May 28, 2003

L.I. Town Runs Into Trouble Courting Fame and Fortune

ver since its economic linchpin, a Grumman aircraft plant, closed more than a decade ago, the town of Riverhead has been caught in a bind. It is too far from Manhattan to be a home to white-collar commuters. But for tourists who head to Long Island's East End for the summer, it is little more than a pit stop, albeit one with an outlet mall, on the way to the North Fork or the Hamptons.

This year, the town council decided to do something about that. In the hope of raising Riverhead's profile, attracting tourists and stimulating the economy, town leaders approved two major concerts, each of which is expected to draw tens of thousands of people to town-owned land where the Grumman plant once stood. The town would be paid $150,000 for each concert and would work with the promoters to arrange security, traffic control and the like.

Now the plans are running into snarls, less than two weeks before the first concert, a two-day festival called Field Day that is expected to draw more than 35,000 fans a day to hear performers like the Beastie Boys, Radiohead and Beck.

Yesterday, seven environmental organizations sued to block the concerts, which they said threatened public health and safety as well as the well-being of the nearby Pine Barrens, which are environmentally protected by state law. Suffolk County health officials also denied the promoter's application for a mass-gathering permit yesterday, on the ground that the town had not found enough officers to control traffic. There is still a chance the denial can be reversed.

Both the county and the state police have rejected the town's requests for their officers to work throughout the event to supplement the town's 74 uniformed members. The state and county officers would be paid by the promoters, but county officials said yesterday that the town's requests were too late.

Mass-gathering permits can be issued as late as 48 hours before an event. Field Day is scheduled for June 7 and 8, but concertgoers would start arriving on June 6. Bruce R. Williamson, chief of the county health department's bureau of public health protection, said a traffic plan had to be done sooner than usual.

"Here, the police situation has to be resolved in advance of that, so we avoid a situation where you have thousands of people showing up for an event they were unable to get the police for," Mr. Williamson said. "That would leave you with a large number of disgruntled people."

Asked how likely it was that the concert would go on, Mr. Williamson said, "It's possible that it could be done." Still, he said, the effort "appears to be problematic right now."

Andrew Dreskin, the executive producer of Field Day, said he believed there was still time to find enough traffic officers. Promoters and officials were exploring other options, he said, including hiring officers from other Long Island towns.

"I have every reason to believe that the concert will go on," he said.

The second concert, from Aug. 8 through Aug. 10, will feature Bob Dylan, the Dead and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

The environmentalists' lawsuit is scheduled to be heard in State Supreme Court in Riverhead on Friday.

Richard L. Amper Jr., executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, the lead plaintiff, said that although the large crowds might not threaten the site itself, they could harm the Pine Barrens and the nearby two-lane roads. "If you could parachute the concertgoers in and airlift them out on troop transports, maybe you could hold the concerts there," Mr. Amper said.

The barrens, he said, "can't be a conduit for 70,000 rock fans," and Suffolk residents "don't want to see it trashed like Woodstock."

One town councilwoman, Barbara A. Blass, said she was not certain she would have voted for the June concert had she known how difficult it would be. "It took me longer to plan for my wedding, and I was only expecting 150 people," she said.

The town supervisor, Robert F. Kozakiewicz, agreed that more time might have been useful. His chief complaint, he said, concerns the naysayers who have dismissed a plan that he still believes will help Riverhead's economy and enhance its reputation.

"What I'm regretting is that an effort to try and do something different, something that I think would have been very culturally diverse, something that brings exposure to the site, is being met with such stiff opposition," he said. "That's what I regret."