Brookhaven Town adding $2M to Carmans River fund

The Brookhaven Town Board will add $2 million to a land preservation fund for Carmans River watershed protection, according to officials.

The board is expected to approve a resolution by Supervisor Edward P. Romaine to transfer the money into the Joseph Macchia Fund at Tuesday’s board meeting.

The Macchia Fund is a dedicated fund for land preservation named after the former Brookhaven councilman who was a proponent of open space preservation.

Last week, Romaine announced he was starting to create a new plan to protect the ecologically delicate Carmans River through land acquisition and rezoning. The Macchia Fund will provide some of the money for the acquisition.

The $2 million to be transferred is from existing accounts earmarked for land preservation in the past few years — town officials noted that no new tax dollars or bond issues will be used for this funding.

“Identifying these funds that can only be used for land preservation is a double win for our residents,” Romaine said in a news release. “We will be preserving and protecting the open space and rural character of our community for generations to come, and doing it in a way that won’t ask them for more money to make these purchases, saving taxpayer dollars.”