From the Editor
Heads in the Sand
The public-private effort to revise the town of York's surfing ordinance had all the promise of being a model for finding positive solutions to community problems. A series of engaged, informed, civil and positive public meetings involving the York Police Department, York Parks and Recreation and responsible leaders from the surfing community, all resulted in the draft of a sensible and workable solution to the confusion and confrontation that had plagued surf zone management in York.Central to the overall solution was a common-sense provision that would have allowed the entire beach to be open for surfing during inclement weather or dangerous swimming conditions. In other words, on days when, for safety's sake, swimmers should not be in the water, surfers would be given the expanse of the beach. Of the various components of the proposed amendment, this was by far the most important, a view backed by Chief Douglas Bracy of the York Police Department, Director Mike Sullivan of York Parks and Recreation and of the many responsible surfers and citizens involved in the process.
All of this was apparently lost on the York Board of Selectmen on Feb. 26, when for reasons barely articulated, Vice Chairman Dwight Bardwell moved to gut the inclement weather/dangerous condition provision from the overall amendment. The remainder of the board fell in line, and in one inexplicable moment, threw months of rational work and effort by dozens of people, both public and private, down the drain.
It is a basic tenet of leadership that when you are not informed on a matter, and not experienced in it, you rely on the information and recommendations provided to you by those who are competent, objective and trustworthy on the issue. In this case, we would have thought that the chief of police and the head of Parks and Recreation would have been sufficient candidates to fill that role. Apparently the selectmen have greater insight on this issue, gained perhaps from some prior involvement on the matter, which none of the rest of us have noticed to date.
In gutting this provision, this board essentially deemed it to be a throw-away provision. If they honestly believe that, they need to come up with a better supporting explanation than what they have thrown out so far. In the absence of any such explanation, we are left wondering if they were even listening in first place.
But really, enough of this academic benefit of the doubt. There are real and serious repercussions here. Through this vote, this board has placed our primary beach enforcement personnel right back in the confrontational position that Chief Bracy and Mike Sullivan wanted, above all, to resolve. Through this vote, this board has voted to continue an unenforceable and unworkable position for the town. Through this vote, this board has wholly disregarded and ignored months of hard work by the primary stakeholders based upon decades and decades of experience. Future worthy public-private initiatives would be forgiven entirely if they looked at this vote and determined, well, what's the point?
In any case, in ignoring the informed advice of their police chief and their director of Parks and Recreation, the York Board of Selectmen have voted to continue a situation in which confrontation is not simply likely, but rather, inevitable. And on the next big storm day in the summer, when the gutted ordinance places our lifeguards and police officers in a no-win situation, those on the front lines will have every right to look up and down the beach for the leaders from the Board of Selectmen whose head-in-the-sand vote put them there.
