The damage from the four-and-a-half feet of water that Hurricane Sandy surged into the Inn at Fairfield Beach is not something owner Candace Levine wants to dwell upon anymore. The renovation will be complete this fall. “We had to gut the ground floor. The only thing we couldn’t move in the office was the partitions,” she recalls. “All of that was just ruined. Commercial washer and dryer—I lost all of that. I had concrete flooring on the ground…it was just dirt and studs.” As the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy approaches, she says she and most of the residents with beachfront properties won’t give up. “People are still continuing to work on their homes, and it’s a good feeling to see that,” she says, adding that she believes that the beach scene is “definitely picking up.” Her landmark inn, located at 1160 Reef Road is right across from the beach, is moving forward in “high repair mode,” revealing a high confidence in the continued appeal of the area. The residents of Fairfield “aren’t scared away by the water,” Levine says. “We’ve had a great summer. We’ve been quite busy. We’re so happy about it. This whole process has really been bittersweet.”
