Smithtown Gets $13M For New Sewers

ST. JAMES, NY — The Town of Smithtown received $13 million in grants from Suffolk County to for a sewer project, Executive Steve Bellone announced Thursday.

The first grant, worth $10 million, will help fund construction of the Smithtown Business District sewer project. The second grant, $3 million, will advance design and construction of sewers along Lake Avenue in St. James and will build on the progress of the town’s recent revitalization efforts.

The grants, funded by the county’s Wastewater Infrastructure Fund, is meant to eliminate outdated cesspools and septic systems polluting local waterways. The sewer project's other goal is to spur economic growth and revitalization among two of the town’s primary commercial districts.

Sewers represent water quality, downtown community revitalization and thriving small businesses, Bellone said. But wastewater infrastructure is also expensive, he added.

"This is a problem that we face here in Suffolk County that is billions and billions of dollars," Bellone said. "And how do you solve a problem like that? Well, for a long time, what you do is just ignore it, because it's too big, right? That's what tends to happen: When a problem's too big, we ignore it. When a problem is this big and fundamental, it can't be ignored."

Shovels are slated to break ground on the Lake Avenue sewer project in a few weeks, Smithtown Supervisor Edward Wehrheim said. The initiative is the first of three sewer projects planned for Town of Smithtown business districts.

"If I had a nickel for every time someone said to me, 'You'll never see sewers in Smithtown in our lifetime,' I'd be a very wealthy man right now," Wehrheim said.

The $10 million in funding from the county for sewers in the Smithtown Business District was tacked onto $20 million from New York state and $3 million from former U.S. congressman Lee Zeldin.

Downtowns and small businesses are the centers of communities, Bellone said.

"Places like this where members of the community gather together as a community are so integral to who we are and how successful we'll be as a community."

Water quality, the other effect of strong sewer infrastructure, is "absolutely critical," the executive said.

"It is a foundational issue for all of us as individuals, as family, as a community."

Bellone aims to bring wastewater infrastructure projects across the county.