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"I am a member of the Town Council of North
Beach and I visited the pier area during the early
morning hours to get a first hand look at the
state of the area. It was the most distasteful
sight I have ever seen. This area presented a
significant health risk to any who might visit
the area."
Council Member Denise
Lucero in an e-mail response dated 07.01.2003
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BNB Response: The featured bio-hazard photo
(Left) was taken on June 25, 2003. It is
quite odd that a pier would present a health risk
during nighttime hours only and remain open to
the public during daytime. |
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"We have no obligation
to provide an overnight fishing facility to people.
If the fisherman would govern themselves we would
not have to take this step. The people of North
Beach own the pier, we are responsible for its
upkeep. If people want to use our pier they have
to act like adults."
Council Member Gary
Pendleton in an e-mail response dated 06.29.2003
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BNB Response: The public pier is not
the sole property of North Beach, and its construction
was paid in part by state funds. In addition, many
of the fisherman paid for season passes for the
pier as well as Maryland Saltwater Fishing Licenses. |
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"The problem is that some the people who
use the pier at night have trashed our restrooms
to the point that we have to close them. The only
alternative would be to hire someone to police
the situation and force the few irresponsible
people to keep the place from being trashed. We
are such a smal town that adding a personnell
slot to do that is impracticle, especially at
a time when moneys is so tight."
Council Member Gary
Pendleton in an e-mail response dated 06.29.2003
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BNB Response: It is our position that public
beaches and piers are the property of the public.
It is the responsibility of the town to take the
proper measures to ensure full access to property
placed in their trust. Closing public areas as opposed
to addressing the problem is not an acceptable solution.
Our position is supported by the Public
Trust Doctrine and numerous court cases. |
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"Putting
together all that information is a big request.
We have recieved money from the state to maintain
the pier, but it is still up to us to manage
it and make the rules, we do that with the interest
and needs of the Town Citizens in mind.."
Council Member Gary
Pendleton in an e-mail response dated 06.30.2003
"A couple things in your letter
beg some explanation. The Town of North Beach
does indeed own the pier and beach. It/they were
purchased from the Bob Callis estate in 1987.
In addition, I have been involved, in
one way or another, with budgeting in North Beach
since the mid-1980's and the Town does not
receive any
maintenance or upkeep money from the State on
any regular basis."
Council Member Randy
Hummel in an e-mail response dated 07.01.2003
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BNB Response: There seems indeed to be a lot
of confusion on the status of the pier and beach
which the North
Beach web site lists as "Public" in
both cases. Perhaps it is yet another case of elected
officials attempting to privatize public property,
or as the first e-mail put it, "with the
interest and need of the Town Citizens in mind"...
citizens which obviously are members of the council,
many of whom own property close to the pier they
are attempting to bar access to at night. |
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"We
get a lot of complaints from people who have not
attended any of our meetings, and most contain
mis-information that could easily be talked over
in person at our meeting, as there is always a
Public Comment session. We had no intention of
closing the pier, but the actions of those who
were there between 11 PM and 6 PM made it mandatory.
If you are as upset as you portray, I will expect
to see you at our meeting on July 10, at 7 PM
at the North Beach Town Hall. We will address
each and every of your complaints at that time."
Council Member Barbara
Gray in an e-mail response dated 07.02.2003
"The pier has not been closed
because the council is not scheduled to meet until
next week, the proposed ordinance is on the agenda
and will be voted on accordingly. As a matter
of record and process, every ordinance or resolution
proposed by this council is advertised in papers
of record. This process also includes a formal
public review and comment period. The citizens
of North Beach are the most informed constituents
in the country, the mayor and council take great
pride in this fact. To suggest otherwise is offensive.
In order to get the facts straight and avoid unnecessary
hearsay, I challenge you and Mr. Blake to attend
the town council meeting on July 10th at 7pm."
Council Member Michael
Bojokles in an e-mail response dated 07.03.2003
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BNB Response: Several of us attended the meeting
only to have the Mayor classify the resolution as
an "Emergency Resolution", mumble some
comments about being inundated with e-mail on the
issue and proceed to put the measure up for a swift
vote with NO public review or opportunity for comment.
In addition, we couldn't find any advertisements
or posted notices in North Beach regarding the pier
closure. The indignation manifested above, and fleeting
reference by Mayor Mark
Frazer during the meeting regarding false statements
(we can only assume he was referring to our comments
on this page) truly stretched our imagination
and tintillated our senses. |
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"At our Town Council meeting
I will recommend we refund any season pass fees
to non-residents who wish it."
Council Member Randy
Hummel in an e-mail response dated 07.02.2003
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BNB Response: The silence was deafening. Mr.
Hummel made no such recommendation and public attendees
were not allowed the opportunity to comment prior
to the vote. |
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"We normally would't post
that information just because there is rarely
any need to, but we can provide that kind of basic
information in more old-fashioned way. The minutes
have not been provided to me yet, I expect to
see them prior to our next meeting July 10."
Council Member
Gary
Pendleton in an e-mail response dated 06.30.2003
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BNB Response: It seemed quite odd that we were
able to find all the current
resolutions on the agenda on the North Beach
web site except for those dealing with the closure
of the public pier at night. |
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Grammatical errors and typos were not removed from
the quoted e-mail excerpts provided on this page.
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