Town Gets $200K More for 2013 Highway Road Program

Smithtown Town officials voted to accept more than $200,000 in additional state funds to help with the repaving and fixing of 8 additional streets this year. 

Smithtown Town board voted to expand the 2013 Highway Road Program due to a 28 percent increase to the state’s Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program for 2013-14 fiscal year. The additional $229,318.67 in funding will be used to repave eight streets. 

Glenn Jorgensen, Smithtown’s Highway Superintendent, added the following 8 roadways to the 2013-14 program: 

-Forest Road, Kings Park 
-Ivy Road, Kings Park 
-Beaver Drive, Kings Park 
-Longfellow Drive, Smithtown 
-Daisy Drive, Kings Park 
-Lincoln Drive, Kings Park 
-Jillit Drive, Smithtown 

The funds to repave these roadways come from an agreement struck by the state legislature to increase CHIPS funding by more than $75 millions since 2012-13 fiscal year. 

John Schriefer, a Commack resident in the Hauppauge School District, said he’s seen highway department crews already at work repaving his block - Pinecone Lane - but complained about their work. 

“They are doing a partially job of replacing the curbs, replacing half of the curb or in some cases a third of the curb. It looks like hell,” he said. 

Schriefer said his block  was initially paved in 1962 and hasn’t been fully repaved since. He said that trees felled by Hurricane Sandy did a lot of damage to the curbs in October 2012. 

“There’s no reason for the town to come in and do a partial job when they are repaving streets that are 50 years old,” Schriefer said. 

He questioned what the standards are or criteria are for getting a curb fully replaced in Smithtown, how badly it needs to be damaged. In addition, Schriefer said he received no notification before highway crews showed up at his doorway requiring him to move his cars for repaving. 

Supervisor Patrick Vecchio said in conversations with Jorgensen, he was assured that many of the curb repairs in that neighborhood are merely cosmetic, not necessary. Smithtown focuses on repaving approximately 22 - 24 miles of roadway a year, more than other townships on Long Island, according to Vecchio. 

Schriefer was not convinced of the town’s reasoning, or excuses. 

“All it takes is for one plow to hit that curb, and it will take the curb out,” he said.