Peconic YMCA At EPCAL Not A Done Deal

A plan to site a proposed YMCA at Enterprise Park at Calverton, instead of at a hotly contested location in Aquebogue, is not set in stone.

“It’s not a done deal yet,” said Brian Stark, a board member with the Peconic YMCA. “It has to work from a financial perspective, and a logistics and location perspective.”

Stark added the initial proposal, which suggested a location on Main Road in Aquebogue for the YMCA, met with an outpouring of protest from residents who said the project would forever alter the community’s bucolic quality of life. A group, has galvanized to protest the project.

The town board, Stark said, was not comfortable with the proposal to construct the facility on the Main Road in Aquebogue. “We had to have a consensus to approve the YMCA in that Aquebogue location. We needed three votes, and we didn’t have them,” he said.

Although in the past, some concerns have been raised about whether sewage capacity at EPCAL, a 2900 acre parcel where the former Grumman Corp was once located,  could handle a YMCA at the site, this week, Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter said, if the YMCA board members agree to an EPCAL location, the facility would likely be sited next to the Calverton Business Incubator on Middle County Road. Walter said he thinks the Peconic YMCA board will be “excited” by the location.

“One reason to put it there is that it’s the closest location to a state-owned sewage treatment pipe.” The town would have to work with the state to facilitate sewage treatment issues involving the pipe, Walter said.

Another possibility, Stark said, could potentially exist, if the Calverton Business Incubator had upgraded their septic infrastructure. “Maybe we could piggyback off that.”

But Monique Gablenz, manager of the Incubator, said there have been no upgrades made since the the original connection was created when the Incubator was built, seven years ago. “We haven’t made any improvements since then,” she said.

Gablenz added that she is not sure if the Incubator’s current infrastructure could handle additional capacity, should the YMCA built.
Walter said the next step is for YMCA board members to meet with the town board and discuss the proposal, likely at its next town board work session on March 12.

Joseph Pinciaro also contributed to this story.