Civics to Talk Bus Barn With Superintendent

Community members concerned about the Riverhead school district's proposed plan to move the bus barn to Riverside will turn out Friday night to let their voices be hear.

Riverhead School Superintendent Nancy Carney and Board of Education President Ann Cotton-DeGrasse are scheduled to attend the Bayview Pines Civic and Taxpayers Association meeting at the David W. Crohan Community Center in Flanders on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

Vince Taldone, president of the Flanders, Riverside and Northampton Community Association, wrote a letter to Carney recently outlining his concerns over the planned relocation of the bus barn and repair facilities and related bond proposition.

"The whole idea of relocating the existing facility to the Phillips Avenue grade school is in our opinion insulting at best," he said this week. "Our kids should not be facing a giant bus parking lot, and our residential neighbors should not be inhaling fumes from a fleet of buses, of which only a few vehicles actually serve our community. And, the New York State Route 24 traffic circle, as well as connecting streets, should not be made more congested by packs of buses heading to their service areas, primarily in Riverhead."

The existing bus barn location, Taldone added, is sited away from residences at its Griffing Avenue Extension facility; the site has numerous routes for buses heading out across the district each day dividing the burden along many roads, he said.

"While FRNCA supports the concept of expanded athletic fields for the district, we stand firmly against the idea of creating that athletic field space in Riverhead by relocating an undesirable use, the bus barn and parking lot, to Riverside. The children at the Phillips Avenue school and its neighbors deserve better than to have pollution and congestion dumped in Riverside."

Cotten-DeGrasse has said that the idea would be to move the bus barn to property the district already owns.

The proposal residents will vote on, on May 21, Cotton-DeGrasse said, would allow the board of education to establish a savings account, so that after the sale of the Tuthills Lane land is complete, and the Riverside land purchased, any additional funds would be put in the account; once $10 million is amassed, the board could tear down the existing bus barn and site a smaller facility in Riverside.

The location was chosen, she said, because of traffic concerns. "We looked at several other parcels and our main concern is trying to get the buses out," she said. "We can't tie up, for example, Route 58."

In May, the Riverhead Board of Education voted unanimously  to sell the development rights on 25 acres of Aquebogue land to Suffolk County for $1.325 million. The land, located on Tuthills Lane in Aquebogue near the Aquebogue Elementary School, will be preserved as farmland under the Suffolk County New Drinking Water Protection Program, should the county approve the purchase.

How do you feel about the bus barn being moved to Riverside? Do you think it's a good idea, or an unfair burden for Riverside residents? Share your thoughts with Patch in the comments section.