Yesterday at 1:25 AM Canine owners want access, U.S. officials want plovers protected, and project funding is at risk.

By Leslie Bridgers lbridgers@pressherald.com Staff Writer

SCARBOROUGH - A threatened bird species, a federal fine and an eroded beach will all be at issue when the Scarborough Town Council meets Wednesday.

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A sign on Pine Point Beach in Scarborough alerts visitors that it is a plover habitat.

Press Herald file photo/Carl D. Walsh

The council might decide whether to continue allowing residents' dogs to romp freely in the sand on summer mornings -- the town has 2,300 canines -- or to better protect the small number of piping plovers that inhabit local beaches during those months. An unleashed dog killed one of the birds on a Scarborough beach this summer.

Along with the lives of the plovers, a project to restore an eroded Scarborough beach would be on the line if the council chooses not to ban unleashed dogs from its beaches during the birds' nesting season. A $12,000 fine also could be imposed by the federal government.

The debate about dogs on beaches is not new to southern Maine coastal communities.

On the side of canine rights are dog owners -- large and vocal groups that have proven in other coastal towns that they have political clout. Many of them say the unfortunate death of one bird isn't reason enough for all of their dogs to lose the opportunity to swim and socialize in the summer.

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Scarborough in a bind on dogs, beaches