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On November 3, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone announced a $5 million grant from the county’s Water Infrastructure Fund that will advance an estimated $35 million Riverside sewer system project long considered to be the key to a revitalized Riverside. DANA SHAW
On November 3, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone announced a $5 million grant from the county’s Water Infrastructure Fund that will advance an estimated $35 million Riverside sewer system project long considered to be the key to a revitalized Riverside. DANA SHAW
On November 3, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone announced a $5 million grant from the county’s Water Infrastructure Fund that will advance an estimated $35 million Riverside sewer system project long considered to be the key to a revitalized Riverside. DANA SHAW
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone came to town a couple of days after Halloween last week with a bagful of goodies — totaling more than $10 million in grants and awards.
The biggie was a $5 million grant from the county’s Water Infrastructure Fund that will advance an estimated $35 million Riverside sewer system project long considered to be the key to a revitalized Riverside.
Bellone was joined by a who’s who of elected heavy hitters on the Friday before Election Day: Suffolk County legislators Kevin McCaffrey and Jason Richberg joined Bellone for the announcement; McCaffrey is presiding officer of the Republican-led body, Richberg is the Democratic minority leader.
County Legislator Bridget Fleming also was in attendance, along with Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman, representatives from the Town of Riverhead, and Sarah Landsale, commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning, for the Friday afternoon announcements.
Those were held at small local cultural institutions and nonprofits that were also among the beneficiaries of the county’s largess through its JumpStart and JumpSTART programs: Vail-Leavitt Music Hall in Riverhead, Southampton Head Start in Flanders and the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center.
Those twin grant programs, said Bellone’s press office in a statement, are part of a “comprehensive economic development plan designed to strengthen existing community assets and encourage, foster and enhance the planning and development of regionally significant projects in an around Suffolk’s downtowns.”
All told, the East End got more than one-fifth of a total $47 million that the county will distribute to local municipalities, small businesses and community organizations in the region. The program is funded via the county’s capital program and Federal American Rescue Plan Act funds that were secured by U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer.
The $5 million for the Riverside sewer treatment plan will help the town realize the goals of its Riverside Revitalization Action Plan issued in 2015. That plan noted that the creation of a sewage treatment plant in Riverside was critical to implementing the action plan, which seeks to spur development and commerce in the hamlet. It has been stymied by, among other factors, the emergence of the COVID pandemic in 2020 and with the town’s difficulty in securing a location for the sewage treatment plant.
A projected Phase I build-out, according to town documents, would have the capacity to treat 400,000 gallons a day.
