Point Lookout shoreline getting face-lift

The Town of Hempstead has purchased a hydraulic marine dredge, a workboat and 8,000 feet of piping to help restore the ravaged Point Lookout shoreline and fill in a baylike depression on the community’s northeast shore.

The town took the action in response to the erosion and stench of rotting seaweed. The erosion, which has posed a threat to area homes, is the result of years of storms that have battered the shoreline. The depression has become a collecting pool for seaweed left behind by the receding tides. The cost of the equipment was $1.14 million.

The dredge is stationed in Jones Inlet, where a town Conservation and Waterways crew is siphoning sand from the bottom of the navigation channel, pumping it through a 12-inch plastic pipe and spraying it onto the eroded coastline, officials said Wednesday at a news conference.

The town has already restored more than 5,000 cubic yards of sand and anticipates that 20,000 cubic yards will be replaced. The crew will also be erecting a concrete groin along the beachfront to help mitigate ongoing erosion, officials said.