Critics of Montauk Beach Project Fill Town Hall

Montauk residents who watched this week as bulldozers took out sand dunes and an excavator scooped sand from along the downtown shore where the Army Corps of Engineers is building a 3,100-foot long sandbag seawall filled Town Hall on Thursday night and asked the town board to stop the project.

While construction has just gotten under way, the project is “signed, sealed, and delivered,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell told them. Planning has been ongoing for more than two years, with numerous public discussions, said Mr. Cantwell, who was re-elected to a second two-year term this week. “We saw little opposition to this project, frankly, over that period of time, until fairly recently,” he said.

But Sarah Conway, among other Montaukers, said she had attended meetings about the project and that “it always seemed to me that people were speaking up against the project, and questioning.“

Close to 20 speakers -- many of whom said they were unaware of the Army Corps project until they saw the work begin on the beach in earnest this week, or were alerted to it through posts on social media by James Katsipis, a Montauk photographer -- displayed strong emotion, calling the artificial sandbag dune an unacceptable project that is “destroying Montauk.” Loud and sustained applause followed most of the speakers’ comments.

“The reality of this construction project is sinking in,” Mike Martinsen told the board.

“There’s a visceral reaction happening in Montauk now, when they see the equipment on the beach,” said Thomas Muse, one of the plaintiffs, with an environmental group called Defend H2O, in a lawsuit seeking an injunction against the project. “I haven’t heard any support for it,” he said.

“I’m not a scientist . . . I don’t think it takes a scientist to know that this is a horrible idea,” Mr. Katsipis said. “They’re going to get rid of perfectly good dune to build this artificial dune that’s going to get washed away,” he said. “I don’t want to see these structures there. This isn’t Rockaway; this isn’t Long Beach.”

Although “it’s clear that it’s a little late in the game,” said Tracy Stoloff urged the board to “be brave . . . change one’s mind and hit the pause button.”

With contracts signed and a long planning and regulatory process already completed, Mr. Cantwell said there would be financial and other repercussions to the town attempting to back out now. Besides, he said, “the Army Corps is making the decisions.”

The supervisor said he and other board members were, like many in the audience, taken aback by Mr. Katsipis’s photographs of the beach work, which showed the removal of a dune at the western end of the project, near the Oceanside Motel. “I was shocked, actually,” he said. “I don’t think any of the board members anticipated . . . visually, or otherwise. . . . That’s troubling; seriously troubling.”

The dune was being removed so that the edge of the seawall can be “tied in” to the existing dune, said Mr. Cantwell; dunes are not expected to be removed all along the project’s length.

Board members, like many of the speakers, would have preferred replenishing the beach with sand to the sandbag project, he said, but that was not an option offered by the Army Corps. The beach “stabilization,” as it is termed by the Army Corps, is being done at federal expense, though the town and county will be responsible for keeping the sandbag wall covered with three feet of fresh sand.

Taking on that expense, suggested some speakers Thursday night, is fiscally irresponsible. It could cost far more than the $150,000-per-year average estimated by the Army Corps, they said.

“I’m a taxpayer; I didn’t agree to do this,” Stacey Brosnan told the board. “I don’t want to pay for this. I don’t want to pay to protect some motels that are making money.”

“Contracts can be broken,” Gail Simons said.

Ms. Conway tried to initiate a pragmatic discussion of what could be done. “It may be signed and sealed, but not delivered, and we’re asking you to stop. We’re all here, right now, that’s what we want. So let’s look at the possibilities, let’s look at the next step, and the ramifications,” she said.

“I don’t know that the town board wants to stop,” Mr. Cantwell said. “I don’t know that the town legally could stop it; that’s a question. And there are financial questions.”

“I, for one, am not in favor of stopping this project,” the supervisor said. “We have put a lot of time and energy into this. It’s the best option available at this time. It’s a short-term fix,” he said. The project is meant to be an interim measure until a full beach reconstruction is done by the Army Corps under its Fire Island to Montauk Point beach plan, which officials refer to by its initials, FIMP. Town residents and officials should put their energies toward getting that accomplished, Mr. Cantwell said.

“Bypass this plan,“ said Ms. Conway. “You’re talking about this as a short-term fix, and it’s a long-term environmental disaster. It’s an economic and environmental disaster. We can say no.”

“In the event that the board decides it is unable to be brave and hit the pause button and stop this work,” Ms. Stoloff said, “then it will be up to us to show up and link our arms to stop the work.”

After the meeting, those in attendance began to spread the word via Facebook, Instagram, and other social media that they would gather Friday morning at 6:30 a.m., to, as Mr. Katsipis wrote on Facebook, “tie our hands together and form a human chain to stop the work. . . .”