Legislators approve $1.7M land buy to build sewers on Main Street in Smithtown

Suffolk County legislators on Wednesday approved a $1.7 million land purchase critical to construction of sewers on Main Street in Smithtown, a step county and town leaders said would spur development in a town that has changed little since its 1950s boom years.

“You will see substantial economic growth,” said Smithtown Supervisor Edward Wehrheim. “Expansions of restaurants, building improvements — those properties will be much more viable.”

The 17-acre parcel, the acquisition of which county legislators passed by two 17-1 votes is not on Main Street but is about 3 miles away at the former Kings Park Psychiatric Center, where the county’s Public Works Department envisions a leaching field to dispose of treated Smithtown wastewater released from a nearby county sewage treatment plant. Town officials said it would be substantially cheaper to use that existing plant than to build a new one in Smithtown.

One legislature vote approved the purchase, and the other the funding.

Construction for the Smithtown sewer system, which will be operated by the county, is likely four to five years away, Wehrheim said. It will serve dozens of small commercial properties and the large shopping centers off Main Street and perhaps also some of the buildings on Route 111, an area that includes office buildings, another shopping center and an assisted living facility, he said.  

Wehrheim and David Barnes, head of the town’s Department of Environment and Waterways, said the project would cost $50 million to $60 million, a figure Deputy County Executive Peter Scully confirmed. New York State has already committed to funding $20 million, matching a $20 million commitment for sewers in downtown Kings Park.

The goal in Smithtown “is to create a shovel-ready project and then press for federal infrastructure dollars to make construction of the project possible,” Scully said. “Given the strong and broad community support … this is exactly the kind of project the bipartisan infrastructure law was intended to make possible.”

That law, with $1.2 trillion in funding for infrastructure projects, passed last year.

Tim Small, president of the Smithtown United civic association, who helped lead the Smithtown Sewers Working Group composed of planners and community leaders, said in an interview that “the value proposition with sewering the downtown business district is absolutely huge,” predicting economic revitalization and drastic improvements to water quality.