Davis Park Awash in a Tide of Uncertainty
Volume 49, Issue 2
By Mike Lavers

Not even the long delayed arrival of summer could mask the severe beach erosion that continues to wreak havoc on the East End as local residents and politicians again called upon the federal government to fund an ongoing beach replenishment project during a press conference last Monday on the beach in Davis Park.
The Montauk to Fire Island Reformulation Study (MFIRS), a project launched in 1978 that involves the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Fire Island National Seashore (FINS), the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and other federal, state and local governmental agencies, is designed to find ways to protect more than 80 miles of coastline along the South Shore of Long Island. MFIRS carries a $25 million price and while it is slated for completion in 2007, the Bush administration’s decision to slash the project’s funding have put its future in doubt.
Residents of Davis Park and local officials, such as Brookhaven Town Councilmember Timothy Mazzei, say Washington’s decision to cut MFIRS’ funding leaves their communities vulnerable to the forces of nature.

"Fire Island means a lot of things to a lot of people," Mazzei said. "It is a barrier beach that protects Long Island. If we didn't have this, the ocean would be crashing up onto Montauk Highway." U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) surveyed the area last March after a series of storms eroded large swaths of the coastline. And she, along with Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy and U.S. Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton), later pressed the Corps of Engineers to complete the study. Gerry Stoddard, president of the Fire Island
Association (FIA), praised Clinton's work on this issue while suggesting that Bush reverse his decision and fully fund the project.
"It is ironic that it takes someone who grew up in the Midwest to recognize the value of something too many Long Islanders take for
granted: a spectacular ocean coastline with many miles of it protected for public use in town, county, state and federal parks, an economic
engine for a $5 billion tourist industry and a protective barrier island for thousands of homes and scores of millions of dollars of
infrastructure," Stoddard said in a prepared statement. Meanwhile, the erosion continues. Davis Park Property Owners
Association (DPPOA) President John Lund told The News last month that his community lost 30 feet of beach last fall and winter as a result of a series of storms that battered the area. He also complained that the erosion problem that has plagued Davis Park for decades is made
worse by jetties in Westhampton Beach that block the natural east-to-west movement of sand that replenishes the beach during the spring.
"This community took a bigger hit this winter," Lund said as he described the storms that pummeled his community.

Referendum Fails
A proposal which would have provided funding to replenish the beach through an increase in local taxes also failed earlier this year when 56 percent of homeowners voted against it. Individual homeowners, however, have acted on their own and several beachfront homes in danger of falling into the ocean have been moved away from the crumbling shoreline. The Davis Park Casino, which fell into the ocean in 1996, has also been rebuilt  on a more secure location.
 But Lund, who joined a class-action lawsuit filed against the agencies charged with implementing MFIRS in 2001, said that his community, which only averages 1,500 feet wide, is simply running out of options.
"We will start to lose houses," he said. "There is nowhere for them [the homes] to go. They will be gone."
Paul Young, former chief of the Davis Park Fire Department, agreed that erosion is a serious problem facing the community. Nevertheless, he voted against the replenishment plan because he said he felt it was only a short-term solution to an ongoing problem.
"This is not a new problem," Young, who has lived in Davis Park for 26 years, said. "Over the last 50 years the beach has slowly eroded. Now it's critical because we had a steady stream of nor'easters this year."
Pat Behrendt, a Davis Park resident since 1986, voted in favor of the proposal and added that the very survival of the community she loves is at stake.

"If something is not done soon we will all be flooded out," Behrendt said. "This is our community and I love it very much. I want to see it protected."