The long-overdue opening of the ballfields at Riverhead Town's new park in Calverton may be delayed again unless Town Board members can agree on whether to install lights at the four new fields — and, if so, make an immediate decision so that the installation can be completed in time for a planned Memorial Day grand opening.
Board members were split on the decision yesterday and ended their regular weekly work session with an argument over how to proceed, with Supervisor Sean Walter and Councilman George Gabrielsen wanting to open the fields without lighting and the remainder of the board advocating installing the lights before the fields are opened — even if that delays the opening.
The estimated cost of the lights is about $800,000, according to recreation superintendent Ray Coyne.
"I don't want to go through all the trouble of building a house and not putting in the furniture. I want to see it done right," Councilman James Wooten said. "I don't see the rush to get it open for Memorial Day," he said.
Councilman Dunleavy — phoning in again from Florida, where he is spending several weeks this winter — said the town can generate significant income from the fields only if they are lighted. The income would repay any loan needed to do the work. Without the lights, the town won't be able to make as much money from renting the fields for night games, Dunleavy said.
"I can't see doing something half way," Councilwoman Jodi Giglio said. If done properly, the fields would pay the debt service associated with financing the lights.
But the supervisor remained adamantly opposed to the town borrowing any more money on the bond market.
"This town cannot incur any more debt," the supervisor said.
Walter said he and financial administrator Bill Rothaar were warned by credit analysts at Moody's Investment Service that the town's debt load, currently about $160 million, was "higher than average" for a town its size, and any additional debt the town took on would result in a downgrading of the town's credit rating. That would mean the town will pay higher interest rates on its debt going forward, Walter said.
With the town looking at an "inevitable" sewage treatment plant upgrade carrying an $18 million price tag — most of which it will undoubtedly be borrowed — Walter said the town cannot risk a credit downgrade. Walter said he informed the analysts at Moody's that the town would have to borrow money to upgrade the treatment plant, and he promised them there would be no more borrowing other than that.
That promise extends to issuing bonds previously authorized but unissued bonds intended for the construction of the fields.
Walter says the town has no choice but to keep it that way. He said between the work already done on the fields and the cost of finishing them — excluding the lights — the town will have spent more than $1.7 million. With $500,000 in recreation fees allocated to the job and $250,000 in grant money, the town is about $1 million short. Walter said he wants to avoid borrowing that million on the bond market, instead relying on an interfund loan, using the town's own money, "borrowed from another [town] fund."
"If we put it on a payment plan, where we pay it off internally, we wouldn't have to go out to bond," Walter said. "That's what I'm trying to do."
The town in the past made numerous interfund loans when it couldn't sell debt on the bond market because it was behind several years in its financial reporting and audits. Once the financials were brought up to date — late last year — the town sold $22 million worth of bonds, much of which paid back interfund loans.
Walter said he would not want to add another $800,000 to the $ 1 million interfund loan for the ballfields.
"As it stands we'll be hard-pressed to pay back the million, given the state of the economy and the collection of park and rec fees," Walter said.
"We have to buy what we can afford," Walter said. "You can afford a Pinto but you're buying a Cadillac."
On Friday, Giglio said she sat down with Coyne in his office and crunched some numbers. She also suggested they contact the lighting contractor — the town can purchase the lights through a Nassau County bid — and they learned that the contractor is willing to finance the lighting purchase. Giglio said she is waiting to hear from the contractor on the financing terms he will offer, but that will allow the town to avoid issuing bonds.
"It doesn't matter," Walter said when told of the idea Friday afternoon. "Even if it's a no-interest loan, it's still the same thing. You're still spending money you don't have."
But Giglio insists it's a worthwhile investment. Lighting will bring more revenue opportunities fo the town, including nighttime soccer tournaments, she said. The fields will draw people to the town, generate business for local hotels and restaurants and even help the town market the enterprise park, according to the councilwoman.
"It's a win-win," Giglio said.
But Walter, who on Thursday repeatedly called the idea of borrowing the lighting money "irresponsible," was not swayed. He said the three board members who want to do that will have to introduce a resolution not only authorizing it but directing him to sign the purchase order.
"And even then I'm not sure I will sign it," Walter said, citing his fiduciary duty as the town's chief fiscal officer. "I can't do something I know will be to the detriment of this town's credit worthiness."
Asked if he could lawfully withhold his signature from the P.O. after the Town Board passes a resolution directing him to sign it, Walter said, "Maybe I'll make them sign it."
If the lighting is to be installed in time for a Memorial Day grand opening, which Giglio says is feasible, the board will have to pass that resolution at next week's meeting (Wednesday, Feb.22.)
The fields were phase one of a larger plan for a $15 million 64-acre town park at EPCAL devised by the recreation advisory committee in 2004. The project has faced many obstacles since its inception, including: a cost-prohibitive requirement by the Suffolk County health department that the town connect new bathrooms to the sewage treatment plant at EPCAL — which the county agreed totemproarily waive in favor of septic systems ; a state Department of Transportation requirement that the town install sidewalks along Route 25 — at a cost of many millions of dollars — before it would grant the town permission to create an entrance onto the state road, which the town eventually convinced the state to waive; and the Pine Barrens Commission asserting jurisdiction over the project, which Riverhead fought in court, and won.
Gabrielsen, who was chairman of the town's recreation advisory committee when the Calverton park was proposed, had hoped to get the fields open in 2010, when they were substantially completed. See story and video.