By Dan Israeli
this year by the Army Corps of Engineers, but the source of funding for the project remains in question.
While the state is prepared to assume the cost, local legislators are urging both the House and Senate Appropriation Committees to reallocate federal funds for this high-priority project.
Both Sen. Charles Schumer and Rep. Peter King say they have implored their respective committees to secure federal funding for the project in the current fiscal year, as Congress prepares to finalize a joint resolution on remaining appropriations.
While funding for Army Corps projects was secured last year in the House's 2007 Energy and Water Development Appropriation Act, both Schumer and King noted that the Corps needed to make dredging of the inlet a priority this year. The Joint Continuing Resolution is expected to take effect next month.
While a final attempt is made to reallocate federal funding, the state Legislature is still prepared to fund the project with $7.6 million that was set aside last June. The amount is a fraction of the $25.2 million that state Sen. Dean Skelos and Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg appropriated last summer, originally designated for the Long Beach Barrier Island Storm Damage Reduction Project. Earlier last year, the Long Beach City Council voted against the project, which would have raised the entire beach.
According to Tom Dunham, a spokesman for Skelos, the Army Corps has been planning to dredge the inlet for 10 years now, but the federal funding never came. "It's an issue that has been out there for a long time," said Dunham in explaining why the state decided to pursue its own financing package. He added that since the state re-appropriated funding last June, there have been a number of issues concerning legal liability. "We have resolved the substantive issues, but there are some procedural issues left," Dunham said. "Hopefully we can finalize a deal and sign a contract in the next few weeks."
The president of the Point Lookout Civic Association, Herbert Abbe, who has been an advocate of the dredging for years, is also hoping for an immediate resolution.
While Abbe said Jones Inlet is supposed to be dredged every three to five years, it has not been dredged since 1995. As a result, the waterway has grown dangerously shallow and choked with sand, posing a threat to boats. In addition, the sand that has eroded off Point Lookout's beach into the inlet is leaving Point Lookout more vulnerable to storm damage.
Abbe explained that while dredging is necessary, the sand to the east will continue drifting westward, as has always been the case. "It will give us some protection, but in essence it will just be a Band-Aid," he said. The civic association is still overwhelmingly in favor of the much delayed project, especially for the margin of safety it will provide for boaters at risk of running aground. "Let's get it done," Abbe said of the dredging. "We need to express our displeasure and press the individuals taking care of it."
While an absence of funding on the federal side has been one of the reasons the project has been deferred for so long, Dunham was quick to note the activism of local legislators, especially King, in securing federal money. "Congressman King has been very involved in this whole process," said Dunham, adding that a funding request was passed by the House but did not receive the needed support of the Senate. King has also served as a liaison between the state and the Army Corps, urging both parties to reach an agreement so that state money can be used in the event that federal funding doesn't materialize.
While a final decision is yet to be made on the project's funding, 90 percent of the planning for the dredging work has been completed by the Army Corps, a sign that work could begin this year, most likely in November. The Endangered Species Act prohibits any work of such magnitude between March and October, according to Dunham, to protect an endangered bird. It is estimated that the dredging will take six weeks to several months to complete.
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