Eastbayri.com

To the editor:

On August 28, 2011, Hurricane Irene visited Westport. That was five months ago. In less than five months the town beaches will open for the season. In three months the trailers will return to East Beach. Vacationers and sightseers will visit the area. And East Beach Road is a mess. There is no way that excuse for a road that’s in place, and that took 28 days to open, will bear the volume of summer traffic.

Any thoughts? Any at all?

Here’s one. Put the road back where it was. Why not? A road has to be there — it’s an emergency evacuation route. The town doesn’t have to pay for it — it’s already paid for. It solves a lot of “ifs.” More importantly, it solves a lot of problems for residents and businesses in the area.

Following the August storm, there were meetings between elected and appointed officials (who seemed to be vying for the position of Storm Czar) and the interested public, where suggestions (some outrageous) were bandied about.

Seawalls, breakwaters, jersey barriers, rocks, an artificial reef (made by dropping some obsolete army tanks, trucks, school buses and the Brightman Street Bridge into the middle of Buzzards Bay, banging holes in the Gooseberry Island causeway, and moving the road to the north were all ideas or suggestions made at these meetings — all long-term, time consuming, expensive, and some illegal.

There was an immediate need (get the road open). There was a call to action, and the action they took — they closed the road, for 28 days!

Put the road back where it was. The alternative is chaos. The options are perhaps various but the best seems to be moving the road 100 feet to the north.

Much the same thing was done in the mid-sixties on Cherry and Webb Lane. The road was moved 100 feet to the south and incorporated an S curve. At the end of the road — Cherry and Webb Town Beach, a beautiful facility that has been enjoyed by thousands of Westporters for over 40 years. But the “moving the road option” at East Beach will take time, money, engineering, surveying, permitting and land taking (eminent domain). That’s not going to happen before summer, this one or the next one. Somebody should be thinking and acting on it.

The Westport Beach Committee has met monthly for the past seven years and a frequent topic for discussion has been East Beach. Three years ago a member drafted a request for proposals (RFP) to move the road 100 feet north. It was to be sent out after some initial survey and engineering. Approved by the Selectmen, the RFP was shelved for lack of funds.

Put the road back where it was — now! Then summon the Beach Committee. Pick their brains, jog their memories, read their minutes and find as long-term a solution to East Beach Road as Mother Nature will allow. Any thoughts? Any at all?

Robert E. Carroll

Westport Beach Committee