Southampton Town Asks Homeowners To Help Fund Dune Road Raising

Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst recently pitched a plan to homeowners along Dune Road in East Quogue and Hampton Bays that would require them to pay 25 percent of the estimated $9 million cost of raising the flood-prone highway.

The Tiana Beach Erosion Control Tax District Advisory Committee sent a letter to the homeowners late last month, asking that they meet with her on Sunday, September 6, at the Dockers Waterside Marina and Restaurant on Dune Road in East Quogue. The letter read, in part, that the meeting would “focus almost exclusively on the issue of resolving the flooding issues we have been confronting on Dune Road for many years.”

At the gathering, which was attended by at least 30 people, Ms. Throne-Holst said she shared a plan where Suffolk County—which is responsible for the road’s upkeep—would pick up roughly 50 percent of the project, leaving the town and Dune Road homeowners to pay about 25 percent each, or $2.25 million, respectively.

Ms. Throne-Holst said homeowners have until mid-December to commit to the project and allow a nonprofit homeowner’s association to collect the necessary funds and deposit them into a bank account, which would then be transfered to the town. There are no plans as to what will happen if homeowners do not commit to the project.

“We will cross that bridge when we get to it,” she said. “This is a great opportunity, and I think people will commit.”

Ms. Throne-Holst also noted that the town has applied for a $1.5 million grant through the state to help fund some of the work to raise the road by an estimated 18 inches. The work would focus on the stretch of highway from Quogue Village to the Ponquogue Bridge in Hampton Bays.

“I think there was a great deal of interest,” Ms. Throne-Holst said on Monday. “Many of us share the idea that this is a proactive and tangible approach to this.”

But two homeowners in attendance, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, said they do not understand why homeowners are being asked to fund part of the cost of raising a county road.

“I think the town, with Tiana Beach generating a large portion of the traffic, should pay more for it,” said one East Quogue resident. “Even though we use it a bit more, when you consider the multiple numbers of people who use it to go to the beach, it just doesn’t seem right.”

Ideally, the supervisor said work on raising Dune Road could begin early next year, so it is completed prior to next summer.

Town officials are still working to secure federal money for the work through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers but have not yet heard back.

“We were hoping that the Army Corps would have adopted [raising Dune Road] into their project list, but we’ve had no indication that they will so,” Ms. Throne-Holst said. “This is an attempt at doing a public approach to get the project completed.”