To the Editor:

Just wondering … What happened to the sign naming correctly the town part of the East Chop Beach Club’s beach Linda Marinelli Beach? I remember the fight that our selectwoman, Linda Marinelli, put up for our town to reclaim that area of the beach that so many of us still enjoy today. My grandkids and I tried to find the sign, but couldn’t (perhaps we missed it, but that’s not good either — is it buried in the grasses?), so if it isn’t there, how do we get it erected properly giving credit to the woman who “fought the good fight” for it?

Another wonder … I can’t seem to get my head around up-Island beaches being private and down-Island beaches public. It perplexes me, so I called a few town halls inquiring about Islanders being able to have access to up-Island beaches. Now let me get this straight: Off-islanders who are renters can use the up-Island beaches if they have a sticker that has been purchased by the owner. Ok; I asked if I could purchase a sticker, but I am not allowed to because I’m not a homeowner in those up-Island towns.

So that means renters can use the sticker and enjoy our beaches all year-round, but the down-Island folks who live here year-round can only use those beaches off-season? If it is costs of upkeep, then I’ll be glad to pay for a sticker, as I do with Long Point, to the Trustees. However, I was given the response that it has always been that way and it is in the tradition of the towns! Well, inequity is not a nice tradition. Let us as least be able to purchase a sticker and have the same access others have to these beaches.

 

Marge Harris

Oak Bluffs

5 replies on “Unfair practice”

  2. It’s not entirely accurate to say that down island beaches are public and up island ones are private. Up-island public beaches include Lobsterville and Moshup’s Trail beaches in Aquinnah, Menemsha in Chilmark, and Long Point in West Tisbury.
    Most of the beach on the entire island, not just up-island, is private. It’s not just some “town tradition”, but is a situation centuries-old and deeply imbedded in law. For this situation we have to “thank” colonial-era laws in New England that gave property rights to mean low tide, rather than mean high tide, as became the practice in most of the rest of the country. Changing the legal framework to allow better beach access here has so far been resistant to change. The legal and financial hurdles are huge.

  3. Thomas is correct. In the case of Chilmark, access to beaches that require a sticker is limited to residents of the town, only; because the beaches are leased from private landowners and it is a condition of the lease.
    As a resident of Chilmark, I cannot obtain a sticker for Lambert’s Cove Beach or Philbin Beach because I do not live in W Tis or Aquinnah. It’s just the way things are and the never ending moaning and griping will not change this.
    For the law to change, all landowners of beach front property in the entire state would have to be compensated. Do the math. How much is all that land worth and who will pay for it?

  4. Put the sticker issue aside. I am walking on and have no car and I still am not allowed on except for 7 to 10am and after 6 pm and in the off season anytime I want. Please someone explain to me why these exceptions if indeed these restrictions are imbedded in colonial era law of riparian rights. Citing these laws is a red herring otherwise there would not be these time and season exceptions.

  5. I don’t know know about all of the island beaches but as I understood Lamberts Cove was left by its previous owner to the residents of West Tisbury by Will. Nothing the “the way it is” it was graciously given after private ownership.
    This letter was a tad flimsy.

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