Madeleine List

SOUTH DENNIS The selectmen this week appointed members to a new committee focused on beach safety in response to anger and concern among residents and visitorsover allegations that teenagers were seen having sex at Mayflower Beach on the Fourth of July.

The Beach Safety and Monitoring Committee is an ad hoc advisory committee charged with providing recommendations to the Board of Selectmen for dealing with beach safety, rule enforcement, traffic congestion, beachgoer drop-offs, parking and other issues.

On July Fourth, Dennis police arrested five teenagers after fourwere allegedlyseen having sex in the water and a fifth repeatedly ignored police orders to leave the area. An officer suspected they had been drinking alcohol, according to a police report. The incident attracted a crowd, and a videoposted on Twitter of the teens being arrested while onlookers chanted U.S.A. went viral.

The incidentsparked anger among many full- and part-time residents, about 60 of whom crowded into Dennis Town Hall for a Board of Selectmen meeting a weeklater and implored selectmen to help reverse what they described as the deteriorating quality of town beaches.

The selectmen decided to form a committee made up of residents and representatives from existing town committees to focus solely on the complaints.

The seven-member volunteer committee includes representatives from the Beach Committee, the Beach Management Advisory Task Force and the Road Safety Task Force as well as full- and part-time residents to represent the north- and south-side beaches and serve as members at large. The director of the Natural Resources Department, director of the Beach and Recreation Department, town engineer and staff from the Department of Public Works and Dennis Police Department will provide support to the committee.

The selectmen appointed four citizen members to the committee Tuesday night.

Ive seen the demise of the north-side beaches in recent years, so Id love to be a part of the solution as opposed to constantly complaining about the issue, Wendy Thurmond , a summer resident of Dennis and an at-large member of the new committee, said at the meeting.

Though the communitys attention hasbeen focused on Mayflower Beach since the Fourth of July arrests, all of Dennis 19 public beaches are affected by the same issues, said Connie Mooers, who will serve on the new committee as the representative from the Beach Management Advisory Task Force.

Its a reaction to things that have been building for years, she said. At this point, we have to pull the reins in to see what we can do to take back our beaches.

As the number of visitors to Dennis beaches grows every year, Mooers said she sees rules being broken with increasing frequency. Some possible solutions could include more beach monitors, heightened police presence, additional signs, or training on beach rules for people who buy stickers, she said.

Researching costs and feasibility of potential solutions and recommending what will work best for the town is the committees main purpose, she said. The committee must submit its recommendations by November, according to its charge.

The temporary committee will be disbanded once it has fulfilled its duty.

Although two other bodies, a committee and a task force, deal with beach issues, Mooers said the creation of the new committee was not redundant. The issue of safety is large enough to require the full attention of a committee, she said.

"The problem is bigger than the Beach Committee," she said.

Paul McCormick, chairman of the Board of Selectmen,agreed that a third beach-related committee was necessary to focus on the issue and said he hoped the new committee could prepare some recommendations before special town meeting in October.

We also wanted a committee that would meet relatively quickly so that if we needed some funding, we could get an idea of what that funding might be before fall town meeting, he said. It's time to focus on the problems we've been having at our beaches.

The new committee will hold its first meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at Dennis Town Hall. Committee members will elect officers, set a meeting calendar and discuss deadlines, among other topics, according to the committee agenda.

Follow Madeleine List on Twitter: @madeleine_list.

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Dennis works to 'take back our beaches' - Cape Cod Times (subscription)