'Key Approval' For Hashamomuck Cove Plan; Roadblocks Still Exist

SOUTHOLD, NY — After years of pleas from residents, Rep. Lee Zeldin said this week that relief for storm-battered Hashamomuck Cove in Southold could be on the horizon.

But residents who've been sounding the battle cry for years still have no concrete answer in sight: A local sponsor, necessary for the work to move forward, has still not stepped forward.

On Monday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District, announced that Lt. General Todd T. Semonite, Chief of Engineers for the Army Corps of Engineers signed the chief’s report for the Hashamomuck Cove Coastal Storm Risk Management Feasibility Study, initially presented in 2016, Rep. Lee Zeldin said.

Next steps include the submission of the chief’s report to the assistant secretary of the army for civil works, for clearance to be eligible for authorization and funding, followed by the planning, engineering, design phase and construction of the project, Zeldin said.

“The completion of the project at Hashamomuck Cove is not only important to protecting homes and businesses, but also critical to safeguarding our infrastructure and vital evacuation routes in case of emergencies,” Zeldin said. “Too often we’ve witnessed simply a severe thunderstorm at high tide cause serious flooding and property damage for local residents. Local businesses, residents, and first responders cannot afford to wait as their properties and access to Route 48 continue to be threatened, and I will continue to work closely with the Army Corps and local officials to ensure this pivotal project continues to move forward.”

However, that project legally cannot move forward without financial support for maintenance from the county or town, both of whom have long said they refused to sign on.

"They definitely still need a local sponsor," a representative for Zeldin's office said Tuesday. "Southold has taken steps to allow the process to continue, as it did, for example with this chief’s report approval, but Southold is not the permanent local sponsor. This approval is for the federal side of the project. It’s 65 percent federally funded"

The news of some movement was welcomed by residents who have long begged for help as storm after storm saw significant beach erosion and property damage.

"This is great news. However, has a local sponsor stepped forward that I was not made aware of?" homeowner Lynn Laskos asked.

According to the Army Corps, the project will help reduce coastal storm damage to residents who live along the Long Island Sound. The project is expected to also play a key role in protecting County Road 48 — a major transportation route used for hurricane evacuation, while also protecting critical infrastructure including nursing homes and hospitals, Zeldin said.

The study, which brought Zeldin to the shoreline to meet with the community in 2016, was completed in partnership with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation using the Hurricane Sandy supplemental funding at 100 percent federal expense, he said.

The project calls for the construction of a beach berm using 220,000 cubic yards of sand, extending approximately 8,500 linear feet or 1.5 miles along the Long Island Sound to provide additional coastal storm risk management features to residents. The project also calls for periodic nourishment to maintain the integrity of the design beach template over a 50 year project period to ensure it performs as designed, Zeldin said.

The signed report certifies the coastal storm risk management report is technically and environmentally sound, as well as economically beneficial to the nation, Zeldin said.

Hashamomuck Cove has sparked as outpouring of community discussion in recent years. A 2018 roundtable to discuss possible solutions ended with homeowners looking at an erosion control taxing district as what seemed as though it may be their only option. That proposal has not moved forward.

That year, after a "bomb cyclone" slammed the North Fork, a fishing shack that has stood since the 1920s at Hashamomuck Cove was smashed, battered and completely washed away. Bulkheads were destroyed, homes severely damaged — and residents reached out for help from elected officials.

Residents had asked for a roundtable discussion on a plan pitched by the United States Army Corp of Engineers before the town board made any decisions regarding signing on as a local sponsor.

That meeting was held at the Peconic Lane Community Center, with Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell and members of the town board, New York State Assemblyman Anthony Palumbo, Suffolk County Legislator Al Krupski, Mark Woolley, representing Zeldin, members of the ACOE, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Suffolk County Water authority, both town and county officials, and a large contingent of Hashamomuck Cove residents all in attendance.

Russell and the town board initially discussed signing on to a beach replenishment project as a local sponsor at a prior work session. Board members said they felt the financial price tag was too high. Russell, however, said his decision was based on the fact that the town should not put the cost of replenishing private property on the backs of taxpayers.

"It is important for me to stress that the issue isn't about the cost for me. It is that I do not support the use of taxpayer dollars to pay for the restoration of private property at any cost," Russell said. "I understand that there is a separate goal and that is to protect County Road 48. To me, the optimum word is 'county'". The road, he said, "is not owned by or maintained by the town which means it is for the county to address. The town does not have and should not have any role here."

Suffolk County Commissioner of Public Works Gil Anderson and Suffolk County Chief Engineer Bill Hillman agreed that the county had no plans to sign on as a local sponsor to the project pitched by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

Anderson said the county DPW would do whatever was necessary to protect the road, but said there was no intent for the county to sign on a local sponsor. "My main concern is County Road 48. We are not expecting to be a local partner," he said.

Resident David Corwin expressed the frustration of homeowners that the town and county were not expected to serve as local partners.

Palumbo asked if there was any way for a municipality to appeal for economic hardship, stating that Southold Town was in a far different position than South Fork towns to handle catastrophic storms.

When asked about County Road 48, Krupski said it's a major artery and would never be abandoned by the county.

"We will do whatever we have to to protect the highway," Anderson said.

"The only ones with skin in the game are myself and my neighbors," one resident said.

Krupski, chair of the Suffolk County Legislature's public works committee, said a meeting was held in Hauppauge Monday to discuss significant erosion as well as the Fire Island to Montauk Point Reformulation Study. Government officials, he said, need to learn from the "debacle" of a contentious downtown Montauk sandbag seawall project."We need to learn from Mother Nature —definitely, learn from our mistakes," he said.

As far as Hashamomuck Cove, Krupski concerned that no local sponsors have been found. "I haven't seen anyone step up yet," he said.

" Southold has not committed any funding," Russell confirmed.

But, he said, with sea level rise posing impacts down the road, "We have to be cautious about we do as far as hardening the shoreline."