Center Moriches Taxpayers Community Discussion Forum

It's not that Brookhaven's elected officials aren't pleased to be receiving nearly $5 million to disperse to community groups as part of an agreement with the energy company, which is currently wrapping up construction on a 350-megawatt power plant in Yaphank. The problem is figuring out how to distribute the funds, a small percentage of which will go to Middle Island and Gordon Heights.

It has already been determined that nine communities within a three-mile radius of Yaphank should be entitled to the funds. Determining a fair and equitable solution to deciding how much each community gets is another story.

Councilman Keith Romaine offered disgust over the bill, which uses a formula developed by a citizen advisory committee organized to determine how the money should be distributed. Factoring in area and density, Mr. Romaine's district would receive about $33,000, nearly $60,000 less than it was originally slated to receive. Ms. Kepert said that's because the area of Mr. Romaine's 6th District that falls within the radius is mostly parkland and features only two homes. On the flipside, Councilman Tim Mazzei's 5th District would receive almost $200,000 more under the new formula, with the remainder of the difference coming out of the $4.24 million Ms. Kepert's district was supposed to receive.

"The 6th District is a very small part of the host benefit area," Ms. Kepert said. "[Mr. Romaine is] not representing a lot of the host district."

But Ms. Kepert maintained that she thought the formula was the most equitable way to move forward.

"This is how the citizens advisory committee voted to distribute these monies," Ms. Kepert said.

Mr. Romaine responded: "Well we haven't voted on it yet."

The Town Board was expected to vote on the resolution at Thursday's Town Board meeting, which was held after presstime.

The Caithness host community benefits package caused a stir at a June Town Board meeting when the board approved a pair of resolutions to streamline some of the funds to Lighthouse Ministries and the North Patchogue Fire Department, two organizations in the 5th District that do not fall into the radius of the benefits package. The board agreed at that time to disperse those funds, but to hold off on a separate resolution determining how much money would go to each of the three impacted council districts until stricter controls were in place to keep from distributing the funds elsewhere in those districts.

The previous bill only factored in area, not density, and has since been replaced by this new resolution, which also outlines how much each specific community should receive.

"We need to make sure the communities that have been promised money get what they expect to receive," Ms. Kepert said.

gparpan@northshoresun.com

How much would each community get?

Bellport $337,632

Brookhaven hamlet $464,703

East Patchogue $588,460

Gordon Heights $235,692

Medford $1,500,625

Middle Island $110,318

North Bellport $337,632

Shirley $221,605

Yaphank $1,203,333

http://www2.timesreview.com/SUN/stories/S071009_Caithness_gp