If you build it, they may come. That’s what Robert Salvatico hopes. He’s an owner of two hotels in Riverhead – Holiday Inn Express and Best Western – and he’s keeping his fingers crossed about a new hotel that developer Lee Browning Sr. is putting up right now. A 114-room Hilton Garden Inn is rising across from Tanger and several other hotels are planned.

In addition to the extra hotel space, especially during the winter time, we also have here on the North Fork an awful lot of seniors concerned about driving to Florida for a winter vacation. Maybe a few years ago they did it with ease. Stop off in D.C., visit the kids in Atlanta, and so on.

But now it’s different. The seniors are older and so are their cars. Gas prices are so darned high. And bathroom stops, lots of ’em, have become a time consuming priority.

However, most North Fork seniors can make it to Riverhead without much difficulty. Let’s see. Mattituck McDonalds has plenty of coffee and a bathroom. That’s between Orient and Riverhead. This should work out okay.

So here’s my modest proposal. Utilize all those empty Riverhead hotel rooms as two-week winter vacation destinations for North Fork seniors. Instead of going down south, seniors can go out west. And they’ll cut about 1,500 miles from their drive.

There are other advantages, too. Riverhead hotels can further reduce their rates during January, February and March. If vacationing in Riverhead is inexpensive enough, then some seniors will happily pay their school taxes, maybe even suggest increases. Thus the whole economy benefits. Hotels are filled and so are school district coffers.

Of course hotels in Riverhead will have to offer some kind of entertainment for the seniors. You can’t expect them to sit around in their rooms staring at channel 12. Fortunately, activities directors at Riverhead hotels have plenty of options to suggest to their age 55-plus guests.

Take a hotel van, for example, to downtown Riverhead. Bundle up and stroll along the river. While the Peconic in winter is not the Gulf of Mexico, it will do. And no worries about looking good in a bathing suit.

Now on to something really big. Though it’s just a proposal, a Scottish guy wants to build a 50-story indoor ski mountain in Riverhead. He’s gonna name it Snow Valley. Tom Stewart says he can do it for about $750 million. If Tommy puts a snack bar and restrooms every third floor, I think most seniors can make it to the top. Might be difficult if they’re carrying skis. So let the seniors rent skis up top and they can whiz right back down to ground level.

After a quick lunch, the seniors can head to Atlantis Marine World aquarium. They have a senior-pleasing admission price and may even give an additional break to groups of 500 or more.

Once inside, seniors might very well be in Florida. All kinds of things are swimming around. Big things, scary things, multi-colored things, funny-faced things. Even things that look you in the eye and seem to say hello. That’s good. North Fork seniors are friendly. They and the fishies will have a dandy afternoon.

Roundabout 3:30 the van will collect the seniors from Atlantis and run them back to their various, now filled-to-capacity Riverhead hotels. The big question then is what to do for dinner. The decision about where to eat won’t be difficult. The hotel dining room or one of Riverhead’s good restaurants.

But when to eat may be a problem. I hear tell that older Florida folk eat dinner early. Very early. As early as 4 p.m. I don’t know if the upscale Riverhead hot spots are geared for this. But give them time and our restaurateurs will come up with a solution, I’m sure. And Riverhead wait staff will love the new arrangements. Their dinner shift will end at

6 o’clock and they can be home by 6:30. Plenty of time to tally up all those gratuities left by the seniors.

So Robert Salvatico, don’t worry about a thing. Prospects for filling Riverhead hotels in winter are excellent. Lots of seniors are moving to the North Fork and they’re living longer. Why, there’s even a chance there won’t be enough Riverhead hotels to accommodate all the seniors clamoring for a room. There’s a fix for that, too. Raise the hotel check-in age from 55 to 70.

Seniors, Hotels And Me

A Proposed Solution By Senior Writer For School Taxes, Hotels And Driving