Devin Santa Brings Professional, Personal Experience to Commission

Devin Santa’s family had a summer home in Lordship when he was growing up and he lived on West Beach Drive after finishing college, which makes him very familiar with Long Beach West.

"I go running down there and sailing," he said. He is a member of the newly appointed , which will make recommendations on how to use the unique, town-owned shoreline property.

Santa is a professional civil and structural engineer who works for , a coastal engineering company headquartered in Stratford. Among the projects he has worked on are a 700-foot recreational fishing pier for the city of Stamford and a dredging study for Southport Harbor.

He also worked on a structural inspection of the Pleasure Beach Bridge and pier for a proposed water taxi service to the Bridgeport end of Long Beach West.

"Anything on the water we get involved with, which makes this commission pretty interesting for me," he said.

Santa feels, however, if the town develops Long Beach West, it will be restricted by environmental regulations and the limited money the town has to spend. But he wants to see the barrier beach used for something, such as hiking, camping, picnicking and bird watching.

"I don’t see Donald Trump building something out there," he said. "We as a town have to put our foot down and say, 'Here’s what we want to do with it.'"

Editor's note: This is the latest in a series of articles profiling the members of the Long Beach West Blue Ribbon Commission. Another installment will be published at 7 p.m. tomorrow, June 14.