Board of Selectmen Meeting, May 5, 2025

Negative public reaction to Town Beach plans. Stevens Hill Road to be paved.

Selectmen Welch and Shirland were absent. About 30 members of the public attended.

Town Beach

The board heard a large amount of public comment regarding its decision to hire an on-site attendant and to greatly reduce the beach’s operating hours from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm daily to 10:00 am to 5:00 pm Thursday through Sunday. Citizens have started an online petition objecting to this change. It has over 330 signatures.

Prior to the public comments, the board discussed the beach, with the discussion flowing into the public comment period.

The board said that every year now it will be signing a letter of understanding with the landowners for use of the access road.

The Town Administrator says there’s one applicant for the position, but this applicant has not been interviewed.

The board discussed whether it should extend the opening times to include some hours during which an attendant would not be there. Selectman Fyfe said she was opposed to having the beach open when an attendant was not on site. Town Administrator Ellen White said that while the town has staff who could open the beach on weekdays during business hours, it has no staff available evenings or weekends. She noted that the town has already budgeted a $400 stipend for someone to open and close the gate. The position is not filled. Anyone who is interested should contact the Recreation Department to apply for it.

Selectman Decker expressed concerns that the times of day during which problems have been reported are not those times when the board plans to have an on-site attendant.

Selectman Decker said he thought the town should start ticketing cars at the beach that lacked resident stickers. The Town Administrator said she thought a public hearing would be needed as it would be a change in policy. Selectman Dabrieo had concerns about the effectiveness of this because only the police could issue tickets, and the police do not have time to patrol the beach. Later, there was a discussion of whether only the police could issue tickets, with one person from the audience saying they had proposed ticketing as a solution last year. They researched it and found that the RSA did not restrict ticketing powers to the police.

Two citizens complained about the lack of specificity provided to the public about the police calls to the beach. One directly asked what specific problems were there last year and whether the problems were during or outside of operating hours. They also asked why the police were not visiting the beach. Selectman Fyfe said there were 22 to 24 calls to the police last year. There were problems with people crossing the dam and bringing dogs to the beach.

Several citizens proposed alternatives to having a paid attendant, all objecting to it as an unnecessary expense to the taxpayers. Several proposed recruiting volunteer attendants. Several others proposed security cameras and signage about the cameras. Some of those proposing cameras pointed out that even if enforcement were poor, just the presence of the cameras and the possibility of being recorded breaking the rules might be sufficient. Selectman Dabrieo said he thought the cameras would be about $1,000 each because they would require satellite links for wifi.

A few proposed selling passes to the beach to offset the cost of the attendant.

Several citizens were critical of the board, some sharply so.

One citizen expressed concerns about why the board did not address the issue in September. Nothing has changed since then. Why do this at the last minute, again putting the beach at risk of not being open for the beginning of the season?

Another complained that the goal posts have been changed. In last year’s discussions about the beach, it was said that the problems were about people accessing the beach when it was closed. No one said that there were substantive problems during the hours the beach was open. So, why is an attendant needed for those hours now? The speaker said they were a heavy user of the beach and that they had never seen any problems while they were there. Further, they were in disbelief that there were so many problems at Town Beach as no problems have been reported concerning the nearby Fundy Boat Launch, which isn’t even gated. They complained about the proposed 4:00 pm closing time as it was bad for working parents, and accused the board of punishing the children of Nottingham for things that were not their fault.

One citizen argued that the complaints about Town Beach are fabricated - that there is no problem. They said that the reason they bought their home here was the beach access. They thought that the proposed hours were “ridiculous,” that hiring an attendant is a “crazy waste of money,” and that the town should fight to retain access to its beach. This turned into a bunch of personal accusations, ultimately requiring the Chairman to intervene.

After public comment was closed, the board continued to discuss issues with the beach. Selectman Dabrieo said that the Police Department cannot be tasked with monitoring the beach. Selectman Decker made several proposals that the town should:

• Revise its parking regulations.

• Install lakeside signage at the beach saying “no landing.”

• Obtain a quote for putting up a fence around the dam.

• Have the flyer about the beach updated. In particular, the access road to the beach should be called a “trail” and not a “road.”

Public Hearing re Stevens Hill Road Paving

Based on guidance from the town’s new attorney, Drummond Woodsum, that the guidance the town received from its former attorney, Upton & Hatfield was wrong, and consequently, that the guidance presented by the Board of Selectmen to the voters was also wrong, the board held a public hearing to ensure that the public did not disapprove of the board’s decision to pave a 0.8 mile section of Stevens Hill Road.

According to the new Town Attorney, the proper way to interpret the the voters’ decision in the town election regarding the two warrant articles invovolving Stevens Hill Road is that the voters did not wish to double the town’s taxing authority for paving the same piece of road, and that Upton & Hatfield had erroneously interpreted the failure of the second warrant article about paving Stevens Hill Road as overriding the voters’ approval of the other warrant article on the ballot funding the paving of Stevens Hill Road.

Many members of the public addressed the board in support of the project. Only one person advocated for keeping the road unpaved to help preserve the town’s rural charm.

One statement from a former town employee was received by mail and read into the record. That statement pointed out that the deadline for petitioned warrant articles is well before the deadline for the board to propose warrant articles, and that the board should have taken the petitioned warrant article into consideration when proposing its own.

One person pointed out that the cause of the problem was the board’s practice of combining several unrelated projects into a single warrant article. While there are advantages for the board for doing so, it makes it difficult for voters in cases where the voters have mixed opinions about the individual projects. It would be better for the board to present the voters with separate warrant articles for each project so that problems like this one could be avoided.

Another complaint the board received is that, unlike in past years, the board did not mail a voters' guide to the voters. This was particularly needed this year because of the complexities of the two conflicting warrant articles.

The board concluded that the town should proceed with the project.

Roadwork Update

The Town Administrator said that road grading was on hold due to the rainy weather. As residents inform the town of particularly bad sections of potholes, these are being treated with gravel. Also, because of the heavy rains, issues with culverts and beaver dams have arisen that the Highway Department has had to address.

Highway Director Steve Rollins said that of the three paving projects the voters had approved, two of the roads have already been prepped to be paved. With the approval to pave Stevens Hill Road, it will soon be prepped. Rollins expected to be able to get a paving contractor to start work soon.

This photo of Town Beach was taken on Thursday, August 1, 2024, at 4:38 pm, showing several families enjoying the beach. Under the board’s present plans, the beach will no longer be open at this hour.