Omnibus Funding Package Includes Over $26M In Federal Funding For Long Island

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, along with Long Island members of the House of Representatives, recently announced that they had secured over $26 million in funds for Long Island as part of the final omnibus funding package for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023.

The senators secured a total of $26,244,395 for projects across Suffolk and Nassau County, including facility upgrades and educational programs at Stony Brook University and Long Island University, upgrades to key local infrastructure such as the Town of Southampton’s sewage system, and funding for social programs such as substance use prevention and homeless safety net services.

“From increasing access to public water to creating a STEM career center, upgrading a local park, and providing support services to vulnerable populations, these community projects are making a difference across Long Island,” said U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer. “I’m proud to bring this substantial federal funding to our communities and I’ll keep fighting to help these vital organizations and institutions continue their great work across the island.”

Organizations receiving funds include:

• Town of Brookhaven Suffolk County Water Authority Calverton Connection Project ($5,000,000)

• The funds will go toward Suffolk County Water Authority’s proposed plan to extend 21,000 linear feet of water main along Mill Road in Manorville to areas in the vicinity of South River Road in Calverton, Town of Brookhaven.

This project would give 98 homes on private wells in a DEC Potential Environmental Justice Area access to public water. Many of these homes are within a Suffolk County Department of Health Services Survey area that has detected PFAS levels above the maximum contaminant level.

• Town of Southampton Riverside Sewer System Project ($5,000,000)

• Funds will go toward the construction of sanitary infrastructure and a centralized sanitary treatment facility that will service the entire hamlet of Riverside.

The total anticipated sanitary wastewater flow from the project area is 800,000 gallons per day, and the sewage treatment plant is to be phased in 400,000-gallon increments.

• City of Glen Cove / Installation of Packed Tower Aeration System at Duck Pond Road Well Station ($3,452,972)

• Funds will go toward a new, permanent Packed Tower Aeration System (PTAS) and backup generator to keep three critical water wells in service and to remove harmful contaminates from the City’s drinking water.

• Town of Brookhaven / Bellport-North Bellport Sewer Hook-ups ($3,260,000)

• Funds will go toward providing sewer hook-ups in conjunction with sewer connections/upgrades to be made by Suffolk County.

• Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory ($2,000,000)

Funds will go toward the establishment of a Next Generation AI Center for Advanced Cancer Diagnostics, which will include modernized equipment with state-of-theart spatial transcriptomics technology to Interfaith Nutrition Network ($2,000,000) Funds will go toward the renovation of a newly acquired building that will allow help study tumors in depth. expand its existing homeless safety net programs and create new ones. INN will be able to expand its Center for

Transformative Change to meet individually with guests to develop plans of action that are custom tailored to meet their specific social services needs; provide sleeping pods for temporary respite for guests during operating hours; expand its Clothing Boutique with adequate space to develop a new Dressed for Success work attire program; create new clinic space that will enable its partner organizations to provide medical, mental health, and substance abuse counseling services on site, thereby eliminating transportation challenges that are often difficult for guests to overcome; and offer a new training suite for use in workforce development programs that will help the guests move toward a more stable future.

• SUNY Old Westbury ($1,870,000)

• The funds will go toward the creation of an inclusive science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career preparatory center at SUNY Old Westbury. OW-STEM aims to engage students from underrepresented backgrounds in STEMrelated fields to set them on a trajectory toward successful STEM-oriented careers. The Center will feature:

• Cutting-edge, inquiry-based STEM pedagogy featuring work with complex data sets from active research efforts.

• A fully integrated learning community structure to provide a holistic and comprehensive educational experience.

• A central focus on green jobs and the green curriculum. justice-involved women and girls.

• Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth, Inc. ($500,000

• Funding will go toward programming supporting LGBT middle and high schoolaged youth in substance use prevention, mental health, and anti-bullying.

• The Aaron & Marion Gural JCC Inc. (GJCC) / Resilient Impactful Sustaining Empowerment Project ($300,000)

• The funding will go toward significantly expanding GJCC’s mental health and supportive services for three vulnerable populations who have experienced serious trauma in their life: Holocaust survivors (and their families), Ukrainian and Russian immigrant seniors, and victims of domestic violence residing in and around the Five Towns of Long Island, NY. The program will provide wraparound trauma-counseling to 300 unduplicated individuals, as well as outreach and educational services to another 5,000 individuals.

Freeport Union Free School District ($173,923) student activities. industry a Quantum Internet Center on Long Island

Freeport High School will use the funds for the creation of a college and career center that will promote a college-going mentality as well as offer a place where information and resources are readily available to students and their parents.

• The Town of North Hempstead will use these funds to upgrade the 6.07-acre Bunky Reid Park, adjacent to and part of the Yes We Can Community Center, which is one of the few outdoor park, recreation and wellness spaces for New Cassel and the Village of Westbury. North Hempstead will renew and improve this outdoor community park with a new skate park, community gardens and pollinator areas, and improvements to the deteriorating swimming pool.

• The Woman’s Opportunity Rehabilitation Center Justice Services ($638,000)

• Funding will go toward continuing to provide relocation services for domestic violence survivors as well as educational/ vocational and mentoring services for

The Freeport High School College and Career Center will focus on designing, implementing, and managing services, programs and systems that foster college and career readiness. The Center will offer information about career paths and college including college majors, essays, and applications; financial aid; resume writing; college entrance exams and much more. It would house a variety of books, brochures and computer programs with specialized guidance materials, test registration forms and other relevant information and resources.

• Long Island University ($149,500)

• Long Island University in Nassau County will use the funding in collaboration with the Society of Presidential Descendants to digitize and archive the personal collections of past presidents, including correspondence, journals, and other historical records. These records will be publicly available and will spur students, scholars, and the general public to engage with important figures in American history.

—With contributions from the office of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand