Selectmen To Consider Charging For Lighthouse Beach Parking

by Alan Pollock

            CHATHAM — Before the start of the 2009 beach season, selectmen will take up discussion about whether the town should charge for parking at Lighthouse Beach, board Chairman Sean Summers said Tuesday.

            Giving his annual committee update to selectmen this week, Park and Recreation Commission Chairman Gary Anderson said it is becoming clear that there is a problem with town beaches.  At Hardings Beach, where both parking lots are traditionally filled to capacity on good beach days, there were plenty of open spaces this year, he said.  There is some indication that beachgoers are flocking to Lighthouse Beach instead, where parking is free.

            “We are losing revenue at our guarded beaches,” but spending more to accommodate beachgoers at the lighthouse, without any financial return, Anderson told selectmen.

            “We need to address this issue,” he said.

            With the town facing a potential $1.7 million budget deficit next fiscal year, and with a $300 million upgrade of the town’s sewer system about to get underway, town officials are hungry for new sources of revenue.

            Improvements have been made at Lighthouse Beach to make it more attractive to beachgoers, including the installation of portable toilets.  Acting to answer concerns that the toilets are unsightly, the town has arranged to have them shielded by a fence, though the fence has yet to be installed, Anderson said.  Also, the park and recreation commission has assumed control over the beach and adopted formal rules and regulations for its use.

            Selectmen had previously balked at suggestions to have lifeguards at Lighthouse Beach, saying that doing so implies that it is a bathing beach.  Because of strong currents and the high number of water rescues at the beach, town officials have discouraged swimming there, though the spot remains very popular with swimmers.

            “Thankfully, we’ve gone another season without injuries,” Anderson said.

            Selectman Ronald Bergstrom said, given its popularity, “at some point we’re going to have to accept responsibility” for Lighthouse Beach as a bathing beach.  “We are losing revenue, and there are safety concerns and so on.  We may have to put a lifeguard there.  I just think the time is right,” he said. 

            Anderson said if beachgoers receive the same services there as they do at Hardings Beach, they can expect to pay for access.  Given the loss of revenue, the time to have such a discussion is soon, Anderson said.

            “We’d like to see something happen, that’s for sure,” he said.

            Compounding the issue are the safety concerns along Bridge Street, where many beachgoers park their cars for free and then walk to the beach (see related story, page 3). 

            “It’s dangerous.  There are walkers, bikers, cars,” Selectman Debbie Connors said.  Last year, Connors opposed a suggestion that all parking be banned on one side of Bridge Street, saying the town should not reduce the available parking spaces for the beach.  Connors argued that the free spaces provide important access to the beach for year-round residents who live away from the water.  Since then, she said she’s had a change of heart.  The parking there is being utilized by summer visitors, not locals, she said.  Connors said she agrees with suggestions that the parking lot at the lighthouse overlook be reconfigured to allow a drop-off area for beachgoers.

            Connors said she’d like the idea of instituting paid parking at the beach to be a priority for the park and recreation commission.

            Selectman David Whitcomb said he favors the exploration of charging for parking all over town, given the additional revenue the town will need to find to help finance the wastewater expansion.

            “I think paid parking is a good way to do that,” he said.

            Board Chairman Sean Summers said many of those concerns have also been raised by the Summer Residents’ Advisory Committee.  He said the management of Lighthouse Beach will be placed on a selectmen’s agenda sometime prior to the next beach season.

            Though it won’t alleviate parking problems at Lighthouse Beach, the town may be on track to gain around a dozen parking spaces in the lower lot of the municipal fish pier, Harbormaster Stuart Smith said Tuesday.  Chatham Bars Inn, which owns a portion of the lower lot and leases it to the town each year, has expressed a willingness to allow the town to use additional space for a lease payment of $240 a year.  Provided that the proposal passes muster with the conservation commission, a gravel parking area could be added there which would create between 10 and 13 additional parking spaces, increasing the capacity of the lower lot by one-third.

            Like the rest of the lower lot, the new spaces would be reserved for use by fishing boat captains with docking permits, Smith said.  There are now around 70 such permits, but only 31 reserved parking spaces, he said.

8/26/08