Smithtown supervisor's 2022 goals include downtown revitalization, park, infrastructure improvements
Smithtown Supervisor Edward R. Wehrheim, seen here in 2019, said his administration had prioritized "innovative ways to improve quality of life." Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
Smithtown Supervisor Edward Wehrheim laid out 2022 priorities including improvements to infrastructure and parks, flooding mitigation and downtown revitalization.
Now in his second term, Wehrheim said in a State of the Town letter posted to the municipal website that his administration had prioritized "innovative ways to improve quality of life," using grants and fiscal discipline to minimize the tax burden on town residents.
Sewer and streetscape work in downtown Kings Park is scheduled to start in the fall, he said, and preparations have begun for a similar project in downtown Smithtown. Those projects will be funded by $40 million from New York State. Officials have identified a "derelict" parcel on former Kings Park Psychiatric Center grounds that would serve as a recharge basin for the Smithtown system, Wehrheim said. The plan would demolish an abandoned building and preserve most of the parcel as open space.
Wehrheim said the town would create a new stretch of parkland along the Nissequogue River. That work will build on the town purchase of a former strip club near the Smithtown Bull statue on the west end of Main Street by exchanging Bill Richards Park for Paul T. Given Park, which is adjacent to the former club. Ideas for the site include a canoe launch, pavilion with a bait and tackle shop and new picnic areas.
In downtown St. James, much of the work is already done on Celebrate Park, a community gathering space off Lake Avenue. Town workers will install entryway arches, fences, benches and lighting, he said.
More work is planned for about half a dozen existing town parks, with extensive renovations at Commack’s Hoyt Farm and Smithtown’s Brady Park and synthetic turf installations at Moriches and Gaynor parks in St. James.
Town workers will try to ease persistent flooding in some neighborhoods near Nissequogue tributaries by mapping portions that are blocked by sediment, invasive species or debris, an effort Wehrheim said would be a "game changer for our local ecosystem and water quality."
Continuing a shift in some town departments from a traditional municipal complaint-driven approach to one focused on planning and maintenance, the town will install up to 4,000 sensors on street lamps to conduct traffic counts and monitor snow accumulation. The equipment also can be used to provide public Wi-Fi hot spots. And, Wehrheim said, the Highway Department has commissioned studies that will send cameras through buried pipes to check for damage and blockages, heading off costly and disruptive repairs requiring excavation. Those studies are planned for flood-prone spots including Meadow Road in Smithtown, Old Northport Road in Kings Park and Woodlawn Avenue at Moriches Road in St. James.
The department also has invested in new machines to improve road maintenance, Wehrheim said. They include new milling machines and a pothole-filling machine. That machine will likely not make its maiden voyage until the weather warms, Deputy Highway Superintendent Jim Deutsch told Newsday, but when it does, it will fill a pothole in about 2 minutes, versus the 10-15 minutes it takes a human worker.
Edward Wehrheim's New Year's Resolutions
- Downtown facade improvement program
- Renovations to parks, beaches and Town Hall
- High tech monitoring of traffic and water leaks
Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.
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