Riverhead Town Board approves site plan for Peconic River Hotel cover art

Riverhead Town Board approves site plan for Peconic River Hotel

Riverhead Town Board approves site plan for Peconic River Hotel

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Rising healthcare costs are straining school district budgets and forcing educators to make difficult choices on Long Island and across the country.In a nationwide survey, 98% of school district leaders said increased healthcare expenses are having a negative impact on spending plans, according to a report by AASA, also known as the School Superintendents Association, along with the Association of School Business Officials International.Two out of three districts reported spending more than 10% of their budgets on employee insurance benefits during the last school year, according to the survey.The increasing costs of prescription drugs, including specialty medications such as GLP-1 drugs, and more claims for expensive treatments were among the main drivers of higher premiums, the report found.Maura McDermott reports in NEWSDAY that local school leaders said in interviews yesterday that they are feeling the pinch of high healthcare costs. Premiums for the state’s New York State Health Insurance Program {NYSHIP}, which covers many school employees, have risen steadily in recent years, they said.School districts have seen annual increases of 10% or more in health insurance premium costs, said Bob Vecchio, executive director of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association. Districts that cover their own employees’ healthcare costs instead of participating in New York State Health Insurance Program also have experienced substantial cost increases, he said.“It's a major concern from a budgetary standpoint,” he said.School districts in New York State are subject to a tax cap, which limits their annual property tax increases.More than half of districts in the national survey reported tapping reserve, or "rainy day" funds to cover premium increases, even though such funds are not intended to subsidize recurring costs such as health care, the report found.Nearly half of districts cut costs by modifying employee benefits packages, the report found. Other strategies included delaying new hires, cutting back or postponing spending on instructional materials and technology, and offering less generous health plans for individuals and families.***The Riverhead Town Board voted 5-0 yesterday to approve site plan and special permit applications for the proposed Peconic River Hotel, clearing a major local land-use hurdle for the five-story, 94-room hotel planned for East Main Street along to the future town square.Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that the approval covers applications filed by J. Petrocelli Riverhead Town Square LLC for the hotel, planned on a roughly 0.42-acre site at 117-127 E. Main St. The 69,738-square-foot building is proposed to include hotel rooms, retail space, a restaurant, café, hotel lobby and amenities, as well as nine parking spaces on the building’s lower level for hotel staff.Yesterday’s approval is subject to a long list of conditions, including final water and sewer district approvals, Suffolk County Department of Health Services approval, stormwater pollution prevention plan approval, Fire Marshal construction permits, final approval of building material samples by the Architectural Review Board and compliance with comments from the town engineer and Riverhead’s Town Square design consultant.The resolution gives the applicant three years to complete construction and begin the specially permitted hotel use. The site plan approval is valid for 36 months, with the possibility of one 12-month extension by the Town Board.The approval comes one day after the Riverhead Industrial Development Agency accepted an amended application from J. Petrocelli Riverhead Town Square LLC for financial assistance for the project.The IDA will hold a public hearing before deciding whether to approve financial assistance, but no hearing date has been set.The developer has said it is seeking sales and use tax exemptions, mortgage recording tax exemptions and real property tax abatements through a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement.***The Quogue Village Board adopted a law that prohibits new plantings of bamboo in the village, while establishing conditions that existing bamboo plantings must comply with.Dan Stark reports on 27east.com that for Quogue Village homeowners who have bamboo on their property, they will be allowed to keep it, but with some caveats. The new law states that the root system of the plantings needs to be contained in an above-ground vessel to prevent the spread of the roots. This vessel cannot be located within 10 feet of an adjoining property. Homeowners will also have to obtain a permit from the village’s building inspector. The law also requires homeowners to “take such measures as are reasonably expected to prevent such bamboo from invading or growing onto adjoining or neighboring properties.”The law also states that any current bamboo “shall not be replanted or replaced in kind, or replaced with any other species of bamboo, once such bamboo is or has ...
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