Dan Rattiner recently wrote this piece in support of beach nourishment for Quogue on his website, Dan’s Papers, the most widely read website in the Hamptons.
BIGGER BEACH FOR QUOGUE by Dan Rattiner
The residents of the Village of Quogue are proposing to have 1.1 million cubic yards of sand dredged up from the ocean floor and relocated along the 3 miles of oceanfront beaches in that town. According to a study done, the width of the beach is about 75 feet less than it was in 1950. It is not nearly as much fun as it once was. And its shallower width puts the oceanfront homes in danger. Borrowing what they call “loaned” sand will solve the problem. A company has offered to do it in two months of work for $12 million.
Who will pay for it? If the Village of Quogue does, or if a tax district along the ocean in that village does, we are all for it.
This project is modeled on a similar one, approved and carried out this past winter between Flying Point Road in Southampton and Town Line Road at the western edge of Wainscott. Over this 6 mile stretch, about $30 million in sand was relocated to the beach from the bottom of the ocean a hundred yards or so offshore, with the cost paid for by a special tax district in the town consisting of almost exclusively oceanfront taxpayers. These taxpayers will be paying more every year for the next ten years or so.
There’s a certain logic to this. The oceanfront people enjoy the ocean beaches every day, the inland peple enjoy the ocean beaches only once in a while. Also the value of the property along the ocean is very high so those owning those properties can afford it.
Though I am for it, I’m sure there will be a Save the Mollusk group formed to oppose the project to protect the poor mollusks who might get sucked up from the ocean floor and relocated along the beach without their having personal say in this. This is America where everyone is entitled to a voice.
The more sand we can armour the south shore with the better, in my opinion.
CLICK HERE to read it on Dan’s Papers.
