Work on a boardwalk to connect Windmill Beach and the John Steinbeck Waterfront Park in Sag Harbor has begun, and one clear sign of that was the removal last week of a large but invasive tree in its path.
More work is coming, said Ed Hollander, the landscape architect for the project, who expects the boardwalk will be complete by early next spring. “The willage has work they need to do with the state for funding,” Mr. Hollander said by phone Tuesday, “particularly for the boardwalk construction itself.”
With that in mind, the focus right now is ecological remediation mixed with removing invasive plants and replacing them with native ones. “We can do that while we’re waiting for all the normal state funding things to get started,” Mr. Hollander said. He is aiming to get the “prep work” done this fall, with many services being contributed by local landscaping and contracting companies.
In an email to Mayor Thomas Gardella, Mr. Hollander outlined some of that. A major part of it was the removal of ailanthus trees, also known as trees of heaven, which are “not only invasive species but also actually attract spotted lantern flies.” In the email Mr. Hollander also noted some species that will be preserved, including cedars, white poplars, sumac, and bayberry, all of which are native.
Some areas with invasives will be mowed now and planted with grasses and wildflowers in the spring to “both reduce runoff and provide habitat for birds, butterflies, and bees,” his letter also said.
Mr. Hollander shared a plan with renderings for what the finished product may look like. They show an eight-foot-wide boardwalk, which will wrap around the bridge and connect to the existing boardwalk at John Steinbeck Park on the other side. The boardwalk includes more sitting areas and a picnic area on the windmill side of the bridge.
At Tuesday night’s Sag Harbor Village Board meeting, the board approved hiring L.K. McLean Associates Engineering & Surveying to draft a request for proposals for the handrail and walkway portion of the project.
