Mayor's Video Updates Village on Beach Restoration

In her video series updating residents on village issues, Port Jefferson Mayor Margot Garant said that the beach restoration projects at East and West beaches are still awaiting final DEC approval.

"The project includes a new sea wall, due to some very damaging storms in 2009 and 2010," the village reported on its website. "FEMA and SEMO have approved funding of 87.5 percent of the $1.3 million project. Residents are responsible for only the remaining portion."

A line item will appear on residents' tax bill labeled "beach restoration."

According to trustee Lee Rosner who has been coordinating the beach restoration project, .

The reconstruction comes in two phases, according to Rosner. At , repairs to the steel sea wall, revetment, bath house repair, parking lot, sidewalks, ramps, utilities and other site work constitutes the first phase. Phase two will comprise of dredging, replenishing sand and some planting.

At a May village board meeting, in response to question from the public about restoring sand to the beach just to have it lost through the ancient jetties in Mt. Sinai, Rosner said that sand replenishment was a very small part of the current project.

“Replacement of sand is the least part of the work,” he said. “The bulk of the money is going to rebuilding that wall that goes from one side of the parking lot to the other.”

He said that the water will probably come right up to the wall and most of the beach will be lost.

In the video, Garant also promises to coordinate with the Town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County and the Army Corps of Engineers on the restoration of the jetty at Mt. Sinai harbor.

Previously Rosner said that getting the jetties repaired has been a difficult task as Brookhaven Town and Suffolk County don’t have the resources needed to even start planning a project.

“We were meeting with the town and county on regular basis,” he said in a . “We’re all partners. The Town is the lead agency. They own the jetty.”

Sand continues to flow from Port Jefferson beaches into Mt. Sinai harbor.

Rosner said a project to dredge the harbor and bring sand back to Port Jefferson beaches would be costly and neither municipality has the money right now to do it. In an earlier interview about storm damage he said that dredging has been tried in the past.

Beaches are open on the weekends starting June 23 and porta potties will be available.

Click here to watch the video of Mayor Garant talking about beach restoration on the village's official website.