Town Committee Says $70 Million Needed For Roads, Parks

After a six-month study, a citizen’s advisory board convened by the town council in 2010 to study the current condition of roadways and recreational offerings across Islip has issued a report that outlines $70 million in repairs and upgrades to infrastructure and parks.

With the report having been submitted to the town, council members are now faced with the task of deciding what projects are more important than others, and how to pay for the work without burdening local taxpayers.

“Think of it as the Town of Islip is a home,” said Steve Flotteron, town councilman. “You have a wish list of things you want to do to your home, maybe the top 10 things. But you can’t afford to do them all. You can do maybe two without having to take out a home equity loan. We need to look at what we can do without increasing taxes. We need to exhaust all our options in terms of bonds, loans, state funds available.”

Over the past six months members of the Citizen’s Advisory Committee (CAC) on Town of Islip Infrastructure and Recreation held 12 meetings to inventory and survey the town’s 1,100 miles of roadways. The CAC’s report indicated that to resurface and rehabilitate roadways in disrepair would cost $48 million over the next two years. The existing annual budget for roadways in Islip Town is $5 million.

The condition of local roadways is based on a Pavement Index (PI). Currently, Islip’s roads are rated a 6.46 out of 10 and the goal, according to officials, is to bring that number closer to eight.

“Every roadway has an assignment number and every roadway has an optimal point in time for repair or maintenance when it is most cost effective,” said Gerry Pallotta, co-chair of the CAC.

The $48 million proposal put forth by the CAC would cover 422 miles of roadway that once repaired would boost the town’s overall PI to 7.81.

“If we do nothing, the roads that are at a five or six will drop down to a three or four and the cost of repair could go from $1 to $5,” Pallotta added.

According to the committee, the near-term benefits include the fact that all the preventative and routine maintenance needs would be met. The committee addressed and prioritized what it said was all critical resurfacing needs. The plan also permits the town to address roads rated a seven or eight before repairs to those roads become expensive. The future repair cost curve would then be sloping downward overall the next several years.  

After spending $24 million each year for the next two years, the town would spend $5 million per year in years three, four and five. An alternative long-range plan was also put forth that included the same $24 million for the next two years as well as $10 million for the following three years.

In terms of the findings on the town’s parks, the committee divided into four quadrants to access the different areas with which they were most familiar. They met with the parks commissioner and department personnel to review recommendations and priorities and also operators and users of each facility. Their findings were ranked by cost and priority and all projects identified as top or medium were undertaken in the report. Projects were assigned criteria such as damage, community, efficiency or revenue. The recommended parks improvement funding was $22 million.

Should the town take the CAC’s recommendations in total and choose to spend $70 million to cover the cost of the recommendations for roads and parks, on average, it would amount to $50 per residential property and $180 per commercial property if the cost was to be added to the tax bill.

“We haven’t done a whole lot in terms of infrastructure so this report gives us a number of options,” said Phil Nolan, Islip Town supervisor. “I don’t think it’s up to us to settle in on a number at this point.”

CAC members were recruited from the ranks of active citizens who are involved with grassroots efforts and engaged with community members on issues of concern. Fifteen volunteer members were selected based on their community ties to organizations as well as their understanding of local attitudes, desires and needs. CAC also enlisted the help of town staff members, in departments such as planning, public works, highway and parks, to gather information. Its goals were to build a comprehensive knowledge base of the state of Islip’s roadways and recreation facilities, review the conditions and develop prioritized recommendations for improvements.