The Town of North Hempstead approved a sweeping capital plan for improvements to roads, parks and other infrastructure over the coming years.
“It’s a very ambitious plan, so you’re all going to be really busy for the next couple years, but I think it’s a good plan,” said Town Councilwoman Dina DeGiorgio.
The plan includes about 100 projects and upgrades across North Hempstead. It will create a dog park at Michael J. Tully Park, purchase new equipment for the Parks Department and improvements to the Gold Coast Arts Center, to name just a few.
It also increases funding for more general improvements to the town.
Funding for road repairs was doubled from $2.2 million in the previous capital plan to more than $4 million in the new one. Some $1 million was set aside for sidewalk repairs and $100,000 for drainage.
“The town council and I have been very concerned about roads and drainage improvements,” Supervisor Judi Bosworth said. “The five-year capital plan includes $91 million in infrastructure investment… I’m committed to making capital improvements for our future, and I know we all are, while balancing the need to be fiscally conservative.”
Funding will be covered by grants and bonds issued by the town.
Toward that end, the board approved 31 bond resolutions borrowing $47 million to fund various projects. In many of the resolutions, the amount set aside for each project was the maximum cost and the actual cost was expected to be lower than the amount set aside.
The largest bond approved was for $21 million, almost half of the total borrowed for the various projects, which would go toward general road improvements in the town.
There were bond resolutions approved for specific road construction projects. A bond for $3.2 million was approved to reconstruct Grand Boulevard in New Cassel and more than $1 million was approved for streetscape improvements on Main Street in Port Washington.
“One of the biggest and most important things that we do in town government is to ensure the infrastructure is in place,” Russell said.
The board meeting opened with several public hearings, the longest of which concerned the approval of a moratorium on the waterfront in a section of Port Washington.
Of the other six hearings, five concerned changes to parking in parts of the town and almost all were approved— one in Carle Place was rescinded at Russell’s request.
There will be more topics for discussion at the next town council meeting, as the board approved 12 public hearings that are all tentatively scheduled for Jan. 30.
These hearings will consider parking ordinances, changes to town code regarding wireless telecommunication facilities and improvements to the facilities of the Harbor Hills Park District and sidewalks in the town.
