Shinnecock Nation Begins Construction Of Long-Awaited Gas Station

After local preservation advocates pressed the Riverhead Town Board to try to delay PSEG-Long Island demolition plans for a historic building that once housed one of Long Island’s first electric power plants, the utility company has shelved its plans — at least temporarily.PSEG-Long Island spokesperson Elizabeth Flagler told RiverheadLOCAL last week the company is “happy to have discussions with the involved parties and give some time for those concerned with preserving the structure to develop an alternative plan.” Demolition of the brick building on West Main Street in Riverhead had been slated for early this month. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that Landmarks Preservation Commission Chairperson Richard Wines of Jamesport and former Council Member George Bartunek of Calverton met with the Riverhead Town Board at its Jan. 25 work session to implore the board to seek a postponement in the hope that the building could be preserved and repurposed for some other use. The structure, which dates back to 1897, was built by the Riverhead Electric Light Company to house a 150-horsepower steam engine and two dynamos that generated electricity for the village of Riverhead. It is on the site of a dynamo driven by water wheels deployed at the Perkins woolen mill in 1888 to generate electricity for the Perkins Electric Company— the second electric generating company on Long Island, established one year after the Greenport Power and Light Company.***Earlier this week, the Shinnecock Nation officially began work on the construction of a long-awaited gas station and convenience store that will be built on 10 acres of Shinnecock sovereign land at its Westwoods property on the north side of Sunrise Highway, near the Shinnecock monuments, in Hampton Bays. Cailin Riley reports on 27east.com that the nation has been planning on constructing the travel plaza, which would include not only the gas station but a convenience store and possibly another retail space, for years, dating back as far as 2017, according to Bryan Polite, the chairman of the Shinnecock Council of Trustees. Clear-cutting of the wooded 10-acre area that will be home to the gas station plaza began this week, and was visible from Sunrise Highway. The station will be owned by the tribe as a whole through Shinnecock Sovereign Holdings, a federally chartered corporation owned by the tribe to manage economic development initiatives. The gas station will give the Nation an economic boost, and should be popular with motorists, because it will offer tax-free gas. When asked when the gas station and travel plaza would be complete, Polite said, “I can’t really give a timeline on it. But we’re hoping to be complete within eight or nine months with the build-out, with a projected opening in the spring of 2025.”***Parents and staff at the Montauk Child Care Center are asking East Hampton Town to take over the operation of the Montauk Child Care Center after the Economic Opportunity Council of Suffolk, which has operated the center since 2006, announced Jan. 29 that they are discontinuing their contract to run the center, which is at the town-owned Montauk Playhouse on Edgemere Street. Beth Young in EAST END BEACON reports that the East Hampton Town Board’s Request for Proposals (RFP) to run the Center, approved at their Feb. 1 meeting, is asking for sealed bids to be received at Town Hall by no later than 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 27. A pre-proposal meeting and site visit will be held on Monday, Feb. 12 at 11am.***An important building with a rich history in Southampton Village is finally getting some much-needed TLC. After several years of benign neglect, Veterans Hall on Pond Lane is being attende