Hamptons residents renew demands to halt Montauk dune restoration project

About 75 Montauk residents opposed to a controversial U.S. Army Corps of Engineers beach erosion project underway in the hamlet packed the East Hampton Town Board work session Tuesday to continue to demand that the work be stopped.

Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell on Monday announced that board members would monitor but not stop the work.

In a news release issued Monday, Cantwell said the members had listened carefully to the opposition, but he said there was no basis for stopping the project. He said it was the best interim solution until a long-term stabilization effort was implemented.

Some who addressed the board members during the work session accused the council of ignoring the public "mandate" that the work come to a halt.

"The 'emergency' is that the beach is getting cut up day by day," resident Sarah Conway said. She asked the board to set up a meeting to provide the public with complete details about exactly what is being done to the beach.

"The town doesn't really understand what this is going to look like," Conway said.

Cantwell said board members would take the request into consideration but reiterated that the project, in which temporary sandbags are being put in place to stabilize the shore, would move forward.

SEE PHOTOSSandy's destruction

Resident Susan Vitale told the board members she wanted to take her allotted three minutes of speaking time to instead have three minutes of silence.

Vitale noted that Tuesday's meeting began with a moment of silence for the victims of the massacre in Paris. As her requested three minutes of silence began, Vitale said it was to observe "what's being done to the planet and Montauk."