Local Residents Continue to Oppose Montauk Beach Dune Project

Several local residents continued to express their opposition to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers beach erosion project in Montauk after the East Hampton Town Board declared that the project will continue.

At Tuesday’s work session meeting, about 75 residents attended to once again demand that the town board stop the project, Newsday reports.

The commencement of work on the project has led to numerous protests and arrests in recent weeks.

Last week, over 250 Montauk residents attended the meeting on Tuesday, which was relocated to the Montauk Playhouse to accommodate the extra people, in order to ask the board to try to suspend or end the project.

During that meeting, the town board said it would look into possibly stopping or delaying the project.

However, on Monday the town sent out a press release announcing that the project will not be stopped.

The board said that it has “listened carefully to the numerous, passionate concerns raised in response to the commencement of construction activity” and “sees no basis upon which to halt this project.”

The town board says it “fully supports completion of this interim protective measure until the completion of the Fire Island to Montauk Point Reformulation Study (FIMP).”

The project, conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, involves burying a total of 14,000 large sandbags along 3,100 feet of Montauk beach to make artificial dunes over 15 feet high.

The project costs a total of $8.4 million and was started in order to protect downtown Montauk after Superstorm Sandy hit the area back in 2012.

Attendees of the most recent work session accused the board of “ignoring the public mandate that the work come to a halt,” according to Newsday.

“The ‘emergency’ is that the beach is getting cut up day by day,” resident Sarah Conway, who requested the board create a meeting give residents complete details about exactly what is being done to the beach, said according to Newsday.