It was a hot steamy night outside, but there was also plenty of heat indoors last week at the special Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting to weigh the status of Middle Beach. The selectmen eventually voted to remove the beach’s public swimming area designation.

Tension was present from the very beginning when Selectman Chris Ehlert stood up and challenged First Selectman Noel Bishop’s timing in scheduling the Aug. 19 meeting to resolve the Middle Beach swimming area question.

“I am disgusted with you and your lack of leadership from July 9 (the date of the last selectmen’s meeting on Middle Beach) to Aug. 19—and how we have dragged our feet. We’ve had three Board of Selectmen meetings [since then] and no new information. We could have done something back in July,” Ehlert said to Bishop and the crowd.

Ehlert’s point was that at the July 9 BOS special meeting on Middle Beach, most of the speakers at that time said they wanted the BOS to end the new public swimming area designation.

The official swimming area designation had been approved by the State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection in fall 2014 after the town had applied for it. When the summer beach season began, the town installed float lines punctuated by bright orange buoys to define the new swimming area. That’s when the Middle Beach Association members began to call in complaints to the first selectman’s office.

The July 9 meeting of the selectmen was called to allow residents to comment on the status of Middle Beach and the new designated swimming area. At that meeting, Health Director Sonia Marino explained to the residents that the designation also brought new requirements. Among the new requirements the designation triggered were the need for a public toilet facility and an emergency phone. Also the beach, now accessed with a set of stairs, might need to be made handicapped-accessible. The consensus then was to end Middle Beach’s designation as a public swimming area.

Bishop scheduled a new special Board of Selectmen’s meeting five weeks later, on Aug. 19, to rehash the Middle Beach issues and make a decision on its status.

But Mother Nature in the meantime had already forced the issue. Twice the row of buoys and floats that defined the new Middle Beach swimming area had been tossed up on the beach by heavy winds and rain. At last week’s meeting, Ehlert said it was time to act.

“Let’s make a decision tonight. I’ve asked for this for weeks,” said Ehlert.

As for the effect of removing the public swimming area designation, under the public health code, all official public swimming areas have to be tested routinely by the Health Department for the presence of contaminants like e. coli bacteria. Marino conducts these routine tests of the town’s public West Beach, the beach unit that includes the Town Beach parking lot and extends along Seaside Avenue to the Elks Club.

Marino, when asked by Ehlert what would happen if the town pulled the designation, said, “It’s not a public swimming area, so it won’t be tested. But as a health person, I cannot say that you should swimming there.”

After Marino’s explanation, Ehlert moved that the town end the designation of Middle Beach as a designated public swimming area. Bishop seconded it for discussion, and then members of the public weighed in—and they weren’t shy.

In a tense moment, a beach area resident publicly challenged Town Attorney Michael Wells several times about the nature and extent of town ownership of the beach area at the end of Salt Island Road. Wells kept repeating that the town paid $300 in 1940 to buy the strip of land and beach at Middle Beach. And under state law, the town owns everything landward of the beach’s mean high tide line and state property begins seaward of that line. When pressed again by the resident, Wells said that only a surveyor could determine the exact location of the high tide line.

Another dispute that bubbled into the open was raised by Tax Collector Kim Bratz. She said she had heard comments from some inland residents that they were made to feel unwelcome at the town-owned Middle Beach. She said these individuals had been approached by beach association residents who had told them they did not belong there. Selectman John Hall III then said that he, too, had friends who had told him similar stories about their treatment when parking and using Middle Beach.

Beach Association President Ann Mazur said that the beach association supported having anyone park in the 11 public spaces.

“We would like an area where people can turn around nicely. There is not enough room for 11 cars. We want you to come there, but we don’t want you to use our driveways,” said Mazur.

Then there was the tension that erupted into a public challenge when Bishop refused to recognize Ehlert when Ehlert called for a vote on his motion. When Bishop refused to recognize him or call for the vote, Wells jumped in to support Bishop, saying that the vote couldn’t take place until Bishop chose to recognize Ehlert.

After another 15 minutes of comments and questions, Bishop finally agreed to call for a vote. When Ehlert’s motion to end Middle Beach’s designation as a public swimming area passed unanimously, the room erupted in applause and cheers.