July 2024 Coastal Conversation. 

On July 16, 2024, nearly 50 fellow residents of Jamestown living south of Mackerel Cove got together for an informal discussion to share our concern over the coastal flooding that has blocked access on and off the south end of our island during storms over the last few years. Below is a recap of the remarks from the following presenters:

• Stuart Ross, Chair, Protect Conanicut Coastline.  Stuart moderated the conversation and introduced the speakers.

• Pam Rubinoff, Associate Coastal Manager, Coastal Resilience, RI Sea Grant at URI Coastal Resource Center.  Pam talked about sea level rise predictions for the state and suggest we look at StormTools and the MyCoastRI app to see sea level rise predictions in our own neighborhoods and community. 

• Jeff Boal, Member, Jamestown Conservation Commission.  The Commission has recently applied for a $350,000 OSCAR grant, (Ocean State Climate Adaptation Resilience Fund) [Since approved] in partnership with the Jamestown Recreation Department. The Conservation Commission is looking at sea level rise and erosion at Mackerel Cove from a natural perspective and the Recreation part of the proposal looks at it from an engineering perspective. The funding would allow the town to conduct an engineering study and dune restoration plan, which includes growing dune grass and other native vegetation at the Jamestown Community Farm to stabilize the sand and prevent erosion for use at the beach.

• Alex Finkelman. Jamestown State Representative. Representative Finkelman is working at the state level to get funding set aside in the state budget for municipal resilience projects. He lives on Beavertail Road and has his own setbacks with being trapped on one side of a road closing or another.  He stated that the state owns the road, the town owns the beach, so we’re going to need federal assistance. For example, the state proposed a bridge replacement at North Road, Great Creek, costing $93 million, plus an additional $7 million for a pedestrian/bikeway.  While the state has proposed this, it doesn’t have the funding to execute it. 

• Town Council Members, Erik Brine and Mary Meagher. Mary recognized that our small population might not be high on the state register when other more populated communities like Warren and Newport are facing great issues as well. She stressed the importance of our collective voice and to make ourselves known politically so that our island’s resilience will also be in the purview of the state. We need to reach out to the Governor and our US Senators for funding resources.  

Town Council Member Eric Brine talked about the town budget - $29 million a year is the total town budget. And 60% of that goes to schools and education. So it's tiny; we can't even afford the studies, much less fixing the problem so we have to make some really hard decisions. So your voice is important. And the timing is fairly good for that, because we're about to go through a new comprehensive study for the town. We will have to make some generational decisions for our island’s infrastructure.

One key takeaway from what these knowledgeable presenters shared is that this is an issue that will require long range planning and funding at the community, state and federal levels. We were congratulated for banding together to voice our concerns and were encouraged to keep the pressure on the slow wheels of bureaucracy so that we will be part of any Coastal Resilience and Restoration priority list. 

The meeting adjourned after recognition from the audience that we will need to continue these Coastal Conversations, and that the next one should include participation from all islanders, not just those residing on Beavertail.  A tentative date was set for some time in November 2024.