Town Hall Notes: North Fork Preserve Seems Close to Being Preserved

It's been on almost every environmentalist's wish list for open space acquisition for more than a decade, and now it appears that the North Fork Preserve, the 333-acre parcel that lies between Sound Avenue and Sound Shore Road in the hamlet of Northville, is about to be purchased by Suffolk County with help from the town.

According to Supervisor Sean Walter, the owners of the property - a group of investors who have been using the land as a hunting club - have agreed to sell and the county has agreed to purchase the parcel, provided the Town of Riverhead can come up with 10 percent, or $500,000, of the $5 million asking price.

At Thursday's Town Board work session, Walter said that he's had several meetings with the county and that a $500,000 contribution from the town was as low as the county would agree to go.

"If we want the Preserve preserved, that's what it will cost," Walter said, and his four colleagues on the Town Board appeared prepared to adopt a resolution on Nov. 3 to approve the payment.

Riverhead has been borrowing against anticipated Community Preservation Fund revenues – a two percent tax that flows to the town when real estate changes hands, and must be used for land preservation. According to Walter, the town currently has bonding authorization for about $1.5 million, from which the $500,000 would be drawn, leaving the town with $1 million for future farmland and open space acquisitions, at least in the short term.

Saving a public right of way

The Town Board will vote on Nov. 3 on whether to authorize Supervisor Walter to sign a settlement with Donald Schulz, owner of a house on Front Street in South Jamesport, that would give him an easement of seven feet on what the town has always claimed to be a town road. As part of the settlement, Schulz would pay $25,000 to the town.

The road, which is really a path to the beach on Peconic Bay at the end of Center Street, has been an issue of contention ever since Schulz purchased and then renovated a former tavern eight years ago. The town sued Schulz, claiming that the Bilco basement door he had installed and part of his front porch encroached on town property.

Although the state Supreme Court sided with the town, its decision was later reversed, presenting Riverhead with a dilemma, according to Town Attorney Dawn Thomas. It could appeal, she said, but doing so would run the risk that the reversal would be allowed to stand, with town losing its rights to the road altogether.

Following a settlement, the existing public right of way to the beach would remain at its current width, Thomas said. "Our objective was to keep the passageway open for public access," she said. "That's what this settlement is all about."

Another debate over leaves

Highway Superintendent George "Gio" Woodson dropped in on Thursday's Town Board work session to ask the board to approve his proposal to charge residents a $15 dollar fee to cart their leaves to the town's yard waste facility for grinding.

Woodson said he wanted to give residents one more option following the recent decision to ask homeowners, on a voluntary basis, to bag their leaves in recyclable paper bags provided free by the town rather then leave them at the curb for pickup by the highway department.

There followed a heated debate that lasted close to 20 minutes, with some members of the Town Board arguing that the $15 fee would be unfair to the 600 residents who have already paid an annual fee of $50 to bring their leaves – as well as grass, branches, tree stumps and the like – to the facility adjacent to the former landfill on Youngs Avenue.

Councilman John Dunleavy said that residents should be allowed to cart their leaves – and only leaves – to the facility for free for the last two months of the year. He also said that if any annual fee payers were to telephone Town Hall to complain, he would be glad to take their calls. Councilman George Gabrielsen agreed that there should be no fee.

Finally, in exasperation, Supervisor Sean Walter called for a vote. He, along with Councilwoman Jodi Giglio and Councilman Jim Wooten voted to charge a fee not of $15, as Woodson had proposed, but $10 until the end of the year. The Town Board will vote on the fee proposal on Nov. 3.