Brookhaven turns former car dealership in East Patchogue into newest town park

The Town of Brookhaven plans to open its newest park on Saturday -- a man-made wetlands preserve with walking trails, ponds and kayak launches on the site of a former car dealership in East Patchogue.

There are ducks instead of trucks along the previously hidden Swan River following a $2.75 million renovation that saved paradise and tore up the parking lot of the old Nesenger Chevrolet on East Main Street.

The 3.8-acre park -- which does not yet have a name -- "has changed the face of East Patchogue," said Tom Berger, secretary of Focus East Patchogue, a community revitalization group. He said the site's proximity to the river and nearby Swan Lake had made it inappropriate for future development.

"You can't build on it," Berger said. "We have enough offices around. The best use of that property is, turn it over to the people and make it something creative."

The park, between a small used-car lot and a Friendly's restaurant, serves as an oasis in a busy commercial corridor and allows East Patchogue residents such as Roy Stinsman to get their first up-close look at the narrow, meandering Swan River, which had been obscured by the car dealership.

"I didn't even know it was there," Stinsman said Friday, as he took a walk with his dogs, Raggs and Brodie.

Town officials said the park serves dual purposes, as a recreational area and as a rain garden that naturally filters storm water runoff from East Main Street. Runoff passes through stones and a chain of four small ponds before winding up in the river, which empties into the Great South Bay.

"It comes out a lot cleaner than it went in," town Parks Commissioner Ed Morris said.

The property once had been a sea of new and used cars before Nesenger relocated several years ago to Route 112 in Medford. The site was vacant before the town purchased it for $1.013 million in 2011.

Town crews demolished the showroom, removed car parts and oil tanks and replaced several thousand yards of contaminated soil with clean fill, Morris said. In recent weeks, the town filled three or four trucks with tires, shopping carts and other debris fished out of the river, he said.

"Look how clear the river is," Town Supervisor Edward P. Romaine said during a tour of the park last week. "You can see the bottom. You can't say that about too many South Shore estuaries."

The park development was funded by a $1.75 million grant from the state Environmental Facilities Corp. and $1 million from the state parks office.

Town officials said they plan to convert other shuttered businesses into parks to preserve more open space.

"A lot of municipalities get criticized for overdevelopment," said Neil Foley of Blue Point, who was elected last week to replace former Councilman Tim Mazzei. "So it's nice to do the opposite: Rip up some concrete."

TRADING CARS FOR KAYAKS

Features of the new Brookhaven Town park on the grounds of a former auto dealership in East Patchogue:

Cost: $2.75 million

Size: 3.8 acres

Name: To be announced

Features: Kayak launch, ponds, black-eyed susans, wooden bridge, "rain garden" to filter storm water runoff, informational signs (to be added later) and porous pavement, which allows rainwater to seep into the ground.

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.