above and beyond everything.”

Deputy town clerk Juliann O’Neill said that when Ms. Wilhelm is not working, she’s an active longtime volunteer in Riverhead, including with Riverhead Townscape, the nonprofit organizers of the Riverhead Country Fair, and at St. John the Evangelist R.C. Church. 

“Whenever there’s a need for any kind of volunteer work,” Ms. O’Neill said, “she will be one of the first to put her hand up and help.” 

During her tenure, Ms. Wilhelm has digitized much of the town’s records, including minutes of Town Board meetings that stretch back to 1792 and are now available on the town’s website. 

“That’s as far as you possibly can go, because the town was founded in 1792,” Ms. Wilhelm told Riverhead News-Review last year. 

The huge project was realized with a $60,000 grant she sought and received from the New York State Archives, which funded a complete review, purge, index and cataloging of archived records. 

The clerk’s office also began accepting credit cards under Ms. Wilhelm. 

Ms. Wilhelm was an active member of the Nassau/Suffolk Town Clerks Association and the New York State Town Clerks Association, where she served as district director from 2013 to 2016. Through the state clerks association, Ms. Wilhelm earned certification as a registered municipal clerk. 

Deputy town supervisor Devon Higgins said that Ms. Wilhelm is both a friend and a role model. 

“She is an absolute gem. I’ve been working with her only for four years, which — certainly relative to other folks here at Town Hall — is not as long. But I can tell you, she was my first friend at Town Hall. She has a heart the size of Texas. And when I tell you she is probably one of the most helpful people in Town Hall, I mean that — whether you’re a constituent, whether you’re a fellow employee, whether you’re Joe Blow off the street, it doesn’t matter. She just is absolutely always willing to help and be of service. And I think that’s one of the reasons why she has been such an effective town clerk, because she truly, truly cares.” 

Ms. Higgins added that Ms. Wilhelm is also a trusted counselor.

“She had two giant chairs in her office, in the old [Town Hall on Howell Avenue] … I used to joke with her that was my therapy chair. And I would sometimes go in and say, ‘Okay, I’m here for therapy.’ We joke and she’d say, ‘Okay, what’s going on?’ We would joke, but she sort of is the matriarch in some ways, sort of the wise, kind of calming presence that everybody looks to now and again.” 

Receiver of Taxes Laurie Zaneski has risen through the ranks with her friend, Ms. Wilhelm. 

“We both started as deputies to our elected officials. So I was the tax receiver’s office’s deputy. She was in the clerk’s [office] … then Diane and I ran [for office] together, and we’ve been running together ever since. 

“Our first year we were both opposed. And then after that the Democrats and the Republicans were like, ‘Diane, so well-known and loved. Laurie’s so well-known. We’re not going to run anyone against them because it’s a waste of the committee’s money.’ So Diane and I have been like, running buddies ever since.”

Others said Ms. Wilhelm’s passion for helping people springs from her humility.

“She is one of the most humble people I know,” deputy receiver of taxes Lisa Richards said in an interview at Ms. Wilhelm’s retirement party. “She wasn’t going to come here tonight, because this was going to be about her and she didn’t want the attention. She’s just a really great person.”

For her decades of sterling service to Riverhead, her sincere joy in helping others and her reliably great sense of humor, Diane Wilhelm is the Riverhead News-Review’s 2023 Public Servant of the Year. 

Previous Winners

2022: Steve Shauger & Kristy Verity
2021: Dawn Thomas
2019: Allen Smith
2018: Dashan Briggs
2017: Richard Ligon
2016: Tom Lateulere
2015: Susan Wilk
2014: Carl James
2013: Dennis Cavanagh
2012: Ed Romaine
2011: George Woodson
2010: Robert Brown
2009: Barbara Grattan
2008: Liz Stokes
2007: Michael Reichel
2006: Gary Pendzick
2005: The Riverhead Ambulance Corps
2004: Richard Wines
2003: Ken Testa
2002: “KeySpan Coalition”
2001: Ed Densieski
2000: Judge Richard Ehlers
1999: Barbara Blass
1998: Vicki Staciwo
1997: Lenard Makowski
1996: Buildings & Grounds
1995: Jack Hansen
1994: Jim Stark
1993: Rick Hanley
1992: Lawyer Jackson
1991: Andrea Lohneiss
1990: Monique Gablenz
1989: George Bartunek
1988: Patricia Tormey

The post 2023 Public Servant of the Year: Diane Wilhelm appeared first on Riverhead News Review.

“This is hazardous waste,” she said. “I am outraged that anyone be allowed to dump their hazardous waste in our town.

“There is no such authorized site in Manorville or anywhere else in the Town of Riverhead — or anywhere on Long Island for the matter — because we are over a sole source aquifer,” she added.

Michael Flynn, president and founder of Eastern Environmental Systems, said in an interview Friday that his company, located on Line Road in Manorville, is a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation licensed transporter. 

“We were contacted by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection on the day of the fire, and we coordinated with the DEP and the building’s owners,” Mr. Flynn said. 

He said his company removed the lithium ion batteries and secured them into special drums that will be transported to a facility in Connecticut. 

The issue first came up during a Town Board work session on June 29 when board members discussed enacting a law requiring all lithium battery powered items sold within the town to be in compliance with Underwriters Laboratories safety standards. 

The subject of the New York City fire arose when town fire marshal Andrew Smith mentioned that the remains from that Manhattan fire were being brought to a firm in Manorville — and that those remains had caught fire twice while they were being transported. 

Mr. Flynn confirmed this. The first time, he said, a drum containing lithium ion batteries that had been “moisture impacted” caught fire. That blaze was quickly put out because the New York City Fire Department was still on the scene. 

The second time the lithium ion material caught fire, it was extinguished by the Nassau County fire marshal. The material had been turned over to Nassau County and was repackaged before making its way to Manorville. 

“They are a challenge,” Mr. Flynn said of the lithium ion batteries. “We get calls every single day of the week to transport and dispose of batteries.”

He said the batteries they receive are packaged and taken to a facility in Connecticut. He noted that lithium ion is most dangerous when it gets wet.

A statement issued Friday by the state DEC said that EES “has a current DEC Part 364 permit that allows the facility to transport hazardous waste, non-hazardous commercial waste, waste oil, petroleum contaminated soil, among other materials, to destination facilities identified on the permit. This would include lithium-ion batteries.”

But on Friday, the DEC added: “Today, a DEC inspection of the facility found potential violations of its permit. The investigation is ongoing and DEC will take any actions deemed appropriate to ensure the protection of public health and the environment.”

Mr. Flynn said the batteries were removed Saturday morning and taken to company in Connecticut called MNL. He expects that EES may get a violation from the DEC for not removing the batteries within 10 days, as required. However, he said, the building and property owners and business owners — for whom he was working — had asked to keep the batteries as evidence in case a lawsuit is filed. 

“In 35 years doing this,” Mr. Flynn said, “I’ve never had to deal with a loss of life.”

The post Battery fire waste sent to Riverhead appeared first on Riverhead News Review.

CAT attorney Chris Kent didn’t get far into the company’s presentation before the crowd at the Hotel Indigo began booing, heckling and yelling at him, holding signs with messages that included “No Cargo Airport,” “No Jetport” and “Stop the Warehouses. Save Our Farms.” 

Mr. Kent denied that CAT was planning to build a “jetport,” though he acknowledged after the meeting that aviation will be an “accessory” to other uses.

CAT is seeking to buy 1,643 acres from the town for $40 million. Wednesday’s meeting came at the request of the town Industrial Development Agency. It was a public forum offered by CAT, not an official public hearing of the town board or the IDA. Riverhead and CAT have filed a joint application with the IDA for tax benefits.

CAT officials have confirmed to the town and the IDA that within five years of receiving all necessary development permits, it will complete the construction of at least one million square feet of development, in a mix of buildings ranging in size from 100,000 square feet to 300,000 square feet. 

In its development plan, CAT said its full development costs for the project will be $247 million. 

At an IDA meeting in September, 2022, CAT representatives made references to aviation use at the property and to “jetports.” At Wednesday’s meeting, Mr. Kent reiterated that a jetport is not part of their plan. 

After the meeting he said that “aviation will be an accessory to some of the principal use at the site.” He said that is unchanged from the current zoning. 

Speakers on Wednesday were nearly unanimous in their opposition to the proposal.

“It should be understood by the IDA and it should be understood by the Town Board, that Riverhead doesn’t want this project to go forward,” said Riverhead resident John McAuliff, to a roomful of cheers. 

He said CAT’s plans from last September clearly show a jet cargo port. That Sept. 21, 2022 meeting is still available for viewing on the town’s website. 

At a recent Town Board meeting, Supervisor Yvette Aguiar noted that there is nothing in the contract with CAT that prevents someone from buying the land and immediately selling it for a higher price. 

“The bottom line is, we don’t believe you,” Rex Farr, who coordinates EPCAL Watch, told Mr. Kent. 

Kelly McClinchy, of Manorville, who is a member of the Navy’s Restoration Advisory Board, said that some of the land eyed for development at EPCAL is contaminated.  

The RAB oversees groundwater quality on land once owned by the US Navy.

Mr. Kent said afterwards that he wasn’t surprised by the reaction. 

“I told them we were going to be doing a lot of listening tonight,” he said. “They don’t want to hear what we’re proposing.” 

While Mr. Kent said there is no jetport associated with their proposal, CAT does plan to use the existing railroad spur at EPCAL.

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