The first weekend of the summer season saw the sale of 30 non-resident day passes at Barrington Town Beach.

According to the director of recreation and leisure services, 20 non-resident day passes were sold at Barrington Beach on Saturday, May 28, and another 10 non-resident parking passes were sold on Sunday, May 29. Michele Geremia added that the beach manager and lifeguards did not work on Memorial Day, May 30, because of the wet weather.

Opening the beach parking lot to out-of-towners is a new venture for the town. 

Just last month, the council voted to allow non-resident day passes for $10 each. The issue had been debated by the town's park and recreation commission for a number of meetings and is at the center of an informal discussion amongst Barrington residents.

Some folks, such as Vans Lane resident Dr. Karl Stephens, have supported the change: "I suggest that the 'non-residents' who will want to use Barrington Beach are former Barrington residents who will want to return to Barrington during the summer and take their grandchildren to Barrington Beach, which they helped to pay for in the past."

While others, including Knapton Street resident Alan Sorrentino, oppose the measure: "Barrington Town Beach belongs to the tax-paying residents of Barrington whose tax dollars built and maintain this truly exceptional facility and whose loving care and dedication faithfully preserves it as the exceptional natural wonder that it is."

Ms. Geremia said a lot of work and research was completed before officials decided to open the parking to non-residents. 

"I think it's going to go smoothly," Ms. Geremia said during an interview last week. "I'm not concerned at all about this."

Ms. Geremia said officials at the beach last summer compiled information about the amount of cars coming and going from the beach — "The cars tend to come and go throughout the day. Not many come early and stay all day," she said. 

The town officials said there is also a plan in place to accommodate for residents even during busy beach days. Ms. Geremia said her attendants have been instructed to turn away non-residents when the paved parking lot begins to fill up. The attendant are then to open up an overflow lot — the grassy field area, which could hold between 15 and 20 cars — for residents.

"This is intended to be a pilot year," Ms. Geremia said, adding that the council could always reverse its decision to allow for non-resident parking.

Ms. Geremia said the town issued about 1,700 beach passes last year; of those, about half were free senior citizen parking passes. So far this year, the town has issued about 600 passes.

Boat trailers?

On Saturday afternoon, Mr. Sorrentino sent a letter to town officials complaining about parking at the beach that day. 

Mr. Sorrentino said he had been at the beach at about 11 a.m. on June 4 and was surprised to find that approximately 40 parking spaces — half of the total spots in the paved lot — had been filled with out of town cars, trucks and boat trailers. He said that the boat trailers had arrived before the beach officially opened at 9 a.m. and therefore did not pay for the non-resident day passes.

"I spoke to dozens of residents and every one was angry about the squandering of our precious parking spaces given out for free and the displacement of tax-paying residents who own the beach. There were less than 10 spaces left before noon," he wrote. 

Mr. Sorrentino said the town needs to do a better job managing the beach parking.

"Please tell me how this is consistent with responsible management and revenue raising and why the gates aren't locked before 9 (a.m.) to prevent this from happening," he wrote.