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Palm Tree Festival Expected To Draw Over 10,000 People
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More than a quarter of all tickets issued in Suffolk County under a school bus camera program operated by BusPatrol America have not been paid, according to a county audit released Thursday, leaving nearly $13 million in potential revenue in legal limbo. Mark Harrington and Sandra Peddie report in NEWSDAY that the $12.9 million in unpaid fines for tickets issued under the BusPatrol program during the audit period of September 2020 through Dec. 31, 2022, represents about 51,954 tickets, nearly 26% of the total issued, the audit found. The audit recommended BusPatrol, which receives 45% of the county ticket revenue, “should establish a process for collecting past-due amounts.”
Moreover, the audit by Suffolk County Comptroller John M. Kennedy Jr. said Suffolk's Traffic and Parking Violations Agency “failed to invoice and receive reimbursement from BusPatrol for the county's incurred administrative and adjudication expenses” during the audit period. Under its contract with BusPatrol, the county agency should be reimbursed for the expenses quarterly, the audit says.
One week after Kennedy notified BusPatrol of the audit's finding of the past-due balance, the company paid $358,331 that the previous administration never billed, he said.
Total revenue from fines tied to the program during the audit period was $34.7 million in Suffolk and $2.23 million for East End towns, which have a separate revenue-sharing model. Suffolk received $15.6 million of the $34.7 million as its share, while East End towns took in $904,090, the audit found.
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Tomorrow’s Palm Tree Festival on Shinnecock Nation territory in Southampton, is expected to draw more than 10,000 people. Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that there will be more than 200 security officers and more than 100 New York State Police Troopers overseeing the site, two medical tents staffed by Northwell Health, and up to 10 ambulances from emergency services agencies between Southampton and Mastic Beach standing by.
The concert is set to start sometime around 3 p.m. Saturday, with the gates to the property opening at 1 p.m. The music’s over at 11 p.m. tomorrow night followed by a mass exodus of concert goers out of Shinnecock.
The festival’s organizers have arranged both trains and buses to shuttle concertgoers from New York City and from Montauk. The trains will utilize the Southampton Village train station, arriving at 2 p.m. and departing at midnight. Buses will disembark at the Stony Brook University Southampton campus, where there will also be a ride-share drop-off area.
A fleet of 65 school buses will shuttle attendees from the train station and the college campus into the Shinnecock property. There will be parking on the Shinnecock land for about 700 cars that paid a premium up-charge and for another 300 or so cars at the college, according to schematics of the plans.
Southampton Town and New York State Police have issued a warning to residents to avoid using Montauk Highway (27A) between Southampton Village and Hampton Bays on Saturday from noon until at least after midnight, when the specially scheduled train just for concert attendees to get back to the city will depart Southampton. Traffic delays could persist until as late as 2 a.m. Sunday, per NYS Police.
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