Message Received 2/18/11

The following message was received on Friday, 2/18/11.  Carin Z. Faulkner, Town Clerk

From the minutes of the Board’s Feb ’11  retreat I see that the board has  decided to hear opinions from any former BEST Committee member on the current status of the town’s prospective beach nourishment efforts, though they are not in support of re-convening the committee, a very understandable position since we were tasked as a Team to Study Beach Erosion, and that we did, and did well.  Job completed. 

First I want to commend the Board who approved  the original committee.  Ed came to chair the group, fresh off a strong leadership role on the ‘SAY NO! to the BN referendum’ group.  I came to vice-chair from the position of a strong advocate FOR the referendum.   The rest of the group was comprised of residents and non-residents, OF and non-OF owners, COBRA and non-COBRA people, those whose interests stemmed from real estate/development  and those who came from a more environmentally oriented approach.  The board had the courage to seek out all sides of the issue. 

And I too commend the board for obviously demonstrating its appreciation of our efforts.    I smiled when I received the letter of appreciation from the town in the mail, and please know that our group was of adults more than willing to share our time and talents for the betterment of the town, and we don’t need a figurative gold star to know that the past board, and the current board both gave proper focus and full attention to all aspects of our submitted report.  The majority of this board has proven that ‘due diligence’ is not a catch phrase but the true method that guides the work and actions of the board. 

Coming up to date, over the years, as the scope, the engineering, and the costs of the CP&E Engineered Plan
 have all magnified, my position as a strong advocate of the plan has evolved to the understanding that  the plan is now outside of our scope.   I have enumerated the many flaws before.  Suffice it to say that in addition to those many flaws, I agree with Mayor Tuman’s position that our most recent attempt at having phase one bear all the financial burden was doomed to failure for even if the taxpayers were willing to take on the burden, future phases overlapped so that the plan could not continue in like format.  So too, phase three has very little tax base and it would be impossible to have them keep in lockstep with the plan. Fortunately, the survey results told the town the taxpayers would not open the Pandora’s box.  

So finally on to my suggestions.  The proposed plan would have cost tens of millions of dollars over the coming years,  in a never ending cycle.   However, in the last ten years we have lost very little property.  The future ten years will most likely again see little actual tax base lost. What would be a tax effective way to help mitigate even that loss?   A massive town wide planting or sand fence effort might appease some people, but will yield little true value.  Instead I submit that the BOARD take a crucial role in deciding on and supervising implementation of a specific, pin-pointed project that tackles (on a rotating yearly basis north to south) any areas of our dunes that have been breached or are close to it.  We have compatible sand available for trucking (as we did after Orphelia).   Looking at the specific area, truck sand and fence/plant AS NEEDED.  If we use our share of the occupancy tax and perhaps one cent from the town taxes we would have ample funds to fortify all the critical areas of our dunes.  I would estimate that each area of the  town would be addressed every four or five years.  Of course, this is a bandaid approach, but when the CP&E project shortened the engineered beach to 50-75 feet at the maximum, we know that would have to be renourished every four years too.  The engineered approach would cost us upwards toward $100 million dollars over ten years……a detailed and specific  fortification of the dunes with trucked sand, perhaps a tenth of that over ten years.  In addition to a huge cost savings, using this approach could allow the town to begin work immediately.  No bonds, no  tax increases,  no waiting for phantom federal or state funding, no seeking permits that have been promised for two years, no town division, no fodder for political pandering.  Just a good, cost effective way for this board to take immediate action on behalf of the people they represent.  

Again, I thankc for the full and proper attention that I know you will give my to opinion, and to the many and varied opinions that other residents will submit. 

We have given an engineered plan much money and time.  Now this board can move forward knowing with confidence that all study and funding attempts for that plan are exhausted and you can, having performed due diligence,  approach the care of our dune with a sense of reality and cost effectiveness.

Sincerely,
Mary Convy
former vice-chair of the former BEST group