Home field advantage: $2.4M in upgrades for flood-prone Charles P. Toner Park in Nesconset

St. James Nesconset  Youth Football — known locally as the Bulls — has called the fields at  Charles P. Toner Park home for years.

But whenever it would rain, the fields at the Nesconset park would flood, rendering it unplayable, said Russell Pace, the organization's president. The ground at the park, also known as the Armory, was uneven and prone to flooding.

“The park was beautiful, but to the families, we call it ‘The Swamp’ because if it rained on a Monday, you were walking through it on Wednesday with work boots on or old shoes since it didn’t drain properly,” Pace said.

There is new hope for athletes across Smithtown as the town pumps $2.4 million in upgrades to the park. A new artificial turf field is expected to be ready for the Bulls' practice season, which begins next month. There will also be a natural grass field with advanced drainage technology and a building for concessions between the fields.

Flooding forced teams to postpone their games and travel out of town for playoffs. Those leagues often paid high permit fees to secure the facilities. The new upgrades aim to mitigate flooding and give groups a reliable home field. 

The renovations this summer are part of an effort to boost the number of youth recreation options in Smithtown, officials said. The athletic fields will accommodate local football, cheerleading and lacrosse teams.

Smithtown Supervisor Ed Wehrheim said the field had been an issue for years.

“Because of the condition of the field, some of the teams have been borrowing school fields at some of the high schools. The issue with that is, they have to pay,” Wehrheim said in a phone interview. “So this is going to be a benefit to the Smithtown leagues because they won’t have to pay these permit fees to schools.”

Joseph Arico, Smithtown’s park maintenance director, said the field was uneven.

“The elevations were off, so now they’re going to be straight, nice and level," Arico said during an interview at the construction site. "It wasn’t really in good shape ... It took in a lot of water when it rained, and it’s been that way for about 20 years.”

Arico said the addition of six 10-foot diameter dry wells and a new pipeline will drain the field after storms.

The town has also added high-quality fill material and new drainage to prevent flooding and pooling.

The park will also undergo a second round of upgrades in 2026 to add parking and revamped pickleball courts, Wehrheim said.

Smithtown is planning upgrades to several of its parks for this year and next, including Burr Winkle Park in Commack. New athletic fields are also expected at Cy Donnelly Park in Kings Park, where the Kings Park Youth Athletic Association’s leagues for football, lacrosse and soccer play.

Leagues have had difficulty arranging permits and securing enough time to play on the fields, town officials said in a news release.

Whenever the field would flood, St. James Nesconset Youth Football would have to rent fields from local high schools. Rental fees could cost up to $600, Pace said, adding it was “a financial burden” for the nonprofit.

The new field, Pace said, appeared ready to not only mitigate flooding, but to provide the league’s teams with a new home.

“I always felt like a visitor everywhere we went, and now the kids are going to walk there and have a sense of pride in their field, because it is their field,” Pace said.