Lindenhurst plans to buy fire truck, public works building with $3.2M bond

The Village of Lindenhurst is bonding for nearly $3.2 million for a handful of projects and purchases ranging from a new fire department vehicle to bridge improvements.

The costs will be offset by about $600,000 in state grants the village has received, said Mayor Mike Lavorata. The largest portion of the bonding — nearly $1.6 million — will go toward the purchase of a new hook and ladder truck for the fire department. The department’s truck is at least 24 years old, Lavorata said, and has reached the end of its life. The vehicles are custom built, he said, so the village won’t get the truck until next year.

“These are heavy vehicles, they take a beating,” he said. “As time goes on it becomes more expensive and harder to get the parts.”

The village will spend $820,000 on a new public works building at 121 Albany Ave. The current building dates to the late 1950s or early 1960s, Lavorata said, and does not have enough garage space for vehicles. As a result, they get left out in the elements, thereby decreasing their life.

Lindenhurst will use $540,000 of the bonding to purchase property at 146 South High St. to build a parking lot for the downtown.

“It was a good price and if we didn’t do it now, we wouldn’t get it,” Lavorata said of the property.

The last part of the bonding, $206,000, will be used to make repairs and improvements on a bridge near the village marina at the end of Wellwood Avenue. Lavorata said that section has likely not been repaired since the marina was built in the early 1970s.

In 2017, the village bonded for $2.25 million, of which $1 million was used to purchase two new fire department pumper trucks and $900,000 was used to construct a 26-space parking lot on East Hoffman Avenue.

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.