New Plans for EPCAL To Be Unveiled

After months of anticipation, plans are in place to unveil a new subdivision map for Enterprise Park at Calverton, most likely at a town board work session slated for March 19, said Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter on Thursday.

Enterprise Park at Calverton is a 2,900 acre parcel formerly occupied by Grumman Corp., which manufactured aircraft. Over the past decade a number of doomed projects for the site have been pitched, including plans for a raceway and an artificial ski mountain.

The new EPCAL site plan, said Walter, will include approximately 40 to 50 lots, instead of two originally proposed. "There are a whole series of lots that have been created," Walter said. "The lots that are going to sell very quickly are the ones located around Route 25.” Each lot, he said, will measure approximately five to 10 acres. 

If the lots sell quickly as anticipated, Walter said, “We’ll be in very good shape.”

Bonding News; Riverhead Turns Financial Corner

Walter announced this week that the town recently bonded $38 million for the price of $36 million – and, with an interest rate over ten years nailed down at 2 percent, residents will see $400,000 in savings.

“It’s fantastic,” Walter said. “I refuse to leave this town in worse financial shape than when I got it.”

Riverhead, he said, is about gaining in fiscal health. “We’re about 75 percent there,” he said. “As for the other 25 percent, we need to stop reliance on one-shot revenues.” His goal, the supervisor said, is to reduce or, in some cases, eliminate the use of interfund transfers, or “chargebacks.”

Another chief goal, said Walter, is redevelopment, especially on downtown Main Street.