Pending Insurance, Blues Fest Seems Poised for Return for 2012 Summer

After to return this upcoming summer, it appears that the - the non-profit running the concert - will have the votes required to obtain a special events permit to run the concert on June 16 and 17.

With the Vail-Leavitt's conflicts with the Business Improvement District not much of an issue this year - Supervisor Sean Walter said the BID simply doesn't have the funding to do a repeat of last year's Mardis Gras, - the biggest hurdle remaining is getting town board permission to sign on with a permit, a step a couple of council people seemed hesitant to take at Thursday's work session.

Councilman George Gabrielsen said he was holding out for more numbers concerning police costs, and Councilwoman Jodi Giglio said without insurance in place - which at this point, still is the case - she could not support approving a permit.

Giglio pointed to her past votes rejecting other special events requests because insurance was not in place at the time of the vote, saying in the sake of consistency, she would not favor Vail-Leavitt's application if that's the case again.

But Supervisor Sean Walter and Councilman Jim Wooten expressed support for approving a conditional permit, as did Councilman John Dunleavy, who was absent from Thursday's work session but voiced his support in a phone conversation Thursday afternoon.

"As long as they have insurance when the music festival is going on, I'm for it," he said. "I understand they can't put that money out now."

Councilman Jim Wooten said "it still sticks in my craw that we're closing off public property" for the event, a nod to the $10 ticket charge (or $15 for two days) to go to the music festival, held in a public lot on the Peconic Riverfront. Ultimately the boom to downtown businesses, and exposure to Riverhead, outweighed the cost, he said.

Vince Tria, the trasurer for Vail-Leavitt, said complaints about heat in previous years had led to a June proposal for the music festival as opposed to its previous routine in July.