Sag Harbor Residents Approach Village Board With Concerns For Havens Beach And Potential Impound Lot

Local residents on Tuesday asked the Sag Harbor Village Board for help in preserving a popular beach and a small lot near a local nature preserve.

Members of the Friends of Havens Beach gave a presentation to the board during its meeting after originally petitioning for help from the Harbor Committee this summer. The community group said that the spot frequented by children enjoying the beach and local residents walking their dogs has become polluted with dredge spoil dumped on the property last year, as well as dog waste and bits of garbage left in the sand.

That garbage was the highlight of group member Jean Held’s portion of the presentation when she provided photos of debris sticking out from the sand on land and in the shallows of the beach. She pointed out that everything from glass to coal to burnt wood to even rusted nails have been found on the beach, going so far as to bring some of the debris to show to the board.

“We have a lot of beach walkers who go down there and get back to us,” Ms. Held said. “I talk to them, and there’s a lot of metal detectors that go down there and bring back stuff.”

Terry Sullivan, another member of the group, suggested that the board members visit the beach, originally deeded to the village in 1924 by Lila Havens, and tour the area to see firsthand how the location could be improved.

“I invite the board to take a short walk along the beach to see if you would consider lying down on the beach,” Mr. Sullivan said. “There isn’t a blanket thick enough that would save your butt on that. It used to be a fine, light-brown sanded beach, but now it’s littered with bricks and rocks and heaving up the dredge spoil.”

The board also took comments from 13 attendees at the meeting regarding a village-owned 4,800-square-foot lot on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike. The village is looking to turn the spot into an impound lot, but environmentalists are concerned about developing land in an area close to the Long Pond Greenbelt, which contains 1,100 acres of preserved ponds, woods and wetlands that run between Sag Harbor and Sagaponack.

Frank Quevedo, executive director of the South Fork Natural History Museum and Nature Center, said he and the museum are opposed to the impound lot due to it potentially disturbing the species in the neighboring environment.

Dai Dayton, president of the Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt, cited concerns about toxic fluids leaking from the impounded cars.