Great River turnout key to sewer defeat
People vote on the fate of a sewer expansion project at the Mastic Fire Department in Mastic on Tuesday. Credit: Jessica Rotkiewicz
Turnout was the key last Tuesday in the defeat of a sewer expansion referendum in Great River, where 48.8 percent of eligible voters came to the polls, according to unofficial results.
Two other sewer referendums, in Mastic and Babylon, won approval but attracted a much smaller turnout. Turnout in Mastic was 15.1 percent and 13.1 percent in Babylon, according to unofficial results.
Mastic and Babylon voters approved two sewer projects that will cover 6,500 homes, Suffolk County's largest sewer expansion since the 1970s.
Residents will have to pay an estimated annual sewer tax of about $470 and $532 for the Mastic and Babylon projects respectively. It would have been $755 annually for the Great River project.
Peter Scully, a deputy county executive under Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, said last week the county would consider alternate ways to use the $26.4 million proposed for the Great River project.
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