Government

Greenport Village mayor eyes PSEG money for drainage work

Greenport Village Mayor George Hubbard is hoping to use some of the $1.3 million the village received from the Long Island Power Authority and PSEG-Long Island to do drainage projects at numerous road-ends in the village, in hopes of preventing contaminants from being carried into surface water when it rains.

In doing so, the mayor also hopes to maximize that money by applying for grants to offset the village’s costs.

Grants often require the recipient to pay a matching or partial amount.

“We hope to take the $1.3 million and turn it into $3 million to $4 million,” Mr. Hubbard said at a recent Village Board meeting.

LIPA, which owns the distribution system and contracts with PSEG Long Island to operate it, is running a 13KV cable from its Southold substation to Fifth Street in Greenport and then underwater to Shelter Island Heights in order to provide additional power to Shelter Island.

LIPA agreed to pay to the village a $1.3 million access fee, as the additional power will not serve the village, which has its own power plant.

The work is expected to be done by May 15, officials have said.

Mr. Hubbard said drainage work on Fifth Street is already being paid for LIPA/PSEG as part of the agreement with the Village allowing the cable to be run though the village.

Greenport has also applied for a Suffolk County grant to do drainage work on the road ends on Brown, Clark, Flint, and Fourth streets, in the Widow’s Hole area, with Sixth Street a possibility for the future, Mr. Hubbard said.

“The estimate for this is about $500,000, but it could end up with our part of it being only about $200,000,” the mayor said.

The village recently completed a road-end drainage job at Manor Place, by Eastern Long Island Hospital.

“This will stop the road runoff from going into Sterling Harbor and Gardiners Bay, which is a very positive thing for the ecosystem,” Mr. Hubbard said. Road runoff often carries things like motor oil, heavy metals, animal waste and fertilizers down into the water, he said.

Trustee Doug Roberts asked that “one or two percent” of the money go into a village housing study. He said an online poll he conducted on how the village should prioritize spending got 99 responses and 45 percent said that “finding more opportunities for year-round housing” was their top priority.

The village has not officially made any decisions on how to spend the LIPA/PSEG money, Mr. Hubbard said.

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