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Officials continue beach erosion discussion

OBSERVER Photo by J.M. Lesinski Pictured from left: Village of Silver Creek Trustees John Burt, Marv Cummings, Warren Kelly, and Stephen Romanik conducted a workshop, during which they discussed the erosion issues at Hideaway Bay brought up at the last board meeting.

SILVER CREEK — Trustees on the Silver Creek village board met at a workshop following the latest board meeting in January to discuss the pressing matter of erosion along Hideaway Bay and other area beaches. The report on erosion, given at the meeting by local resident Michael Dee, detailed the necessary steps to bring the beaches back from the current, barren state.

“I was interested in putting that jetty out there,” Trustee Warren Kelly said. “If it costs $100,000 to put it out there, to me, it’s worth it. It’s the best thing we can do, we haven’t done anything like that ever before, all we know is that everything we’ve done previously doesn’t work. The thing fills back in.”

The speculated $100,000 price tag for the endeavor is still in early development, though the urgency around the matter also made for intensive back and forths between board members. “Mike certainly has done his homework,” said Trustee Marv Cummings of Dee’s presentation. “We need the beach, if this is something that’s going to help everything west of that creek, we should look into it.”

“We should look into it,” said Trustee Stephen Romanik. “If we have the jetty at least its going to protect the (creek) mouth from clogging.”

Deputy Mayor John Burt responded to the presentation with some hesitations, though he ultimately seems to support the project pending the approval of certain parties moving forward. “Over the years when I was involved with the street department, I watched the beach disappear like it is now and come back,” said Burt. “Some of what he (Dee) said makes sense, but I’ve also seen it not make sense. We still dredged it every year.”

Burt went on to say, “I was telling Mike, the year we don’t dredge, that will be the year it floods. I have no problem with the jetty as long as the Army Corps of Engineers says yes. He (Mayor Jeffrey Hornburg) has to start with the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) won’t give us any design or permission to do that without going through the Army Corps.”

Cummings also brought up his concerns about checking with the DEC before moving forward. “The reason I wanted to ask the DEC is because I wanted to ask about the sand bar,” Cummings stated. “If they can explain it…we don’t have 100 people in here saying we flooded them. I feel bad he (Dee) has no beach, I really do.”

In addition to the uncertainty of how a jetty could impact flooding at the creek, issues with finding gravel for the jetty also arose, but opportunities to use localized gravel were also thrown in the loop. “I think another part of our problem is that years ago companies used to go in the creek … and different spots in the village and take the gravel out of it,” reported Kelly. “Just down from the backside of the old golf course, there’s tons and tons of gravel laying in there, and you look towards Fireman’s grounds on the other side behind Ehmke Well Drillers, there’s tons of gravel in there, and the DEC stopped everybody from doing it.”

Issues with the DEC’s approval on previous projects and ideas was a big part of the discussion as well. “Meetings we had people here from coastal zone management, DEC and Army Corps of Engineers, they all listened to what people had to say, but then they walked out the door, nothing ever happened,” said Kelly.

“I (previously) met with the DEC in Buffalo. … They weren’t against a jetty going out.” Burt also commented.

Cummings made a suggestion to incorporate a walkway along the jetty, in addition to beach improvements like water-testing, for the future of Borrello Beach. “If it’s something like they have in Sunset Bay where you can actually walk out there,” said Cummings. “It’d be nice to have a jetty and a walkway along with it, maybe the walkway would keep kids off the rocks and on a sidewalk.”

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