Week in Review: LIMHOF Home Possibly For Sale, Hub Study & More

Catch up on the week's top headlines from the area:

Civic Association Seeks Volunteers to Serve on Hub Study Committees

A community-based planning process is under way to explore the ways the Port Jefferson LIRR station and surrounding areas can be redeveloped, but it needs community members to serve on committees to guide that planning process.

"We're not looking to do a study with the 30 people who are here at the civic meeting every month," civic association president Ed Garboski said. "We're looking for what the community wants. We want the community to be involved."

Final State Aid Numbers Favor Local Schools

Before state Assembly members approved a final budget on Friday, state leaders announced Wednesday school aid totals for the 2013-2014 budget year, with local districts receiving over $800,000 more than originally expected this upcoming year.

According to the office of state Sen. Ken LaValle, R-Port Jefferson, the final budget – which is expected to be the third budget passed on time in a row, a feat for state legislators – will restore $50 million in high tax aid that was cut under the proposal by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Town Exploring Ways to Combat Illegal Rooming Houses

The Town of Brookhaven is getting ready to increase fines levied against residents who purposefully violate town housing codes as well as introduce several new code amendments that will make it easier for town investigators to pursue action against them.

Supervisor Ed Romaine on Monday said fines would go from $2,000 up to $5,000 for what he called "unscrupulous landlords" who are convicted of a first offense; for a second offense, fines would go from $3,000 up to $10,000.

Revenue Gap Partly Filled in Next Year's Budget

After reporting to the Village Board that  Village Treasurer Don Pearce reported last week that at least part of the problem seems to be fixed.

Pearce reported at the March 11 board meeting that $140,000 in state reimbursement for highway project funding, better known as CHIPS (Consolidated Highway Improvement Program), would not be available to the village as part of its $9.65 million spending plan, a proposed 3.5 percent increase in expenses over the current fiscal year.

Port Jefferson and Comsewogue are among 307 school districts from across the country to be designated as a winner in the "Best Communities for Music Education" program sponsored by the NAMM Foundation.

Romaine Mulls Selling Tax Receiver's Building

Forecasting a budget shortfall at the end of the 2013 fiscal year, Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine is considering selling the former Town Tax Receiver's building, the space that members of the Long Island Music Hall of Fame have touted as their future home on Port Jefferson's Main Street.

In an attempt to raise funds for the cash-strapped town – even "one-offs," or sales that would leave a gap in the following year's revenue totals – Romaine said last week that selling it could reduce the amount the town would have to dip into its reserve funds at the end of 2013.

The announcement comes less than two years after Long Island Music Hall of Fame and Brookhaven Town entered into a 15-year lease agreement on the building, with a five-year extension option. It's an agreement Romaine said he believes LIMHOF may be in default of, for failing to pay rent and possibly failing to insure itself.

State: Brookhaven To Get $750K More For Road Repairs

Gov. Cuomo's budget increases state funding for road, highway repairs by $75 million.