One special visitor's planned arrival to Fire
Island is creating a pressing deadline for the cleanup of tons of rotting wood,
sheet rock, old refrigerators and other Superstorm Sandy debris from the
popular vacation destination east of New York City.
Contractor crews are scrambling to get the trash
removed by the end of March, before truck access is severely restricted to
protect the nesting areas of the endangered bird species known as the piping
plover.
"The deadline has everyone's
attention," said Suzy Goldhirsch, president of the Fire Island
Association, which represents businesses and homeowners on the 32-mile-long
barrier island south of Long Island.
She said most homeowners do not begrudge laws
protecting the plover, a compact, pale shorebird with coloring that makes it
all but vanish against the open sand flats where it nests.
But if officials can't get the cleanup done by
the deadline, they will have to haul away the estimated 82,500 cubic yards of
trash by barge, which will be much more expensive and take longer.
That could push the cleanup closer to the
Memorial Day-to-Labor Day tourist season, when the population of Fire Island
swells from 300 to 75,000.
Access to the beachfront by vehicle will be
banned until after September, according to environmentalists.
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