Federal COVID funds to help pay for Lt. Michael P. Murphy Memorial Park, marina upgrades

Beach sand for years has scoured a granite monument at the Lake Ronkonkoma park honoring Patchogue war hero Lt. Michael P. Murphy.

But a new retaining wall installed last fall by Brookhaven Town — one of several park improvements funded by a federal program to help the country recover from the COVID-19 pandemic — is expected to help restore peace to the park Murphy's family calls "serenity plaza."

The retaining wall is expected to help block sand from damaging the stone memorial bearing the likeness of the Navy SEAL, who posthumously received the Medal of Honor after he was killed in 2005 in Afghanistan.

"The idea is that when people come to this beach and they see this monument to Michael that it reminds them, not just of Michael and the 19 men who fell in [Operation] Red Wings, but it reminds them of all our fallen heroes and what they did to make us safe," Daniel Murphy, Murphy's father, told Newsday as he visited the park on Tuesday. "Especially now, with what is happening in Ukraine, it’s a poignant reminder."

The park upgrades, including new sidewalks and a picnic area, had been planned for years and were completed last year, town officials said.

But officials said paying for the $97,191 project — as well as park and marina improvements elsewhere in the town — became easier with the passage last year of the American Rescue Plan, or ARP, the federal coronavirus recovery program.

The town board on March 3 voted 7-0 to allocate $626,565 — a small portion of the $55 million in ARP funds awarded to the town — to the Murphy park improvements and projects at recreational facilities in Gordon Heights, Medford, Center Moriches and Mastic. The allocation also will pay for touchless bathroom fixtures such as motion-activated faucets at parks throughout Brookhaven.

Councilman Dan Panico said the federal funds help complete projects without passing the costs on to town taxpayers.

"These projects were projects that needed to be done and, outside of this funding, would have affected taxpayers directly," he said.

In some cases, the funds have been applied retroactively to projects already completed. In other cases, projects that had been proposed but lacked funding will get finished faster because of the federal money, officials said.

Most of the ARP funds are pegged for infrastructure projects that the public may not see, such as sewage treatment plants and water quality improvements.

Recreational facility projects include new public electrical outlets, decking and substructure improvements at marinas in Mastic and Center Moriches, Panico said.

At Granny Road Park in Gordon Heights, ARP money is helping to build new basketball courts — the latest in several upgrades that have helped make the park more attractive, Gordon Heights Civic Association president E. James Freeman told Newsday.

"You have so many people now that are coming into that park from all over the Town of Brookhaven, and that’s because of the projects that have been done," he said. "We had to deal with negative comments from people before. Now people come here to use the park."

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.