More than two years after Hurricane Sandy, some local condo owners are finally getting relief.
After a seawall facing Eastchester Bay was damaged by Superstorm Sandy, and repair to that wall was slowed by red tape and environmental concerns, the project to make the Outlook Point Condominiums in Spencer Estate whole again is inching closer to completion.
Senator Jeff Klein helped the condominium, with 60 plus owners, navigate the choppy waters of dealing with the state as they sought to get plans approved to rebuild the barrier.
This comes after the October 2012 storm’s surge knocked away much of a rock wall facing Eastchester Bay, a representative from the condo board of directors confirmed.
“The storm washed away a good portion of the existing seawall,” said Dan Henderson, treasurer of Outlook Point Condominiums’ board of directors, adding “I would say that there is a few hundred feet of damage on the southern side of the complex.”
Outlook owners saw their patios and backyard pavers lost to the sea, he said, and stone had to be brought in to replenish what was swept away by the storm.
Repairs are still ongoing, and the project to fix the wall is expected to be completed in 2015, said Henderson.
The condo went on an odyssey of first getting funding from the appropriate federal agency, the Small Business Administration, and then plans approved for the wall reconstruction, said Henderson.
Some local residents were concerned that the project had infringed upon the area of an environmentally protected weir near the wall.
Because of the inlet area and other issues, the project was stopped so that everything could be taken into consideration by regulators.
The Department of Environmental Conservation investigated the project on May 13, 2014 and May 22, 2014, a spokesman for the DEC stated.
The project’s contractor received fines for operation of a backhoe below mean high water line, and failure to comply with erosion control measures during construction, the DEC spokesman stated.
In July, the contractor, Concrete Solutions Contracting LLC, and Outlook Point Condominium, Inc. Homeowners Association paid a penalty of $20,000, according to the spokesman. The project resumed after the conflict.
“Years after Hurricane Sandy, the seawall at Outlook Point Condominium had still not been repaired,” said Klein. “Severe weather is a real threat and it’s something we all need to take very seriously. That’s why I worked to see that this project got finished sooner rather than later.”
