Bellport Village weighs Ho Hum Beach access as budget pressures grow

Bellport Village is revisiting who gets to ride the Ho Hum Beach ferry, and the numbers behind the debate are pushing the issue beyond simple beach etiquette. On Tuesday and Wednesday, ridership has been as low as three and as high as 14, while officials say the village budget is tightening and every service line is back under review.

The discussion came during the April 27 Bellport Village Board meeting, where Mayor Maureen Veitch also said the village would enforce its garbage rules more aggressively. Under the village schedule, residential cans can only go to the curb in a narrow window and must be taken in within 27 hours after pickup. Veitch said putting trash out too early creates problems for neighbors and village workers when animals or passersby scatter it.

Ho Hum, however, was the night’s bigger fight. The Village of Bellport owns and maintains two beaches, Ho Hum Beach on Fire Island and Mother’s Beach on the Great South Bay. Bellport’s website says Ho Hum is open to residents and their guests and can be reached only by ferry or private boat. The beach sits between Fire Island National Seashore’s Watch Hill and Suffolk County’s Smith Point Park, a location that makes every ferry slot a scarce commodity in summer.

Veitch said the village has to look at costs and revenue together as expenses rise. She pointed to the fact that members already pay for golf, tennis and other amenities, and argued the ferry should be judged against the rest of the village’s spending. That calculation matters for Bellport families, summer renters and anyone who depends on the ferry rather than a private boat, including people with disabilities or mobility limits who would feel a reduced schedule immediately if access is narrowed.

The money trail is equally sharp. Reporting has said Bellport pays about $80,000 each year to Brookhaven for lifeguards at Ho Hum, plus a $4,000 administrative fee. Brookhaven has said the water taxi can carry 25 people and the beach itself can hold 300. Bellport bought Ho Hum in 1963 for $25,000, and in 2018 the Brookhaven Town Board unanimously passed a resolution allowing the village to annex the beach into its borders.

Pushback is already organized. Fourteen letters opposing expanded ferry access had been received by the time of the meeting, and former trustee Leslie O’Connor reminded the board that 350 residents signed a petition against broader access in 2024. That same year, Brookhaven arranged limited ferry service for town residents after Bellport’s restrictions stayed in place.

A later report said summer home renters can buy a village-issued pass for more than $500 a year, with access to tennis and golf included. That leaves Ho Hum at the center of a larger local question: how much of a taxpayer-supported beach should remain reserved for a small village, and how much summer traffic Bellport is willing to absorb at the dock, on the ferry and on the sand.