Town Beach Closed Indefinitely

Misbehavior, liability, and lack of resources cause Selectmen to close Nottingham Town Beach indefinitely.

Background: In the late 1950s the state acquired the property that is now Pawtuckaway State Park, including Drowne’s Dam and some land around it. The state decided it didn’t need all of the land by the dam and offered some waterfront land to the the town of Nottingham, contingent upon the town developing it for recreation and the approval of the abutters. The land the town received did not come with a right-of-way to access it. The town obtained a handshake agreement with the abutter to allow access to the beach from Memorial Day weekend until Labor Day weekend via Town Beach Road - a private road. This was approved by the voters in a 1962 warrant article. In those days town governance was managed much less formally than it is now. So, the town lacks documentation of this agreement.

At the Board of Selectmen’s meeting, the owners of the private road, the Director of the Recreation Department, some neighbors, and several other members of the public spoke about issues associated with Town Beach and the access road. There are multiple and complexly interconnected issues. The issues fall into three categories: misbehavior, liability, and resources.

The landowner emphasized that they were bringing these issues to the board to get them addressed, not to get Town Beach closed. They want the beach to remain open and wish to continue providing seasonal access to the beach.

Over the last several years, the landowner, the staff of the Recreation Department, and the police have had to deal with misbehavior problems that have been increasing in frequency and severity. The number and variety of examples presented were large. The perpetrators include both Nottingham residents and people from out of town.

The most severe problems occur during the period of the year when the beach is closed. Nearly all of the incidents reported were associated with entry via Deerfield Road; however, one incident via the lake was described. Some of the illegal activity included drug and alcohol parties, campfires, treasure hunting, boat launching, graffiti, vandalism, dangerous loose dogs, illegal parking, and obnoxious and threatening behavior. One case involved an overdose that entailed the police extracting the person two days after they parked their car in front of the gate.

Nottingham police advised the landowner to post the property, which the owners reluctantly complied with. This has done little to stop the undesirable behavior.

A substantial amount of in-season usage is associated with people from out of town who do not have permits to use the beach. This is particularly severe when the state park’s beach is at capacity.

For several years the Recreation Department has been unable to recruit a lifeguard for the beach. Other than a lifeguard, the beach is unstaffed during operating hours. When there has been a lifeguard, it has been a young teenager, who has often been unable to address serious behavioral issues at the beach. Although the police may be called to assist, as the town normally has only one officer on duty, there is usually no officer available to assist. The same situation arises for the landowner, who is left to themselves to deal with the many trespassers.

Causes for this increased level of misbehavior are speculative. The internet has made it easy for people outside of town to learn about the beach. Covid disruptions caused people to look to outdoor locations.

The problems for the landowners reached a new level during a storm on September 16. Several people on motorscooters had bypassed the locked gate and were riding on the road. While the owners were shooing them out, a large tree got blown down by a gust directly where the trespassers had just been riding. The landowners inquired with the Town Administrator about their liability for such situations and discovered that Town Beach Road posed a large liability to them. Shortly after this, the landowners met with the Board of Selectmen. As Town Beach Road exists only for the purpose of accessing the beach the town owns, the landowners requested that the board should arrange to have the town assume liability for use of the road. The board referred the matter to the Town Attorney.

In December the landowners inquired with the town about what progress the Town Attorney had made. They received no response.

In board meetings in April and early May there were brief updates about the Town Attorney’s lack of progress. There were no communications with the landowner.

A few hours before the May 23 board meeting, the landowners received an email from the Town Attorney - the first communication they had received from the town about the liability matter since they brought the issue to the board in the autumn. This communication has not been made public.

The Director of the Recreation Department disclosed that the department was unprepared to open the beach. As usual, they had no lifeguard or other staffing for the beach, but this year they didn’t even have any swimlines to put out as the old ones had become unusable and were disposed of. Swimlines are necessary for safety to mark the area to exclude boats. Separately from the meeting I’ve been informed by the person who has for years received a stipend for opening and closing the gate that no one from the department had discussed with him whether they wanted to employ him this year.

Selectman Dabrieo spoke about the condition of the road, which he had recently inspected, with the landowners’ permission. While the state dam bureau had recently done a lot of work to make the road passable, it was barely so. More work would be needed to make the road suitable for the public. Further, some of the parking spaces were now filled with stacks of fallen tree trunks and limbs. Trees had fallen on the beach. The work that was needed was beyond what could be done with volunteers.

Several members of the audience spoke about the issue. One of the landowners’ neighbors corroborated the reports of behavioral issues, and said that it’s not just a problem near Town Beach, but elsewhere along Deerfield Road as well.

The board deliberated briefly, noting that the town was unprepared to open the beach regardless of the issues with the use of Town Beach Road. The Selectmen voted unanimously to close Town Beach to all use and access, by land or lake until further notice.

Photo byDoug Bates