By Adam Swift
Town Manager Tony Marino provided the town council on the beach management plan required by the state for Yirrell Beach at Tuesday night’s meeting.
“We did have a meeting with the residents out at Point Shirley with regard to Yirrell Beach and the beach management plan,” said Marino. “It was well attended and we had a good debate about it, we talked about next steps. We are going to be signing shortly the administrative consent order (ACO) with the DEP to enforce and implement the beach management plan.”
Marino said there is a benefit to the ACO in that it allows the town to work directly with the DEP over the next five years to get work done at the beach.
“It does involve putting a coastal dune in up along the seawall, which we will start to get pricing for in the springtime,” said Marino. “The reason we wait until the spring is because we don’t want to put it in now, have the material we size out put up against the wall and have it wash away in the winter time. You want to be able to plant it, by having the plantings there you’ve got a better chance of surviving the storms; and if we do it in the springtime, it will have the entire spring season and summer season and fall to take and then be ready for the following winter.”
Marino said there will be more update meetings with the neighbors near Yirrell Beach, and that the town’s primary concern is the protection of their homes.
“There will be some reduction in the number of staircases out there,” said Marino. “There will be what are called Mobi-mats, new staircases put in, Mobi-mats put out to the beach area.”
Part of the ACO also involves cleaning up part of the beach where the town can in the areas that are not in the coastal dunes.
“Once we do get the finalized beach management plan, I will ask the consultant to come in and present it to the council,” said Marino.
Council Vice President Hannah Belcher said that one of the questions that came up with the Yirrell Beach neighbors was about the possibility of more staircases and Mobi-mats, and Marino said he would check into it.