Weekly Wrap-Up: Three Fires Cause Destruction, Death in Riverhead

Businessment seeking tax abatements for Bowl 58, , met opposition from school board leadership at a Town Board public hearing on Wednesday. Board of Education President Ann Cotten-DeGrasse argued the breaks will further burden an already beleaguered school district facing an annual 2-percent tax cap levy. Two Town Board members expressed support for the abatements.

After nearly a year of construction, the Lowe's Home Improvement store on Route 58 opened early Thursday morning. The store's official grand opening will be held in the coming week, according to a worker at the store. The store was originally slated to open in December, but opened later after Lowe's and cancel construction for several others nationwide.

The annual Blues Festival will return to Riverhead in June 2012, said Vince Tria, treasurer of the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall, at a Town Hall work session meeting on Thursday. The festival had been held for 12 straight years until it was due to objections over the entrance fee from Riverhead BID and town officials.

A 63-year-old man was killed in a fire that engulfed a mobile home late Friday night. The man, who has not been publicly identified pending notification of next-of-kin, was found in his bedroom at the R and R Mobile Home Park, located at 235 Old Country Rd. The cause of the fire has not been officially released.

Two Maple Avenue kitchen fires sent one person to the hospital and drove two others from their home. A first fire at the home of Verna Campbell, a receptionist at Town Hall, and her daughter caused massive damage to the home, and killed the pair's three cats. Campbell and her daughter escaped unharmed. A second fire, also on Maple Avenue, was contained to a tenant's kitchen, though the woman was taken to to be treated for smoke inhalation. That three fires occurred in less than 12 hours was unusual, but not unprecedented, fire officials said.