An Island, all fired up, battles the Army Corps

Daily Point

Fire Island homeowners lobby top pols, officials to fix damaged beachfront

Summers on Fire Island are full of fun and frolic in the sand. But the cold weather months are often when tough political decisions are made about the future of this fragile national seashore.

Fire Island property owners are battling the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over whether the agency should rebuild a stretch of beachfront badly damaged by recent storms — a fight that has enlisted a high-powered consulting firm and several federal and state officials in a full-court press.

Leading the local charge is Henry Robin, president of the Fire Island Pines Property Owners Association. Robin says many homes on this heavily populated barrier island face imminent destruction from rising sea levels and storms. His little local group has recently been punching above its weight in the ongoing dispute with the giant Army Corps.

“We’re terrified and we want the Corps to repair our beach,” Robin told The Point. He noted that Fire Island Pines is well known as an iconic LGBTQ community with many friends in high places both on Long Island and New York City.

In rallying support, Robin’s group has corralled many top politicians, including Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York’s two U.S. senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillbrand, all of whom have sided with Robin’s group, which is conducting its own PR campaign. The group has already spent $60,000 for this effort, and recently raised another $70,000 in a fundraising appeal, Robin said.

It is also working with Actum, a prominent Manhattan political consulting firm whose members include several prominent former politicians (one of them, Tom Suozzi, was recently selected by the Democratic Party as its candidate in the special election for his old congressional seat, the one in CD3 vacated by the expelled George Santos). Local Fire Island groups have gathered more than 10,000 signatures calling for more beach repairs.
The political dispute is over sand that has washed away and whether more should be added. The latest development has pitted the Army Corps against the state Department of Environmental Conservation over the extent of storm damage and what should be done.

In recent years, the Army Corps has been conducting the ongoing $2.1 billion Fire Island to Montauk Point (FIMP) beach rehab project, stemming from the 2012 damage caused by Superstorm Sandy. More than 2.3 million cubic yards of sand have already been poured to deal with severe erosion at Fire Island Pines, Point O’ Woods, Seaview, Cherry Grove and elsewhere nearby, protecting about 4,000 homes at a cost of about $200 million. But a series of storms earlier this year swept away much of that sand.

In October, the Army Corps rejected a plea by Robin’s group and others, including the two senators, for emergency beachfront repairs in the area, contending the recent storms were not severe enough for the agency to react immediately.

Now the state DEC has weighed in, supporting Fire Island homeowners, with a detailed point-by-point rejection of the Corps’ position. The DEC’s letter to the Corps, dated Dec. 1, included inspection reports, beach measurement surveys, and post-storm photographs.

“In some locations, almost the entire dune was eroded away, leaving the communities and homes behind it susceptible to future breaches that could cause extensive property damage and endanger the public health and safety,” the DEC wrote, calling for more repairs immediately.

Robin applauded the DEC’s letter as a sign of substantial political support for his group’s position. “That letter is an incredibly strong rebuke,” Robin told The Point, noting that the DEC’s sharp criticism is unprecedented in recent memory. Robin’s group made sure Actum sent out the letter and a news release mentioning Hochul’s support to ensure the federal agency got the message.

When The Point asked Friday for a response to the DEC critique, Corps spokesman James D’Ambrosio emailed back that the agency is considering the DEC’s data in its letter and looks “forward to working with our partners on all levels to continue to find ways to mitigate the effects of coastal storms and increase resiliency.”

It’s not clear whether the Corps will reverse its position in rejecting the emergency repairs. However, while the political fight rages over this easterly portion of Fire Island, the Corps is conducting ongoing beach rehab projects along other parts of Long Island’s shoreline.

Robin says his group is determined to make sure the feds don’t “turn their backs on us” and conduct the needed emergency repairs before wintertime storms cause even more damage in the coming months.

It might not be winter yet, but the heat is turned up high on Fire Island.

— Thomas Maier thomas.maier@newsday.com

Pencil Point

A fight Christmas

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Final Point

Tops in tickets

• Long Island had the highest number of tickets of any region in the state for speeding in work zones in the first six months of a program to catch such violators. Be honest: You knew we were going to end up No. 1, right?
• President Joe Biden invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the White House Tuesday to demonstrate U.S. support for Ukraine. It’s not Biden’s support Zelenskyy is worried about.
• Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance said he opposes more aid for Ukraine because he doesn’t believe the country will ever be able to beat Russia. He does realize his stance will ensure that prophecy comes true, right?
• Secretary of State Antony Blinken said U.S. adversaries like Russia, China and Iran would be “happy” if the White House’s supplemental aid bill for Ukraine and Israel does not pass Congress. Stating the obvious should not be confused with insight.
• A New York Times investigation found that many levels of government that do gun buybacks send those guns to private companies to be destroyed, but the companies instead destroy one piece of the gun, then sell the rest for parts or as part of a gun kit — a recycling process the president of one of the companies likened to “organ donation.” How does this get guns off the streets?
• Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman wants to use $10 million in federal COVID-19 aid for the county’s 125th anniversary celebration next year, justifying the spending as tourism and economic development. Is that inspired creativity or rule-bending? Or both?
• Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is the first tour to gross more than $1 billion. Of course. She’s won pretty much everything else this year.

— Michael Dobie michael.dobie@newsday.com

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