Photo 1

Growing anxiety about safety and security, and quality-of-life matters, led three Fire Island Association Directors to the Patchogue office of County Legislator Jack Eddington in February (photo 1). The issue was brought to the fore last August by Fire Island’s representative in the State Assembly, Ginny Fields, when she led a large delegation of concerned islanders to a meeting in Hauppauge with County Executive Steve Levy and Police Commissioner Richard Dormer.

At the meeting with Mr. Eddington was FIA President Jerry Stoddard, Suzanne Goldhirsch, President of the Seaview Association, and John Lund, President of the Davis Park Association, both of the latter are Vice Presidents of FIA. Ms. Goldhirsch stated the issue: the issues of crime and safety are of growing importance on Fire Island, and incidents are becoming more frequent and more serious. After describing a few of them, she said a visible increase in police on patrol would start to address this issue. In addition to criminal activity, Ms. Goldhirsch is concerned that older residents, especially, feel isolated on Fire Island and fearful of not getting prompt transport to mainland hospitals in a medical emergency.

Mr. Eddington chairs the County Legislature’s Committee on Public Safety, which includes review of the Police Department budget. One of several suggestions he made was that island communities work with the Marine Bureau to form Neighborhood Watch groups to advise of potential problems before they get out of hand. He also said the islanders should meet with police officials and urge restoration of the summer police contingent to former levels. He acknowledged this would be a problem in light of cutbacks being urged by the County Executive to balance the budget.

In March, an expanded group acted on Legislator Eddington’s advice, meeting with Nicholas Mango, Chief of Patrol; Patrick Cuff, Assistant Chief of Patrol; John Meehan, Deputy Chief of Patrol; and Deputy Inspector Harold Jantzen, Commander of the Marine Bureau. FIA Officers included included the above mentioned, joined by Hugh O’Brien, Trustee of Saltaire; Tom Ruskin, Seaview’s Vice President for Security; and Bartley Horton, Ocean Bay Park Community Manager (photo 2).

At the meeting, the island representatives related details of their concerns. The police officials, while forthright about the budget constraints they operate under, showed a reassuringly detailed familiarity with the special problems of the various Fire Island communities.The meeting brought out that last year’s experiment with assigning the west end sector car to the 1st Precinct (Babylon), while keeping the crew as part of the Fire Island contingent, was not effective and won’t be continued. Also, there are expected to be ten seasonal patrol officers (virtually all of them with island experience) assigned to Fire Island for the 2010 season. This compares to six seasonals in 2009, plus the crew from the west end sector car. The group hopes to meet with Inspector Jantzen for an update following the Memorial Day weekend, typically the most problematic of the summer.

One request from the police: response times will be improved if all house numbers are clearly shown on the sidewalk. For houses that are rented, detailed instructions of how to report an emergency should be posted near the telephone. If 911 is dialed from a landline, the police will know how to locate the house; if the call is from a mobile phone, the system for doing that will not work.

Photo 2

The Fire Island Association and the Fire Island National Seashore are cooperating on a New York City Meeting. Its primary purpose is to discuss revising the Seashore’s General Management Plan (GMP), but it will also provide an opportunity to raise questions Fire Islanders may have regarding Fire Island that the National Seashore or FIA can address as time allows.

The meeting will begin with a power point presentation by Superintendent Soller and National Park Service Planner Ellen Carlson on the process to be followed in revising the GMP, the document that sets forth guidelines followed by the National Seashore in managing the park.  This is an opportunity for residents, businesses and visitors to provide input to the park’s deliberations. Other stakeholders will have a similar opportunity as the process moves forward. This will be the first GMP revision since the present plan went into effect in 1978. It is important that the people who care most about the island are part of the discussion.

The meeting will be held on Thursday, February 18, at All Souls Unitarian Church, Lexington Avenue at 80th Street, New York City. There is a stop on the Lexington Avenue subway line at 77th Street. The meeting will convene at 7 p.m. and end at or before 9 p.m.     

For more information, call FINS at (631) 687-4750 or FIA at (212) 929-6415.

Saltaire suffered only relatively minor erosion — some scouring, but no damage to the dunes, stairs, fencing, etc.  No scarping at all.  Scouring never got closer to the dunes than about 10 feet in one limited area, farther away everywhere else.  The sand is still in our system and the project seems to be doing its job.
Hugh O’Brien, October 22, 2009

            I watched the events unfold last weekend and finally got to walk the beach yesterday an hour or so before low tide. About two thirds of the community (4100 feet long) saw some scarping ranging from 1 foot to 4 feet in the worst areas and then tapering back down. We lost one set of stairs in the Davis Park section at Seajay Walk and a section of sand fence in that area as well. The concentration of erosion seems to be shifting a bit west of its historic impact area in the Casino to West Walk area of the community. There is a lot of sand extending from the beach into the ocean at the east end of the community. Fishing from it and casting to the west has been seen. Other sand remains in the surf area. Traditionally erosion has chewed away at the middle of the community and moved some sand to the west end where our westernmost Fifth Walk enjoys a very similar profile to the 1950s and an elevation near 20ft. Sand seems to be accumulating in the surf here as well and the beach widens.  

John Lund

In Dunewood this past weekend water came past our snow fencing on the ocean but we did not appear to lose substantial dune.  We did lose height on the beach front and will need some favorable winds to get buildup to help us thru winter.  The water in the bay was raging and the highest that I can remember, coming over the ferry dock (ferry had trouble unloading passengers and carts due to tide height). Water several feet high covered our entire bay beach and went over bay front bulk heads  and close to bay front houses.  I could not assess if there was any damage to bulk heads but I think we may have dodged the bullet this time.  I think Chris [Soller] is right to be worried about the bay. The wind driven water appeared to keep building up with each tide and had no suitable outlet out from the bay. — Ron Bimberg

The Fire Island Association held its 2009 Summer Membership Meeting at Whyte Hall, Fire Island Pines, on July 18.

Ron Martin, President of the Fire Island Pines Property Owner Association, welcomed the approximately 80 in attendance, commenting on the multi-purpose facility and its frequent use by members of the Pines community. The meeting room seats more than 200, and its entire north wall was opened to an expansive veranda and the breeze from Great South Bay.
read more from "Notes on the 2009 Summer Meeting"

Fire Island Homeowners Present Certificates to

Jeffrey Kassner, Marie Michel and Barbara Wiplush

The Fire Island Association (FIA) and a delegation of homeowners presented certificates of appreciation to three Brookhaven town employees at a meeting in Brookhaven Supervisor Mark Lesko’s office on June 12.

From left; Councilman Mazzei, Barbara Wiplush, Jerry Stoddard, Marie Michel, Deputy Supervisor Walsh, Supervisor Lesko. 
read more from "Fire Island Homeowners Present Certificates"

Here is Kelly Risotto’s latest update on piping plover nesting activity in Fire Island communities:

Davis Park

1.     Nest 1DP (FINS 5A).  Hatch date was estimated at 6/3, but as of 13:30 yesterday, all four eggs were still present and the plover was still incubating.  We will be out again today (June 4) to check. 

2.     Nest 2DP (FINS 6A).  Hatch date is estimated at tomorrow (6/5).  As of yesterday, bird was incubating and the second was seen foraging near the water east of the Casino.

3.     Land Use observed a LIPA truck (license M 3242) driving from the west end into the cut at Davis Park yesterday.  I emailed FINS yesterday afternoon, and Lindsay was hopeful that they could put up no driving signs today. 

4.     Dune fence has been installed at the crest of the dune in front  of the Casino to prevent beachgoers from traversing the dune in that area. 

Fire Island Pines

1.     Nest 1FIP (FINS 14A).  Bird incubating; second not observed.

Ocean Bay Park

1.     Nest 1CFI (FINS 1C).  As of 6/2, bird was incubating and the second was observed foraging nearby.  We did not make it out there yesterday due to rain.

Comments and questions can be directed to Ms. Risotto at Land Use Ecological Services, PO Box 1060, Riverhead, NY 11901; 631- 727-2400; fax -2605; mobile 631- 764-7983; krisotto@landuse.us

Construction activity on the community-sponsored beach renourishment project was concluded before midnight on April 29, within the time window of the project extension granted by the Seashore. The final days of construction activity were aided by calm seas and generally moderate weather. On the final days of pumping, with both dredges in operation, the contractor exceeded 42,000 cubic yards per day. The wildlife monitor observed an isolated pair of piping plovers foraging in an area to the west of the project termination point, but 300 yards from the area of operations. They subsequently left the area.

Kelly Risotto reported on April 27 to Town officials and representatives of the community erosion control taxing districts on the key role the Fire Island National Seashore played in completion of the project:

“As you are all aware, the Fire Island community beach nourishment project met with several delays since construction started on January 27. This meant permit extensions were required from all federal and state agencies for work continuing into April. As you know, the project was planned to be completed by April 25 in the Central reach (Ocean Bay Park to Summer Club). But bad weather and equipment delays, most notably the three-day weather delay during the week of April 17, meant an additional extension would be necessary. Land Use Ecological Services worked closely with Superintendent Soller, and a final extension through April 29 allowed Weeks Marine to complete the project in its entirety.

“We all owe a debt of gratitude to Superintendent Soller for his understanding of how important this project is to the participating communities. That the communities themselves agreed with Weeks Marine to change the project sequence to minimize potential impact on piping plovers may have been important to his decision, but his awareness that the communities considered completion of the project to be critical was equally so, in our opinion. Chuck Bowman and I believe everyone should show their appreciation to Mr. Soller for his understanding and support on this matter.”

Kelly Risotto, Senior Ecologist, Land Use Ecological Services

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The following is an excerpt from an e-mail report to FIA Board Members on a last-day visit to the operation as it neared conclusion at the beach off Summer Club:

All that remains for the contractor is beach dressing (grading, etc.) and equipment removal. The latter will be done from the beach and will have to await a calm day. Today (May 1) was calm but strong east winds are predicted later as a cold front moves through the area.

The new beach is impressive. The Ocean Beach groins have been buried (at least for now) and there is a 25-foot wide dune with elevation of 13-15 feet. Looking west, there is a gap extending from the west edge of the Central reach (Summer Club) to the east edge of the Western reach (Lonelyville). Robbins Rest and Atlantique did not participate in the project, and no sand was placed in the federal area west of Summer Club. Steve says spreading will fill some of that gap, but the useful life of non-continuous projects is shorter than that of continuous ones.

Steve Keehn believes the projects now in place are “good for five or six years.” At first, waves will spread the newly constructed beach profile over the existing bottom (the engineers call this “equilibration”). In this process, the underwater toe of the beach is built up by natural wave and current forces, as illustrated by the diagram in the post that follows.  As Mr. Keehn points out, this apparent “loss” of the part of the beach that is visible is wholly expected. The amount of sand estimated to move offshore is compensated for by placing about twice as much sand as is expected to remain on the beach .

While the restored beach is doing its job of protecting the communities over the next few years, people interested in shore protection for the long run have a different job to do. That is to continue to press government at all levels to put aside their differences and join in a comprehensive program of coastal management for the benefit of the region as well as Fire Island.