It isn’t often when a Bellport Village board vote gets applause. But it happened Monday night when the trustees, after an hour-long presentation of comments and explanations by mayor Maureen Veitch and Peter Sarich, who is heading the Bellport Marina project for the village with deputy clerk Katie Mehrkens,
VHB Engineers Carlos Vargas and Michael Mann (on Zoom), with input from the public, voted unanimously for the fixed wave/fence screen design as a marina protector in storms. About 20 residents attended.
The timber wave/fence screen design (made of vinyl sheet pile/timber), which will cost $500,000, excluding navigational piles, lights, mobilization and site prep, is a fixed structure that can’t be removed once installed and held in place by long piles. Piles are typically driven and the fence is constructed. Lighting will be decided by the U.S. Coast Guard.
The two other designs for consideration included a floating concrete dock wave attenuator at $1.8 million, on display at the Nov. 14 village meeting with the public, and a rock breakwater at $4.13 million.
But the safety of the marina not only for boaters but also for Public Safety, EMS and other necessary vessels as well as the citizenry, both Veitch and Sarich pointed out, was the reason the $2,800,000 Community Project Funding grant was awarded in May 2022 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It will also be used to address the Osborn Park Wall, rock dock wall, boat ramp and ferry/emergency vessel dock repairs.
Also in the financial mix is a separate $3.3 million HUD grant, via the Federal Consolidated Appropriations Act, to deal with other issues including flooding at Howell’s Creek, via the Howell’s Point Coastal Flood Resiliency Project, Otis Lane and Thorn Hedge Road.
VHB Engineers is heading the project in design, permits and grants. Sarich explained that VHB was selected for their permitting and construction expertise, “and for their experience in HUD compliance meeting a lot of deadlines and goals,” he said. “They did a coastal condition analysis and surveys of the bottom and analyzed everything from wind level above water and below water, what the wind would do, and how to position wave structures. They told us what wouldn’t get permits.”
VHB Engineers was used successfully for Patchogue’s Living Shoreline project, which recently received an environmental award.
Sarich noted comments from the residents, who filled out an online survey and also attended the Nov. 14 village meeting that spotlighted the floating wave attenuator.
“The public came up with many ideas about the floating attenuator,” Sarich said. “They didn’t like its appearance and felt it was out of place with the historic nature of the marina.”
The wave fence/screen presented minimal non-significant benthic habitat loss due to pile installation; it had the least amount of environmental impacts of all three choices.
Sarich did admit the wave fence/screen didn’t have the shelf life of the other two designs, which was discussed at previous meetings and brought up by two of the Waterfront Management Commission members as well as advisors. (It was noted that the wave fence/screen with maintenance should last more than 20 years.) Resident Jim Axelrod pointed out the emerging ferociousness of climate change storms and that “severe weather will be much worse.”
But Waterfront Management Commission co-chair Michael Ferrigno pointed out two wave fence/screens that have been successfully operating. “There’s one at the end of Beaver Dam Creek for five years and there’s no problem, and also at Davis Park, no problems.”
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