Thursday, October 1, 2026
More than eight years after Hurricane Sandy damaged areas of Rockville Centre, infrastructure improvement projects will finally get under way. The village, a recipient of more than $13 million in grant money for the Living with the Bay project, which aims to increase the resiliency of communities along the Mill River, awarded bids for several component projects on Monday night.
“This is a huge accomplishment for our village,” Mayor Francis X. Murray said. “We’re going to get parking lots out of this, improvements at Tighe Field, things to help us in mitigating flooding, like berms. This is wonderful for Rockville Centre.”
The village board approved six proposals for improvements, totaling just over $13.13 million.
“After Sandy hit, so much of the Northeast was flooded — destroyed,” Murray said. The village lobbied in Washington, D.C., for relief funding, he said, and New York state won $125 million in aid for Living with the Bay. The project is being financed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds, administered by the New York State Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery. Living with the Bay falls under GOSR’s Rebuild by Design Initiative.
According to GOSR, which selected the infrastructure projects that comprise Living with the Bay, the overall plan is to mitigate damage from storm surges along Mill River; manage storm water to mitigate damage from common rain events; improve habitat and water quality; and increase access to the river through educational and recreational opportunities. A total of seven infrastructure projects stretch from the northern part of Mill River, at Hempstead Lake State Park, to Bay Park, at the mouth of Hewlett Bay.
The projects in Rockville Centre include improvements at Smith Pond and Lister Park. The plan for Smith Pond is to remove invasive species and replace them with native plants on the shores of the pond; improve pathways and overlooks; add a fish ladder and floodwalls; and make storm water improvements to an adjacent parking lot.
The Lister Park project will include water quality and drainage improvements along Mill River — at the village Department of Public Works storage yard and at Bligh Field, Centennial Park, Lister Park and Tighe Field. Expected improvements include flood protection for surrounding residential areas, greenway connections and an improved overlook for residents along the river.
A Greenway Network project will create greenways to connect communities with sections of the overall project, from Hempstead High School to Hempstead Lake Park, south to Smith Pond and Lister Park, and farther south to Bay Park. This work will also include benches, lighting and educational signage, and will comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Laser Industries Inc. was awarded a bid of just over $3.34 million for improvements at Lister Park and $732,269 for amenities along the Mill River greenway; G&M Earth Moving Inc. was awarded a bid of just over $7.11 million for improvements at Smith Pond; Pioneer Landscape & Asphalt Paving Inc. was awarded $284,201 for the Mill River Greenway Tighe Field Memorial; DP Civil Inc. was awarded $473,835 for road resurfacing, sidewalk installation and other upgrades along Maine Avenue; and Stasi Industries was awarded just over $1.18 million for Mill River greenway signage and American with Disabilities Act upgrades.
Village attorney Thomas Levin explained that the bids were not automatically awarded to the lowest bidder, but to those that complied with the requirement that the work be done by minority- and women-owned businesses. “The awards were given to the lowest responsible bidders that meet the specs,” Levin said.
The village sent out a request for bids on the projects in October, and, with the board’s unanimous approval, the work will begin within the next few weeks.
“Shovels should be in the ground before the end of the year,” Murray said. “I’m so excited, and so is the board, to be the recipients of this wonderful grant for our village.”
