Backlog for Smithtown sidewalk repairs
Depending on the condition of your sidewalk, homeowners in the Town of Smithtown can wait years after they’ve requested to have them replaced
There are hundreds of names and addresses on the parks department’s waiting list. That’s the Parks, Buildings and Grounds Department. Somehow, sidewalks and driveway aprons became a responsibility of the parks department, while curbs and streets are handled by the town’s highway department, according to Parks Director William Murphy.
Murphy has held the post for four years, but the waiting list has been around a lot longer. Because of budget limitations, the town can't catch up and eliminate the backlog and each year, more names are added to the queue.
“It’s virtually impossible to repair every sidewalk in town in one year,” Murphy said. The department has an inspector or foreman who checks out complaints and puts them on the town’s to-do list based on what shape they’re in. Then sidewalks are repaired by a contractor until funds for the year run out.
Officials are well aware of how long it takes to get a sidewalk fixed. Newly re-elected town board member Ed Wehrheim spent 31 years in the parks department and was its director from 1989-2003. The town highway department handled sidewalk duty before it was shifted to the parks department in the 1980s, he said.
Wehrheim knows that unless its an emergency, homeowners can wait three or more years to get their sidewalk repaired. Where a homeowner's name is placed on the list depends on what the inspection reveals. When Wehrheim was the parks director, he said, there were “probably 800-1,000” names on the waiting list.
The most severe cases get priority, Wehrheim said, in part because of the liability associated with injuries if someone trips and falls on a sidewalk that should have been repaired. But there are homeowners who want their sidewalks ripped out and replaced because of simple problems such as hairline cracks, or the sidewalk is two different colors from previous repairs. Those calls have a low priorty.
The town board allots $1.4 million -$1.5 million per paving season for sidewalk repair and that only goes so far, Wehrheim said. “Would you like to do everything all at once? Sure you would, but it’s impossible,” he said. “You have to take a sensible approach to anything. It’s not fiscally possible.”
Apparently, sidewalks aren’t the highest priority among town taxpayers, said Wehrheim, who talked to many residents during his recent re-election campaign. “Most people talk about taxes, their recreation facilities.” Complaints about sidewalks, he said, are scarce.
Parks Director Murphy said town residents who believe they need new sidewalks should call Parks, Building and Grounds at 631-269-1122. The town's Web site also has an email form to contact officials.
