It's been almost seven years since the sand at Pear Tree Point Beach has been replenished, leaving residents to walk across the course and naturally rocky New England beaches.

Historically, the town has replenished the sand on a staggered schedule every few years, according to Susan Swiatek, parks and recreation director.

"This method hasn't been approved in that fashion in a number of years with the economy," Swiatek said.

That regular schedule of adding sand to the beaches came to a halt during the financial crisis of 2008, according to Town Administrator Karl Kilduff.

"The town was prioritizing money for fiscal improvement and adding sand to the beaches was not a top priority," Kilduff said.

At the last Board of Selectmen meeting, members of the RTM Park and Recreation committee asked that the board consider replenishing the sand at the beaches.

Requesting money for sand in the future will be a "function of what the local economy will look like and where the community wants to go with is," according to Kilduf.

In the past, sand has been dredged from Long Island Sound and trucked up to Darien, but due to transport costs, the process can be quite expensive. The cost to replenish 2 to 3 inches of beach cover at Pear Tree Point Beach and Weed Beach is $40,000 per beach.

During storms, the sand appears to be washed up the beach and gets dumped into the parking lots, according to Swiatek. From there, maintenance crews have to push the sand back on the beach and rake the sand.

Unlike other coastal towns in Connecticut, the two beaches don't appear to be losing any sand during storms, Kilduff said.

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Long-delayed sand replenishment sought for Darien beaches