N. Hempstead capital plan includes $5.5M project to use rain to water golf course

North Hempstead Town officials released details this week of a new capital plan that calls for spending about $136 million over the next five years, including a $5.5 million project that would use rainwater to irrigate Port Washington's Harbor Links Golf Course. 

"The general premise of this project is using the rainwater collected at Solid Waste Management Authority and reroute that water to Harbor Links to irrigate the golf course," said Steven Pollack, the town's governmental research director who helped prepare the capital plan. 

Robert Lange, the town's Solid Waste Management Authority commissioner, said Thursday that rainwater gathers at the authority's headquarters on West Shore Road in Port Washington and that the town plans to first conduct a feasibility study on the project.

The project's goal, Lange said, would be to place a lining under the catch basins and ponds already at the golf course and waste management facility, and then connect the gathered water to a single line that goes to the golf course.

Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth said the project makes economic and environmental sense.

“I am very hopeful that this study will yield a practical plan that will result in saving millions of gallons of water," she said. "Water is not an endless resource, and this project will go a long way in conserving our local water supply.”

The Harbor Links idea was just one project mentioned Wednesday when Pollack and other town officials presented the proposed capital plan to the town council. Council members said that the document might change in coming weeks but that the plan is to vote on it Dec. 18. 

Within the proposed plan, town officials hope to resurface the basketball courts and renovate the showers at Manorhaven Beach Park. Plans also call for replacing the parking lot at Clinton G. Martin Park in New Hyde Park and repairing the pool mechanical systems at Martin "Bunky" Reid Park in Westbury. 

The town's capital plan, updated annually, is a wish list of infrastructure improvements or upgrades that department leaders want completed. Bosworth said the proposed plan will be funded by bonds, grants or reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Authority.  

Town officials said this year was a particularly busy 12 months for infrastructure improvements. Bosworth noted that the town renovated the pool at Clinton G. Martin Park, installed a new playground at Broadway Park in New Hyde Park and replaced the splash pad at Donald Street Park in Roslyn Heights.

"There were also numerous other projects that are not as sparkly or sexy, such as boiler systems, elevators and roofs," Bosworth said.