Babylon to borrow $2 million for beach replenishment at Gilgo, Overlook

The Town of Babylon is bonding for $2 million to replenish sand at two of its ocean beaches as it tries to proactively combat erosion.

The town is piggybacking off a planned Army Corps of Engineers navigational dredging project in Fire Island Inlet planned for the fall, town officials said. The town will purchase 1.5 million cubic yards of sand to be placed at Gilgo Beach and 100,000 cubic yards of sand for Overlook Beach, according to records for the project.

Town and county officials pleaded with the federal government in 2024 to help Overlook Beach, which had faced erosion so severe that a playground on the beach was teetering and seemingly about to collapse into the ocean. An Army Corps of Engineers dredging project later that year resulted in 70,000 cubic yards being brought to Overlook, and the playground was relocated to the parking lot, said Anthony Valentino, an environmental analyst for the town.

Erosion has continued to occur at the beach, but there is no cause for alarm just yet, he said.

“I know in the past there were concerns about having to shut the beach,” he said. “I haven’t heard anything about that this year. Things do look better and there’s a bit more widening and it slopes a little bit better.”

Maintenance is key, he said, which is why the town wants to get in on the available dredging sand this year before future storms pummel the coast.

“Keeping up with it and being proactive is easier than chasing to fix a problem afterwards,” Valentino said. “You never know what Mother Nature is going to throw at you, so it’s best to be prepared beforehand.”

The town did not receive any sand last year, he said, but did some “sand-scraping” projects, moving about 10,000 cubic yards of sand from places where it had built up in other areas. One of those projects was at Cedar Beach, where Valentino said loss of sand resulted in him walking through knee-deep water on the volleyball courts.

It’s not certain when the dredging project will start, he said, but such work typically occurs early to mid-fall. Weather conditions and environmental factors, such as fish spawning season, also play a role in determining when the dredging and sand replenishment will take place, he said.