Amityville recruits Stasi Brothers for emergency road repair

Amityville officials will turn to a private contractor for emergency road repairs this winter if potholes multiply too fast for village workers to keep up.

Trustees voted 3-1 Monday night to retain Westbury-based Stasi Brothers with a contract worth as much as $87,450 -- or as little as zero, if their services prove unnecessary.

"It's a reserve army, if you will, to be called up only if you need it," said trustee Nick LaLota. "It could be we don't have a bad winter this year and we don't spend a dime on this contract. This is a 'what if things go bad' contract."

LaLota also said that $5,000 budgeted for snow removal would be repurposed for pothole repair.

Most of Amityville's 30 miles of village roads have gone decades without significant overhaul, village officials say, and during last year's winter, drivers faced as many as 200 potholes at a time.

Last fall, officials announced a tentative pan to overhaul roads over the next eight years, but cost and funding remain unclear.

Trustee Dennis Siry did not attend Monday's meeting and trustee Kevin Smith voted against the contract, saying it is "a waste of taxpayers' money."

LaLota responded by asking Smith if he had "access to some weather report we don't know about."

"You seem to, if you're removing money from snow removal," Smith answered.