Welcome Back, Bells

The Stephen “Bells” Belson Beach Way is finally right again. After being missing for several years, the sign on the boardwalk on Bell’s Beach, Beach 92nd Street, was finally reinstalled on Friday, January 17.
A longtime Rockaway surfer and lifeguard turned FDNY firefighter in 1973, Stephen E. Belson was on the job for 23 years and suffering from a back injury at the time, but he responded to the World Trade Center anyway when duty called on September 11, 2001. He never made it home.
After 9/11, Beach 92nd Street and the boardwalk was renamed Stephen “Bells” Belson Beach Way and marked with a sign. However, as the boardwalk came down during Hurricane Sandy, so did a plaque and the sign marking Bell’s Beach. Belson’s friend Lou Romas had found the plaque among the rubble left by Sandy about 100 yards away and restored it at Bell’s Beach, but the sign remained missing. After more than three years of negotiating with the NYC Parks Department to restore the missing sign, Lou Romas, Grace Miller and Bob Endall were able to get the sign replaced and it was finally installed once again on Friday.