Reitsma assails ‘horrible’ on-line beach posts

Tiverton administrator calls some comments 'disgusting, racist, xenophobic'

By Bruce Burdett
Posted 7/18/19

TIVERTON — Tiverton now has itself a “very attractive and successful facility at Grinnell’s Beach but you’d never know it by much of what gets posted on Facebook, Town Administrator Jan …

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Reitsma assails ‘horrible’ on-line beach posts

Tiverton administrator calls some comments 'disgusting, racist, xenophobic'

Posted

Tiverton now has itself a “very attractive and successful facility at Grinnell’s Beach but you’d never know it by much of what gets posted on Facebook, Town Administrator Jan Reitsma told the Town Council last week.

Issues including lifeguard staffing and trash have been “raised to an outlandish extent on Facebook,” he said. “I am appalled by what happens on Facebook when it comes to issues like this.

“People say all kinds of horrible things about people who work for the town and say all kinds of horrible things about people from out of town … disgusting, racist and xenophobic comments” that give the town a horrible reputation.

“If I have to put up with that then I’m really not interested in doing this job,” the administrator said.
Mr. Reitsma said he brought the matter up in part to plead with people to consider how they use social media “and to what purpose.” Problems at the beach “have been blown up for the purpose of serving very different agendas.”

The administrator began his remarks with a rundown of some of the issues at Grinnell’s Beach, which celebrated its grand opening on June 27 after a complete renovation.

The beach now has four qualified lifeguards, he said, and “I want to dispel the notion once and for all that we don’t have certified lifeguards.”

That’s not to say, he added, that the beach always has perfect coverage — “We could certainly use more lifeguards.

Trash has been a problem but “was probably a much worse problem in the past. I’m told that the trash problem is not completely out of control at all” as some have said on-line. “It’s a very manageable situation” thanks both to town workers and volunteers.

“We certainly have problems in the fishing areas” at Grinnell’s and elsewhere, Mr. Reitsma said, and he has spoken to police about keeping watch to identify litterers and fine them — “Make it clear that we are not going to accept that.”

An improvement is that community safety officers are making regular visits to the beach, actually getting out of their cruisers and walking the pier and the beach, he said.

As for parking, “the main problem at Grinnell’s Beach appears to be that people don’t want to pay for parking so they park where it is not legal to park” including on adjacent streets. Police, he said, are working to enforce that too.

One resident went to the microphone to say that he was among those to post concerns about litter at Grinnell’s Beach. He said he posted photos but it was never his intent to attack town employees or others, just to raise awareness of the problem. “My real intent was exposure” of what was going on “with such a beautiful new project.” And he apologized for the tone of some of the subsequent posts by others which he agreed were, in some cases, offensive.

He had become involved after an early morning walk along the beach on June 27 (he was not aware until later that that was the day of the grand opening celebration) during which he found considerable amounts of trash. He said he walked back to Coastal Roasters, got a bag, and picked up the litter he found, something he said he knows others do too.

It’s not just a problem at Grinnell’s, council member Patricia Hilton. She said that during a trip to another beach in town with young family members, she was cautioned by another beach goer that the youngsters should be careful about walking barefoot. A short time later, she said she found several fish hooks in the sand.

Council member Donna Cook asked what town policy is in cases when no lifeguard is on duty — does the town continue to charge for parking at Grinnell’s Beach?

According to the state Department of Environmental Management, Mr. Reitsma said, under state law, “we cannot charge for parking if there is no lifeguard on duty. I have my own questions about that,” he said, but the town will follow that advice.

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