Thunderstorms like the one that soaked Long Island the weekend after Labor Day used to leave pools of standing water on the baseball fields in Malverne. With a new drainage system built beneath Whelan Park, this time was different.

“There was no standing water, no ponding, nothing that would prohibit the use of any of the amenities down there,” Malverne Village Mayor Timothy Sullivan said. In the past, “we would have to frequently deal with standing water issues,” he said.

The completion of a $6.3 million yearlong project to build the drainage system beneath what Sullivan said had been an underutilized park means rainwater is now directed into concrete basins and plastic tanks that slow absorption into the ground. That prevents flooding and filters the water that ultimately fee

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