The iconic Hurricane Sandy photo was of that roller-coaster that fell into the ocean when the old Casino Pier in Seaside Heights collapsed.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the old pier could be rebuilt so a roller-coaster could rise again atop the footprint of the old pier?

That's what the locals expected. But that's not what the town fathers have in mind. Instead they've come up with a scheme to build a new pier on the beach from which those photos were taken.

I know what you're thinking: A pier on the beach? That's an oxymoron. The dictionary definition of "pier" is "a structure built on posts extending from land out over water."

But why should Seaside go by the book? I grew up working the stands there, trying to separate the bennies from their bucks. So I can appreciate a good hustle when I see one.

The idea originated with a former mayor. The cost of rebuilding the pier in its old footprint seemed prohibitive, so he dreamed up an idea to let the pier owners, the Storino family, instead extend the pier northward over the dry sand.

In return, the Storinos would give the borough a merry-go-round now housed in the Casino Arcade as well as a patch of land farther north that now serves as a parking lot.

Oh yeah, the town was also going to throw in the development rights to a patch of wetlands in Toms River - a tract that can't be developed anyway.

That plan is now before the state Department of Environmental Protection. I should note here that the Storinos have been very generous to our governor. In return Chris Christie took their side in a dispute they had with Point Pleasant Beach over a midnight bar closing designed to curb the hordes of drunken bennies hitting the streets at 2 a.m.

So anything can happen. But Stephen Melvin sure hopes this doesn't happen.

Melvin is a 49-year-old Irish immigrant who is a partner in the Three Brothers pizza stands on the boardwalk. He's been pretty much the sole Seaside Heights resident to speak out against the plan.

"A lot of people were against it, but because it's a small town they were afraid to say anything," Melvin told me.

Melvin's arguments make perfect sense to any outside observer.

"They're getting that beach for a carousel and a parking lot," he said. "The beach is worth millions but the parking lot was worth $800,000 and nobody knows what the carousel is worth."

Not much. People who know carousels say the cost of moving the merry-go-round would be astronomical and the cost of getting it running again would be even higher.

So why not leave it where it is? Because the owners will make a lot more money filling that arcade - where I once worked by the way - with electronic games, which require little maintenance and have huge profit margins.

And then there's the question of beach access. The DEP site calls for municipalities to preserve access to the beaches, stating "Public Access Planning preserves and enhances an important right for the public."

The strip of sand in question may well be the single most densely populated beach in New Jersey on any given summer weekend. But how do you access a beach that's underneath a pier?

I suspect the potheads and the boardwalk Romeos will find a way. Sunbathers and swimmers will have to go elsewhere.

So those are the negatives of the plan. As for the positives, I put in a call to the current mayor, Tony Vaz.

Vaz said the great majority of business owners in town support the plan because the new rides will attract families.

"We learned after that storm that if you don't have amusements you don't get the right crowd of people," Vaz told me. "What attracts a family is rides. We didn't realize how important rides are until the storm."

That sounds good, but Melvin argues there's no guarantee that rides would occupy the new pier.

"They could put a big bar on the beach like they have in Point Pleasant," he said. "Put up a couple bars looking out onto the water and you got something huge."

Vaz said that's not the intention

"We don't see another bar going on the boardwalk," he said. "But I can't say that's never gonna happen."

As for me, I don't care if they build the biggest bar in New Jersey - as long as it's on an actual pier over the ocean.

But this is the nuttiest idea I've ever heard of in the history of Seaside.

And that's saying something.