Struggles to Reopen Nottingham Town Beach

At the June 3 Nottingham Board of Selectmen meeting the board took up the ongoing issue of the temporary closure of the town beach.

Selectman Decker amended the draft minutes of the May 23 non-public session to note that the board could not legally discuss the document prepared by the Town Attorney regarding access to Town Beach because it had entered non-public session on grounds of section “I” not “L;” and therefore had to table the discussion to the next meeting. Thehis draft minutes say that non-public was entered into in order to discuss legal matters, and that “The Board briefly reviewed a document submitted to the BOS by the town attorney and agreed to table it for another meeting because most members had not had a chance to review in detail.”

Chairman Morin said that the town is working on a plan with the attorney and the landowners to reopen Town Beach and is trying to get it settled as soon as possible. 

Selectman Dabrieo met with the Police and Recreation departments about the matter. Both confirmed that the beach has been the location of lots of behavioral problems for the past several years. The landowners said they have thousands of hours of videos of problem behavior they could provide as evidence. 

Selectman Dabrieo said, “whatever we do is going to cost money.” For example, the Recreation Department says that the beach needs $1k for new swimlines, which the department did not budget for. Nor did the department budget for someone to install the swimlines. 

Selectman Dabrieo said it will take a long time to find a solution, and it will require having an attendant. The Town Administrator said it would be difficult to find anyone willing to be an attendant. It’s also an open question about what department would be responsible for the attendant. 

Chairman Morin said the issue may need to be presented to the voters as a warrant article to gauge the voters’ willingness to provide the necessary funding.

The Town Administrator said that the town’s insurance company said it’s not unusual for towns to have insurance coverage for private property used for public purposes. However, the insurance company could not commit to offering coverage until they review the legal agreement for the public’s use of the private property. Such an agreement does not yet exist.

Several members of the public made comments about Town Beach. One person admitted that they were one of the people who regularly illegally accessed the beach and that their child had an illegal cupcake party on the beach during Covid that was broken up by the police. 

One commenter asked if citizens could get free or discounted entrance to the state park’s beach. The board reported that the library has a few passes that can be borrowed. Selectman Decker said that the state has refused past requests to provide discounts to Nottingham residents. 

There was a discussion about the tax map erroneously showing that Town Beach Road traversed the property of two landowners. It was affirmed by the landowner that this was an error and that only one landowner was involved. It was also determined that the error was the town's fault, not the map contractor. The town has failed to provide the contractor with updated information. 

One person asked why the board prohibited kayaking to the beach. The answer was because the board had closed the beach to all uses.

Nottingham Town BeachPhoto byPawtuckaway Lake Improvement Association