News from Moody Beach
Town of Wells stiff-arms citizens group
Municipality says its hands are tied on beach access, can’t enact measures to help
(Wells, Maine) Town manager Michael Pardue has written to Free Moody Beach to say that Wells is “not prepared” to take most or all of the steps the citizens group asked town officials to consider in order to defend the public’s right to use intertidal lands.
Pardue answered the group six weeks after they wrote to the town in early September, not long after a highly visible Rally & March it organized on Moody Beach on August 19. It offered the town many suggestions on how to show municipal support for greater public access to the beaches in Wells. One of the suggestions was for signage to be amended to accurately reflect current law, and make clear to beachgoers that “fishing, fowling and navigation” are legal on beaches throughout Maine, including at Moody Beach. Free Moody Beach says the town could put new signs up today if it chose.
“Easy, cheap, legal, what citizens want, what citizens took the time to formally suggest, doesn’t infringe on anybody’s rights, and doesn’t draw the town into any lawsuit,” said Donna Cummings, a founding member of Free Moody Beach. “And yet they’re ‘not prepared’ to take even that simple step. Mr. Pardue’s letter, speaking on behalf of the Select Board, speaks volumes. We will plan our next steps accordingly.”
The Maine Morning Star reported last week that most Maine residents are in strong support of protecting public use of the state’s beaches and intertidal lands. In a recent poll conducted by Digital Research Inc. of Portland, seven out of 10 people said they would support new laws “that expand the public’s access to Maine’s ocean beaches.”
Free Moody Beach has researched the owners of beachfront properties along Moody Beach, and reports that very few are registered voters in Wells.
Free Moody Beach (www.FreeMoodyBeach.com) is approximately 200-strong and growing, an informal network of citizens, Maine residents and summer folks alike working to restore the right of the public to recreate on Moody Beach in Wells, Maine. The organization may be contacted at FreeMoodyBeach@gmail.com.
###