Community coming together to beautify Stony Brook train station

In celebration of Earth Day, community groups throughout the Three Village are joining forces to clean up Stony Brook train station Saturday, April 22, from 10 a.m. to noon, and are seeking volunteers to help.

The North Suffolk Garden Club, along with Three Village Community Trust, Three Village Civic Association, Three Village Chamber of Commerce, The Stony Brook School, Brookhaven Town Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook), Long Island Rail Road and Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket) have been working on cleaning up the station since last summer.

The group weeded beds, cleared invasive plants and planted Long Island native species, adding decorative boulders, a stone walkway and trimmed trees after landscaped beds at the station became overgrown.

The civic association has long taken an interest in maintaining the station grounds, and the North Suffolk Garden Club had the desire to “honor the legacy of famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted on the bicentennial year of his birth.”

As a result, the Stony Brook Train Station Beautification Committee was born, with members from several local organizations. Herb Mones, land use chair of the civic association and president of the community trust, with Leighton Coleman III and Frances Pistell of the garden club, lead the committee.

“The work is going to continue,” Mones said “So we’re kind of kicking it off a little bit on Earth Day by trying to spruce up the station a little bit more, removing any of the winter damage, cleaning out the beds, trimming and celebrating.”

The garden club assisted in the planting and committed funds, and the civic association obtained a grant from PSEG. Local resident and landscape designer, Emily Riley of The Stony Brook School, helped design the site and Steve Antos, owner of Setauket Landscape Design, assisted. Hahn and legislative aide Alyssa Turano advised and networked with LIRR. The Town of Brookhaven Highway Department helped with debris removal, and Kornreich kept the project on track, Mones said.

In the past, turnout has been so large for these kinds of events, it has become overwhelming, Mones said. He also wants to ensure all of the hard work of the garden club is protected.

“The North Suffolk Garden Club is very particular,” he said. “They’ve done a lot of these plantings and they want to make sure that they don’t get trampled or abused because they’re relatively small. They will become larger and larger as the years go by. We’re trying to make it so that we don’t do something that’s out of control.”

Members of Three Village Civic Association, North Suffolk Garden Club, Three Village Community Trust, The Stony Brook School and Three Village Chamber of Commerce will be in attendance Saturday and ask that anyone who would like to help brings a pair of gloves, trash bags and garden tools. For more info, call 631-942-4558.

—Compiled by Leah

Chiappino

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