Trustees Break Ground On Repairs To Dilapidated Dock Facility In Westhampton

For two years, the Southampton Town Trustees have sought assistance from the Town Board to help pay for and overhaul a dock facility on Baycrest Avenue in Westhampton that they manage. This week, they finally broke ground on the much needed repairs.

In its current state, the dock is in rough shape — a great deal of the wood is rotten, and potholes plague the road end, presenting hazardous conditions to get to and from the dock.

The cost to repair the dock and bulkhead at Baycrest was originally estimated to be $375,000, which the Trustees have had a tough time mustering up, not just for the past two years but for closer to 10 years, when the government body originally began looking at making repairs to the facility.

The Town Board agreed to bond with the Trustees to pay for the repairs in 2017, and when the project went out to bid, the lowest responsible bid was from South Shore Docks Inc., $444,775. To cover the difference, the Town Board authorized spending an additional $70,000 from the capital budget in May.

Town Trustee Ed Warner Jr. acknowledged on Tuesday that the biggest holdup to the project was the financing, but over the past year a few things happened that opened up money for the Trustees to be able to pay back the bond in the next 10 years.

For instance, last year the Trustees were awarded $271,922 in Community Preservation Fund revenue to manage Mecox Bay in Water Mill. The money is expected to help with the installation of real-time water quality monitoring stations, as well as to pay for the opening and closing of the Mecox Cut — a narrow strip of sand between the Atlantic Ocean and Mecox Bay — when the water levels rise. Additionally, the Trustees raised their permit fees.

Freeing up money that would have been spent at Mecox, combined with the added permit revenues, allowed the Trustees to move forward with projects like the Baycrest dock repairs

Just like two years ago, the dock was blocked off to the general public on Tuesday, but now there is machinery on location to do the work.

Town Trustee Scott Horowitz said the most recent delay was getting the hardwood to the facility for the contractors to make the repairs, but he anticipates the work on the dock and bulkhead will be completed by the end of the year.

Mr. Warner added that the dock will be extended to allow for a few dock slips for boats to tie up to.

“The permit fees are generated by the Trustees to repair the dock, so everyone in the town can come down and launch a boat, go snapper fishing, or go crabbing without breaking a leg,” Mr. Horowitz said. “It’s been a process to be able to do this, but it’s a good project.”