Despite a belief that plans for a new YMCA to be located at Enterprise Park at Calverton the project may be on hold.
According to Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter, after a new president and CEO, Anne Brigis, took over the reins at the YMCA of Long Island, plans have changed.
"They may want to move to Riverhead school district property on Harrison Avenue," Walter said, to the parcel where bus barns are currently sited.
"Everything they had done in the past is getting changed," Walter said.
Brigis confirmed on Thursday that other alternatives are being considered. "We're exploring all our options at this point," she said.
The supervisor said he has directed Riverhead attorney Frank Isler to stop working on the lease agreement for the YMCA property at EPCAL. "We've expended substantial sums of money already," Walter said.
Walter said Fritz Trinklein, former YMCA of Long Island strategic planning director, was "discharged. We don't know where they're going or what they're doing," he said. "We're in a holding pattern."
Councilman John Dunleavy said after ten years of work on the initiative, "We're back to zero."
Councilwoman Jodi Giglio said the board has done everything they can do to facilitate the project.
Walter said while in the past, the YMCA has said eight acres are necessary, now, be believes, YMCA representatives are stating a need for only three and a half acres.
Councilman Jim Wooten said in his opinion, a location "in the heart of Riverhead" was a more desirable location for the YMCA.
Dunleavy said the school district would still need to find a place for its buses; Walter reminded that in May the board of education recently voted to sell the development rights on 25 acres of Aquebogue land to Suffolk County for $1.325 million.
After the vote, BOE president Ann Cotten-DeGrasse said a new committee was being formed to evaluate what to do with proceeds from the sale, Cotten-DeGrasse said; one option is to relocate the bus garage to a new site and make the current school property only an educational complex.
The thought was discussed when the district bonded last year, but in the end, the BOE held off. "Ideally, we would like to move the garage off into another location," Cotten-DeGrasse said.
For months, the "Save Main Road" group protested initial plans to site the YMCA in Aquebogue.
