Debating the future of Calverton site

It amazes me that our public officials can be so short-sighted and oblivious ["Fresh start for Calverton land," Editorial, Feb. 4]. They talk about bringing back the economy, while Calverton, the former Navy Department property leased to Grumman Corp., is waiting to do just that, waiting to be reborn.

Calverton already has two runways; one, at 10,000 feet, can handle the largest cargo aircraft in service. It has a control tower, aircraft service buildings, office buildings, a steam generation plant and a firehouse.

If developed, the site could provide flights and reduce truck traffic from JFK International Airport. It's close to the Long Island Expressway, and there's a Long Island Rail Road spur.

Arnold Johnson

Levittown

Editor's note: The writer is a retired Grumman engineer.

I don't know which part of Sunday's editorial about a research-business-education alliance intrigued me more - the headline ["Making a group effort," Editorial, Jan. 30] or the last line: "There's no guarantee it will succeed, but without it, our current course is guaranteed to fail."

Albert Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result. The Town of Riverhead is guilty of this practice in our redevelopment efforts at Enterprise Park at Calverton. State officials are guilty of it as well. The former Grumman site has been at the core of many bad plans and dreams.

Riverhead is about to embark on an update to the plan to reuse this site, which I believe will lead to zoning to foster the types of high-tech jobs that Brookhaven Supervisor Mark Lesko describes in his Accelerate Long Island initiative. This site is one of the few Long Island places where the government controls more than 1,300 acres that also has sewers, rail access, proximity to the expressway and a limited-use airfield. The site is close to the Stony Brook University business incubator and Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Riverhead is done with the insanity that created the place where bad ideas come to die, but we cannot do this alone. It may come to pass that we determine that this site is not one of the better locations for Sen. Chuck Schumer's (D-N.Y.) regional innovation clusters, but the questions must be asked if our region is to be competitive.

Sean M. Walter

Riverhead

Editor's note: The writer is the Riverhead Town supervisor.