Asharoken hopes residents share stairs

Asharoken village has a message for its residents: Share.

That's what village officials hope residents along Asharoken Avenue will do with the numerous stairways built over the sand dunes that protect the community's two-lane road from the force of Long Island Sound during storms.

Many of the stairs that property owners constructed for beach access have weathered and collapsed over time. Village leaders worry that could lead people to just walk on the dune to get to the water. But replacing each worn stairway could also further weaken the dunes.

As a solution, Asharoken Mayor Patricia Irving and Village Superintendent of Buildings Doug Adil have asked property owners along Asharoken Avenue to consider sharing new beach stairs with their neighbors.

"They're really fragile," Irving said of the iconic North Shore dunes. "The stairs are wiped out and broken. And we know people are going to start thinking about rebuilding the stairs."

Patricia Musto, who owns property on Asharoken Avenue but has no stairs over the dune, said she's open to sharing beach access with owners of neighboring parcels.

"Whenever I'm down there, there are never lots of people, so shared stairs would certainly be the best option," Musto said. "We're all for the ecology, and shared steps is a great thing."

The March 2010 nor'easter that damaged the Asharoken Avenue seawall also hit the sand dunes hard, hollowing them out and carrying some parts away entirely, Irving said.

And erosion from the Northport power plant, which the village said diverts sand from Asharoken's beaches, worsens the problem. The village now receives regular deliveries of sand for its beaches from National Grid, the plant owner.

Asharoken Avenue is the only road that connects Eaton's Neck and Asharoken to the rest of Long Island. About 700 area families were stranded after the March 2010 storm, which the National Weather Service called historic for its winds and coastal surge.

"If another storm comes, they will breach, which of course blocks off the road again," Irving said of the dunes.

Because the dunes are private property, the village can't mandate how they are used.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation doesn't regulate dune-crossing structures or prohibit people from crossing dunes on private property. It can only intervene if there is evidence that walking on the dune has destroyed vegetation, said agency spokesman Bill Fonda.

Homeowner Bruce Harris, who has lived on Asharoken Avenue for 36 years, said nature itself takes care of any potential erosion from people walking on the dunes near his home. The poison ivy simply keeps people away.