Sayville residents fighting district plan

Some Sayville residents are still fighting the school district's plan to build a maintenance facility in their neighborhood, a project in its eleventh hour.

School officials say the new 8,900-square-foot storage warehouse -- to be built on district land on Garfield Avenue -- will cost less to construct than it would to demolish and rebuild the district's dilapidated facility on Tyler Avenue.

Residents, however, question the cost of rehabilitation, and say the new building will increase traffic and noise.

"We do not want to destroy a quiet dead-end neighborhood," said Harry Berg, 45, a 16-year Garfield Avenue resident who is among those opposing the facility.

John Belmonte, Sayville assistant superintendent for business, said the Tyler Avenue building "has outlived its useful life."

Constructing the Garfield Avenue facility will cost $1.1 million, about half the cost of demolishing and rebuilding on Tyler Avenue. In 2009, funding to build the Garfield Avenue site was included in the budget and approved by voters, he said.

The State Department of Education issued a building permit in August, and the project has the support of the state departments of health and conservation, Belmonte said.

Berg said state agencies did not check the quality of the district's reports and wrongly approved them. He also says district records show it could repair the Tyler Avenue building with $350,000.

But Belmonte says those repairs would be minor and would not solve the district's long-term problems.

The district has offered to create a 50-foot buffer between the homes and the facility and decided not to place large fuel tanks on the property, Belmonte said. He added that studies show there would be no traffic or noise impact on residents. Berg and others disagree.

Officials plan to sell the Tyler Avenue site to developers, Belmonte said.

School officials are finalizing plans with the Town of Islip and putting the project out to bid, Belmonte said.

But Islip Planning Commissioner Dave Genaway said town officials are trying to determine if they have jurisdiction over the local roads. "The proposal is problematic from a land use prospective," he said. "We have always encouraged the structure to be built elsewhere."

Belmonte said school officials are moving forward and the project could be completed by next summer.