More than $4 million in grant money awarded to Greenport in 2024 remains unclaimed

In a blistering speech before the Greenport Village Board last Thursday, Greenport Business Improvement District (BID) president Rich Vandenburgh accused village officials of inaction on a $1.2 million state grant awarded in the summer of 2024, to bring an ice-skating rink back to Mitchell Park.

Vandenburgh contended that, more than a year and a half later, the required paperwork to claim the grant money has not even been completed. He said the village is grappling with rising storefront vacancies, decreased foot traffic and a “sense of malaise.”

Yet “there’s been little and mostly unclear information or communication” from officials about the board’s plan, timeline or even basic project details, he asserted. Vandenburgh argued that a lack of transparency and internal dysfunction have stalled a project widely viewed as essential to the local economy.

“There’s no clear, accurate or honest explanation” of projected costs or how the rink building would be executed, he said, even as the village remains “in desperate need for greater animation” during the winter season.

Last month, in a previous presentation before the Village Board, Vandenburgh made a case that the village could avoid “hiring engineering firms or designers to reinvent this wheel,” and instead work with an established company who could swiftly install a much cheaper seasonal rink that could be broken down and stored away in the summer.

He suggested a New York state-based company and said he would bring its representatives to a future work session to present a proposal to the Village Board.

Vandenburgh said last month that if the village “could get organized in time to consider a contract by April, we could have it installed and functioning in November [2026] and in time for our next winter season,” adding that that work could be done for “less than $700,000 … but we need to act, and we need to act now.”

Stuessi appeared dismissive of Vandenburgh’s pitch at the February work session and said that the grant “is for a permanent rink,” but suggested that for the coming season the village might consider renting a rink from the New York-based company or another provider. The mayor has said he is working on a proposal for a permanent rink to be installed in Mitchell Park and paid for with the grant money.

Vandenburgh pushed back, saying that, based on his research, “it’s cheaper to buy.”

BID ‘respectfully demands’ control over the ice skating rink initiative

Last week, Vandenburgh also warned the board that any plan requiring excavation at Mitchell Park could trigger “astronomical expenses” due to well-known contamination beneath the park, potentially delaying the rink for years.

As a remedy, he urged village trustees to allow the BID to take over administration of the grant and development of the rink, arguing it is “better equipped and ready to act now.” He said the BID was anxious to re-apply for a more modest grant of $600,000 to $700,000.

Vandenburgh said that there is “little public faith that this administration can or will accomplish this task in an efficient and timely manner.”

He went on to declare that “the BID must urgently appeal and respectfully demands that it be allowed to assume the administration of the initiative and the grant, along with its commitment to act in a side-by-side partnership with open dialog with the village.”

Costly delays

It is at least the second significant grant the village has failed to claim long after it was awarded. Nearly two years ago, on April 2, 2024, Greenport was awarded a $3 million grant to repair the battered Mitchell Park bulkhead, which remains unrepaired.

Despite assurances from Greenport Mayor Kevin Stuessi last fall that repairs to the most badly-damaged and crumbling area of the bulkhead (see video and images below) behind the East End Seaport Museum would commence by December, emergency work has yet to begin.

A 2018 engineering report warned that the entire bulkhead was already failing and that inaction could lead to collapse, public safety threats, property damage and contamination of Greenport Harbor.

Last September, a North Fork Sun investigation used a series of interviews with village officials and a review of thousands of pages of village board meeting transcripts over the 16 months leading up to September, 2025, to reveal a pattern on the mayor’s part of sliding timelines, vague explanations and promises of updates seldom delivered.

Frustration

In 2024, the village borrowed $3 million against the Mitchell Park bulkhead repair grant, but when the bond anticipation note came due last fall, the village wasn’t ready to proceed and had to return the funds, plus $135,000 in interest. That process must now start over, according to village officials.

A separate $1.5 million grant for emergency repairs on a section of the bulkhead behind the East End Seaport Museum that collapsed in a 2024 Nor’easter has also, to date, gone unused.

RELATED: After a year of shifting timelines, Greenport’s Mitchell Park bulkhead remains unrepaired

Frustration over the lack of follow through with the paperwork and planning required to claim the money from both grants extends to the mayor’s fellow village trustees.

In interviews this week, three of the four trustees who sit on the board with Stuessi told the Sun the mayor has failed to communicate his plans for both projects to them and has effectively kept them in the dark for months. Lily Dougherty-Johnson did not immediately respond to a voicemail and a written request for comment.

The Sun reached out to the mayor on Tuesday by phone and email with specific questions about the unclaimed grants. Stuessi texted back late Tuesday afternoon, saying he would “try to reply” after a meeting he was in ended — but failed to.

‘A great idea’

Trustees Julia Robins and Marybess Phillips told the Sun they had to “push” the mayor to put Vandenburgh’s presentation on last week’s work session agenda.

“Mary Bess and I both resolved that we were going to push and make sure that Rich had his opportunity to speak at that meeting, which he did. I think he did a fine job, by the way, and I support Rich’s initiative. I think that’s a great idea,” Robins said, contending that Vandenburgh had “asked [to be put on last week’s agenda] and he was denied by the mayor” — a claim Vandenburgh confirmed on Tuesday night.

As for the bulkhead project, Robins noted that last fall, “we passed [an emergency] resolution to proceed with that work at the back of the museum, to move that electrical panel that’s hanging precariously.

“We passed that resolution, and [Stuessi] shut it down, basically.”

RELATED: Greenport mayor faces backlash over management vacancies

Like Phillips, Robins has repeatedly expressed grave concerns about a bulkhead collapse behind the museum in interviews, during last year’s election debates and in board sessions.

“A bulkhead collapse there right now would be very, very serious to the village, and could be economically devastating,” she said this week.

‘An important economic engine’

Phillips, another veteran trustee, is equally supportive of turning over the skating rink project to the village BID.

“The ice rink — the Business Improvement District has felt since the original conception of Mitchell Park — is an important economic engine in the winter time for the business community to develop activities to get through the winter,” she said in an interview Tuesday. “The carousel and the ice rink were the two things that were the economic engine.”

Phillips contended that the emergency bulkhead repairs could be overseen by the Mitchell Park marina manager.

“I have brought up the Mitchell Park bulkhead in I don’t know how many meetings,” she said, to no avail. “It’s been documented that [Stuessi] hasn’t done anything. It’s been documented that we have the information to move forward. He should let the marina manager, Rick Albanese, take control of the project, as he is the marina manager. Let him take control of the project, working with the mayor and the board.”

RELATED: Greenport trustees question mayor’s grip on emergency waterfront repair project

She went on to say of Stuessi, “don’t get me wrong. I give him credit. He’s busy. He’s all over the place. He’s trying to be involved in CPF [Community Preservation Fund discussions], trying to be involved in this, trying to be involved in that.

“But he already has staff that can take the daily work and get it moving, with him supervising as mayor.” She added that the mayor “has trustees who can run projects.”

For nearly two years, fellow village officials have been pleading with the mayor to hire a village administrator, a position that has remained vacant since previous administrator Paul Pallas retired in early 2024. While the mayor has said in meetings that the village is interviewing candidates for the job, the position remains unfilled.

‘An area of interest and frustration’

Deputy Mayor Patrick Brennan said on Tuesday that while the skating rink project is clearly vital to the village, he is “not really involved” with that initiative.

“I haven’t seen any documents on it, and I just don’t know the terms of the grant or the specifics of how it’s supposed to be used. I know the mayor is telling the public that it’s supposed to be used for a permanent ice rink installation.”

Referring to last Thursday’s meeting, Brennan said, “I’m going to have to dig into it more, because it’s just become such an area of interest and frustration.”

Brennan said he has found himself somewhat out of the loop on the bulkhead project as well.

“As far as the bulkhead goes, similarly, I’m not really apprised of the details of what’s going on,” he said. “The mayor seems to be the point person for this. And it’s frustrating, but I don’t have much to offer you, and I haven’t had much to offer other folks who have inquired about the bulkhead.”

He said that “the real area of concern right now is over by the [East End] Seaport Museum. That’s where our emergency resolution was focused — getting it repaired quickly before it fell into worse disrepair. That’s still a priority, and obviously the entire bulkhead project is an ongoing priority. But I’m not really that well-informed or apprised of what’s going on there — not because I don’t want to be.”

Brennan said he did not favor Vandenburgh’s approach last week.

“As far as Mr. Vandenburgh from the BID demanding [control of] the ice rink [project], clearly the ice rink is important to our business owners. It’s probably most important to our business folks. But I don’t think the BID is in any position to be demanding anything. I can’t speak for the entire Village Board, but I know that our Village Board wants to work with it and be supportive of its initiatives.

“But this idea of litigating and making demands — there’s some basic housekeeping matters that the BID needs to focus on before they can bite off any bigger projects.”