Posted on September 10, 2018
According to Suffolk County records, state permits to dredge the Sebonac Inlet were never modified to allow for extra dredging that was requested—and paid for—by a number of individual donors who gave money to the Southampton Town Trustees to facilitate the dredging.
The funds were supposed to be used to pay the dredge operator’s overtime—above what they were paid by the state—to dig an additional 50 to 60 feet beyond what the permit originally specified.
Although the permit was never amended to allow for the extra dredging, officials from the Suffolk County Department of Public Works said they dredged Sebonac Creek six times over the last six years, removing more than 58,400 cubic yards of material.
In 2012, the Southampton Town Trustees made a promise to members of the Bullhead Yacht Club and other residents who use Sebonac Inlet to get to Peconic Bay: The Trustees would accept a monetary donation and use it to pay Suffolk County to dredge the inlet.
Donations totaling $10,800, which ranged individually from $150 to $1,500, were to be put into a special account and used specifically to dredge a shallow sandbar outside of the inlet that prevents sailboats and yachts with deep hulls from getting through at lower tides.
But the work was never done, and the donors now want their money back—even though the Trustees say Sebonac Inlet received more dredging than anywhere else in the county.
“They got a lot of dredging,” Town Trustee Scott Horowitz said. “They got way more for their club than the average taxpayer, and most got none.”
According to Mr. Horowitz, the Trustees paid the county $43,808 for overtime between 2013 and 2014 to dredge Sebonac Inlet—significantly more than the $10,800 donation.
Town Trustee Bill Pell said on Tuesday that the county was on a tight budget that year and was limited on the amount of overtime it could pay the dredge operators. So the Trustees offered to pay extra money to ensure that the inlet was dredged.
Bill Clair, a member of the yacht club, said there is no denying that dredging was performed at the inlet. His problem, he said, is that the money he and the other donors gave to the Trustees was to pay for extra work.
Mr. Clair said that last year Mr. Horowitz provided him with an inter-municipal agreement and documentation of money going to the county from the Trustees in 2014 and 2015.
“All the stuff that he gave us … that was for standard overtime,” Mr. Clair said. “For years, prior to us asking for dredging, there was overtime involved. It doesn’t document the added overtime.”
Under the terms of the 10-year permit the county obtained from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which runs from May 27, 2009, through January 14, 2019, the county is allowed to dredge the navigation channel to a length of 5,600 feet, a width of 100 feet and a maximum depth of 8 feet below the mean low water in the outer channel and a depth of 6 feet below the mean low water in the inner channel. Work is also only allowed to be conducted between October 1 and January 14.
“It could never be done in the time frame,” said Mr. Clair. “So there was always overtime, because of the weather and the time of year and the places they had to dredge.”
In order to do additional work while the county dredge was at Sebonac Inlet, Mr. Clair said, the permit needed to be amended to dredge an additional 50 to 60 feet. The permit was never amended, according to county records obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request.
Even so, no agreement between the Trustees and the donors was ever put in writing.
Mr. Pell, who gave money along with Mr. Clair and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said he and the others gave money to the Trustees without signing a contract because they trusted the board.
“I guess it was our mistake that we entrusted them and gave the money up front instead of putting it in our own fund and paying out of that,” Mr. Clair said. “I guess that’s where the mistake was.”
If he is unsuccessful in getting the money back from the Trustees, Mr. Clair said his next step would be to approach the county.
Still, Mr. Horowitz stands by the assertion that the work was completed beyond what was requested by the donors, and questions why a back-room deal was made in the first place—and if it was even legal. He also said the deal has hurt dredging efforts for other inlets and creeks.
“We really need the county to also pay attention to the bays in Hampton Bays and East Quogue, Quogue and Westhampton areas,” he said. “They are badly silted and definitely need dredging.”
Source: 27east
