Babylon bonds nearly $15 million for roads, equipment, software, Wyandanch Rising project and more
Babylon Town Hall in Lindenhurst in 2020. The town will spend $8 million for roadwork as part of a decadelong plan to repave and reconstruct roads throughout the town. Credit: Barry Sloan
The Town of Babylon is bonding for nearly $15 million with more than half the money dedicated to road improvements.
The town’s annual bonding will cover an array of projects, which town officials said need more funds to complete.
“Things are tight now, mainly because we are paying 40% more than we were pre-COVID,” said Babylon Deputy Supervisor Tony Martinez. “We’re still using the same dollars but the projects are getting more expensive, so we have to prioritize better.”
The largest chunk of spending at $8 million will go toward roadwork as part of a decadelong plan to repave and reconstruct roads throughout the town.
The next significant amount of bonding is $1.86 million that will be used to purchase heavy machinery and equipment, including a payloader for $300,000, a tree truck for $285,000 and a showmobile for $160,000.
The town will put $1.6 million toward building pedestrian malls for the next phase of the Wyandanch Rising revitalization.
As part of a multiyear process to switch from an antiquated mainframe system to their own in-house system, $900,000 will be dedicated toward purchasing and installing new software for the assessor and tax receiver’s offices. Those are the last two pieces of the total system changeover, Martinez said, and should be completed next year.
Once done, rather than having separate piecemeal information on a property, the town will be able to see the complete history of any property including all department interactions, along with the ability to use Geographic Information Systems mapping to look for trends, Martinez said.
“We have all these silos that we’re trying to eliminate and put into one system,” he said.
A total of $1.7 million will be used toward park and pool improvements, along with the installation of artificial turf at several fields. The town is also using $200,000 to improve security measures at all facilities, including cameras and key fob access to all but one door that will become the sole public entry point for town hall.
The town last year bonded for $20.2 million. It will retire $12.8 million in debt this year, which is nearly 15% less than the new debt it will take on in 2023. The town’s policy to retire more debt than it acquires each year was amended in 2020 to allow for debt in excess of what is paid off in "extenuating circumstances." The town can exceed the amount of debt retired by the lesser of either $2.5 million or 15% of the retiring debt.
Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.
