Natural gas was $13.00 in 2008. Now it's $2.19 and plentiful. Wouldn't it make sense to convert all town vehicles and school buses to run on natural gas.Many bus and taxi companies are doing this. Since the town vehicles stay in Riverhead only one filling station would be needed. Save money for a change. Suffolk co could adapt a similar program.

Bob Fraser

To the Editor:

Before he was elected supervisor, Sean Walter was the deputy town attorney who failed to promptly enforce a court decision directing a local sand mine be shut down.

His deputy supervisor worked for a convicted felon in the garbage and sand mine business whose partner in a Calverton sand mine was indicted with what the U.S. Attorney’s office called the "asphalt cartel."

Walter’s “political conscience” Anthony Coates partnered with the same convicted felon — who testified he paid extortion money to GOP leader John Powell for access to the Crookhaven landfill — in a proposal to mine sand in the Calverton Enterprise Park to create a new lake.

It goes beyond the supervisor’s office. Councilman John Dunleavey cast the deciding vote for Riverhead Resorts’ plan to create a 100-acre sand mine by tearing up the runways at EPCAL, explaining that the developer assured him the ex-con that the New York Times reported was involved in stock manipulation and money laundering would have nothing to do with the project. And the sand mine - water ski scam that mars our town's landscape at EPCAL was championed by another board-member-qua-expediter.

The last thing Jamesport’s historic hamlet needs is dump trucks hauling away tens of thousands of tons of sand. It's no surprise Sandmine Sean kept the environmental impact study of Mr. Klein’s project under wraps. With the revelations of the severe financial problems of the Village at Jamesport and thus the doubtful ability of the developers to implement their purported vision, are Riverhead’s politicians again looking the other way for another "sandmine strategy" at the expense of our environment?

Ron Hariri
Aquebogue

An open letter to the community:

This has been an incredible season for achievement by Riverhead School District students. My colleagues and I could not be prouder of our girls' varsity basketball team. It was a real thrill of mine to have a courtside seat for their historic playoff run. And while their achievement on the court was admirable, I am more pleased over the fact that the entire team was named as a scholar/athlete team! Indeed, all of our winter varsity teams were named scholar-athlete teams. This is a great achievement for the school district and for each of the students and their coaches. I believe that simultaneous success in the classroom and in after school activities is an excellent indicator of success after high school.

In addition to achievement in athletics, our NJROTC program took First Place at the Mattituck and William Floyd meets and they brought home 5 trophies from the North Rockland competition. They will be competing in early May for the Area 4 finals.

Riverhead High School students took 5th place at the Stony Brook University Protein Challenge. One hundred high school students from 26 different high schools across Long Island participated.

At the elementary level, our students are challenging themselves daily with personal achievements and mastery of reading, writing and scientific understanding.

Our Blue Masques staged yet another wonderful production, bringing the gang wars of the 1950s to our stage with West Side Story.

As I visit each of our schools and classrooms, I am proud of the learning occurring and at the accomplishments of our students. Seeing the joy on their faces makes me sure of the fact that we are on the right track in this district.

Our high school seniors have been accepted to top colleges and universities including: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell, Middlebury, Amherst, Boston College, Wesleyan, Syracuse, and the University of Pennsylvania!

I wish to thank the community for supporting our schools, our programs, and our students. The proposed budget adopted by the Board of Education on April 17 preserves our programs and is fiscally responsible to the tax payers.

In the coming weeks, I will be attending many events celebrating the achievement of our students. A schedule of our spring concerts is on our District website. I look forward to seeing you in the coming months.

Open letter to Supervisor Walter:

I respectfully correct you in that while the Hyatt Hotel may be one "book end" to downtown, The Suffolk County Historical Society museum and the Eternal Flame is the other book end to downtown and not the Summerwind project on Peconic Avenue, regardless of how important it is to downtown.

Summerwind and the Suffolk Theatre are both exciting new developments among many in downtown. However, the new Cultural District includes the Historical Society and therefore the Urban Renewal and Historical Sites areas need to reflect this.