Smithtown board picks firm to manage landfill project

Smithtown Town Board members have voted to accept a proposal for managing improvements at the Montclair Avenue Yard as part of a $1 million rehabilitation.

Board members accepted plans from L.K. McLean Associates PC at a cost of $99,350 to provide engineering, design and construction management of various updates at the St. James landfill.

Updates include the purchase of additional scales to weigh debris, a grinding machine that will turn residents' yard waste into mulch and a new building for scale operators, said Supervisor Patrick Vecchio.

"Montclair Avenue will now be a . . . state-of-the-art facility, which enables the town to not only account for solid waste that comes through there, it will be a boon to the folks who live on the east side of town," said Vecchio, adding that those residents will no longer have to drive across town to the municipal recycling center in Kings Park.

Residents will be able to drop off demolition debris, as well as household recyclables after improvements are completed in about nine months, Vecchio added.

On Tuesday, in a unanimous 5-0 vote, the board approved the project in its 2014 capital budget to comply with state Department of Environmental Conservation regulations. Savings from new garbage contracts last year yielded the $1 million, said Vecchio.

The town's storage of excess tree stumps and other debris at the Montclair Avenue site following superstorm Sandy in October 2012 violated environmental regulations, the supervisor noted.

"Obviously, because of the hurricane, we couldn't do it all," Vecchio said. "In the event of another Hurricane Sandy . . . we'll be able to more accurately account for the debris."