By Danny Teigman
Schumer, joined at a rain-drenched press conference on the beach Monday by Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg and Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray, urged immediate action.
"It has been clear for decades that Point Lookout is in trouble and the problem can no longer be fixed cosmetically," he said.
Point Lookout and nearby Lido Beach were left to sink or swim when Long Beach's City Council rejected the Army Corps of Engineers' proposed storm damage reduction plan, which would have added millions of cubic yards of sand to the beaches from the tip of Point Lookout to Nevada Avenue in Long Beach.
While the no vote was largely supported by the public, Weisenberg, a longtime proponent of the Army Corps project, couldn't resist chastising the council. "I don't know if they're intelligent enough to realize what their vote means," he said.
Both leaders expressed the need for a multi-pronged solution to the present erosion crisis. As a short-term fix, Murray called for the re-dredging of Jones Inlet, a process that has not been tried in more than 10 years, and depositing the half-million cubic yards of sand back on the hamlet's three beaches: Civic Beach, Middle Beach and Point Lookout Town Beach. Dredging, she said, would have the added benefit of creating safer shipping lanes.
However, she called these measures "merely a Band-Aid," that would complement other stop-gap solutions the Town has employed. In recent years, the town has repaired breached dunes, redistributed 5,000 cubic yards of sand and strategically placed stabilizing boulders, imported from the Shinnecock Canal in Suffolk County.
Schumer said that he has asked the Senate's Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Pete Domenici and its ranking Democrat, Harry Reid, to allocate $5.5 million in funding for maintenance dredging and beach nourishment at Jones Inlet. He also said he requested that an additional $2.5 million be provided to the Army Corps of Engineers so that they could begin the Point Lookout portion of the Long Beach Island Storm Damage Reduction Project.
"Now more than ever, residents of Point Lookout know they are threatened with the spectre of the Atlantic Ocean further encroaching upon their homes," said Schumer in his letter to the subcommittee.
Representatives who were on-hand from the Point Lookout Civic Association said they were optimistic that Monday's press conference was more than political grandstanding.
"When [The City of Long Beach] said 'no,' it freed the Army Corp., New York State Department of Conservation, Town of Hempstead and Point Lookout to move forward on their own," said Gerald Ottavino, chairman of the Point Lookout Civic Association's environmental committee. "I hope today is the start of our own project."
Comments about this story? DTeigman@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 221.
