District Seeks Public Input on New Bus Barn

The discussion about what to do with the Riverhead school district's dilapidated bus barn is slated to continue.

According to Superintendent Nancy Carney, the district and the board of education are establishing a committee to look at options to either repair or relocate the bus barn.

"We will invite members of the community to participate," she said. "We will move forward with this initiative this fall."

The bus barn was the center of a firestorm of controversy in recent months, with civic leaders who protested a proposal to site the Riverhead school district's bus barn in Riverside seeing their efforts to thwart the move pay off -- as plans came to a screeching halt after the public voted down the idea.

"My last official piece of business as FRNCA president was to stop the bus barn from coming to Riverside," said former FRNCA president Brad Bender.

"The plan was flawed from the beginning. No traffic studies, no long term cost analysis on fuel and mileage and no analytical study on how to configure bus routes and optimize efficiency," he said. "This ballot proposition was never discussed in public nor was the community contacted for input by the sitting school board. A shameful and underhanded process at best."

Bender reminded that FRNCA launched a phone and information campaign targeting known voters to thwart the proposition. "FRNCA has become a powerful voice for the people and will continue to work hard for its membership," he said; Bender will still be FRNCA treasurer.

"I would want to thank area voters for coming out to vote and I would thank FRNCA board member Brad Bender and CAC chairman Rich Naso for leading the outreach effort on behalf of all three of our hamlets," Vince Taldone, FRNCA president, said. "I look forward to meeting with town elected officials, planning staff from Riverhead and Southampton, along with our school district superintendent, to try and find an alternative location that will meet the needs of the district."

Taldone said that it is possible that the towns or the county will have some suitable parcel that can be made available and "hopefully, offered at a bargain price or free. I am confident that one way or the other, we will meet the needs of our schools without damaging the economic revitalization of Riverside."

The proposition to buy land in Riverside to potentially site a future bus barn failed with a vote of 1,413 to 1,153.

A measure to create a capital reserve fund to fund a move for the barn passed, 1,382 to 1,266.

"I appreciate the public's support for the budget and putting the capital reserve fund together," Carney said.

As far as the bus barn site goes, she said, much like a capital improvements bond that failed years back, and later passed in 2011 at a lesser level -- $72 million, compared to $122 million -- the district will work toward finding what works for voters.

In other school news, capital projects are fully underway at Riley, Aquebogue, and Phillips Avenue elementary schools, Carney said, with the high school project set to be awarded on Tuesday, and construction slated to begin the following week.
What do you think about a bus barn committee? Do you think it will give the public more of a voice?