Flooding help on the way for Island Park

“I’m so impressed with Island Parkers and their real grit and resilience, and I’m incredibly proud of them."”

County Executive Laura Curran

On Monday, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran and State Sen. Todd Kaminsky were joined by construction workers, homeowners and officials from the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery to announce the start of construction on the Downtown Island Park Revitalization Project across from the library.

Both Curran and Kaminsky are running for office — Curran for county executive again and Kaminsky for district attorney. Both are Democrats.

According to Curran, the project will see $1.3 million invested to revitalize the economic heart of the village with a mix of conventional and innovative green infrastructure.

“I think perhaps the best part about this project might be something that no one will see — it’s the innovative drainage systems that are going to be installed,” Curran said. “It’s the key to being able to withstand these major storms that we are getting.” A mix of underground catch basins and rain gardens will be installed to help collect, absorb and treat excess stormwater before it flows back into waterways.

The announcement came almost exactly nine years after Superstorm Sandy caused immense damage and flooding. The village has continued to see flooding in the years since the storm, especially at the train station right down the road from the Island Park Library. Curran thanked Kaminsky and Gov. Kathy Hochul for providing the resources for the project and representatives from the LiRo Group for their labor and design.

“More than any other community I represent, Island Park, Barnum Isle, Harbor Isle have borne the brunt of chronic flooding in unacceptable ways,” Kaminsky said. “Not just in major storms, but in regular rains and moon tides, you often have difficulty driving in the community.”

Parents and teachers have had to hand children through the windows of their cars at Francis X. Hegarty Elementary just a few blocks away from the site of the announcement. Kaminsky said he hopes that projects like this and the Bay Park Conveyance Project will protect residents and businesses for years to come.

The project includes new sidewalks, repaved streets, pedestrian-friendly traffic-calming devices and green infrastructure that will help beautify and protect downtown Island Park and provide a major hurricane evacuation route for thousands of Long Islanders.

As part of the beautification and safety portion of the project, a crosswalk will be constructed at the library to help residents cross a busy stretch of Long Beach Road. The project is expected to be completed in one year and will be headed by LiRo Program and Construction Management, an architecture, engineering and construction firm based in the Northeast and on the West Coast.

Curran said she believes the beautification and safety measures, which also involve repaving Island Park’s portion of Long Beach Road with new blacktop, will give a boost to the “economic heart” of the village, as Curran put it.

Fittingly, the flood infrastructure project announcement was preceded by the county executive’s briefing on a nor’easter that was expected to deliver heavy rains and strong winds to the area Monday night. The county was under a flash flood watch from Monday night to Tuesday evening.

“I’m so impressed with Island Parkers and their real grit and resilience, and I’m incredibly proud of them,” Curran said.