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It’s an end of an era for the Ho-Hum Pavilion.
After serious consideration, the Bellport Village Board of Trustees made the difficult decision at a meeting on Dec. 20 to remove the Ho-Hum Pavilion on Fire Island.
Mayor Ray Fell said the decision ultimately came down to a few factors: the stability of the structure, environmental impacts and the cost to preserve it.
“The pavilion is in the water half the time,” Fell said. “The sand gets sucked into the breach and we have no sand — we lost all the dunes on the beach, it’s pretty flat now, and the pavilion is unusable.”
The next step is to meet with contractors, go over final pricing and figure out how to pay for the pavilion’s removal, Fell said.
The mayor added that he doesn’t see a replacement for the pavilion happening in the near future due to the “unsettling situation of the shoreline.”
“When we built it originally to replace the one that was built in 1983, it was built 75 feet further north than the first one, and we felt like there was plenty of room to be safe, but apparently it wasn’t,” Fell said. “Maybe in three years or five years it may change, but at this time there are no plans to replace it.”
The new pavilion was built in 2015 and by 2018, it was no longer functional, said village clerk John Kocay.
Kocay said the pictures (shown below) are “worth a thousand words” when it comes to showing the toll that extreme erosion and harsh weather elements have taken on the pavilion.
“Mother Nature is so unpredictable now,” Kocay said. “We never, ever, thought that this would happen.”
Fell reflected on some of his own fond memories of the pavilion and the times he enjoyed it.
“I’ve been here for 50 years, my family, my wife, my daughter spent many, many evenings there having dinner,” he reflected. “When my daughter was young, we sat on the pavilion when we had to get out of the sun. I think that it’s an era that is over and it’s a shame.”
Scroll down for photos of the Ho-Hum Beach Pavilion, courtesy of John Kocay of the Bellport Village office.
Continue to follow greaterpatchogue.com for updates on Bellport Village and Ho-Hum Pavilion’s removal.
When the Ho-Hum Pavilion was first built 
The view of the beach from the pavilion 
What Ho-Hum Pavilion looks like today
Top: The Ho-Hum Beach Pavilion submerged in water. Photo courtesy of John Kocay.
