I read with interest, along with a bit of anger, regarding the closing of Grinnel’s Beach to the residents of this town for the third summer.

This will be the third year residents have not been able to access the town beach. Can this town honestly explain to its residents what has taken this much time to get the job done and primarily, what is the job being done? 

• Some have said a bathroom is going to be put in;

• Some have said a pavilion is going to be added;

• Some have said the beach will be expanded (how this is possible, I don’t know, because there is just so much beach, the same amount of beach there was 70 years ago when my parents took me there. I don’t think there has been any attrition to this beach area);

• Some have said the parking area will be expanded (why, this is a small beach — are you going to take what could be beach area, a place one could put a chair to simply sit near the water, for people to make room for cars?);

• Some have said someone in charge of licensing and permits (but I heard an engineer did not send the required information to the state in time to get approval to begin the project when it should have begun, hence the very long beach closing (if this is true, shame on you, you should have been fired for non-job-performance).

So I’m asking … what is going on with Grinnel’s Beach? I would like a clear explanation of what and why this beach has been closed now for its third summer.

I would like to step back three years, to July 4. My husband, my elderly mother, my cousin and I headed to Grinnel’s Beach, by car, to watch the fireworks across the bay. It is a perfect location; there were many other cars and families parked there for the same reason; there was no unruly behavior from anyone; there were no people with alcohol problems; there was no disruption of any sort.

Yet when fireworks were about to begin, along came two Tiverton police cars. Out came these officers as if they were ready to combat a riot. One yelling (I think through a megaphone) to clear the beach, everyone clear the beach now! No explanation, just ordered everyone to clear the beach now!

We had not gotten out of our car because I did not want to leave my elderly mother, who suffered from dementia, alone in the car. So we sat and watched as these police officers proceeded to demand people leave the beach. Several folks approached them to ask why they were being forced to leave the beach. I don’t think anyone ever did get an answer.

We left, but parked across the road — not to watch the fireworks as originally intended, but to watch the actions of this town’s police officers. They continued to act as if a riot was not far from being enacted.

I later learned these police officers were sent (by whom?) to remove everyone from the town beach, a beach we residents pay taxes for, because it was time for the beach to be closed! Seriously? What is wrong with this town?, I continue to ask.

Why wouldn’t this town allow its tax-paying residents to park on the tax-maintained town beach on the Fourth of July to watch fireworks? Aren’t there usually exceptions to rules? Wouldn’t Fourth of July, a day we celebrate this country’s independence, be a good exception to this rule and allow a little independence to residents in this town by allowing the beach to stay open later on the Fourth of July and allowing families, you know, parents, or parents with children, or those with elderly members, or simply tax paying residents?

Now back to my original reason for this letter. What is taking three years to get this beach opened again to Tiverton residents?

Leah Camara

Tiverton