Officials: Fire Island dune might be finished by the winter 

The last third of the new dune and berm to shield part of Fire Island could be built this winter, after about 20 oceanfront homes that stand in its way are razed, officials said.

For the last two summers the homes — some acquired over their owners' objections — have sat empty.

“I could be there right now,” said Chris Gurl, formerly of Ocean Bay Park, who said he enjoyed 25 summers on Fire Island until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers targeted his house. “I was hoping you were calling to say they were going to give me back my house . . . it’s a shame, absolutely,” he said by telephone. Gurl, who has not set foot on the barrier island since his home was taken, noted he also lost the rental income.  

The Army Corps’ $207 million dune plan is about three years behind schedule. Winter storms caused some delays; so did the delicate task of persuading homeowners to accept buyouts or lose their homes through eminent domain.

The Army Corps contractor that will bulldoze beachfront houses in Ocean Bay Park is working through the final approvals, said Gilbert Anderson, commissioner, Suffolk County Department of Public Works. The number of homes set to be demolished is about half the original total, he noted.

The federal agency has hired a contractor to bulldoze the beachfront houses in Ocean Bay Park and the final paperwork is being processed, Anderson said.

The county said it removed the outside staircases and boarded up homes to keep vandals at bay in the beachfront communities where home prices have more than recovered six years after superstorm Sandy depressed the market and forced many Fire Islanders to make extensive and costly repairs.

 Harvey Levine, who owns the Blue Waters Hotel in Ocean Beach, said of the boarded-up homes, “It’s not pleasant to look at; I guess it’s a work in progress, and everything with the Army Corps of Engineers takes time.”

Once the Ocean Bay Park homes are demolished, some decks, pools, ramps and dune crossovers will have to be relocated or demolished, mainly in the Pines and Davis Park, where some houses also will be moved away for the sea, officials said.  

“That work has to be completed by February of 2019,” Anderson said.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Army Corps’ project partner, said when the last section of the dune will be done depends on completing the demolitions and house relocations.

The demolition contract was awarded in June; the relocation contract should be awarded in the next few weeks, state officials said.

Federal taxpayers are paying all of the dune’s cost; whether that will be the case for any replacement, if storms topple it, depends on the Army Corps winning approval for its much more sweeping plan for Suffolk’s South Shore.

So far, Anderson said, the dune appears to be outperforming the berm.

“The dune itself has done great. The berm, it comes and goes. One place where the berm is pretty solid is the western end.”