Civic Strategizes To Put Brakes on Bus Barn

Furious over a proposed plan to move the Riverhead school district's bus barn to Riverside, community members met Monday night to strategize about how to put the brakes on the idea. The issue was discussed at a meeting of the Flanders, Riverside and Northampton Community Association in Flanders Monday night. "The most important and heated discussion at Monday's meeting revolved around the Riverhead Central School District's plan to relocate the district's bus depot and repair facility to a location abutting the Phillips Avenue Elementary School with access to State Route 24 through our developing light industrial park, Enterprise Zone Drive," Vince Taldone, newly elected FRNCA president, said after the meeting. "The board of FRNCA and many members took lists of registered voters to call and ask for support." FRNCA members will be calling all registered voters who voted in the last election to ask that they come out and vote "no" on the relocation plan, Taldone said. "We hope to defeat the proposition at the ballot, but will not give up if the item passes. A committee has been formed to take next steps if the ballot item passes," he said. Last week, Taldone and members of various civic organizations turned out for a board of education meeting express their opposition to the second proposition voters will be asked to decide upon during the school board election on May 21. The proposition would ask the voters to allow the Riverhead school district to purchase two parcels of land that could pave the way for a new bus garage to have access to Route 24/Flanders Road. "I recognize that some people are opposed to this idea, although I also recognize that there are no ideas where absolutely everyone will be in agreement," Riverhead School Superintendent Nancy Carney said Tuesday in an email. "The plan we have was developed with several factors in mind." The bus garage currently utilized by the district was built in 1920 as a horse barn "and has fallen into disrepair," with holes in the roof and exposed wires, Carney said at Tuesday's board meeting. "Unfortunately, for many years it was neglected as budgets were spent on other priorities. We have done our best of late keeping up with its maintenance, but the building is failing in many regards and needs to be replaced." The first proposition on the ballot asks voter permission to establish a capital reserve for a new or renovated garage, Carney said. The capital reserve, which functions like a savings account, results in no increase in taxes, no impact on the levy and no debt. "We are simply going to save money year after year in order to pay for a new garage," Carney said. The money would come from two main sources -- proceeds from the sale of district owned land on Tuthills Lane in Aquebogue, and from excess funds available at the end of the fiscal year -- up to $10 million, she said. "Once enough has been saved, we will be able to replace or renovate the existing structure," Carney said. The second proposition, totaling just about three acres, asks for voter permission to acquire two small parcels of land in Enterprise Zone Drive in Flanders for $480,000 that are adjacent to district-owned property, Carney said. "We are exploring the idea of placing the new bus garage on district-owned land and using this new land as an access road to get the buses in and out without impacting any residential neighborhoods. In looking for a location for the new garage, we set three factors: the land had to be centrally located; the land had to be removed from residential areas; and the land had to be affordable. The land we are looking at acquiring meets all three of these tests," Carney said. Even if the board purchased the land, the public would still have to vote next year about whether to move the bus barn. And, nothing could happen until funds were saved to build a new transportation facility -- so the proposed move would still be years ahead in the future. Flanders resident Carl Iacone said the board's lack of transparency was "an injustice to the whole community." He added, "We're a poor community, we're not a rich community. We may be a part of Southampton Town, but we're the poor end of town. We need what we can get." A bus facility on the property, Iacone said, will spark traffic woes, no matter what time of day the buses. "And the fumes near the schoolchildren? That's disgraceful." Iacone said the proposal would call for additional cost to residents, including the need for increased police and fire services. "We're going to vote this down," he said. "We are asking you to reconsider and find another spot for this garage. We're looking for relief -- not to be buried more and more. We are not a cash cow."