Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to business steps Up, a presentation of Hiali, one of the recognized voices in Long island business. We'll focus on cutting edge topics important to the bi county region and beyond. So sit back, relax, and listen to some of Long Island's most influential business leaders here on business steps up.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: So good afternoon and welcome to this episode of hiali, business Steps up. You know, we began business steps up through Covid, actually with, with a. We wanted a vehicle to be able to really talk to organizations and government officials and agencies that were really stepping up and doing things in a very large way through Covid.
And we did that and we continued it. Right. And we continued it and you know, really to talk about some other things that are going on on, as well as some updates. And I'm very fortunate to have us today the town of Smithtown, supervisor, Mr. Ed Wareheim. He's a very good friend, not only to the hali, but I happen to live in Smithtown as well.
And I just, I love it. I love it because it, it's vibrant and there's sensible development and building going on and things like that. So we'll talk about all that. So let me introduce many of you know the town of Smithtown, supervisor, Mr. Ed Wareheim. How are you? Thanks for joining us.
[00:01:29] Speaker C: Well, thank you, Terry. It's always a pleasure to be with you.
Thank you for your kind words. And I'm very excited to be here and let the residents know exactly what we're doing here in Smithtown.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: Yeah, great.
So why don't we start with, you know, it's interesting. You were just hosted. We hosted a meet and greet and you were one of our, one of our guests. And I was, as long as I've known you, I was very surprised when you began to talk about your background and how you got involved and why you got involved. So for the viewers, tell us, how did you get involved in public service?
Tell us about the how and why.
[00:02:10] Speaker C: Sure. So I started after my military service. I was a Vietnam veteran. I did two tours in Vietnam.
When I completed my service, which I'm very proud of, came home, my dad had a contracting business.
I went to work for my dad for a couple years in the business.
He was prepared to retire early.
So I had a choice. Take over the business or at that point, there was a family friend named Charles Toner who was running the department of parks, buildings and grounds for the town of Smithtown at the time. And in speaking to him, I made the choice that private sector business which anyone who is in it and Has a private business, knows how difficult it is.
And I always liked public. I'm a people person. I always had a hankering for public service. So I chose the other path. And I went into government as a laborer in 1972 with the Department of parks, buildings and grounds. I started at $1.10 an hour and enjoyed the work there. Really got a hankering for improving and restoring parks and recreation facilities in the Smithtown communities.
So I moved myself through the ranks all the way up to. In 1989, I became the assistant director.
92 I became the director, and I was the director of that department until 2003 when I retired and was going to go back into the private sector. And lo and behold, Michael Fitzpatrick, a then Smithtown councilman, went to the New York state assembly and the former supervisor, Pat Vecchio called me and said, thought that, inquired as if I was interested in going on to the town board.
I had been working with him as the director of parks and he indicated he thought I would be a good fit and took the leap.
I was unanimously appointed by the town board in April of 2003, and then I ran in November and was successful to be elected as a town councilman. Spent 12 years on the town board as a councilman.
I'm not ashamed to say it. I love the work.
It can be.
Can be difficult and it can be aggravating at times, but I still love it.
And I took a shot at being the town supervisor in 2018, and I was successful in that race and spent two terms, proud of my record. And.
And now actually I'm vying for a third term this November, next Tuesday.
[00:05:02] Speaker B: So you're up for re election? Absolutely. We'll talk a little bit about that in a minute. But you know, I've always said, and listen, we've had a long standing as, you know, relationship with the town of Smithtown. Obviously this Long Island Innovation park, the majority of it is in the town of Smithtown. Always had a great relationship.
Yet when you became supervisor, it was very clear from day one that you were open for business.
Very, very clear that, you know, met with us right away, talked about, you know, how we could partner together. And I've always said, and I've always told our board of directors that this professional relationship is a good template for the towns. It really, really is. Right. Because we don't.
Can't always get what we want. We know that. Right.
And you're just very, very action oriented. Wonderful. So let's start and talk about the creation of the Overlay district.
That was really your brainchild as it was at least getting it off the ground and getting, getting it off the ground through Covid.
Why was that so important and why do you feel that's so important to the park?
[00:06:21] Speaker C: Well, look, just to digress a bit, one of the advantages I have sitting as a town board member, you're one of five votes, but you're really. It's a legislative branch, it's not an executive branch. So I had the luxury for 12 years of watching and making notes on a lot of things that I thought if I ever had the opportunity to be on the executive end in Smithtown, of things that I saw that I thought needed to be fixed, things I needed to be improved.
And when I was fortunate enough to win, I was able then to take control as the executive of the town of Smithtown and the chief fiscal officer and start to implement many of those things that I watched not happen for 12 years.
The park Hali and the Enterprise park in Hapag was one of the most important things that I made notes about because you have a park that's primarily, as you said, Terry, in the town of smithtown, it has 55,000 employees, 1350 businesses and is the second largest park in the United States of America. That, that is a vital component of the town Smithtown and town government absolutely has to do have interaction with the, with the HIA ally. It's very, very important.
Now what's going on is you see a lot of improvements and we are working with you and your executive board to make sure that that park stays viable into the future, which is the most important thing. The overlay zone came up because in the Lima plan that we witnessed with that, you warranted to come in, James Lima, and do an assessment of how we bring that park into the future.
One of the main components was that businesses, high tech businesses and or manufacturing were having difficulties bringing employees in high school or college graduated people, simply because in Smithtown, which is primarily a single family bedroom community, they had nowhere to live. There wasn't any facilities, any apartments, any rentals for them in the town of Smithtown. So ultimately they would leave.
And we thought of course that that was an important part of how we maintain the stature of the parks into the future. So what we needed to do is sit down with our planning people. How, where, where and how could we house some of these young professionals that want to stay here and work and live in Smithtown and work in the, in the hopped Enterprise Park?
The answer was that we came up with was an overlay zone of actually 13 parcels of property primarily on the south end of the park that were seven plus acres that could accommodate mixed use housing which would be possibly retail on the bottom floor and then studio one bedroom apartments on the upper floors go as high as 62ft.
So we embarked on that process. As you well know. It was not an easy lift. There was a lot of opposition to it because it was, it was something new. And people, you know, people fear change before they really know what it's all about.
So we implemented the, the overlay zone.
I was fortunate enough to have enough votes on the board. We had the courage to do it over all of the opposition. We did it. And frankly, in the last month we've made some adjustments.
We now have seven parcels. We took six parcels. I'm sorry, we took seven parcels out and we have six parcels remaining along Motor Parkway.
And we did that because we started to have concerns if the entire build that was done, do we have enough sewer capacity also?
The park is becoming very active. There's a lot going on in the park, as you and I both know. You have orbic, you have. We have applications coming in, which is wonderful. It just shows that we made the right move.
So now those six parcels we think would be sufficient to supply the housing that would be necessary. And actually we have one interested party that's looking for the first application and we are totally excited about that. And, and we know it's going to work. You will have housing units where these young professionals can now graduate from college or high school, go into the park in manufacturing, high tech businesses, and they'll have a place to. Have a place to live because most of them, frankly, they don't want to live with their parents. And there's no other options other than a studio apartment that's modestly priced that they can afford. And that's what we're, that's what we're doing.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: And thank you for that. I mean, you use the word supervisor courage. I think that's what it's all about. And that's what we've seen. And you know what I talk about with our executive committee in terms of the town of Smithtown, for literally the last few years, you've just done some things because they are the right thing to do. Right? I mean, that's, that's what it's about.
[00:11:54] Speaker C: Yeah, it really is. Look, I, from, From, you know, 2003, when I got into elective office, I made a commitment really to myself that I would work on and do what's in the best interests of the Smithtown community and the people who live here.
Not do things based on getting reelected in the next election cycle. I've never done it, nor will I do it, including this cycle. I do what I know and what I'm led to be educated on by land use professionals, environmental professionals, and then I try to convince our board this is the right thing to do for the community.
And I'm not really concerned they will either elect me or they won't. But that's how I run my elective office. And I think it's the only way that you can get things accomplished.
[00:12:46] Speaker B: Yeah. And I listen. I think people see it. So, you know, you know, you talked before about these kids, whether they're coming out of high school or college, they want an environment where they can live, work and play. They do. That's. That's walkability. Right. So, so, so absolutely. The overlay district helps with that. But talk a little bit about. Because you've been instrumental in really sensible development in the entirety in town of Smithtown, talk a little bit about some of the other projects that either you're excited about or have just who have just happened in the town.
[00:13:27] Speaker C: Well, look what we've done with the. Just similar to the model that we did with the overlay zone in the park.
We looked at also in Smithtown, a number of blighted sites that are primarily in the business districts away from the residential communities.
And we found ways to build commercial entities that will be put back on the tax roll because they were off the tax roll. And I'll give some examples. So if you go into Smithtown, on the eastern end, there was a concrete manufacturing plant that was abandoned and shut down for more than 20 years.
That's now a CarMax.
And two weeks ago we got a report.
It is the most profitable CarMax in the United States of America. Oh, wow.
Sixth Avenue Shopping Center a mile away from that on 347 was also shut down, laced with graffiti for probably also about 20 years. That's now a Tesla dealership.
And then we found ways to get into the business district. Across the street from town hall, right here in Smithtown was the former Nassau Suffolk lumberyard. The lumber yard shut down.
Their buildings were abandoned.
The supply building in the rear, the roof was collapsed.
It was a rusty four foot chain link fence right in the heart of Smithtown.
And it was shut down for probably 15 years like that in the middle of our business district.
We then took the initiative and brought a developer in and There are now 61 market rate apartments, 9,500 square feet of retail.
The apartments are 100% occupied and the retail is going so good that there's a lady that opened what's called the beauty bomb. She just expanded into the space next door. She's booked for three months.
And the dirty cheesecake. I talk to the owner frequently, tells me he can't keep up with the business.
So if you move a little further west, there was an old hotel called the Hilltop Hotel.
It wasn't any longer used for tourists, frankly. There was a lot of drugs being deal there. There was prostitution there. Quite frankly there were some overdose deaths.
We took that hotel out of there and Fieldstone came in and worked with us and they put 98 units of 55 age restricted luxury apartments on that site. It came out beautiful by the way.
It was 50% occupied before they ever put the foundations in the ground. And it was so successful they purchased the property just to the east which was called Trailer City.
It was a viable business but it was just trailers and pickup truck caps and things chewing all over the area.
They left, they sold that business out and now fieldstones putting 98 more units in. Also 55 age restricted. And then you could go to owner occupied. We have a project on the Raleigh farm in Kings Park, a bit controversial.
It's 288 owner occupied units of condominiums and townhouses clustered on that, on 72 acres of property.
Already a vast interest in that. So the property there is interesting because it's split zone R, 21/2 acre residential and light industry. And what I've been trying to convince folks, and I'm being mildly successful, look, housing, it's in the middle of your residential community. Housing is the best thing there. And move industry out. The last thing you need is industry going in there. Like if an Amazon came in and said we're going to purchase all the property, pay three times what the developer paid for it, as you know, and then put a warehouse in there and flip the R21 property at Liquid. That's not beneficial to the residents. That that would be an atrocity to put right in the middle of residential communities. So we're very selective about protecting the residential communities.
But I've said this through the, the primary and to the campaign.
You're going to grow or you're going to die. And I say that sincerely.
But if you do balanced smart growth like we are in the business districts, they'll start to thrive and the residential communities will be just as beautiful as they Always were. Because we're not going near them.
[00:18:26] Speaker B: Right. And I, you know, and I think that's the key to what you said is that you're taking blighted areas, underdeveloped areas that were not being used for anything, first of all. Right. And you're, you're making them useful, number one, you know, number two, for those listening, you know, we have to really think about that. Everything that the supervisor is talking about is again, places to live and places for our kids to work, by the way. Right.
So there was a survey that just came out that said if you look at people from the ages of 18 to 34 years old that they are saying close to 68% of them are saying about leaving Long island within the next five years. That is tragic.
[00:19:14] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: And say two things. Well, I don't know if I want to work here and I can't live here because I don't have the wherewithal or I don't have a place to live. I don't want to live in my parents basement, as you said. So you're really. And I, and I mean this sincerely, attacking both of us, which is beautiful.
[00:19:33] Speaker C: Yeah. You know what, it's, it's, it's going to work. Because I'll give you an example. The fieldstone apartments that we talked about 55 age restricted when they were completed. We went over to property manager just to find out who were your residents that are renting these apartments. Surprisingly to me, quite frankly, there were a fair number of Commack residents that were empty nesters that did not want to leave Smithtown.
So they sold that property.
We are at the probably the height of the market in residential properties right now.
Smithtown and frankly Suffolk county, they put that money in equity and then they go to Florida for two months and then we find out that house that they vacated, it wasn't on the market more than a week and you have a young couple coming in there looking to raise a family.
So yeah, we need to supply the jobs and we need to supply the housing and that's how you're going to retain the folks that want to stay and live here. Especially these young kids that are graduating from school. They, they don't want to leave, but they want a vibrant downtown with activity and they want a place to live and work.
[00:20:52] Speaker B: Right, Right. And as you said, even the empty nesters. Absolutely. So really both sides of the spectrum.
Absolutely. So budget time. We know it's budget time for all of us. It's budget time not just for the government. We're all going through it, but so a little bit about this 9%. Right. We've heard about it. But, you know, one of the things we said before we got on air is there's a lot of misinformation out there. So clear all that up for us.
[00:21:24] Speaker C: Sure.
So it's the time of the year that I dislike the most about my job, quite frankly, is doing the budget because it's extremely difficult. So most residents don't really understand the budget.
Let me start by saying this.
I manufactured a dollar bill which I have all over town hall, and I will take it to the budget hearing, which by the way, is next Tuesday, Nov. 4 at 7pm in the Senior center, if anyone wants to come and speak to the budget. And the dollar bill depicts where your taxes go.
When you look at the town of Smithtown, you will see that out of your tax dollar, you pay the town of Smithtown $0.11 to run the entire town out of your entire dollar.
The remaining is school district, police, fire and the county.
So since we took office in 2018, we have kept property taxes in Smithtown at about 1.9% tax increase each year under the cap.
I'm extremely proud of that and so is the board, quite frankly.
Very difficult to do, but we did it.
Now, while we were doing that, other municipalities were finding difficulties and piercing the cap.
We were fortunate. We found ways not to. We were the only municipality up until this year that has never pierced the 2% mandated cap.
Now, what people don't understand is we suffer in many ways, which every homeowner does, that pays taxes. Inflation hits us the same way it hits you. To fuel all this equipment to provide services.
I have four unions to deal with, all under union contracts. They all have medical coverage.
So the state of New York sends what we call unfunded mandates down. And this is. Every supervisor will tell you the same story.
We have to give our employees health care coverage.
The state of New York and Albany, they approve increases for nyship. That's the health care that employees have.
They send it down. We don't have a choice. We have to pay those employees the additional 8 or 10% increase.
Well, now it's gotten to the point where in this particular budget, for example, I had a $7.1 million deficit because of unfunded mandates, health insurance, pension contributions, insurance and inflation.
So the residents have two choices, which I described in my budget message.
You can pay the 9% increase on your Smithtown taxes for your home, which amounts to it's 9% of 11 cents on a dollar three a week is what the average homeowner will see for a tax increase.
If they wanted us to stay under the cap, which has gotten a lot of political play by opponents, he should stay under the cap.
That will require 46 full time layoffs and drastic cuts in service for seniors, seasonal programs, children and adults with disabilities, brush and leaf pickup, snow removal, cancellation of all free concerts, which we are so proud of. We have thousands of Smithtown residents that go to Long Beach, Hoyt Farm, the Historical Society.
We do a free concert at the end of every year at Callahan's Beach.
These are all quality of life amenities that I believe people will, when they do understand it, will think, you know what, for $3 a week we want those services. And I believe that will be the result and we'll get through it. But I have lobbied the governor's office, worked with my state representative, Senator Matero, who's a great guy.
The formula has to change. And I think every supervisor of a municipality will tell you that 7 out of 10 towns this year in Suffolk county will pierce the cap. It just doesn't work. And as we talked before we came on, Terry, that's basically unfortunate because school districts that are mandated, they stay under the cap as well, but they get millions in state aid.
Municipalities do not.
[00:26:11] Speaker B: Right.
[00:26:11] Speaker C: So the formula has to change somehow so that, you know, if they want to have a mandated cap, and I, and I believe in it, it does keep politicians or elected officials that get in office from going crazy with taxes.
But you can't mandate increases in my cost in Albany, send it down to me and then say you deal with it.
There's no alternative.
[00:26:39] Speaker B: Yeah, there has to be. Absolutely. Some give and take. You. You're right. So you listen. Glad to hear that you're talking to Senator Matero about it. As you said, he's great and fight till the end, let me tell you.
And you talk state about it as well.
It's cleared up some of the misinformation. I think that's important that you told us it's only 11 on the dollar and it's. And it's increase of, you know, $3 a day. I mean, I think I mentioned $3 a week.
[00:27:11] Speaker C: A week.
[00:27:12] Speaker B: I'm sorry, yeah, that. You know, I live in the town of Smithtown. I take advantage of all the things, free things that you're doing and it's phenomenal for me and my family. So early voting is open right now, right? Yes. My husband and I voted. And tell us for the people who haven't voted yet in the town of Smithtown. Why should they vote for you?
[00:27:38] Speaker C: Well, look, this has been a pretty difficult election cycle, quite frankly. We just went through a.
I'm not gonna soft soap it. A pretty vile primary.
I've been in five elections and three primaries, and this is the first time that it's been this despicable. Frankly.
My family got involved in this. My family got hurt. That's never happened to me before. I have always run on my record and I'm proud of it. And I have no problem displaying it to the public. Take a look at what we've done, and if you have a misunderstanding or you don't understand something, I'm in this office and I defy anybody to tell me that I'm not. I'm here at 8 o', clock, 8, 10 in the morning. I go home at 5 o' clock in the afternoon. And I'm very fortunate that I'm able to do that. I am a full time supervisor. I'm here all day. I field calls all day. I talk to residents all day.
I love coming to Hiali when you have your programs and, and sit on panels and I go to chamber meetings, civic meetings. I love what I do. And that's. And that's. And I still have the energy to do it. So I think all of that combined and the reason it's important to make sure you get the vote out is with a primary like we went through that's so onerous and complicated and nasty, kind of the air goes out of the balloon. So all of our Republican voters got me over the top in the primary and I thanked them all. Won by double digits.
However, it's not over yet. People start to take a breath. That's okay. I hear it on the street a lot. You're good, Ed. You'll be fine. No, no, no. Anything's possible in this business. And I will work diligently every single day to prove my record to get reelected. And I think it's important that everybody knows that.
And any registered voter can go out, look at what we do. I can tell you that. And I don't think it's a secretary. I really don't. Smithtown is one of the safest and most desirable places for people to live.
It's been that way. It is that way. We're making modest improvements specifically to make these business districts come alive.
We want to take care of our young people. We want to take care of our seniors, and that's what we do. And I would hope that people would really look at my record. And if you think I'm doing a good job, certainly would love to have you vote.
[00:30:23] Speaker B: Absolutely. Thank you. And listen, thank you again for your partnership. I can tell you how much it means, you know, we physically in this park can see the growth and a lot of that has to do with you and again, your courageous board and many of the things that you've worked on with us. So we really appreciate it. I'll tell everybody. Get out and vote. It's. It's super important. Super, super important. Right? So.
And thank you again, supervisor with us. And we will talk to you soon. I think you're on a panel. I'm sure you're on a panel in January with us. So we appreciate it.
[00:31:02] Speaker C: I. I am.
Jen just reminded me this morning that it's on the calendar for January.
I love doing it. I really enjoy it. And look, our relationship, Terry, with Hiali is extremely important to us as well.
Just quickly, you know, there's an example of Mr. Nerulo with Orbic is in here looking purchase three buildings once he gets up and running. And we're working him through the permit process so there's no holdups looking in the first two years to have 500 employees.
The park, and I'm so proud of it. The park is really, really starting to get busy. We have applications in on a monthly basis here to do work in Aaron. And our mission is to make sure it's viable right into the future. And we're not going to stop doing that. We're not going to stop being a good partner for Hiali.
[00:31:58] Speaker B: Yeah. And you know what?
Let me leave everybody with a thought. I remember when we originally did the opportunity analysis for the park. It was in 2019 and we were. James Lima was running a bunch of stakeholder meetings. Right. And I have to say that you and Lohman, I mean, were with us every single step of the way, every meeting everybody spoke to. So I mean, it just started that way. Right. Which is a wonderful way to start a relationship. So thank you and I'm gonna bid you adieu. But I'm gonna tell everybody, please get out and vote. It's really, it's really important. And thanks again.
[00:32:42] Speaker C: All right, Terry, look, thank you. It's always a pleasure being with you and be well.
[00:32:46] Speaker B: All right, thanks.
[00:32:48] Speaker A: Business Steps up is a production of Hiali, one of the recognized voices for business on Long island and a powerful voice and economic engine for regional development. Check back for more interesting thought provoking episodes with some of Long Island's most influential business leaders. For more information, call us at 631-543-5355 or log on to hiali.org.
