Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico wants to make a Fire Island beach more accessible to residents.
While Ho Hum Beach is part of the Fire Island National Seashore, this public beach is mainly reached by a village-run ferry for Bellport Village residents and their guests to use. Panico is chartering a water taxi this week through Labor Day weekend to bring about two dozen Brookhaven Town residents to the beach — and each trip is free.
“Essentially, if you live south of the tracks, you can go to the beach,” he said. “If you live north of the tracks, you can't go to the beach…. We can work together to change this.”
Bellport Mayor Maureen Veitch said she was not consulted about Brookhaven's decision.
In a letter to village residents, Veitch called the town's plan "misguided." She questioned whether it was unsafe for Brookhaven to launch water taxis from the village marina, saying the sea wall "is really not safe for any boat [to launch]."
“This action is unconscionable,” Veitch wrote to Panico in an email obtained by WSHU.
She said the beach lacks sewer capacity and has only one lifeguard chair, which the town provides and the village pays for. Veitch defended her residents who pay taxes to maintain the marina, ferry and beach.
“I offered the option of a non-resident fee for people to come and enjoy the beauty of the water for the children of North Bellport to enjoy the simple pleasures of building a sandcastle on the beach,” Panico said during a press conference on Tuesday.
He said conversations with Veitch were at a standstill since his inauguration in January. Panico claimed that village officials acted to thwart his water taxi by erroneously requesting seats on the online portal.
Veitch wrote in her email that he “blatantly ignored her calls and text messages over the last few weeks.”
“The Town of Brookhaven, it should be clear, is not looking to invade the Village of Bellport,” Panico said on Tuesday.
Behind him stood residents of North Bellport, including Dorothy Jackson, who lives outside the village. She said she has enjoyed going to the marina to clear her mind for most of her life. But this summer, she had a bad experience.
“I was told I couldn’t go past. I had to park in the back part and walk. When I was usually able to just sit there and just meditate, pray or just think,” Jackson said. “But they told me no at that point, and I just went home, and I sat in my driveway and I just cried.”
The Brookhaven NAACP said in a statement that restricting access to the beach is discriminatory.
“It's wrong for Bellport Village to use a municipal-owned beach as a private beach and deny access to all local residents to waterways to the beach,” chapter president Georgette Grier-Key said. “Bellport Village is actively practicing segregation by excluding access and public accommodation to the Brookhaven Town.”
Owned by the town since the 1960s, the Village of Bellport annexed the beach in 2018. However, Brookhaven Town officials introduced a resolution that year to protect “the continued use and benefit of the property … for the residents of the Town of Brookhaven is assured” while the village took over the maintenance of the beach.
“Clearly, that condition has been violated, and the town will take whatever steps are necessary to protect the rights of its residents, including potentially filing a lawsuit,” Mark Lesko, former town supervisor and federal prosecutor, was hired to help Brookhaven access its legal options.
The town also plans to refer this matter to the New York State Attorney General’s office for review.
Residents of Bellport, like Thomas Schultz, are left frustrated. “Bellport Village is a very collaborative community. We care for the neighbors around us. We collaborate with our neighbors,” he said.
“For someone with political power to claim that we are segregationist or we have policies in place that discriminate against people of color is offensive to me as a village resident.”
