Letters to the Editor: MTK Army Corps 11.19.15

Ruining Our Beach

Montauk

November 16, 2015

Dear Editor,

I cannot believe the madness that is happening on Montauk’s beach. 

We have owned a home in Montauk for 20 years and Umbrella Beach is our beach. Now this crazy project to protect the motels at the expense of the public beach is ruining our beach. 

In other parts of East Hampton Town, don’t they fine people for disturbing the dunes? So why is it okay to bulldoze the dunes on Montauk’s public beach?

This is so sickening I can’t even go down there to look. If they continue with the sandbag project, I think it will be the end of the public beach in Montauk — the beach where we have had our best family times and memories. I’ll only have the pictures to remember what once was.

Sincerely,

CHRIS SESSA

Misled the Public

Montauk

November 16, 2015

To the Editor,

Dear East Hampton Star and people of the Town of East Hampton: As a resident of Montauk and a person who strongly opposes this Army Corps project that has involved cutting into our natural dunes with bulldozers, inserting huge plastic tubes filled with sand unlike the composition of our beach sand into giant pits, and destroying the pristine beauty of our beach in Montauk, I am outraged that Supervisor Larry Cantwell and the rest of the town board has misled the public into thinking that they were actually considering — no, leaning toward — an immediate sand-only option to replenish and fortify the downtown Montauk beach and properties on the beach. 

The community of Montauk has never been offered a referendum on this project. Why? Because it’s all done behind closed doors! There has been no transparency involved in making these decisions democratically. We, the residents of Montauk, demand a halt to this travesty of a project. 

Hear us, town board, because we are not going away!

Sincerely,

VALERIE HOFFMANN

Outraged

Noyac

November 16, 2015

Dear Editor,

We are outraged at the off-handed decision of the East Hampton Town Board to “monitor” the destruction of the Montauk beach by the Army Corps and its contractor, rather than pausing, studying the damage, and working toward viable alternatives. 

The community has become ever more vigorous in opposition to this poorly considered and rushed project. The demolition of a primary dune was never presented to the community as part of the project, the 1.7-ton plastic bags of gravel will become an eyesore within months (if the experience with all the other communities that tried this is any guide), and access to the beach will be limited to three narrow wooden walkways and a closeable entry at the Sloppy Tuna. 

Worse than all of this is the fact that the near-elimination of the actual beach by the 15-foot high seawall of bags is dangerous, contributing to faster, more widespread erosion. 

A hurricane’s damage cannot be prevented by this plan. The Army Corps of Engineers’ project does not protect the public’s interests, nor does it preserve the major natural asset of Montauk beach. The “temporariness” of the project is belied by the 15-year lifespan of those bags, and the complete absence of any specific timeline for the implementation of the permanent dredging solution under the federal Fire Island to Montauk Point project.

The board should stop this current project immediately. Moving ahead with it is simply unacceptable to intelligent and concerned citizens.

Sincerely,

TOM OLESZCZUK

HEIDI RAIN OLESZCZUK

Quite Invasive

Montauk

November 16, 2015

To the Editor,

The town just released its decision that it will not halt the Band-Aid solution the Army Corps of Engineers is executing in Montauk saying they will “remove the project” when the Fire Island to Montauk project is in place. That seems very unrealistic. How is this project, which as you can see by the pictures is quite invasive, going to be removed and our beautiful beach reinstated?

Board, town, Army Corps, please reconsider a sand-only solution. That’s what people said they wanted (and what experts recommended) at the early meetings attended by hundreds and that’s what we want now. 

MARJORIE SPITZ

Deadly Serious

Sag Harbor

November 16, 2015

Dear David Rattray: 

So today I can say without the slightest hesitation that I am thrilled I live in Southampton Town. As much as that town board has let me down and disappointed me in its decisions on my behalf in the past, it has never done something as outrageous as the East Hampton Town Board just did to the citizens of Montauk and beachgoers across the East End (and beyond). 

Saying it will continue to “monitor, but not halt” the downtown Montauk project is outrageous. I’d love to know what the board members think that will prove. When was the last time anyone found sitting by and watching a horrible act (instead of trying to stop it) productive? This would be a great joke if it wasn’t so deadly serious.

The East Hampton Town Board brought this on, pushed it through (just look behind the scenes a bit), and it can stop it. This is a rape of the sensitive dune area and beach as bad as, if not worse than, anything storm damage could cause, partially because it is so invasive with a large footprint and includes permanent structures being forced into the beach-dune area. Hurricane Sandy was about as bad a storm as we’ve had in recent times and downtown Montauk survived. The scare tactic of saying this is all that can be done at this time to protect downtown Montauk is unforgivable.

This project is the very definition of a boondoggle (noun: work or activity that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance of having value; verb: waste money or time on unnecessary or questionable projects) and the East Hampton Town Board members should be ashamed to be a part of it and to not take action to stop it, not listen to the many experts showing them how, even for the interim, this is a mistake, to act as if their hands are tied, and, worse, to finally say they are in support of what is being done.

Yes, I’m happy to live in Southampton Town, where, to date, we have not decided to destroy our own beaches. But I am very sad to be a lover of Montauk, a believer in a natural beach, a supporter of “sand only,” and to see the East Hampton Town Board turning on its constituents in this manner. 

Sincerely, 

ELLEN DIOGUARDI