In Smithtown, fee for worm-digging to end

Kids will soon be free to dig up worms without fear of reprisal in the Town of Smithtown.

Smithtown plans to hold a public hearing Jan. 20 on a town board move that would eliminate archaic language that calls for people less than 16 years old to pay a 50-cent annual permit to scavenge for sandworms and bloodworms for fishing bait.

The town code also calls for kids to specify where the worms would be dug up.

About a handful of people do it as a tradition of sorts, Town Clerk Vincent Puleo said. "It's a novelty."

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During the 1930s, at the time of the Great Depression, Smithtown was a fertile place for worms, and a high number of out-of-towners would come to dig worms for fishing.

The town wanted to control that, so it enacted the law requiring permits, said Puleo. Now, it's just a nuisance matter for the town clerk's office to manage, he said.

“Now you can dig worms?” this reporter asked Supervisor Patrick Vecchio.

“Yes. Any place,” he quipped.

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At Tuesday’s Smithtown town board meeting, a first reading was given for permits for parades, walks and runs for the Greater Long Island Run Club, Nesconset Athletic Association, Smithtown Rotary Club St. Patrick's 5k run and Kings Park St. Patrick's Day Parade.

The board also approved:

* Three public hearings to be held Jan. 20 for cellular monopoles to replace lattice towers at 65 Maple Ave., Smithtown, and at 758 Smithtown Bypass in Smithtown (separate hearings), and to eliminate archaic language entitled “permit required for gathering worms.”

* Various appointments and re-appointments, including Dr. Hector Sepulveda, Connor Abramowicz and Kevin Mahaffy Jr. to the Youth Advisory Board; Patrick J. O'Leary to the Board of Ethics, Carl Yellon (member) and John Gee Jr. (chairman) of the Planning Board; Noel Gish and Bradley L. Harris to the Smithtown Historical Advisory Board.

* An application for site plan approval by Robert A. Battaglia for Battaglia Warehouse.

* And agreement with the state Department of Transportation to use funds from the Marchiselli Program, a highway improvement program financed by federal funds that requires state and local governments to share in the cost of the approved projects, for the Maple Avenue project.

* New language in the town code to simplify development transfer rights from one parcel of land to another for sewage capacity, extending from business districts to any commercial site.

* Applying for county grant money from the county's drinking water funds for completed drainage roadwork.