All four Greenport trustees pressed hard at a work session Thursday night for Mayor Kevin Stuessi to move forward immediately on long-delayed bulkhead repairs — seeking specific resolutions, emergency state permits and a clear chain of responsibility to keep the village’s waterfront from slipping further into crisis.
Later in the meeting, residents and trustees wrestled with confusion over the Peconic Star Fleet’s departure and the false but widespread belief that the village had forced the charter boats out.
‘Urgency’
With another Nor’easter season approaching, Greenport’s Mitchell Park bulkhead remains damaged and vulnerable — 16 months after a $3 million federal grant was awarded to the village to fix it. One stretch of the bulkhead behind the East End Seaport Museum (see picture and video below) is badly-damaged and in danger of collapse.
The pressure was led by Trustee Mary Bess Phillips, who sought two concrete actions at next week’s regular session: a resolution directing the village to apply for emergency Department of Environmental Conservation permits to stabilize the battered railroad dock area, and a companion resolution to lock in an aggressive timetable for the long-promised Mitchell Park bulkhead bid package.
“I really would like to put a resolution on for next week,” Phillips said, after the mayor told the board “we are awaiting a very brief proposal … for the updated pricing and the modifications on the schematics for that to go out to bid.”
Phillips said that she wants the emergency DEC application secured as soon as possible. “Sandy was in October,” she said, warning that higher autumn tides and storm surge could push a precarious electrical volt box into the harbor. “My concern is salt water and electricity intermixed” if the box goes into the water..
“Whatever resolution we put on for next month is of urgency … the DEC will give us emergency permits for repair over there. And I think that’s a goal that this board should press for in a resolution for next week.”
Phillips said the electrical hazard is a cascading risk that could affect the ferry and vessels at the dock, and even “keep on going up Third Street and then keep on going to the plant.”
Deputy Mayor Patrick Brennan concurred with the urgency, and clarified the mayor’s update by noting that what’s headed to the board now is still engineering, not repair.
“Those are just engineering proposals,” Brennan said. “Those are not repair proposals. So we’re not there yet.”
“No,” Stuessi replied, “we will be there shortly thereafter.”
Trustee Julia Robins also urged immediate action.
“Let’s not forget, the resolution is the urgency of the situation — right now. We … need to get that resolution … next week, to make sure that we can expedite [and] move on these two projects as quickly as possible.”
The mayor responded that “we also have to deal with the utility issue with the Long Island Railroad, and one thing we’re having trouble finding is: where is that demarcation line between the two?”
Brennan replied that “we may not have the luxury of trying to coordinate this perfectly.”
The exchange underscored what many Greenport residents feel has become one long procedural loop on the Mitchell Park bulkhead repairs.
Stuessi said the board would have the updated engineering proposal “hopefully tomorrow,” and that the item would be “on next week’s agenda.” The plan, he said, is for updated Mitchell Park bulkhead plans and materials to go out to bid alongside a separate proposal to repair the badly-damaged railroad dock bulkhead.
Phillips argued that the village should apply immediately for emergency DEC permits for the railroad dock bulkhead fix and begin lining up an outside electrical contractor.
The board also drilled into a knot of jurisdictional complications that have contributed to the drift: overlapping responsibilities among the village, the MTA and the Long Island Rail Road at the railroad dock.
“We’re tenants,” Phillips said of the site, after a back-and-forth on who owns what.
READ: After a year of shifting timelines, Greenport’s Mitchell Park bulkhead remains unrepaired
She offered to compile an institutional history of the railroad dock for the board, and said she would hunt down old county design files and village schematics from the early 1980s that may still be buried in storerooms. Trustee Lily Dougherty-Johnson offered to help locate records at the light plant.
The trustees kept returning to the question of who will be accountable for pushing the railroad dock bulkhead repair across the line. Phillips urged that next week’s resolution name a manager — inside village government — who will be responsible for promptly uploading required financial information and grant paperwork so the federal government sees active progress on the $3 million federal grant.
“I would like to see in the resolution who’s going to … start filling out the paperwork for the HUD money so that we can get that moving,” she said. “It’s just a matter of getting it to them … getting it up and into the system so that it establishes that we are working towards something on the grant.”
Stuessi said the treasurer had recently supplied required bank account details and promised to follow up.
Brennan emphasized that the village’s own marina manager wants the railroad dock hazard prioritized.
“This is [Rick Albanese’s] top concern, and he wants it to be our top priority,” Brennan said. “Even though much of our thought surrounds Mitchell Park … the electrical hazard at the railroad dock [is the] bigger issue right there.”
Peconic Star Fleet departure
Towards the end of the meeting, residents and trustees wrestled with confusion over the Peconic Star Fleet’s departure. Zoning Board of Appeals chair John Saladino pressed officials to clarify that the village hadn’t ended the fleet’s lease, citing hundreds of comments on social media under the false impression that the village had forced the charter boats out.
Last weekend, PSF’s Facebook page caused widespread confusion with a post that falsely suggested that the village revoked the fleet’s boat slip leases, with the all-caps post: “OUT OF BUSINESS LOST OUR LEASE.” That post was followed by a local newspaper account that compounded the misapprehension. None of it proved true — the current PSF lease is valid through next May and at no point did the village cancel or revoke any current or future leases.
“There seems to be a lot of consternation and a lot of perhaps misinformation in the community,” Brennan said on Thursday night. “The village has not been in any discussion with the Peconic Star about ending their lease. Their license is still in effect until May of 2026.” Brennan and Stuessi emphasized that neither they, nor the clerk, treasurer or marina manager had ever spoken with the PSF owners about leaving Greenport.
In interviews this week, Capt. Arnold “Speedy” Hubert said that there were multiple factors that contributed to his recent decision to sell his two boats, the Peconic Star III and the Peconic Star IV, to a Rhode Island buyer. Both boats had been on the market for months.
Hubert said the railroad dock where he docks his boats has fallen into dangerous disrepair, and said that the fishing charter industry on the whole has taken a big hit in recent years – with this year being his “worst ever.”
Hubert also said the village mailed out a new lease this summer that would take effect when his current, five-year lease ends next spring, which was untenable. The new lease, he said, was a one-year lease which, instead of a negotiated flat fee, would charge him $20 a foot for his two 80-foot vessels.
On Friday, Hubert clarified that new lease was sent to previous PSF owner David Brennan in June, but that Brennan only handed over the documents to Hubert recently. Hubert said he would provide the North Fork Sun with a copy.
Captain Brennan — whose name is on the existing lease — “got the new lease in June and it had a July due date for payment, but we didn’t even see the paperwork until recently,” PSF Captain Matt Gilbert said on Friday. (Captain Brennan is no relation to the deputy mayor.)
Phillips said at the work session Thursday that the lease arrangement with PSF had long been unique, crafted to allow fueling at the railroad dock and easy access for customers — a different model from commercial fishing vessels that pay dockage fees and have annual leases.
It remains unclear whether a clerical error might have led to the wrong lease being mailed out to the Peconic Star Fleet.