Some Dock Repairs Done as Village Awaits FEMA

There's no question that the Charles J. Cowan Marina, aka the Lindenhurst at the end of South Wellwood Avenue, took a beating during earlier this year.

But, according to the village, the docks have been assessed by FEMA, and part of them have been repaired already - thanks to some previous funding for damages to the docks the village had obtained.

"We had some funds from two storms ago that allowed us to start repairs," Village Administrator Shawn Cullinane said.

Those repairs included fixing the boards that Irene ripped away and mending some damage to the roof of the station building at the south end of the docks. That way it could be opened to those with boat slips at the marina.

However, the village has had to wait for any major repairs to be started because it's taken some time for FEMA and SEMO (the New York State version of FEMA) to come and look at the damage. The original date was back in early September, but the agency canceled that meeting.

"At the time we were surprised that FEMA was so quick," Cullinane said.

While the village waited for the rescheduled meeting, Cullinane said the village was getting its ducks in a row.

"We were putting everything together for when they would get back to us," he said. For instance, by the time FEMA had gotten back to the village several weeks ago for the initial assessment and walk-through, then a follow-up meeting, it already had two dock companies look at rebuidling the docks with better, more up-to-date technology.

"We had them look at what it would cost to rebuild with wood, and what it would cost to build it better," Cullinane said.

Building it better would mean replacing the wooden deck boards and fascia boards with fiberglass ones so that the docks would have long-term integrity and better protection against future storms - especially on the west side and the southwest corner, which seemed to take the biggest hit during Irene.

"The east side fared much better," Cullinane and Mayor Tom Brennan both concurred.

But how the docks are rebuilt for residents to use again all depends on what the village ultimately receives from FEMA.

"Everything is fiberglass now," Mayor Brennan said. "And the docks should be fiberglass. But the last time - at least two storms prior to Irene - when we dealt with FEMA for storm damage to the docks, they wanted us to replace everything with wood. We really fought about that."

Cullinane agreed, noting, "If we can, we want to rebuild it better. It would make no sense putting back old technology."

Another concern for the long-term viability and integrity of the marina is the state of the that basically extends South Wellwood Avenue over the Great South Bay.

"We're having some engineers look at the pavement surface," Cullinane said. That way the village could explore some options to reinforce the pavement structure from underneath - all depending, once again, on the money FEMA ultimately releases to the village as a result of Irene.

The village puts the damages from Irene at approximately $500,000, at least, for the docks, if not, $1 million, when the rest of the damages are figured into the total.

Those damages include the removal and grinding (because of the long-horned Asian beetle that's been found in local trees) of close to 150 downed village trees, fixing the damage and refilling the holes caused by those downed trees, damage to Shore Road Park Marina and to several boat slips at the end of South Broadway.

But the village is working with FEMA to obtain enough money to get the long-term repairs to the docks done and to make sure it's reimbursed for the work the village needed to have done to repair the other aforementioned Irene damages.

Cullinane said the hope is to have the docks repaired and ready to go for residents by the Spring.

"Hopefully, we'd like to have it done by then, but that's if everything comes together," he said. Everything being FEMA money and the weather to hold out long enough so work could be done.

"In the meantime we'll keep moving forward as best we can," he said.