Southold officials moved Tuesday to seek a $500,000 grant for upgrades to a vulnerable Orient waterway — even as the long-discussed project remains far from shovel-ready.

The Broad Meadows Marsh project is only 60% designed and still faces unanswered questions over elevation data, hydrology modeling and potential impacts on nearby farms and homes.

Yet the Town Board moved forward with seeking the Suffolk County Water Quality Protection and Restoration grant at the special meeting, held at Southold’s Town Annex.

If awarded, the grant would help close a funding gap for the project. Officials said they need the additional money because of rising concrete and steel costs.

“Having the town board approve the grant application and going forward with that, does not push this project forward to completion,” Town Engineer Michael Collins told the board. “All it does is make it possible. If we get past this, let the internal team finish this part of the design process and get back to you with the details that you want and deserve.”

The application deadline is Friday, June 12. The town missed a deadline earlier this year for a separate $900,000 state grant for improvements to Jean Cochran Park in Peconic after a burst pipe at Town Hall disrupted operations, The Suffolk Times previously reported.

Upgrades to the marsh, located east of Narrow River Road, have been under discussion since 2014 with support from Ducks Unlimited, a nonprofit organization focused on wetlands conservation and waterfowl hunting. Officials said Ducks Unlimited will apply for the grant.

The project’s goal is to restore the area as a natural salt marsh by increasing tidal exchange and improving saline flow. Officials said the marsh is now largely freshwater and dominated by phragmites because not enough saltwater reaches the area.

Several residents at the meeting, however, raised concerns and said they were frustrated by the lack of available information.

Erin Latham Stanton, whose home and farm is near the waterway, said surveyors and consultants took measurements across her property and inspected and measured the elevation of her basement in November.

“We’ve talked to the survey people … and I still don’t have access to the survey data,” she fumed.

Mr. Collins attempted to address her concerns.

“We’re not going to do a project that puts your well and your property at risk,” he said. “[The design] is not approved for construction, and it’s still subject to review and still subject to community input.”

The plan includes replacing aging tide-control structures with modern tide gates around the existing dike and culvert system, where tidal water enters and exits the marsh. The tide gates would allow more saltwater into the marsh, regulate water levels and improve drainage after storms.

Officials said the new system is expected to require less maintenance than the current system. The plan also calls for raising Narrow River Road.

Residents feared possible long-term road closures, but officials said the road would be closed for only a few days when it is raised — not for the full two-year project timeline.

“It’s a two-year project, but not a two-year closure,” Mr. Collins said. “We don’t have the final scope of the project, so we can’t put together a project schedule.”

Other concepts under review include an earthen berm connection.

“The DEC wants us to consider doing a footbridge instead,” Mr. Collins said. “From the very beginning, reestablishing public access to the DEC property was part of this.”

Officials said the Suffolk County grant would not be used to raise the road for flood protection. That work would be funded through a separate state DEC grant, if approved. The value of that grant remains uncertain.

Mr. Collins said responsibility for maintaining the system would likely fall to the town, even though portions of the project are on state DEC property.

“Part of it is DEC’s property, ideally, they would be in control of it,” Mr. Collins said. “But knowing the way things are, what’s more likely going to happen is that the town will end up being assigned the responsibility for the observation.”

The grant application states that maintenance would occur less than twice per year, but Mr. Collins said that number could vary depending on weather conditions.

The Whitcomb Culvert has been removed from the current phase of the project, but John Sepenoski, the town’s geographic information systems and land-management coordinator, said the culvert under Route 25 remains one of the major issues. He said it is currently “perched,” meaning water cannot get into the culvert. The Whitcomb Culvert is expected to be addressed in a future phase.

“I will be asking the town to extend the dike around my entire farm … That’s the only way, if this project moves forward, that I feel that it’s going to be safe and protected,” Ms. Latham Stanton said.

The post Southold seeks $500K grant for long-awaited Orient waterway upgrades appeared first on The Suffolk Times.

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