Beach erosion, highway patrols, school testing opt-outs

Eroding confidence over sand issue

I lived through Hurricane Gloria, the Halloween storm, Hurricane Irene, Superstorm Sandy, nor’easters and two storms within days of each other just the past two weeks. Thousands of Long Islanders suffered total losses on their cars and/or flood damage to their homes. All we get is lip service and Army Corps of Engineers studies [“Sand is not the forever answer,” Editorial, Jan. 17].

Where are our elected federal officials who should be looking for a solution? Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, of Island Park, should lead the charge.

If climate change is indeed real, we should expect more of the same. One solution championed by Freeport Mayor Robert Kennedy is the installation of tidal gates at Rockaway, Jones and Fire Island inlets.

The barrier beaches largely held. Tidal gates are a proven technology that would stabilize the South Shore real estate market, reduce the cost of flood claims and possibly even help reduce costly flood, auto and home insurance premiums. Most important, it would reduce the stress that we South Shore residents feel with every looming bad-weather forecast.

This is a project that will actually yield positive results.

— Christopher Ré, Massapequa

Every reasonable effort needs to be made to ensure that Fire Island will protect Long Island. We need to place sand on the ocean side and bay side.

The 2020 Army Corps of Engineers’ Fire Island Inlet to Montauk Point (FIMP) Report identified ways to reduce storm risks to Fire Island and the mainland while also restoring the Great South Bay. It concluded that pumping sand along the oceanfront was not enough and proposed adding sand to the bay side to recreate the natural wash-over process when storms push sand across the island into the bay.

Wash-overs have been part of the natural process for over a thousand years, when sea level was much lower and the Atlantic shoreline was miles south of its current location.

Bayside sand nourishment and living shorelines that incorporate plants, rocks and oysters (not bulkheading) would improve recreation, including fishing, clamming and bird-watching and would counterbalance erosion that threatens the Sunken Forest and the Long Island Power Authority substation at Fire Island Pines.

Last year, the Army Corps, Fire Island National Seashore, New York State, and The Nature Conservancy, which owns much of the bay bottom, agreed on a design and test location. Funding was in place, but nothing has happened.

— Richard Remmer, Oakdale

I find it troubling that oceanfront homeowners want state and federal money to replenish the beaches behind their houses [“Fed help requested for beach erosion,” News, Jan. 13].

Why should my tax dollars be used to restore beaches that I am not allowed to walk on? From Westhampton to Montauk, your average resident of Suffolk County is restricted to a couple of relatively small slabs of sand in the summertime. Keep off — local residents or homeowners only. Yet when something goes wrong, they have no problem digging into the pockets of the people they restrict.

— Dan McCally, East Islip

In the contest between waves of Army sand and waves of Atlantic storms, the latter consistently prevails. The millions of U.S. sand dollars should be more productively used to construct housing on more generationally durable real estate and the millions of cubic yards of sand put into the foundations for such housing. This situation has been long foretold, and at some point, denial becomes foolishness.

— Brian Kelly, Rockville Centre

Each Atlantic storm wipes away tons of sand. We then replenish this sand at great expense. Then comes another storm, and say goodbye to all that replenished sand, etc., etc.

It is often said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Yes, this is insane.

— Peter Kelly, Medford

Opting out won’t help best or worst students

I find it absurd that children have the option to opt out of testing and that their parents allow it. I can’t see any good reason for this [“Time to opt out of opting out,” Editorial, Jan. 19].

I was a terrible test-taker in school. I always got butterflies, but I did what I had to do, and it made me stronger, smarter and more successful in my career. I would never think of telling a boss, “Nope, don’t feel like doing that. I’m opting out.” That’s what these children are being prepared for.

I think testing is an important gauge of the progress and quality of a child’s education, the teacher’s productivity and how well they are relating to the students. How else can we know how well a child can read and learn mathematics that they may need in life?

Testing alerts a teacher when a student is exceptional or failing. Failing students can receive additional help, and exceptional students can be put into advanced classes.

When I pay my school taxes, I feel like I’m paying for an expensive blind item. Long Island educators are among the highest paid in the country, and I want to see the results of that pedestal through student testing.

— Michael Brown, Glen Head

Where are the LIE highway patrol cars?

So the big concern now is with amusing overhead road signs [“Feds call for a ban of ‘nonstandard’ road signs,” News, Jan. 16]. How about paying more attention to the countless speeders driving underneath them?

I regularly drive on the Long Island Expressway from Port Washington to Ronkonkoma. I have noticed that the Nassau and Suffolk county highway patrol units are nowhere to be found. On Saturday, Jan. 13, between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. in both the eastbound and westbound lanes, the number of vehicles moving well in excess of 65 miles per hour was astounding. Add to that the several motorcyclists doing, I’d say, at least 80-90 mph while weaving in and out of lanes.

What was very noticeable was the absence of a unit from either county. Are they not patrolling the LIE anymore? Have these officers all retired, or are the cruisers being repaired? I don’t understand what has happened.

— Alan Doloboff, Port Washington