pleasure beach

For want of a bridge, a season's undone

By Fred Musante

June 30, 1996 - New York Times

PAUL OLIVA was relaxing on the deck of his cottage overlooking Long Island Sound two Sundays ago when he noticed a billowing column of black smoke rising above the trees to the East. His first thought was that the bridge that connected his family and neighbors to the mainland was on fire.

''I hoped it was something else, but I was afraid it was the bridge,'' he said.

Mr. Oliva and many of his fellow residents on Pleasure Beach, a sand spit of an island straddling the Bridgeport-Stratford border, rushed to the wooden span to find their worst fears realized. A large, center section was ablaze, the flames fed by the creosote liberally applied to its pilings and substructure as a water-proofing preservative.

A few hundred island visitors, who had come to sunbathe on Pleasure Beach's secluded beach, fish from its pier or picnic under its shady trees that Sunday afternoon stared helplessly at the burning bridge. On the mainland side, firefighters struggled vainly to gain control over the blaze, but the wind was spreading it away from them, toward the island, and the fire in the wooden beams and pilings below the roadway deck was inaccessible to their hoses.

 

Residents led an impromptu bucket brigade from their side, which Mr. Oliva credited with slowing the fire's progress and helping the firefighters put it out. But by that time the fire had burned for two hours, charring a 200-foot center section of the bridge, effectively isolating for now what the island residents regard as one of Connecticut's least known recreational treasures.

Bridgeport fire department investigators said the cause of the fire was most likely a carelessly discarded cigarette or cigar. John Marsilio, Bridgeport's director of public facilities, said the city could not open the span before determining the extent of the damage. Otherwise, he said, the structure could collapse and block the channel.

''That's the only way we have to get out of here,'' said Mr. Oliva, president of the Long Beach West Association, an organization of the owners of the 44 cottages on the Stratford side of the island.

Many of the cottage owners are retired and content to stay in their island hideaways, traveling occasionally to the mainland in their outboards to shop for food. ''We've got enough for a month,'' said George Kosta, a summer resident. ''We're O.K.''

But for others the bridge fire poses a predicament. Mr. Oliva's daughter, an emergency room nurse at a hospital in Port Chester, N.Y., and his son-in-law, who owns an auto repair garage in Croton, N.Y., were stranded, unable to go to work. They may have to leave for the summer, even if Mr. Oliva decides to stay.

Bill and Barbara Dennehy say they will have to return to their part-time residence in Florida. Their daughter, who is pregnant, had to leave right away, because emergency vehicles could no longer reach their cottage. ''We've lost the season,'' Mr. Dennehy said.

''This ruins our whole summer,'' says Ken Stilson, another cottage resident. His wife, who has had a hip replacement, cannot walk long distances or climb in and out of boats. He said they, too, may have to leave.

Worst of all, this may be the last season for the cottage owners, whose summer homes stand on land owned by the town of Stratford. The town has announced it will not renew their leases when they expire one year from today.

Mayor Joseph P. Ganim of Bridgeport was sympathetic, not only with the cottage owners on the Stratford side of the island, but also with many others from all over the state who come to Pleasure Beach to fish, picnic, swim, or just to enjoy the view.

''It's the worst time for this to hit,'' he says. But the only advice he could offer to them was to be patient.
The 88-year-old bridge is now unsafe for vehicle and foot traffic and closed indefinitely. Its center swing span, which pivots to allow marine traffic through, was damaged and may not be able to be opened, blocking the passage of fuel barges to a large cluster of heating oil and gasoline storage tanks along Johnson's Creek, a tidal inlet that extends more than a half mile inland up to Interstate 95.

But whatever the cost to commerce, the human cost may be as great. Bridgeport officials hope to make sufficient repairs to allow pedestrian traffic to the island within a few weeks, but restoring access by vehicles may take months. Preliminary estimates place the repair cost at $1 million, which Bridgeport does not have.

Several years ago, the state allocated $20 million to replace the bridge, but recently rescinded the appropriation on the grounds that its benefits did not justify the cost.

With more than a half mile of secluded sandy shore, Pleasure Beach has attracted a small but loyal following of sun worshippers who prefer its quiet and solitude to the noisy, crowded scene at better-known public beaches. It is also the best priced day at the beach anywhere. There is no charge. Not even a municipal park sticker is required.

Its picnic grounds are Spartan -- but in recent years, it has become a favorite spot for large, family-oriented weekend gatherings.

Fishermen dot the beach, casting for bluefish and flounder, and McLevy Pier, extending into Bridgeport Harbor, is rarely without anglers, who also line the bridge walkway most days.

The Polka Dot Playhouse, a small theater on the island, was preparing for a matinee performance of Neil Simon's ''Laughter on the 23d Floor'' when the fire broke out. Three patrons had arrived in time to cross the bridge, only to be stranded with the actors on the island. In the grand tradition of the stage, and with few alternatives, the play went on. ''We figured we had a captive audience,'' said Rose Lodice, president and executive co-producer of the theater.

Her car was among more than 180 vehicles that were stranded on the island. The Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Steamboat Company donated one of its car ferries the day after the fire, which tied up to McLevy Pier and removed the cars.

The episode ended happily for the Polka Dot Playhouse. A few days after the fire, People's Bank announced it would accelerate the theater's move into a former bank building in downtown Bridgeport, allowing it to salvage a children's summer theater program and possibly part of its summer season.

The fire also stranded as many as 200 pleasure boats docked in marinas on Johnson's Creek. A majority of the 500 vessels that sail out of the creek are small enough to fit under the damaged bridge, but not the larger fishing boats with flying bridges or the many sail boats.

But the fire's worst victims were the cottage owners, who may have lost their last season in the summer residences. Stratford's town manager, Mark Barnhart, said members of the town council met the day after the fire and reaffirmed their decision not to renew the cottage leases.

Stratford officials said they are unable to provide adequate police and fire protection for the cottage residents. There is also sentiment that the town does not receive enough payment for the leases, which many cottage owners view as jealousy. In addition, environmentalists would like the land to be added to a nesting sanctuary for least terns and piping plovers, two protected species of shore birds.

The possibility of an emergency on the island while the bridge is closed is also a concern of the cottage owners. ''Every time the bridge is out, we've had increases in robberies,'' noted Mr. Stilson. ''The thieves know the police can't get out here.''

But they argue that their presence there enhances safety and deters crime. Mr. Oliva, a retired police chief, said if the cottages go, criminals will use the isolated beach area to conduct illegal activities with impunity.

He said that about eight years ago he saw a man discard a hand gun in the water near his cottage. It turned out that the man had used the weapon to murder his mother in Mount Vernon, N.Y., and Mr. Oliva's testimony helped convict him.

While the fire has caused the worst damage the Pleasure Beach bridge has ever sustained, it isn't the first time it has been closed. The bridge has been struck and damaged by barges and tugboats, most recently in March, 1995, and closed once when the swing span mechanism broke.

The island has been eyed for development as a commercial amusement park, which it was for the first half of the century. The real estate developer Donald Trump proposed such a plan in 1994, and the city sent out feelers to see if the state wanted to buy its portion of the island for use as a state park.

 

Nothing ever came of these plans, and it has long been argued by Bridgeport residents that the poor condition of the access bridge has discouraged use of the land. A beach pavilion and boardwalks the city built 10 years ago have been vandalized.

But one person's decay is another's delight. As Mr. Stilson piloted his fishing skiff down Lewis Gut, the main branch of the backwater tidal estuary behind Pleasure Beach, he pointed out the natural beauty of the salt marshes and remarked how clean the water is.

''This is a beautiful area, like a little Paradise,'' he said.

Then, with a sigh, he added, ''It seems every year something's happening to the bridge.''

 

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