Residents Raise Boardwalk, Beach Issues at Council Meeting

Eric Berkowitz, owner of Tutti Frutti, a frozen yogurt shop that opened two summers ago on West Park Avenue, is concerned about the food trucks that the city will permit to station at the beach this summer.

He and others either voiced their concerns or offered ideas about beach- and boardwalk-related issues at the City Council meeting Tuesday, after City Manager Jack Schnriman announced that earlier in the day the city had finalized its $44.2 million contract with Grace Industries, a Plainveiw-based firm, to rebuild the walkway.

The city said that permitting food trucks is an effort to assist local restaurants and boost tourism in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, and Berkowitz asked if there is a discussion to keep that opportunity among local merchants.  

“I know that pretty much everybody on our block, other than one person, is actively against having this food truck taking the opportunity of the summer season away from the viable businesses that struggled to stay open after the storm, that have invested a lot of money renovating and fixing the stores getting it ready,” he said.

Council President Scott Mandel directed Berkowitz to speak to city attorney Corey Klein about the matter after the meeting.

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On Tuesday, Schnirman had announced that the city planned to open all beaches for Memorial Day weekend, and said that sections of the boardwalk would open to the public as they were built. Jim LaCarrubba, the city’s commissioner of public works, said at prior meetings that as the construction progresses beach access in the areas at or nearby the construction will be limited.

Christine McGuigan, a West Chester Street resident, suggested that after the boardwalk reopens the city should take part in her proposed hands-across-the-beach event.

“It would go from Jones Beach to New Jersey on Memorial Day weekend,” said McGuigan, who noted that she stages events for the local arts and music communities. She called her proposals a great marketing strategy that would show “we’re united, we’re back and we’re strong.”

Schnirman said he had not seen McGuigan’s proposal that she submitted to the city and he asked to meet with her about it.

Canals resident Marvin Weiss inquired about the tropical wood that contractors will use to rebuild the 2.2-mile boardwalk.  

“I just want to make sure that in regards to the wood, that we’re not paying twice for it and not having this contractor be a distributor in between, that he’s buying it for $7 and selling it for $9 to us, or something like that, whatever the numbers might be.”

Weiss talked about state or federal contracts New York state utilized to buy a similar wood to rebuild the boardwalk at Jones Beach.

“We should be able to have those same type of pricings to get this boardwalk built, because we’re spending too many millions as is, but it’s somewhat out of our hands,” Weiss said. “So let’s try to pull some things back in our hands, please.”

Lucy Centeno, who lives on West Fulton Street, asked that the city restrict the use of certain vehicles on the boardwalk. “To make sure that it’s long standing, please take into consideration the four-wheelers and the little cars with the wagons in the back will work better than the large city trucks and police cars that are on it.”

Liro, the Syosset-based engineering firm the city hired to oversee the boardwalk project, has said that the harder, heavier and stronger tropical wood on the new boardwalk has a potential lifespan of 40 years.

Ray Ellmer, a former city zoning board trustee and a volunteer firefighter and lifeguard, said that since the ocean water during the hurricane went over the former boardwalk that was 17 feet above sea level, that the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers’ proposals to build a 16-foot dune in front of the new walkway of the same height is insufficient to protect against another Sandy-like storm.

“Basically what we have here is an unsafe project as it stands right now,” Ellmer said.

He believes the city’s last chance to address this issues, since the boardwalk will remain at 17 feet and a seawall is not included in the rebuilding plans, is to have the Army Corp reconstruct all the jetties that line the beach and extend them out to sea.

“If we send four jetties further out, possibly at Pacific, Lincoln, Washington [boulevards] and maybe New York [Avenue], similar to what they’re doing in Point Lookout, we may be able to stop the power of the waves coming in,” he said.

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