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Rowayton’s Bayley Beach Storm Repairs To Cost Thousands

NORWALK, Conn. – Repairs to Bayley Beach, Rowayton’s popular waterfront park and pavilion, could cost the Sixth Taxing District thousands of dollars after Hurricane Sandy, officials said.

The boarded up pavilion at Bayley Beach in Rowayton weeks after Hurricane Sandy.

The boarded up pavilion at Bayley Beach in Rowayton weeks after Hurricane Sandy.

Photo Credit: Alfred Branch

The taxing district oversees maintenance of the beach and the recreational facilities there. According to district administrator Jack Robson, large drifts of sand filled the grill area and buried many of the picnic tables. Sections of the boardwalk, Adirondack chairs, benches and other items were washed into the nearby creek, he said.

The pavilion was “severely damaged” by Hurricane Sandy, Robson said, and the repair costs are unknown. “FEMA needs to advise us,” he wrote in a recent memorandum to district commissioners.

Parts of the base of the pavilion were boarded up with plywood Monday afternoon and caution tape roped off the area.

The district estimates it will spend more than $6,200 getting furniture and debris out of the creek, and more than $9,300 clearing sand from throughout the park. Damaged fences around the Dumpsters will likely cost more than $2,000 to replace, and the district could spend another $2,500 to remove the downed trees from the beach and parking lot areas, according to Robson.

Rowayton – and Harborview and parts of East Norwalk and South Norwalk – were some of the hardest hit neighborhoods in the city as cleanup from Hurricane Sandy continues in those areas.

“The level of water that came into Rowayton was higher than the storm of 1938,” district commissioner and Norwalk Board of Education member Mike Barbis said during a commission meeting late last week.

“It was a foot higher than what we saw last year from Hurricane Irene. About 100 homes in Rowayton were flooded into the first floor.”

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