From left: Parks and Recreation Commissioners B.J. Pessia, Anne McWaters, and John Lee discuss one of the many amendments to Article 33. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz) MORE TOWN MEETING PHOTOS
As warrant article discussions went at Town Meeting on Saturday, beach regulation Article 33 rivaled other more controversial proposals in the number of speakers who rose to debate its merits and time spent refining its details. But when it came to the number of amendments proposed, the beach bylaw left all others in the sand, as it crawled its way to final passage.
The premise of Article 33 seemed simple enough: codify current beach regulations in a general bylaw to give police the authority to back up the beach employees, typically Harvard teens, when violators give them a hard time, as happened on a few occasions last summer.
Passion, humor and whimsy
As the process played out, several essential characteristics of Town Meeting were apparent: the care and attention residents are willing to give to its regulations; the complexity of meanings and the intents of issues before the town; the passion, humor, occasional whimsy, and often deliberateness given to addressing issues; and the general truth that no matter what side participants take on issues, they are likely to better understand the opposing views by the time Town Meeting adjourns.
As they considered Article 33, residents looked closely at the proposed language and suggested many changes, while the Parks and Recreation Commission, who sponsored it, and Police Chief Ed Denmark, who endorsed it, seemed less concerned about some of the details than the purpose of the article.
Several amendments tweaked restrictions on beach and parking access to ensure Devens residents were not restricted and that Parks and Rec could authorize access overrides for special events and circumstances. Most of the early amendments were accepted by B.J. Pessia, spokesperson for Parks and Rec, who typically responded to suggested changes with, “The board’s fine with that.” “We’re fine with that,” or “That’s fine.”
Sunrise to sunset
Halfway through the debate, Still River Road resident Terry DeWitt rose to address the article’s proposal that the beach be closed from sunset to sunrise. “I’d just like to talk about sunset and how nice it is to be at the beach and have a picnic with your family at sunset, to be able to stay an hour or two and hang out at the beach and look at the stars. I wonder if we really have to close it at sunset or if there is sometime later in the evening where we can have a closing time,” he said.
Chief Denmark stepped to the microphone to say that the intent was to keep the beach open and accessible during specified hours, with some provision for events outside of those times.
“I have no problem with replacing the words sunrise and sunset with some hard times,” Denmark said.
“How about 10 o’clock?” offered Dewitt.
“That’s fine,” replied Pessia, although no ammendment had been proposed. Moderator Bob Eubank reacted, “Wait a second. Wait a minute. Hold on here. So are we changing 13.6 to, say, “The beach shall be closed from 10 p.m. to sunrise?” It’s dark. Clearly it’s dark.”
Seeing a nod from the commission, “OK. Alright,” he said and another amendment was made, this one from the moderator.
After hearing that restrictions were likely to be enforced only when there was staff to enforce them, Stow Road resident Bruce Nickerson wanted to preface the restrictions with “during the hours it is staffed.”
After a short deliberation with the commission, Pessia said, “We will accept that.”
A speaker asked a question about another matter and then SusanMary Redinger of Ayer Road took the microphone. “I want to go back to the motion you just accepted. I think it sends the wrong message to people… it would send a message to nonresidents to wait until the staff was off-duty. Our access to the beach is either for residents or not for residents. I don’t believe it should be a measure of enforcement,” she said. “I propose that you review that amendment.”
Eubank: “So, you’re actually making a motion to amend the amended portion 13.2 to eliminate the first sentence ‘during the hours of operation’?”
Turning toward the commission, he prepared to ask for their support. “Do you guys…?” he began.
But he was quickly interrupted, “Yes, we’re very flexible,” said Pessia, without deliberation and to laughter from the floor.
With continued tweaking coming from the floor, two speakers suggested the commission work on the proposed bylaw and bring it back to a later town meeting. Residents were earnest and worried about tightened restrictions, while Parks and Rec appeared less so.
Long though it was—almost 40 minutes—the discussion was less capricious than it seemed.
Denmark urges ATM to focus on intent
In the end, words from Police Chief Denmark explained the discrepancy. “I think we’re losing sight of the intent and the intent is for the police to be able to respond down there to help out these young folks when they have a situation they can’t handle. All too often we go down and those rules—they look nice on the board, they look nice on the website, but with no enforcement, we all stand around looking kind of foolish and it really just makes for bad relationships, it makes for a lot conflict. My recommendation at this point would be to pass this bylaw, but pass it in the least restrictive way possible, and then let’s come back and, if there are problems, if it needs more teeth, let’s add more teeth later.”
Bill Johnson had the final comment, “I would argue that if you just sent this back to the committee and have a public hearing, you’d have two or three people show up and it would be far less representative than all the input that you’ve collectively put into today’s thoughtfully, carefully considered input. My suggestion is that we just trust ourselves here and take a vote on this. On that, I move the question.”
The final wording on the contested parts of the bylaw was:
“Access to the beach area of Bare Hill Pond is restricted to residents or current taxpayers of the Town of Harvard and their guests and other groups authorized by the Harvard Parks and Recreation Commission. Access to the parking area of Bare Hill Pond is restricted to residents or current taxpayers of the Town of Harvard with a valid beach permit and other groups authorized by the Harvard Parks and Recreation Commission. Access to and the use of Bare Hill Pond for boating and fishing is open to all inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at locations designated and posted by the Bare Hill Pond Committee.”
The beach will be closed from 10 p.m. to sunrise.
