With another Nor’easter season approaching, Greenport’s Mitchell Park bulkhead remains damaged, vulnerable and unrepaired —  16 months after a $3 million federal grant was awarded to the village to fix it.

A 2018 engineering report warned the bulkhead was already failing and that inaction could lead to collapse, public safety threats, property damage and contamination of Greenport Harbor.

Nearly a year and a half after the grant money was announced  — and despite repeated assurances from Greenport Village Mayor Kevin Stuessi that action was imminent — the project has not advanced beyond engineering studies and talks with state and federal officials.

Interviews with village officials and a review of thousands of pages of village board meeting transcripts over the past 16 months reveal a pattern on the mayor’s part of sliding timelines, vague explanations and promises of updates seldom delivered.

In one public meeting after another, officials and residents repeatedly asked when bids would go out, whether permits were stalled, how financing would work — and, eventually, who was accountable for the six-figure interest bill on a bond anticipation note (BAN) that has now been returned.

Again and again, the transcripts show, the mayor pledged to “send an update,” to “follow up,” or to bring a “timeline” to a future meeting. Promised deadlines were always right around the corner — from “within about a week” and “after the Thanksgiving holiday” to “within … 45 days” and “literally a 30-day process.”

The delay has already cost village taxpayers $135,000.

In 2024, the village borrowed $3 million against the federal grant, but when the BAN came due last month, the village wasn’t ready to proceed and had to return the funds — plus the interest. That process must now start over, according to village officials.

A separate $1.5 million note for emergency repairs on a section of the bulkhead behind the East End Seaport Museum that collapsed in a 2024 Nor’easter (see video and pictures below) has also gone unused. The interest on that loan was not immediately clear. Village treasurer Adam Brautigam did not respond to a request for comment about the financing penalties.

The 2018 study found wood decay, bowing, sinkholes, soil loss and marine borer damage. It rejected patchwork repairs and urged full replacement to ensure environmental protection and the marina’s long-term viability.

The marina is one of Greenport’s most valuable assets, generating more than 20 percent of the village’s general fund revenue in 2023 and 2024, according to village records. Its collapse could send taxes soaring.

The bulkhead repair is one of series of festering issues facing the mayor.

Since last fall, current and former village officials, local business owners, developers and builders have publicly urged the mayor to hire a village administrator — a position Stuessi left vacant after Paul Pallas retired in early 2024.

In interviews, they said they believe the absence of that role is why the Local Waterfront Revitalization Program remains unfinished, the building department still lacks a full-time inspector and code enforcement — which generates much-needed revenue for the beleaguered village — has been hampered by staffing shortages.

In July, local business leaders decried zoning “gridlock” from a 2023 overhaul. Boaters have been complaining for months that the village’s broken-down visitors dock has been closed all summer. The village’s Business Improvement District recently launched a “dangerous sidewalk” registry after an elderly woman fell and broke her nose.

But village officials said the bulkhead worries them the most.

“None of this probably would have happened if we had someone steering the ship properly,” longtime trustee Julia Robins said in an interview. “Kevin can’t do everything.”

In response to a set of written questions submitted to him last week, Stuessi called the bulkhead repair project a “complicated process involving New York state and the federal government,” adding that “we have secured a federal grant … cost estimates and material specifications are being developed, and we will be reviewing in our September work session to go to bid thereafter.” (In fact, the $3 million grant was identified and applied for by a grant writer from the previous administration, and awarded last year.)

For months, according to transcripts, Stuessi tied the emergency bulkhead repair holdup to efforts to coordinate it with the ferry queue overhaul. Yet this week he said the collapsed bulkhead repair couldn’t go forward until the ferry queue project was completed.

The mayor said in his statement this that he and Deputy Mayor Patrick Brennan had interviewed numerous candidates in recent weeks for village administrator and were down to a “short list.” But village board members said they haven’t met with or even learned the names of any of nearly 30 candidates being considered.

‘We’re getting close’

Sept. 2024: At a meeting last fall — five months after the Nor’easter and the $3 million grant announcement — village trustee Mary Bess Phillips pressed for details on the bulkhead repair project: the grant criteria, environmental assessment, the bond note and when the village would be “ready to go out to bid.”

“We’re getting close,” Stuessi replied. “The biggest issue … is trying to figure out with the MTA and LIRR how to put [the collapsed bulkhead behind the museum] into this whole [ferry queue project] and get it done at the same time.”

Phillips warned that volt boxes behind the museum for electric, sewer and water were in danger.

“I’m a little uncomfortable with the deterioration I’ve seen… I just don’t want those boxes to fall into the water.”

Stuessi insisted the MTA was “literally… jumping through hoops” and promised his fellow board members a summary on “where we are on all of it — timing-wise and the grants.”

In an interview this week, Phillips said that if the volt boxes fall into the harbor, “it’s like electricity in the water. It’ll just go through every boat,” crippling electronics and damaging steel hulls.

“Plus, it could also blow the transformers, which will shut down the North Ferry,” she said, “and could possibly shut down [village electricity] all the way up to Third St.”

‘A disaster’

November, 2024: Last Nov. 21, Stuessi said the village was “finalizing the [request for proposals] for the bulkhead redo” and that the contractor was “teed up and ready to start after the Thanksgiving holiday,” pending one subcontractor’s paperwork upload.

“They were missing one thing from one subcontractor, which I’m told was uploaded today,” Stuessi told the board. “So we’re following up with the state tomorrow on that, and then we would have a resolution on our meeting right after the holiday in order to move forward.”

Despite the detailed assurances, no public resolution emerged.

February, 2025: By February 20, discussion shifted to financing. Phillips wanted to know when the BAN came due. Brautigam said Aug. 1, 2025. Phillips asked if the paperwork was moving forward.

“We’re working on that with [the] federal government and there’s an issue with it now … relative to the system,” Stuessi replied. Pressed on whether the issue was with the federal system or the application, he said it was “the federal government system.”

That same month, Robins, campaigning for re-election, vowed to focus on infrastructure. “We have to deal with the Mitchell Park bulkhead,” she said. “A collapse would be a disaster for the village.”

At a candidate debate, Phillips — also seeking re-election — said in an answer to a moderator’s question that her biggest regret was the board’s failure to fix the bulkhead.

March, 2025: On March 27, Stuessi delivered an expansive report on the ferry queue realignment, calling it “60 to 65 percent complete.”

When he turned to Mitchell Park, his language grew more vague.

“We are finalizing work with the state and federal government on our DEC as well as our federal grant … we are working through that with them.”

A “portion of the bulkhead” behind the museum would be replaced as part of the ferry work, he said, but no date was set for that work or the overall project.

June, 2025: On June 18, Phillips returned to the BAN — and the $135,000 in interest owed.

“The original intent … was to complete the paperwork … to get it started, to get it worked on … are we, as a board, going to make a commitment … or just say ‘it’s not going to happen?'”

She worried the village would lose the grant.

Stuessi replied that the village was “getting the engineering updated” and forecast that “we should be in a position to go to bid … within … the next 45 days.”

When Phillips noted the DEC permits had “expired in December of ’24,” he answered, “There seems to be no issue with getting them renewed.” (As of Tuesday, no application for the renewal of the expired permits has been submitted to the state DEC, according to village officials.)

A week later at the next village board session, Planning Board chair Patricia Hammes raised the bulkhead repair issue.

“What was supposed to have been done, what needs to be done, and what the plan is … and why it wasn’t done for the last 12 months?”

Phillips then turned to the mayor to ask for an update, to which he responded that the board would “be kept apprised” of the ongoing work to get the project moving forward.

“I’m concerned about this,” Phillips replied. “It’s an important infrastructure. It’s not only our biggest asset in the village … [but] it has a lot of components: we have to renew our DEC permits because they expired in Dec. ’24; there has to be a plan put together; there has to be engineering; there has to be a new [State Environmental Quality Review] — if you want to know, Tricia, what’s going on.”

Hammes asked “what did we do for the last 11 months?” and Phillips replied, “I can’t answer that.”

When Hammes pressed the issue, Brennan told her, “I don’t have any satisfactory answers for you, but I think we do need to provide more information so the public can understand better what’s happened.”

After she spoke, Stuessi addressed other comments Hammes had made, but not her questions about the bulkhead repair project, beyond saying it was one of a “number of things we will be focused on in our next work session.”

July, 2025: On July 17, Stuessi reported that he had walked the site with engineers. A proposal was due “any day.” Updating plans, he said, was “literally a 30-day process to develop our bid package … and move it forward.”

August, 2025: Last week, as the board voted to give back the $3 million plus the $135,000 interest, Hammes was back at the podium, again asking for an accounting on the bulkhead project.

“There’s still not been any public explanation of the bond anticipation note … What was the total cost? Why didn’t the project proceed … how does the village intend to make sure this doesn’t happen again?… What is the current status?

“If there’s a catastrophic failure of the bulkhead, or if the [$3 million federal] grant funds fail to come through, that’s going to create a major revenue hole … The village can’t afford to gamble.”

Hammes also pressed for an update on a grant to repair the village’s skating rink.

“A year ago, the mayor announced… a $1.2 million state grant … to my knowledge, this issue hasn’t been discussed at any board meeting … We can’t keep touting receipts of grants and then fail to follow through.”

When the grant was announced last August, Stuessi said the village hoped to complete the skating rink repairs in time for Mitchell Park’s 25^th anniversary next June. This week, he declined to respond to a question about the status of the project.

The mayor promised Hammes at the meeting that he would deliver a full update on the bulkhead project at the September’s meeting, when the village treasurer was present.

‘Getting blown off’

After Hammes’ comments, Zoning Board of Appeals chair John Saladino confronted the mayor and pleaded for more information.

“Kevin, at this particular moment … you know everything there is to know … Why does the public have to wait another 30 days … Why can’t you explain it tonight?”

Stuessi replied that “I honestly can’t speak to all the financial matters off the cuff, but we’re going to likely end up scheduling a special meeting … relative to when the engineer is here … I’m waiting for the proposal.”

Saladino bristled.

“What have you been doing for the last 11 months? It’s a reasonable question. And now … I bring it up again and now the response is ‘we’re going to have a meeting in the next couple weeks, and then we’re going to talk to some other folks, and then we’re going to play a little pinochle, then we’re going to kick it around, and then we’ll let you know some time in the future?’

“I don’t know how the folks in the rest of this room feel, but I … kind of feel like I’m getting blown off.”

The mayor said that he wasn’t blowing anyone off.

“I want to be able to present a timeline of where we were relative to the conversation with the engineer, relative to funding, when we can go to bid. I had a separate conversation with our state representatives yesterday, as I mentioned last week that I was going to be doing, as well, relative to the DEC permits, and my goal is to make sure that we are under construction this fall.”