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Madison Reveals First Details of Beach Season with Public Hearing

Summer is now really right around the corner, and after an entirely unique beach season in 2020, Madison is planning for what could be a relatively normal return to the water in 2021—though the town is still facing some issues lingering from last year as well as older challenges.

Some of the limitations that the town put on beach access, such as allowing residents-only attendance on weekends (or for about a week, entirely barring non-residents from town beaches) will not happen this year, as those policies were only allowed under executive orders signed by Governor Ned Lamont, which have expired.

Other things, like full staffing with gate guards and life guards seven days a week, will continue, according to First Selectman Peggy Lyons.

“These were all things we tried to make our summer reasonable and enjoyable, hopefully so residents could enjoy all the amenities that we have,” Lyons said.

This year, gate guards will begin staffing town beaches on Friday, May 7, and people will need to provide proof of their residency (or purchase passes if they are not Madison residents) to access the beach. Beach passes—the same system as used last year—will be required beginning Friday, May 28, the start of the Memorial Day weekend.

From that point, lifeguards will be on duty just for the weekends until the town ramps up to seven days a week for all beach staff beginning on Monday, June 14.

The town held a public hearing on April 27 in order to allow resident feedback on all the relevant beach issues, which have regularly sparked passionate reactions from residents.

With Madison town beaches often serving as an informal overflow for Hammonasset Beach State Park, town officials have also been engaged with state officials at the Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP). Lyons said she recently gave a presentation to DEEP brass that was “chock full of data” regarding local service calls and expenditures around issues at Hammonasset State Park crowds.

“Rather than just telling them, ‘It’s killing us,’ we actually gave them some data and I think they really appreciated that,” she said. ‘We’re going to continue to track a lot of that this summer.”

That park is one of, if not the most popular state park in Connecticut, with about three million annual visitors, according to DEEP.

There will be no limitations on capacity at Hammonasset this summer, Lyons said, and the COVID testing site at the park will be “winding down” beginning in May. Last year, parking was mostly limited to 50 percent of capacity.

“Everything is going to be pretty much open for public use,” she added.

DEEP is also adding safety staff both within the park and around it, according to Lyons, which the town has lobbied for at least during the last couple summers, as local emergency responders and police in particular are regularly strained trying to attend to traffic issues or accidents on crowded summer weekends.

“That should help a bit in removing some of the public safety demands,” Lyons said.

Something that is not confirmed but Lyons claimed was being discussed is a state-run bus line running into Hammonasset that could create more access without road congestion, Lyons said. Those proposals are still in relatively early stages, she added.

Another in-progress discussion with the state is Salt Meadow Park, for which the town receives some state funding and therefore is limited in how it can independently restrict or run that park. Lyons said she understands there was significant frustration last year as people used Salt Meadow as an overflow parking lot to get to Hammonasset.

Lyons said it is still not clear if the town can require resident beach stickers to park at Salt Meadow, but that she was confident the state would allow Madison to begin limiting its use in some way.

“We do have their agreement that they’re going to allow us to put some control mechanisms there,” she said.

Though the town cannot fully ban non-residents—and it remains unclear if last year’s temporary ban following Tropical Storm Isaias was fully legal even under executive orders—Lyons said she plans to limit the number of visitor passes sold this year.

“A majority of those parking spots will be used by town residents,” she said.

All resident prices will remain the same, though Lyons said the town plans to take a look at both the beach system and pricing following this summer.