IMPORTANT PUBLIC MEETING - PLEASE ATTEND
The Meeting: The Town of Smithtown, on its own accord, has scheduled a public hearing for Tuesday, January 7th at 7 PM at the Smithtown Senior Center, 420 Middle Country Road, Smithtown, to hear public comments regarding proposed amendments to the Smithtown zoning code and solid waste management code. The town is seeking to create a rail freight terminal use, a rail transfer station use, and a wood chipping/mulch processing facility use through a special exception permit. These uses are presently prohibited.
Ask: Request the Smithtown Town Board withdraw its proposed amendment to Chapter 322 of the Town Code entitled "Zoning", as it relates to Rail Freight Terminals, Rail Transfer Stations, and Wood Chipping in the Town of Smithtown.
Proposal: This proposed regional train yard will have five tracks totaling 9,400 feet, two buildings totaling at least 100,000 square feet, and a 161-freight car capacity totaling 10,456 feet of train. The proposed location is a chain link fence away from established residential neighborhoods in Kings Park and is in very close proximity to residential homes in Greenlawn, Commack, Fort Salonga, Northport, and East Northport. It will pass feet away from homes, schools, playgrounds, businesses and residential roads – all along Port Jefferson’s one track line.
Need: This freight yard has been marketed as a way to address Long Island’s need for waste disposal. Construction and Demolition debris (C&D) is not an issue as Gershow & Omni Brentwood Rail Transfer together can accept more C&D than is being lost with the closing of Brookhaven Landfill. Regarding incinerator ash, Town of Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico recently confirmed the Brookhaven Landfill will remain open to accept ash until the end of 2028. Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine has called for a regional plan when it comes to waste disposal in the county, not a piecemeal approach such as this project.
Reality: This project will serve to only significantly grow a private trucking business at the expense of residents’ quality of life and home values. There will be a tremendous number of diesel tractor trailers added to our local roads. This will lead to added accidents, pollution, noise and associated damage to our roads
Who Is Impacted: Not only residents in Kings Park, Fort Salonga, Commack, East Northport, and Northport, but homeowners along the Port Jefferson line. Commuters will also be affected. Derailments are very common. Even a derailment without a catastrophic hazardous material spill will cause huge delays for commuters on the one track Port Jefferson commuter line. Residents in other towns, such as St. James, could find freight yards in their backyards.
Impacts
• More Trucks on Local Roads - The site plan shows bays for 50 diesel tractor trailers. Trucks will be coming to and from the facility to drop off waste to be railed out at night. Moreover, the business owner states that the cars will not come back to the yard empty on return trips. Commodities will be unloaded and trucked out from the site by tractor trailers using local roads.
• Federal Preemption - In the railroad industry, when federal preemption is pitted against local zoning, environmental, and safety regulations - local authorities lose. What makes this proposal particularly alarming is the legal responsibility that a common carrier, which the business owner is seeking to become, cannot refuse to haul hazardous materials.
• Water Pollution - The site is situated directly atop Long Island's major Hydrogeologic Zone I Deep Flow Recharge Area. This proposed project site is squarely in a Suffolk County Article 7 restricted area. A spill, leak or any size breach of hazardous material at this Zone 1 location will seep into the aquifer, thereby harming Long Island’s drinking supply.
• Health Risks - Studies have found a link between freight-railyard pollution and asthma-related pediatric health issues. The surrounding communities already bear the burden of several major sources of environmental blight, including the Huntington Resource Recovery Facility, the Northport power plant, the Huntington and Smithtown landfills and their methane burners/vents, medical waste incinerators at both Northport VA hospital & St. Catherine's Medical Center, and the various other heavy industrial uses, legal, illegal, and unchecked and in operation for decades.
As many of you know and understand, there is a lot happening in our little hamlet of Fort Salonga, too much to continually put here on the home page. Going forward, there will be a headline and brief text about a specific subject with a "click here" link, which will then take you to the corresponding page for that specific subject. This is the only way we can keep you informed while covering all the bases. If there is something that necessitates doing so, we will post a more in-depth piece here on the home page, but will also have added content on a corresponding page.
PLEASE READ (re: Townline Rail Yard):
In addition, we have added a new page specifically for information that our sister organization , the Townline Association (TLA) has asked us to pass on to FS residents titled TLA info under the NEWS dropdown. This will include event postings, letter request info and more. Go to the TLA page now to read an important message.
FYI - we have only until Feb. 5 to send NEW letters to the Surface Transportation Board (STB).
We need every one of you to send letters to the STB, cc'ing the Townline Association ( link to TLA email address ).
They are on their way. You ask what is "they" ? - here you go;
Keep your eyes on your mailbox as you will be receiving 2 pieces of mail.
First will be our annual membership drive. Included in the envelope will be:
* President's Letter, detailing what has been, what is now and what will be.
* Form for renewing or signing up for membership in the Fort Salonga Association
Membership in the association is not mandatory, but is very much appreciated.
(more on what we do will be on this page)
*. Notice for our Annual Brunch, which will be held on April 21, 2024,
It will again be held at the Indian Hills Country Club.
*. Raffle tickets for our annual raffle.
Second will be our Spring Newsletter. It is filled with a lot of "stuff";
*. President's Letter. Please read it completely. Though there is a President's Letter in the
membership mailing, this one goes into more detail about what is happening with
the proposed rail yard, with steps to be taken. This is a very fluid situation, so again, please
read its entirely.
*. Pictures and summaries of events from 2023 and giving thoughts for events in 2024.
**. Interviews, news and advertisers (please support them, they believe in our community.
Contact info for the Fort Salonga Association (FSA):
Email: fortsalongaassociation@gmail.com
(Note: this is our new email address - please save)
Phone: 631-525-3937 ( Keith Macartney - FSA President )
Updated Contact information for the 2 Towns (Huntington and Smithtown) can be found
when going to CONTACTS and selecting the appropriate Town dropdown. There you will also find links for the respective Town's Trash and Recycling Calendars, including dates for shredding and hazardous materials days.
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The Fort Salonga Association
We now have 2 calendars published on the site, due to specific limitations of each.
The first is the Fort Salonga only calendar, with events and happenings pertaining only to Fort Salonga, its residents, their families and friends. These events are intended for your information and enjoyment, so we ask that you limit friends if not from Fort Salonga, but they are always welcomed. Who knows, they may be your neighbor some time down the road.
The second calendar is for township(s) events, like parades, sidewalk fairs and exhibitions, etc. We will try to include as many as of these events as possible, but again, due to calendar limitations we may not be able to list them all. If not, our apologies to those affected.