Walter Points to 3 Issues, and Alludes to a 4th, in State of the Town

"It may sound like the same speech each time," said Supervisor Sean Walter, at his third State of the Town address on Wednesday night. "But that's because we have the same problems that we have not tackled."

During a 30-minute speech at the Sea Star Ballroom during a tri-club meeting between the Riverhead Rotary Club, Riverhead Lions Club, and Riverhead Kiwanis Club, Walter touched on the same top three priorities as he has during most of his tenure at town hall - Enterprise Park at Calverton, downtown Riverhead, and the town's finances - and touched upon a fourth topic which has occupied the halls of Howell Avenue as of late.

Going off script (the supervisor's prepared speech is attached as a .pdf) while talking about his point on town's finances, Walter emphasized that the town needs to "model ourselves against towns up west" to reach stable financial grounds. While Town Board members have heard calls for  and on , the supervisor has

"You see folks, I am not trying to model this town after East Hampton," said Walter. "I love Bill Wilkinson. I think he's doing a wonderful job. But we need to model ourselves against towns up west. Towns where the debt burden is almost non-existent. Towns that are stable. Towns that don't have skyrocketing tax burdens.

"We will continue to cut spending," he went on to say. "But we cannot save our way into prosperity. We must ultimately grow our tax base."

Looking at growing business on Main Street, and contrasting his approach with "artist's renderings, slick brochures, and power point presentations," Walter repeated his catch phrase "you all should know by now: block by block, store by store."

The supervisor pointed to recent openings in town at , , and  - just to name a few - as examples of his mantra.

While Walter works more of a grassroots approach downtown, he referenced a never-done-before approach he's taking toward developing EPCAL:  to speed up permitting at the property and make it more welcoming to investors.

Walter said that the State Senate and Assembly will take up the "landmark legislation" this session to create the commission.

"This, my friends, is not Grumman rocket science," he said. "Nor is it even difficult. It simply takes intestinal fortitude and the realization that we must attract business to the region to survive."

Lastly, the supervisor pointed to strides the town made in 2011 to reach stronger financial stability, saying the "town's finances were in shambles" when he took office.

Walter pointed back to , the , and to seek out an audit of the town's books as his most telling financial accomplishments of last year.