If there was ever a winter we want to leave behind, this is it. The winter appears to have been worse on Fire Island than in New York City. Ken Stein of Sayville Ferry calls it an epic winter and that even today he can walk from Sayville to the Pines. The information we have available is that the community has weathered the winter ok. There is a large number of poles up in the harbor and we will move to repair them as soon as the harbor opens up. Approximately 800 feet of trap bags were either washed away or damaged. We are in the process of letting a contract for this repair. However, because of the piping plover season which begins April 1, this repair work will wait until the end of June. We are in touch with the Highway Department about the necessary repairs of stairs for beach access. Sayville Ferry, for the first time ever, has not been able to begin the early spring season on the scheduled date. The ferry company hopes to begin service the weekend of March 21.
Our beach replenishment project - FIMI - is moving, but slowly. The first phase at Smith Point County Park is 50% completed. We are told by Chris Soller, Seashore Superintendent, that he flew over the project recently and the beach looks amazing. He reports that a tremendous amount of sand has been moved to form what looks like a desert at the eastern end of Fire Island. Phase 2 involving the Fire Island Lighthouse and the nearby communities has been delayed by equipment problems and will not begin until September. The third phase involving the rest of the communities will probably be split into three pieces. This phase will take the most amount of time to complete because of the real estate issues involved. Among the real estate issues are the easements required from all of the ocean front homeowners. The easements are based on the final surveys of where the project will go. Those surveys have been provided to homeowners to the communities further west and the Army Corps and Suffolk County are involved in meetings in those communities. The surveys in the Pines have not been finalized, but we are anticipating that they will be made available to ocean front homeowners by the end of March. A meeting with the ocean front homeowners would then follow in April. The Army Corps and Suffolk County hope to resolve the real estate issues by the end of August permitting a contract to be issued in late 2015 with construction in the Pines to begin in the winter of 2016. However, many questions about appraisals, the legal effects of the easements and relocating houses and decks have not been answered. The delay in resolving real estate issues and the difficulty of doing this work, often in the winter months, indicates that the project in the Pines may not begin until late 2016.
We have been informed by the Nation Park Service of the existence of the Southern Pine Beetle on Fire Island. The beetle is about the size of a grain of rice, and is red - brown - black in color. The adult beetle tunnels through the bark, typically killing the tree in two to four months. FINS has applied for a government grant to better monitor and combat the problem.
FINS will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary this summer and is targeting Labor Day for a celebration in the Pines.
Planning for summer activities is moving apace. The
2015 Pines Party theme
is Emerald City. Watch for the announcement of the DJ lineup and ticketing info, which will be coming soon. A new and special event this summer will be the First Annual Pines Clam Bake on August 8th. Work is underway for an exciting line up at Whyte Hall. Daniel Nardicio will bring
his Icon Series on Memorial Day weekend with Dina Martina. And Broadway Bares will return on May 30th.
FIPAP will have their Biennial Art Show on August 1 and has announced that their Labor Day Musical is La Cage aux Folles. And finally, The Fire Island Pines Historical Preservation Society will be having their first fundraiser on April 19th to
kickoff the 2015 season in NYC at Le Bain at the Standard High Line.
