For UUP delegate Charlie McAteer, helping to make the first phase of the Setauket-Port Jefferson Station Greenway Trail a reality was one way to ensure that his young granddaughter and other kids will have a safe place to ride their bikes.

His longtime friend, fellow Stony Brook delegate Nick Koridis, lent a hand because the Greenway project was the perfect path for local Boy Scouts to accomplish required service projects to become Eagle scouts—a cause that’s near and dear to his heart. Both men have given their time on the project as a way to give back to their community.

“What we do in UUP is university and community service, and I think Nick and I take that to heart,” said McAteer, who serves as chairman of the Friends of the Greenway, a volunteer organization that coordinates construction and maintenance of the trail. “It’s not just another line on your performance program.”

“For me, it’s the million dollar smile when you see these scouts work hard and finish a project and the community is thanking them,” said Koridis, a regional Boy Scout leader whose two sons are Eagle scouts. “You’ve made a difference in their lives.”

MAKING INROADS

The first half of the Greenway, a 1.5-mile stretch which runs from Gnarled Hollow Road to east of Sheep Pasture Road in Setauket, opened with much fanfare in May 2009. Assemblyman Steve Englebright, who hatched the project in 2001, attended the event, along with Congressman Tim Bishop (D-Southampton), state Department of Transportation and Environmental Conservation officials, and local legislators.

The trail project has turned out to be a great door-opener for McAteer to approach Englebright and Bishop with UUP’s legislative concerns and initiatives, he said.

“It has given us such access to our local politicians,” said McAteer, Stony Brook’s vice president for professionals. “We need to talk to them about UUP and SUNY and these are the people who can help us out. It’s a great give and take.”

CLEARING THE WAY

McAteer has been a trail blazer for the trail; he began working on the project a decade ago when Englebright, then a Suffolk County legislator, asked him to chair a committee to create concepts to turn a state-owned, 3.5-mile strip of land from Port Jefferson Station to Setauket into an all-purpose trail.

The state bought the land in the 1960s with plans to build a highway that would have divided the two hamlets. Instead, the 13-foot-wide, blacktop trail is bringing walkers, bikers, joggers and rollerbladers together while preserving acres of old growth forest and farmland. The trail will link three county parks when it’s completed in 2013.

As Friends of the Greenway chair, McAteer helped schedule a series of public hearings on the trail; Englebright obtained $2.2 million in state funds to cover those costs. Plans were drawn and construction set when Bishop secured a $5 million federal grant to build the trail in 2006.

The trail, which winds through woods, farmland, a rhododendron grove and the communities it connects, has been a pleasant surprise to some residents, who worried it would attract rowdy teenagers on motor bikes. The trail is closed to motorized vehicles.

“The community is delighted,” said McAteer. “Things that we never expected are happening. Some of the local doctors are starting to refer patients to use the Greenway for exercise.”

The trail has also become a focal point for bringing together area civic organizations, such as the Boys and Girls Club, which have approval to build a community center and ball fields on land along the trail. Local groups such as the Cub Scouts, the Girl Scouts and the Port Jefferson Rotarians are also involved in keeping the trail clean and safe, said McAteer.

SCOUT SPIRIT

Boy Scout Troop 244 has been involved in the trail project since 2006. That’s when Koridis, a scoutmaster and assistant district commissioner for scouts in the Rocky Point and Sound Beach areas, saw the potential the trail held in providing prospective Eagle Scouts with service projects to help them earn the esteemed rank.

Since then, scouts have installed three green benches—each made of recycled plastic—along the trail. That’s a lot harder than it sounds; the benches had to meet state specs and be DOT-approved before they could be built, Koridis said.

The scouts then had to raise about $550 for materials, and line up and lead a crew to build the benches. So far, three scouts have earned their Eagle Scout badge by doing trail-related projects. At least one scout, Sean Anderson, probably wouldn’t have stayed in scouting, let alone earned his Eagle Scout badge, without the challenge, he said.

“Less than three percent of all scouts in the nation make it to Eagle Scout,” said Koridis. “The Eagle Scout’s final project requires them to spend between 110 and 120 hours to coordinate a service project and show their leadership skills.”

A LONG LEGACY

The trail will provide lots of future opportunities even after the remaining two-mile section is completed. The Greenway is set to be linked to a planned 12.5-mile running and walking trail along a former Long Island Rail Road line that will extend from Port Jefferson to Wading River.

Eventually, the Greenway could be connected to area bike paths and six miles of paths at Stony Brook University, he said.

“What I’m most proud of is that everyone who uses the trail is smiling,” said McAteer. “This is a great thing that happened in our community.”

— Michael Lisi