Town Board: Eyeing Erosion And Shoals

The East Hampton Town Board is expected to vote in favor of emergency dredging of the Lake Montauk inlet tomorrow and of placing the dredged material on the beach in front of Soundview Drive, which faces Block Island Sound just to the west. Who would wind up paying for the work, however, remained unclear.

The Town Board vote follows an aerial inspection by Federal officials on Friday, pleas from Soundview residents, and partisan arguments among Town Board members on how to proceed.

Soundview residents, supported by Town Councilwoman Pat Mansir and Councilman Len Bernard, who are Republicans, have asked for quick action, even if the town has to foot the bill. Supervisor Cathy Lester, a Democrat, has insisted that the cost of protecting the beach and bulkheads at Soundview should be shared by Washington and Albany.

Republican Effort

Noting that a bulkhead had collapsed, Councilwoman Mansir said that it had taken a collaborative effort by herself, Councilman Bernard, and James Greenbaum, a Soundview resident and attorney for the Save Our Beaches Association, to convince Representative Michael P. Forbes, who also is a Republican, to come to Montauk Friday to see at first hand the damage Soundview Drive had suffered after the latest northeast storm. He arrived by helicopter with Joseph Vietri of the Army Corps of Engineers.

The inlet to Lake Montauk was last dredged with Federal funds in 1995 and a preliminary study of long-term solutions for shoaling problems was completed subsequently by the Army Corps. The study called for widening the inlet and extending it as far into the harbor as Coonsfoot Cove. It also called for a sand-bypass system to solve erosion problems at Soundview, which the corps said were primarily the result of downdrift scouring from the inlet's jetties and the effects of erosion-control structures along the Soundview beach.

Support Local Funding

At a meeting on Monday of the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee Town Councilman Peter Hammerle, a Democrat who serves as the Town Board's liaison to the committee, told its members that the board would support emergency dredging of the inlet and placing the sand dredged up at Soundview Drive.

"The immediate issue is the erosion situation," Councilman Bernard said Tuesday, adding that the town should move forward with the project as a short-term solution, even if it has to be funded locally.

For the most part Mr. Bernard agreed with Councilman Hammerle's suggestions of the previous night, saying the emergency work would help Soundview residents get through this season, but then the town would have to turn its attention to the longer term.

Called "Useless"

Also on Tuesday, however, Supervisor Lester called the corps' study "basically useless" because it called for changes within the harbor that the Town Board could not support. Ms. Lester said that she supported the idea of a bypass system, but did not believe town taxpayers should have to pay for it by themselves.

"The beach in front of your home doesn't benefit general taxpayers," Ms. Lester told Mr. Greenbaum and other Soundview residents who attended a Town Board meeting on Tuesday.

They, in turn, accused her of standing in the way of a solution to a manmade problem caused by the Montauk Harbor jetties. Whatever the cause, she maintained that funds to solve the problem had to come from state and Federal sources as well as the town. Typically, that would mean 50 percent in Federal funding, 35 percent from the state, and 15 from the town.

Data Needed

Although her response frustrated Soundview residents, who have been appealing to the town for help since last summer and fear further damage from more storms, it was noted that Mr. Forbes had warned on Friday that before the Federal Government would commit funds it needed supporting data from the Coast Guard on the shoaling in the inlet.

He said that when he last checked only two boats had reported navigational problems there. "We need to hear from more fishermen," he said, calling the Montauk Harbor an "important waterway."

The Town Board agreed to ask dragger captains to report to the Coast Guard each time their boats hit bottom or have problems in the channel. Such documentation will help prove to Federal authorities that the shoaling in the channel as well as erosion on Soundview Drive deserve emergency attention and emergency funding.

Before reboarding for his return trip on Friday Mr. Forbes told the Soundview Drive group that it would take a collaborative effort by the town, state, and Federal Government to solve the shoaling and erosion problems, and added that funding for the project was beginning to take shape.

"The magnitude of the problem is one that the local community and the township cannot take on," the Supervisor said Tuesday, arguing that such funding "isn't something the state or Federal Government can move to act on overnight."

Meanwhile, in a recent press release Mr. Forbes has pointed out that as a member of the House Appropriations Committee he has helped secure $4.8 million for the Army Engineers Fire Island to Montauk Point Study Project for 1998, $200,000 to protect the Montauk Lighthouse, and $90,000 for a detailed study of the Sag Harbor breakwater.

Mr. Forbes also noted that an additional $2.8 million had been put into the 1997 and 1998 appropriations bills for a five-year monitoring program and $450,000 to study the impact of the Army Corps' projects on ecosystems, habitats, and water quality of the South Shore's back bay areas.