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Politics & Government

Future of Long Beach West on the Table

The mayor's blue ribbon commission begins its work to recommend a use for the land.

The chairman of the new Long Beach West Blue Ribbon Commission gave the members some homework at their first meeting — come to the next meeting with their ideas for what they would like to see the shoreline barrier island used for.

Chairman Patrick Gribbon also used the first meeting on Monday as a get-acquainted session, so that the seven voting members and six non-voting members could share their backgrounds and why they have an interest in Long Beach West.

During the meeting, the members agreed that they wanted to develop facilities for human access to Long Beach West. Gribbon suggested a boardwalk such as the one built along the shore in Milford.

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Gribbon said he believes the town could build a boardwalk and even restroom facilities on Long Beach West without contradicting public opinion in Stratford.

Technically a sand spit, not an island, because it is attached to the mainland and the Stratford end, Long Beach West stretches more than a mile westward from Stratford’s Long Beach public bathing beach.

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The wide, western end is across the town line in Bridgeport, where it is known as Pleasure Beach, the site of an amusement park from the 1920s to the 1960s.

A cluster of seasonal cottages existed on the Stratford side, but when Bridgeport’s Pleasure Beach Bridge burned, cutting off access to the cottages, the town refused to renew their leases, evicted the owners and removed them last year, aided by $909,000 in federal economic stimulus funding.

Mayor John Harkin appointed the blue ribbon panel to come up with ideas for how to use the valuable mile-long stretch of Long Island Sound shoreline with an extensive tidal salt marsh behind it.

The members of the commission include Milan Bull, a biologist and conservation advocate for the Connecticut Audubon Society; Morgan Kaolian, a well known local pilot who is one of the founders of Long Island Sound America; and Marcia Stewart, a local environmentalist.

The non-voting members include Stratford Conservation Administrator Brian Carey, Carol Szymanski of the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and Andrew French and Sharon Marino of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Marino and Carey visited Long Beach West just before the meeting. Marino said she was pleased to see growth of the natural vegetation in areas disturbed by the cottage demolition, and they also saw newly hatched piping plover chicks.

Commission member Ed Scinto asked the question about public access, which everyone said they wanted. He said he frequently hears complaints from Stratford residents that the DEP prevents people from walking on Long Beach West.

Stewart said she thinks some people are leery about going out where the cottages were because it is an isolated spot and they are afraid for their safety there.

But commission member John Zbell said the commission shouldn’t "dwell on the negatives," and Szymanski advised the group to ask the mayor to issue a press release publicizing the rules for beach access.

Carey said he and Marino walked all the way to the end of the Stratford section and back in under an hour. The remains of the temporary road that was used by trucks carting away the cottage demolition material serve as an ideal hiking path, he said.

And Marino said the piping plover nesting areas, which should be avoided during the nesting season by people and their pets, are clearly marked.

Gribbon said Stratford and Bridgeport rarely talk to each other about their plans for Long Beach West and Pleasure Beach. He said Bridgeport is leaning much more toward commercial development than Stratford is.

But Bull said he mentioned it to Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch about a week ago and Finch, who was a college student volunteer in the Connecticut Audubon Society’s environmental education program, is for including wildlife protection measures in Bridgeport’s development plans, according to Bull.

"He was in agreement with my goals and objectives," he added.

Gribbon said Long Beach West wasn’t well-used by the cottage residents or by the town.

"It’s been abandoned for a long time," he said.

But Gribbon told the other members of the commission he feels they could come up with a "wonderful plan for Long Beach West."

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