Smithtown OKs $6 million reconstruction of town marina in St. James

The Town of Smithtown has approved $6 million in bonding to reconstruct the town’s marina in St. James, which has been aging and in need of repair for the past four decades, officials said.

The approval by the town board last week will finance the work, which will include the addition of new bulkheads, floating docks, electrical improvements and repaving.

The upgrades are “badly needed,” said Nicole Garguilo, a spokeswoman for Smithtown Supervisor Ed Wehrheim, in a statement. The expenditure “will preserve the marina for generations while significantly enhancing safety, increasing berth capacity, accessibility and the overall visitor experience,” she said. Berth capacity is the maximum number of ships or volume of cargo a terminal can service over a specific period.

The project will include a complete rebuild of nearly 500 feet of aging shoreline infrastructure with a new steel bulkhead system. The town also will dredge certain areas to improve navigability, replace outdated floating docks, install new ADA-accessible gangways and upgrade the marina's mooring system.

Electrical upgrades also on tap

The work also will focus on making “critical” utility improvements, Garguilo said. That includes a new pump-out station and a state-of-the-art electrical distribution network designed to withstand and recover from disruptions including those caused by extreme weather.

The project also will include extensive site improvements: upgraded drainage and stormwater treatment systems, new pavement, sidewalks, landscaping and other infrastructure. The landscaping will feature native coastal grasses, evergreen trees and shrubs. 

Slip rentals — the fees paid by marina users that allow boaters to moor their vessels — will help cover the cost of the rebuild, according to Councilman Tom McCarthy, who was a town board liaison on the project.

McCarthy worked at the marina during the 1970s while patrolling on boat for the town’s marine division. The marina was last rebuilt in 1982; however, over time, massive overtides, flooding and storms have caused damage that has eroded the bulkheads and damaged electric infrastructure, according to McCarthy.

“It’s a complete rebuild because of storms and use," he said.

Since the work in 1982, he noted, "we got good use out of what’s there."

Work expected to start in fall

The town approved Chesterfield Associates Inc., a Westhampton Beach dock building company, to handle the construction work, according to a resolution. That company has previously done work on the marina, roughly 10 years ago. 

The work is expected to start in the fall and be completed by next spring, when boating season starts, according to officials. Once it's completed, McCarthy said, users can expect “a complete revamp and modernization of the whole existing facility.”

“We’re a waterfront, North Shore boating community, and it’s an asset that was timed for extremely needed repairs,” McCarthy said. “What we have now is old and there’s issues with it, so the work will bring it up to the safety standards of today.”

Scott Posner, chairman of the St. James Chamber of Commerce and a marina user since 2020, called it "a great town asset" although it needs "a little bit of a face-lift."

"It's one of the really fine facilities we have on Long Island, and it's really important to keep it up to date, efficient, effective and safe, which sounds like what those improvements are focusing on," he said.