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Centerport church hoping to hold back the tide

BY MICHAEL R. EBERT | michael.ebert@newsday.com

9:48 AM EDT, April 2, 2008

Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church in Centerport, left, and the rectory, right, with retaining wall. (Newsday Photo)

Hoping to combat erosion that has claimed 30 feet of its property in recent decades, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church in Centerport is currently knee-deep in plans to install a 310-foot seawall in front of a failing ballast-rock barrier at the rear of its Prospect Road property.

According to church officials, the upgraded seawall will be located on the rectory side of Mill Pond and consist of five-foot-high vinyl sheeting, which will be back-filled with roughly 185 cubic yards of clean sand. Early estimates list the price tag at $200,000.

"In some places, the old seawall is still intact, but other portions are facing serious erosion along the steep hillside that is 20 feet above the water," said Msgr. T. Peter Ryan, the church's pastor. "The tide eats away at the soil a bit at a time. Hopefully, this [project] will stabilize the wall for a long time to come."

Ryan said the seawall project has been in discussion since he joined the church in 1991. In 2004, he obtained a permit from the State Department of Environmental Conservation to move ahead with the barrier, and since then he's been mulling various models with Babylon-based engineering firm Greenman-Pedersen Inc., until settling upon the current design last year.

Specifically, the vinyl bulkheads will be 14-feet long and roughly 84 pounds apiece.

"The real problem is not really with the project, but with its location," Ryan said. "It is hard to reach, especially with the construction to the new [Mill Dam] Causeway."

In recent studies, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers found the vinyl sheeting has a low permeability rate and is sturdy against rot, corrosion and destructive marine organisms.

The next step, according to Ryan, is a Town of Huntington public hearing slated for Tuesday at 7 p.m. If all goes smoothly, the project could kick off some time in May.

"It shouldn't take over two months," he said. "They'll bang it out one, two, three."

The seawall will be funded by the parish's capital fund campaign, which has been anticipating for the project for some time, Ryan said. Other recent upgrades at the Centerport church include new energy-efficient lighting and repairs to the staircase's retaining walls.