Suffolk's Fourth Precinct gets new green building

The newest addition to Suffolk County's government buildings - a three-story, energy-saving police precinct in the town of Smithtown - was dedicated Wednesday to the county's first top police officer.

"I'm very proud," said Geraldine Creighton, daughter of Cyril Donnelly, the first police commissioner of the county who also had served as police chief in Smithtown for 25 years. "My father is elated up there," she said before the dedication in Hauppauge. "He had a great love for the police department."

Creighton's husband, former police commissioner and current Smithtown Councilman Robert Creighton, spoke of Donnelly's dedication to his job and people of Smithtown.

"He was the epitome of what is now called Community Policing," Robert Creighton said of his father-in-law and former boss. "He was the most respected man in town."

In addition to many members of Donnelly's family, many former and current community leaders were on hand at the dedication. County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer, who worked for Donnelly as a rookie police officer, said many young people who found themselves in trouble in town were "put on the straight path because of Cy . . . He was a no-nonsense guy, but he had a heart of gold."

The 36,000-square-foot building, more than double the size of the previous Fourth Precinct, meets standards for the federal Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It has solar panels, a water heater with a 90 percent efficiency rating, and a boiler with a 93.3 percent rating, according to a county news release. Estimated energy savings are to be in the "tens of thousand of dollars per year."

"It's so appropriate that this solar-paneled precinct is being dedicated on one of the sunniest days of the year," County Executive Steve Levy said. New county buildings of more than 10,000 square feet must now have solar panels and meet certification standards of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

The Fourth Precinct will house 145 police officers and 39 other staff, including the county's Domestic Violence Unit, which will move there from Sayville.