City's Parks, Beaches Focus of Ongoing Sandy Recovery

Hurricane Sandy’s overnight destruction is steadily being fixed six months later, with the City of Glen Cove working to restore some of its natural features torn away by nature’s fury.

The city’s beaches were hard-hit by the storm, especially Pryibil Beach, said Darcy Belyea, director of Parks and Recreation. 

“We have to replenish the sand,” said Belyea. “It’s something we do every year after the winter, but this year it’s bad.”

She said 100 tons of sand – double the usual spring load – is needed to replenish the beach. With sand costing $50 per ton, that’s a price tag of $5,000. Luckily, the storm balanced the damage by washing a lot of sand onto the beach at Morgan Park, which kept that location from needing the same work.

“We saved lots of money at Morgan Park,” Belyea said.

The sluiceway between Dosoris Pond and the Sound was clogged with sand and debris during Sandy and needs to be cleared so water can filter in and out, cleaning the pond in the process. Belyea met with an engineer recently to discuss the necessary work at Priyibil Beach and reported that job will get underway in the “next couple of weeks.”

The strength of storms in recent years prompted the city to begin working with an arborist two years ago to address damage to trees at the park. Between Sandy and the summer microburst that took out the Morgan Park gazebo, 91 trees at Glen Cove’s waterfront park were lost. Belyea said 23 have been replaced and 25 more are due to be planted.

Mayor Ralph Suozzi said repairs also need to be made to the sea wall at Morgan Park and to the golf course.

To date, the City has spent more than $500,000 for storm-related  fixes, with more expenses to be incurred, according to the City Controller.

“Altogether the City has a reimbursement request of over $1.1 million to FEMA although there is no final reimbursement amount that has been indicated to us or expectations of when, although I believe it will be in fiscal/calendar year 2013,” he said.

Suozzi said the costs were and are still being incurred by all City departments for things like overtime, materials, fuel, contracts, equipment, manpower and some administrative expenses, like reverse 911 calls.