Smithtown Officials Approve 2012 Highway Road Program

The Town of Smithtown's elected officials have voted to move forward with road repaving, but additional $10 million in work will need wait for approval

Smithtown's Town Board voted 3-0 to approve the 2012 Highway Road Program proposed by Highway Supervisor Glenn Jorgensen at Tuesday afternoon's board meeting, absent trustees Thomas McCarthy and Kevin Malloy. However, Jorgensen will have to wait to see if board trustees are willing to seek out a $10 million bond to do additional work.

Under the 2012 Highway Road Program, Jorgensen has been given a $565,000 budget to fix and repave the Town of Smithtown's roadways over the upcoming months. This is significantly less than the $900,000 budgeted for roadway repairs by the Town of Smithtown in 2011.

A complete list of those roads to be repaved and fixed will be posted on the Town of Smithtown's website later this week, Jorgensen said.

Jorgensen, at the March 29 Commack Community Association meeting, told Commack residents the amount budgeted will not be enough to fix nearly 6,000 sidewalk complaints and roadways in the area.

He has proposed the town board approve seek , $5 million for 2012 and $5 million in 2013, to pave an additional 60 miles of roadway and catch up with fixing sidewalks and repairs.

Councilman Edward Wehrheim said an engineering study is underway to determine the state of Town of Smithtown's roadway, and what work is recommended to be done. Once the engineering study is returned, Wehrheim said the board will further consider Jorgensen's proposition.

If the town council were to approve a $10 million bond for roadway repairs, Jorgensen estimated it would cost the average homeowner approximately $12 more a year in taxes.