10/01/2007

Imminent loss of marker

If you go down the neck past the Beachead Rest. on the right you will come across a stone marker that refers to old BI history. Well I just happened to notice today that there is a pretty good sized washout hole passing directly under the middle of the marker base! If someone doesn't get it taken care of fairly soon, after a few more good rain storms, it will probably crack in half and dump the stone down on the rock pile in front of it! Guess I'll call the Town Hall and see if anyone gives a damn

Also, have you noticed the proliferation of access points to the beach this year? Seems like people just climbed over the dunes where ever they damned well pleased with NO REGARD as to the damage they were doing to our last bastion from the sea. Right past the monument referred too above, is a nice big one! It will most likely get washed out right back to the edge of the road during the next good Northeaster we get! It beats the hell out of me why the town cannot designate a FEW places for access and then make it stick!! They do this in almost every other beach community I have looked at. Are we so afraid of hurting a day-trippers feelings that we can't assess a fine for non-compliance of the rules! And the people who buy and own houses here are not much better! You'd think that as they profess that this is the place they would most like to be because of it's natural beauty etc.,they would be more conscious of what they are helping to contribute too! LOSS OF THE FREAKING DUNES!! Then comes the water. We may soon have two Block Islands if we subscribe to Oracle ALgore's discription of the immenient demise of us all due to drowning!

I would think that the TC could spend a few bucks for some well placed and excecuted signage that would lay out the access routes to the beach, and the penalties imposed for willful disregard of the same! In the places where you have to pass thru the dunes, those roll-up wooden slats held together with rope would go far toward keeping the people ON the path to righteousness! And they could be taken up in the winter if need be. I guess TIFN!

5 comments:

Sam said...

I really surprised BI doesn't have a committee of some kind working on that, Everett - or at least you didn't mention one. Many communities restrict beach walk-overs to wooden structures with rails or specific access trails with ropes.

Now that fall is approaching, winds will veer to the NE and wash all the sand off the beach leaving mostly rocks. It happens every year. So if you don't "farm" the sand and keep people on dedicated trails, you're going to have a big problem.

The good news is that you can do some things in the off-season because during bird and turtle season, you can't get a permit May through September. You'll need a CRMC and Corps of Engineers permit maybe.

So do some preventative stuff and plan for funding and a project next year. Honest, it takes about a year to get a permit so start now. I've been doing that down here and let me say it takes a lot of time and patience - at times we just wanted to explode because of the bureaucracy.

But youse all can get-r-done.

Everett said...

Well, comes Sunday morning we will probably have another stretch of the neck road needing a lot of help from the local construction companies. Over the summer, the summer people have managed to beat another trail over the sand dune, About a two foot high by six foot wide dune. After the storm coming this week end, if it turns out to be a good nor'easter, we will have waves coming up onto the road. Can't imagine why the town powers that be have their head firmly planted where the sun don't shine.
What with all tha hoopla about global warming raising the ocean levels, It's about time for some serious though being given to building a breakwater offshore three or four hundred yards or so to slow down those big assed waves from breaking right over the road and into Harbor Pond! You know just like over there at point Judith. THEY figured out what had to happen over there about one hundred years ago and did it! If the same thing had been done over here at the same time, we would probably still have 70 to 80 yards of beach between us and the water. Hindsight is wonderful isn't it?

Anonymous said...

Just found a photo circa 1944 or 45 that my parents took of the monument. It is sitting atop what appears to be granite blocks and is surrounded what may be large, flat beach stones to form a fitting setting for this important marker. There appears to be a grassy area in back of it and a good stretch of beach also.(difficult to ascertain if it is high or low tide so perhaps the beach is not as wide as it appears) I was in the habit of stopping in that area to check out the beach but for the past several years I have passed it by for two reasons: parking a car near the monument may speed the demise of the support dune and also I would be horrified,to say the least, if the bank gave way demolishing the monument not to mention my vehicle. One step in right direction, without too much red tape might be to prevent cars from pulling in so close to the monument. Just a thought.

Everett said...

That location was where we swimming every summer day while I was a kid. My Mom had a big old Packard touring car that she used to pull in there nose first. Then we'd have to run like hell over a black sand, sand dune first and then a couple of smaller white sand ones before getting to the actual beach!Thats about 50-80 yards of beach in the last sixty years!

Anonymous said...

I just came across your wonderful blog site (not stalking really, just looking for more online love of Block Island), after spending another wonderful two weeks on your beautiful island. I too am distressed by the issue of "dune abuse" if I could coin a phrase. On more than two occasions we observed youngsters, well within sight of their moms and dads, scampering up and down and pulling grass off precious dunes along scotch beach. In the evening, groups of teenagers could be heard nestled in the crooks of the dunes. One evening after the fireworks, block islands wildlife preservation officers even drove by the beach and shone a searchlight into the dunes, upon hearing singing. No kidding it looked like cockroaches in a night time kitchen- So many kids sitting and standing in the dunes!! And yet not a word of admonishment or retribution from the officer, he simply drove on.
What can truly be done if those who are charged with protecting the dunes choose not to do so? As unsightly as it is, beaches along RI and Massachussets coast use hurricane fencing to keep intruders out. Maybe as Sam said, some off season repair can help to mitigate the abuse through the summer?