Newsday: Town receiving $3 million in federal funds for new downtown sewer line

Central Islip’s downtown has taken another step toward revitalization with the securing of funding to pay for a new sewer line.

Islip Town announced Thursday that it is receiving $3 million in federal funding toward the line, which will run more than half a mile down Carleton Avenue, from Suffolk Avenue south to Smith Street. Sewer infrastructure is considered a crucial part of the town’s plans for $10 million in state Downtown Revitalization Initiative, or DRI, funds, which it received in 2018.

“This is the last piece,” said Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter at a news conference in a downtown parking lot that is slated to be the site of a three-story multiuse building with 100 apartments. “This is the kind of thing that people don’t see but it really helps make it all happen.”

Carpenter said the $3 million —  secured by Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) through a HUD grant with assistance from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) — will complete the funding needed for the sewer line. The town received $7.5 million from a federal department of commerce grant, as well as $2 million from the DRI and $1 million from the town’s Industrial Development Agency.

“This is very exciting because this project is going to change the rest of this community, change it for the better,” Garbarino said, adding that a lack of sewers is “a serious problem and a barrier to doing business on Long Island.”  

Garbarino said installing the line will also help the environment by reducing nitrogen runoff into the Great South Bay.

“Sewers are something that business leaders and environmentalists can agree on,” he said.