Suffolk truck inspection site hearing

The Suffolk County Legislature will hold a public hearing this week to consider a lease agreement with the Town of Smithtown that would create a new truck inspection site in Commack.

Smithtown officials approved their end of the lease last June, after having brokered a deal for a business park owner to donate a 30,000-square-foot parcel between Commack and Crooked Hill roads for the site.

Big-box store owners in the area had complained that Suffolk police were disrupting business by using their parking lots to inspect trucks directed off the nearby Long Island Expressway.

County officials agreed to spend nearly $500,000 to pave and maintain the new inspection site, which will be run by the police’s motor carrier unit.

The public hearing will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, at the legislature auditorium, 725 Veterans Memorial Highway, Hauppauge.