Squibnocket Beach opens after sweeping rejuvenation

Ribbon-cutting held for adjacent Squibnocket Beach Causeway.

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Warren Spector, president of the Squibnocket Farm subdivision, cuts the ribbon to a recently built bridge on the edge of Squibnocket Pond. —Rich Saltzberg

The lengthy and complex campaign to restore Squibnocket Beach and resituate its parking lot ended at noontime on Friday with a modest ceremony hosted by Chilmark selectmen. Selectman Warren Doty served as emcee. Doty thanked several people for helping to facilitate the project, including engineer Reid Silva, excavators John and Peter Keene, stonemasons Alan Hartmann and Gary Stead, former selectmen Jonathan Mayhew and Riggs Parker, selectmen Bill Rossi and Jim Malkin, Squibnocket Committee members Billy Meegan, Jane Slater, Alison Burger, Steve Flanders, Janet Widner, the late Dan Greenbaum, and ex officio member Ron Rappaport. Also thanked were Chilmark conservation commission agent Chuck Hodgkinson, who quarterbacked the project, and Haley and Aldrich senior vice president Mark Haley, who designed the adjacent bridge and other features.

A small subsequent ribbon-cutting took place at the mouth of the bridge to the Squibnocket Farm subdivision. Open for travel since March, the bridge has drawn repeated litigation. Town counsel Ron Rappaport and Ropes and Gray attorneys Peter Alpert and Richard Batchelder have chalked up an impressive 4-0 record against major bridge actions from Chilmark resident Doug Liman and others.

Joined by selectman Bill Rossi, officials from Haley and Aldrich and C. White Marine, the firm that erected the structure, Squibnocket Farm president Warren Spector (who had also received thanks from Doty at the beach ceremony) snipped a red ribbon with a pair of golden-handled scissors, and said, “I hereby declare the Squibnocket Beach Causeway officially open.”

7 COMMENTS

  1. Not reason to celebrate. Every conservation group on MVY sat with blinders on as 100 plus tons of concrete were poured over a great pond to serve ten rich homes. Now only a limited number of residents can access this newly created beach. What is amazing is watching Islanders also look the other way when they are excluded from a public Great Pond and watch how conservation laws are ignored for the wealthy

    • No concrete was poured “over a great pond”. The public is not excluded from accessing the pond, either. There is a spot to drop off canoes and kayaks for pond access, you just cannot park there between 9 and 5.While access is limited to town residents for two and one half months of the year, even that is only in effect between the hours of 9 am and 5 pm. You might want to try getting at least one thing right before you spout off.

  2. I am 100 correct in what I said. The bridge is situated within the confines of a Great Pond, and 100 or more tons were used in the construction of the Bridge. In a severe hurricane, that bridge could be within the Great Pond. Then you have the audacity to say normal poor people can’t park there from 9-5, which is the time you need to park there, and the beach is not accessible to the public during the months 99% of the population want to use a beach. You might as well say there is cash in a bank vault, you just can’t get it very easily. I find it amazing that such snobbery can survive out here, and the Island allows it. Even Nantucket all but banned all private beaches and this type of exclusionary attitude.

  3. I tired to post a similar remark on the Vineyard Gazette website, and they would NOT print it. There is no need for censorship of opposing views. At least we one newspaper that prints all views.

  4. It is my understanding from a previous MV Times article that the lawyer for Squibnocket Farm said that anyone using the causeway or going under it to launch a kayak would be trespassing. From the article it sounds as if this “detail” was not addressed by the Town and Squibnocket Farm earlier. Figuring it out now is like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.

  5. Public Trust, you seem to have a funny definition of the word “correct”. You also fail to understand that this beach is private property and no one has a right to trespass on private property. Are you also upset that “normal poor people” cannot use Black Point or Quansoo beaches? BTW, there are poor people in Chilmark.
    Also, the bridge is on private property and a good distance from the pond. Your previous remarks about regulatory bodies turning a blind eye are quite ridiculous in view of the multiple court cases brought by the NIMBY opponents that were summarily shot down. Your bitterness over not being allowed to use this beach is obvious.

  6. If one penny of state or federal funds was used on this project you can’t blick the public. And I correct not one conservation group opposed this concrete bridge which will after a hurricane become a mooring and polute the great pond. By the way the public can access any great pond in Massachusetts. I love revealing snobbery

    If this is liberal democracy it’s an embarrassment.

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