By Sara Strassberg
Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine held a Zoom call with local reporters on July 26 to lay out his goals for the county and what he has accomplished thus far. Some of the topics he touched on were sewers, transportation, infrastructure and improvements in government efficiency.
After a unanimous approval of Romaine’s 2025-27 capital budget on June 25, county residents have already started seeing upgrades to their sewer systems, highways, and government efficiency, and should only expect more improvements in the future, according to Romaine.
He also spoke about the Water Quality Restoration Act, which, if passed through a referendum this November, will provide funding for crucial wastewater infrastructure such as sewer projects and alternative wastewater treatment systems. Currently, 70% of Suffolk County is unsewered, with approximately 360,000 residential onsite sewage disposal systems – 250,000 of which are cesspools that discharge raw, untreated human waste into surface and groundwater sources.
In his capital budget, Romaine allotted $540.8 million to upgrade Suffolk sewage systems.
“Suffolk County is going to play a leading role in creating a new solid waste plan for all of Long Island,” Romaine said.
Romaine also touched on the topic of transportation. He bemoaned the lack of funding the county receives from the state and the traffic on eastern Long Island. He also complained about the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) trains at Port Jefferson and further east still running on diesel.
“Tomorrow [July 27] is the 180th anniversary of the LIRR,” Romaine said. “The trains still run like they’re 180 years old.”
Another issue about transportation was funding. Despite being less densely populated than Nassau County, Suffolk County covers three times the area, and gets significantly less transportation funding. Compared to the $108 million that Nassau receives, Suffolk receives $40 million – something that doesn’t sit right with Romaine.
He also addressed the traffic situations in Southampton and Oakdale. “It seems like there is traffic all the time without relief,” Romaine said. “County Road 39 [in Southampton] is a major traffic jam because there are people who work in Southampton but can’t afford to live there. … The Oakdale merge [the merge of Route 27A and Sunrise Highway at Connetquot State Park] has been a problem for many, many years.”
Among his plans are to widen CR 39 and maybe build a traffic circle near the Southampton Hospital, possibly building another lane in the LIPA right-of-way. Other plans include three lanes each way for the Sagtikos and Sunken Meadow Parkways.
For public transportation, he wants to see a better public transportation system where trains and buses work together so that the buses sync up with the LIRR schedules.
In other matters, Romaine detailed the recent reforms of social service programs. The backlog for processing applications to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) has been “greatly reduced.” He emphasized the overhaul of the county’s Department of Social Services in the wake of the Thomas Valva case, in which the 8-year-old boy died as a result of long-term abuse; despite numerous reports to Suffolk’s Child Protective Services, nothing was done. In addition, the wait times for DSS have gone from two hours to six minutes.
Hold times for calling into Suffolk’s 311 line have been significantly reduced due to Romaine’s reorganization of the non-emergency service. The average wait time is now two to four minutes. “You don’t have to wait an hour on the phone [anymore],” he said. “It’s about making Suffolk work.”
— Additional reporting by Hank Russell