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FACT & OPINION
How Fire Island Was Saved From Being Paved Over
Click to download the Fire Island News
reprint as PDF file includes historic pictures
By Bob Spencer
Many readers will be aware of some of the story about how Fire Island was saved
from the paving of a highway, atop a sand-dike that had been first proposed by
Robert Moses back in 1924, when he first became head of the Long Island State
Park Commission. With each major storm after that, Bob Moses came back time and
again with his same idea. But here, this reporter will try to set down a bit
more on how the people of Fire Island, and just across the Great South Bay
pulled off a little miracle.
It took mammoth storms in winters of 1954-55, and March 1962 -- with huge
destruction of many homes -- to trigger action among thousands of people all
along Long Island’s south shore.
Right after the 1954-55 storm, Gil Serber formed the Fire Island Erosion Control
Committee (FIECC), which became a very active group participating in lobbying
for a federally supported beach erosion and hurricane protection project from
Montauk Point to Fire Island Inlet. Congress approved this project for the Army
Corps of Engineers which included major beach nourishment in 1960. Some modest
funds were appropriated, and then abruptly cut off soon thereafter, and we’re
still “reformulating” plans today, after four decades of worsening erosion –
much of it due to sand blockages to the east.
In that same 1960 year, in December, Islip proposed building a paved “service
road” on the island’s west end, and the FIECC stood with nearly 1,000 hardy
souls at a public hearing in Ocean Beach and showed their disdain for paved
roads. Moses was surely not pleased, but he knew more storms were to come.
Serber and other friends then set up a new not-for-profit organization in 1961
called the Fire Island Voters Association (FIVA) with Arthur Silsdorf as
President. (FIVA later became the Fire Island Association.)
Just a few months later, in March 1962 we saw a monster nor’easter sit off Fire
Island for five high lunar tides. It ripped out more than 40 homes on Fire
Island. Moses was right on cue, but with a new wrinkle – pave an even larger
four-lane highway right down over the Corps proposed dune and beach-building
plan. Governor Rockefeller named Joseph Carlino, Speaker of the Assembly, as
Chair of a “Temporary State Commission on Protection and Preservation of the
Atlantic Shore Front,” but with Robert Moses as Secretary.
A public hearing was set for July 10 at Jones Beach. The FIVA set out to raise
$20,000, and get massive batches of letters written, and generally organize the
many hundreds of volunteers to oppose the proposed highway.
In March 1962, at the time of that storm, this reporter, with a home in eastern
Davis Park, was as shocked as thousands of others at the idea of a Fire Island
highway, with its huge right-of-way proposed, that would essentially wipe out
many of the small communities on this barrier island, which often was less than
500 feet wide. But, oddly enough, I had a personal friend – George Biderman,
Saltaire – who happened to be my fellow jazz-loving neighbor back in Manhattan.
But he was also a staunch assistant to Arthur Silsdorf of FIVA. I called George
and offered to raise money, make signs, and be a general rouser of
righteousness, as my house was in the path of a ribbon of concrete. We were soon
having meetings in Babylon, virtually across the street from Robert Moses.
By mid May, I was sitting in the restaurant of the Houser Hotel in Ocean Beach
with Arthur Silsdorf, George Biderman, and Charles Collingwood (also Saltaire),
CBS correspondent associate of Edward R. Murrow. We were getting an update.
Silsdorf and Biderman were reporting on emergency funds becoming available for
some limited summer dredging. They also were enthusiastic about all the new
organizations, including conservationist groups, garden clubs and many civic
groups joining in the struggle. They expected a good turnout in July.
Collingwood reported that he believed he had some good points to make at the
July meeting. Then Biderman reported that US Secretary of Interior, Stuart
Udall, was coming out to support the Corps plan, but he was rejecting the Moses
highway – calling it the “Hell and High-water oceanway plan.” (As the Fire
Island News was to report on June 23, 1962.)
Then, Biderman told us of the progress that had been made on getting two bills
moving in Congress to establish a National Seashore along the lines of the one
recently established in Cape Cod. Senators Javits and Keating were sponsoring
the Senate bill, while John Lindsay was sponsoring one in the House. He also
reported that yet a second House bill was probably to be introduced by
Congressman Otis Pike, a Democrat from Suffolk. (This was actually done in June
1963, and voted into the law to become the Seashore Act in 1964.)
The stage is set for July 10 at Jones Beach.
The meeting was to be in the modest sized marine dining room at Jones Beach. As
many as 1,500 people were on hand to listen and speak. More than half could not
gain entrance to the meeting room, and listened on loudspeakers outside.
The “Temporary Commission” had unanimously approved the Moses plan at a meeting
on June 6th. Joseph Carlino started this four-hour meeting, and called on a long
list of speakers. Road opponents had 90 minutes. Arthur Silsdorf of the Fire
Island Voters Association talked about the virtues of turning all major
undeveloped areas to a national seashore. This followed with FIVA-designated
spokesmen Gil Serber, and George Biderman.
And then, Charles Collingwood, a well known TV personality came forth with his
prepared speech. According to the New York Herald Tribune, Collingwood sprinkled
his speech with quotes from “Alice in Wonderland” about the walrus and the
carpenter weeping over sand. Then, as reported in The New York Times,
Collingwood stated the following, which was referring to a 1938 letter from news
correspondent Elmer Davis regarding Hitler’s taking over of the Sudetenland:
“Mr. Moses wanted to save Fire Island ten years ago (1929), but luckily hard
times came along and he didn’t have enough money to do it. Luckily, because he
would save Fire Island the way Hitler is saving the Sudetenland – to the
distress of many of its inhabitants.” Standing ovation.
This caused Moses to walk out of the meeting, and registered in headlines the
following day. Even so, Moses was confidant that the Temporary Commission’s
position would stand in September when the state legislature got back in
operation. In fact, in August, the Suffolk County Board of Supervisors voted for
it, and things seemed bleak.
There was one more hurdle to go. It yielded a surprise.
The FIVA now had the Moses plan in enough detail to analyze it. Very quickly it
was discerned that most of the land to be traversed by the highway was to be
placed into private development, not into parks for the public. Some of the
areas to be developed were to be made available to those with homes eliminated
by the road, but the major portion was to be opened for new development.
The idea developed then was to prepare a detailed report of this analysis, and
then present it to Governor Nelson’s brother, Laurence Rockefeller, widely
perceived as a conservationist. He was heavily involved with New York State
parks.
It was not long thereafter that Governor Rockefeller asked Moses to resign from
the New York State Council of Parks.
From that point on, the lobbying efforts of the Fire Island Association (evolved
from FIVA), and many other affiliated groups such as the Citizens Committee for
a National Seashore, based on the mainland, were much more effective. Interior
Secretary Udall then added to his support of the Corps beach nourishment plan,
and gave his full support to a new National Seashore.
Congressman Otis Pike of Suffolk introduced his version of a Seashore bill in
June 1963. It was strongly supported by Secretary Udall, and that’s the bill to
get enacted and signed into law in September 1964. This unique Act, unlike that
of any other US National Seashore, embeds 17 communities – uniquely -- right
within the park.
Recent Interior Secretaries have not also supported the 1960 Corps plans for
beach nourishment. Now, with Corps planners expected to offer us later this year
a new sand restoration program, best suited for Fire Island and Long Island
protection, this may change. For one thing, there is a new Interior Secretary in
office now – his name is Dirk Kempthorne.
Hope has been springing eternal for residents around the Great South Bay since
the Army Corps announced their intentions in1960. The Fire Island Association is
alert, and may have another think-session at the Houser Hotel.
Copyright 2006 Robert H. Spencer
First rights exclusively to Fire Island News -- gratis
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