Vineyard’s longest bridge proves public(ish)

Updated May 9 at 2:10 pm

The bridge to the Squibnocket Farm subdivision is open to the public, sort of.

A skiff launch just across the access bridge to Squibnocket Farm allows the public to traverse the bridge and enter Squibnocket Pond with small watercraft, according to Chilmark officials. A sign on the bridge appears to confirm this: “Private Way, Public Usage Only for Vehicular Access to Town Skiff Launch.”

The skiff launch is “open to everyone,” Chilmark selectman Bill Rossi said.

“It’s safe to say, anyone who is going to launch a skiff into Squibnocket Pond for the appropriate use can do that,” selectmen chairman Jim Malkin said.

Chilmark conservation agent Chuck Hodgkinson, a major player in the Squibnocket project process, declined to comment on whether the bridge is public.

Dan Larkosh, who represents Doug Liman and David Stork, two men who have challenged the project repeatedly in court, said the bridge was touted as private.

“They’ve always maintained it’s private property and the public has no right to use it,” he said.

While not apparent in development of regional impact (DRI) documents available online, Paul Foley, Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC) DRI coordinator, said he recalled fishing access on the far side of the bridge as being part of the proposal Squibnocket Farm put forth to the MVC on the project.

“They specifically told me [via Larkosh] it’s a private bridge, and I’d be trespassing if I went on it,” Liman said.

At a January hearing of the Massachusetts Building Code Appeals Board in Milford, Squibnocket Farm attorney Richard Batchelder said, “If Mr. Larkosh’s clients are going to be accessing this roadway, they will be trespassing unless they have permission. If they go underneath the roadway, as pictured here, they will be trespassing on my client’s land.”

Batchelder said the quotes from the building code appeals board hearing have “nothing to do with who has the right to use the roadway” but relate to Stork’s assertion his kayak portage to the beach was impinged by the bridge like it was a fence blocking his way. He also said the quote speaks to Stork’s lack of any right of access through his client’s property for portage.

“The causeway is private, it’s a private way,” Squibnocket Farm attorney Peter Alpert said. “It can’t be used by the public except to launch skiffs.”

The structure itself is owned by Squibnocket Farm, and they own the land under it, Alpert said. “If inhabitants of Chilmark want to walk under the causeway, I think it’s consistent with the lease rights and not a trespass,” he said.

In a subsequent conference call, the two Ropes and Gray attorneys — Alpert and Batchelder — clarified that under the terms of the lease between Chilmark and Squibnocket Farm, only certain parties may access the beach, its vicinity, and the bridge. The use of premises section of the lease states, “Tenants may use the premises only as and for a bathing beach, which shall include, but shall not be limited to, rights to fish, fowl, navigate, and surf, for those persons having a bona fide place of abode in the Town of Chilmark (permanent or temporary) and their tenants, families, guests, and employees to whom the selectmen of Chilmark shall have issued permits …”

Batchelder said Stork argued (through Larkosh) he had a personal property right, a sort of preexisting easement, to cross the bridge area to the beach and launch a kayak. But the land in question is registered land, and does not confer any sort of right like that to Stork, Alpert said. As a seasonal Chilmark resident, Stork appears to have access rights per the town lease. But Batchelder said Stork did not argue he had lease rights. Stork kept his argument narrowed to access as a property right, according to Batchelder.

The building code appeals board categorically sided with Squibnocket Farm and the town of Chilmark, and stated it viewed Stork’s kayak portage to be trespassing.

“Appellants have not shown that they have any property right to use the bridge or pass beneath it, or that they, as members of the public, have any right of access to or under the bridge. They have not shown any evidence that they are unable to walk around the bridge,” the board’s Feb. 28 decision states in part.

“He [Stork] either has a right to do it or he doesn’t,” Larkosh said. “That’s just playing legal games. I think he has the right to use the banks of a great pond.”

Alpert and Batchelder said nothing in the lease alters state law in regard to great pond access. The lease simply governs one particular access point. Massachusetts law stipulates great ponds must be accessible for fishing and boating. Squibnocket Pond is a great pond.

The bridge is already providing improved access, at least for Chilmark shellfish constable Isaiah Scheffer. Prior to the bridge, Scheffer got a boat into Squibnocket Pond the hard way.

“There was access there, but it was just really awful,” he said.

Scheffer said previously he would lug an engine and drag a skiff over rocks and through phragmites to get to the pond. On one trip, the assistant shellfish constable hurt himself clambering to the water, he said. The rugged access spurred Scheffer to lobby the selectmen for years to create a better way to launch into the pond.

In addition to visiting the Squibnocket Pond in the course of his regular work for the town, Scheffer said he escorts agents from the Division of Marine Fisheries there five times a year to conduct fecal coliform tests. While not as as Menemsha Pond, Squibnocket Pond still has plenty of shellfish, Scheffer said. The clams there are too small to be viable, he said, but the oysters are sizable. Due to weak pond salinity, he said they’re too bland to eat on the half shell, but would work for cooked dishes.

Alpert said a recent special town meeting authorized the selectmen to acquire the beach, but transfer has not taken place, and the lease is still in effect. He could not say when a transfer would happen, but that should it, it would likely be cashless and will involve a right of way for Squibnocket Farm. Whether the lease limitations of who may use the beach and bridge will remain in effect upon a transfer had yet to be discussed, he said. As to who would own the bridge upon a transfer, “That’s a detail not worked out,” he said. However, he strongly anticipated Squibnocket Farm would retain ownership and remain the bridge custodian.

Rossi said Wednesday it was his understanding the town already owned the beach and land by the bridge. Town counsel Ron Rappaport specified a unanimous vote at the Nov. 27, 2017, special town meeting put ownership on the table. Legwork for the transfer is underway, he said. Once the transfer is done, a deed will supersede the lease, he said, and Chilmark would own the real estate outright. Vineyard Open Land Foundation (VOLF) is a player in the deal, VOLF chairman Eric Peters said. VOLF owns approximately 200 acres on the far side of the bridge, and wants a permanent easement from Chilmark to access it, he said.

Longest bridge on the Vineyard?

Technical drawings provided by Hodgkinson peg the span of the bridge built by Squibnocket Farm at 352 feet, 8 1/16 inches. Technical drawings filed with the Army Corps of Engineers and Dukes County peg the Lagoon Pond bridge span, the next largest on Martha’s Vineyard, at 350 feet, 6 inches.

Batchelder and Alpert said the Squibnocket bridge is 336 feet long. Batchelder accounted for this by pointing out roadway slabs on either end, that extend below grade.

Mark Haley, senior vice president of Haley and Aldrich, the bridge designer, said the bridge length, which constitutes the length of its precast deck, is 352 feet, 8 1/16 inches, as engineering drawings show.

“It was never described to us as a certain length that was definitive,” Rossi said.

Length isn’t the only dimension of the bridge to vary from person to person. As The Times reported in December 2014, Jim Malkin used an unusual metric to describe the height during a Squibnocket Committee presentation: “This causeway will be the height of one Everett Poole, maybe with his hands over his head,” he said. Poole is Chilmark town moderator.

In an email to The Times, Liman wrote the bridge has been “described variously as 4 to 5 feet’ and 7 feet. It is in fact 13 feet’ high.”

“It’s 13 feet above grade,” Larkosh said.

Haley said at its middle point, the bridge is 12 feet tall at deck level, with a 4-foot railing atop the deck.

Rossi said the selectmen threw their support behind the bridge project because of the potential for beach ownership and pond access. “No plan has been submitted to me by the homeowners. It was always concept,” he said.
Plans were given to the conservation commission and the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, he said.

Liman filed an ethics complaint against Rossi last year on the grounds Rossi, who was influential in steering the project, worked for Squibnocket Farm property owner Tom Wallace. Wallace owns Wallace and Co., a real estate agency Rossi brokers for. Rossi filed a disclosure with the town clerk after the complaint was filed. Rossi told The Times last September he didn’t have an interest in Squibnocket Farm, described the issue as “hot air” and said nothing more had come of it.

Who may conduct inspections of the bridge going forward is unclear. Chilmark building inspector Lenny Jason said it wouldn’t be him unless there’s a complaint. “I imagine if piers cracked, I might say something,” he said.

“It’s not a town project,” Rossi said.

It is not likely to be inspected by the state, either, as most “public” bridges are: “[T]he Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) does not inspect privately-owned bridges including this bridge … in Chilmark,” DOT spokesperson Judith Riley wrote in an email.

Haley said he recommended to the owner that the bridge, which he referred to as a causeway, be inspected yearly. He said he imagined David Porter, an engineer for Childs Engineering, a subcontractor for Haley and Aldrich on the project, would be the inspector. Porter could not be reached for comment.

“I’m pretty happy with the way things are looking right now,” Rossi said referring to the beach restoration, “and I think many townspeople are too. A lot of people’s minds have changed, because it’s nothing like the propaganda that was distributed.”

On Wednesday Hodgkinson, who has quarterbacked the beach restoration, described the ongoing work as “beautiful.” John Keene Excavation continues to erect a large retaining wall, he said.

“It’s a work of art. They’re taking personal pride in this thing,” he said.

Once the wall is complete it must be backfilled and graded, he said, then the area will be paved and line painted. This will complete the parking lot.

Hodgkinson lauded the design work of Reid Silva and also pointed out the beach grass planted in April has “doubled in size.”

Hodgkinson expects the work to be done by May 23.

The selectmen are have planned an informal opening ceremony on May 24 at noon, he said.

The beach will officially open June 15, he said.

Updated with new information on Squibnocket Beach restoration.