nothin Morris Cove Seeks Help Building Seawalls | New Haven Independent

Morris Cove Seeks Help Building Seawalls

Melissa Bailey Photo

When Tony Sacco returned home after Tropical Storm Irene, he found his vintage pizza oven intact, and his back deck and Coke machine bobbing in the waves.

On Monday, Sacco (pictured) led a convoy of city, state and federal officials to his sandy backyard to plead for help.

After a beachside meeting, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Mayor John DeStefano announced they would pursue federal funding to help Morris Cove homeowners build stronger barriers against the tides, as well as to protect vulnerable beachfront in East Shore Park and Long Wharf Park, both of which lost significant land when Tropical Storm Irene struck on Aug. 28. Erosion to those public parks was part of an estimated $13 million in Irene-related damage to city property and cleanup costs.

DeLauro’s visit Monday afternoon capped a five-hour tour of damaged shoreline property in the region, along with officials from the office of U.S. Sen. Dick Blumenthal, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).

DeStefano showed up at Sacco’s home at 66 Townsend Ave. at 3:30 p.m. wearing waterproof Columbia storm boots. While they waited over an hour for DeLauro’s group to arrive, Sacco offered DeStefano and other visitors sprigs of wild Italian arugula, which has run rampant in his side yard since he brought the seeds over from Italy.

Sacco, who owns Tony and Lucille’s Restaurant in Wooster Square, thanked the mayor for his help on the day before the storm. The city hired contractors to dump 500 cubic yards of sand in front of Sacco and other neighbors’ homes before the winds, rains and extra-high tide hit. The city is applying to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for reimbursement for the $8,000 tab, said city Engineer Dick Miller.

Miller said there’s no telling what effect the sand had in protecting the homes. The six-foot sand barriers eroded quickly in the storm surge that swept over the shore, he said.

Sacco, who had sworn not to leave his home of 32 years, ended up heeding an evacuation order and weathering the storm at his restaurant.

Oven Prayers

Sacco said when he returned home, he found his newly remodeled deck bobbing” behind the house along with his soda machine.

I tried to save the deck,” he recalled. I almost got washed away.”

One wave hit me right over the head” as he was working to tether the deck to the house, Sacco recalled.

Sacco’s most prized possession, a 1984 brick pizza oven brought over from Amalfi, Italy, survived the storm, he said. The oven sits in an enclosed back porch that’s dangerously close to the high tide line.

Sacco said he continues to say prayers to Padre Pío to preserve the treasure. We don’t want to lose that oven.”

When DeLauro arrived at 4:30, she followed Sacco down the steps to the beach, wearing black heels that sank into the sand. Sacco gestured to his neighbor’s house, where the waves have taken a bite out of the foundation. The circular current enters the foundation next door and continues under his home, Sacco said.

Then he showed off his house, where the cracked deck lies skewed on the sand.

I tell you, my house is slipping,” he added. The corner of his house sank four to five inches in the storm, he said.

Sacco’s next-door neighbor, David Kronberg of 60 Townsend, helped explain to the visitors how Morris Cove ended up in this predicament. When he moved onto the street some 35 to 40 years ago, there was an ample beach that was home to many family volleyball games, he said. Over the years, the beach has receded. The high tide now leaves barely any sand showing behind his house.

City Engineer Dick Miller (left) reads a report to DEEP’s Brian Thompson.

City Engineer Miller pulled out a report on the last 20 years of bureaucratic wranglings over how to protect homes along that shoreline. The most recent city effort to address erosion began in 1999, when the city proposed a plan to extend a seawall by putting riprap,” or large rocks, along the beach in front of homes. A plan to build a 16-foot stone revetment” got approval by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. However, the state Department of Environmental Protection in 2005 refused to issue a permit for the riprap, known as a hard” barrier. It suggested instead using soft, non-structural” alternatives including beach nourishment.” The city then abandoned its pursuit of a structural barrier, according to the report.

DeStefano and DeLauro Monday denounced the state for denying a permit for a hard” barrier at that time.

The barrier would not have reached down to Sacco’s home, but it would have protected his neighbors.

Brian Thompson, director of the DEEP bureau of water protection and land reuse, replied Monday that the state is bound by the Connecticut Coastal Management Act on what kind of permits it can issue. The state’s role is to issue permits for construction done on structures below the high tide line. He said the state can consult with homeowners on what kind of barrier would be appropriate, but has no money to pay for design or construction of seawalls.

DIY Erosion Fix

In the time since the city abandoned the riprap plan, private homeowners like Tony Avallone have taken matters into their own hands. Avallone, a prominent zoning attorney, just put in a steel seawall outside his own home, just two doors down from Sacco. He walked over to the gathering Monday in his shorts, drinking a glass of ice water.

There was supposed to be a solution to the erosion problem, and it never happened,” Avallone said, so he paid for his own solution.

DeStefano said the city will convene a meeting of regulators to address the problem in Morris Cove as well as at East Shore Park and Long Wharf Park.

We need to see if they’ll let us do hardened structures” in those three locations, he said. If regulators agree, DeStefano said, the city will apply for money from a federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program .

DeLauro said she stands in support.

Morris Covers like Sacco didn’t make a decision about soft/hard [barriers],” DeLauro said, but they’re paying for soft/hard. They’re the recipient of decisions they didn’t make.”

We’ve got to look for resources outside of the pockets of residents here,” she said. 

DEEP’s Brian Thompson (l) and DeLauro.

Tags:

Sign up for our morning newsletter

Don't want to miss a single Independent article? Sign up for our daily email newsletter! Click here for more info.


Post a Comment

Commenting has closed for this entry

Comments

Avatar for anon123

Avatar for William Kurtz

Avatar for jollyjolly@aol.com

Avatar for remarra

Avatar for anonymous

Avatar for @ Overtime

Avatar for anonymous

Avatar for Tea53anyone@yahoo.com

Avatar for politic21eeD@gmail.com

Avatar for Walt

Avatar for V

Avatar for remathome@sbcglobal.net

Avatar for remarra

Avatar for bob@noreply.com

Avatar for William Kurtz

Avatar for William Kurtz

Avatar for Walt

Avatar for seavid@aol.com

Avatar for omnipmb@gmail.com

Avatar for bob@noreply.com

Avatar for The Count

Avatar for fastdriver