Town Council Wants DCR Input on Beach Access

By Adam Swift

Winthrop town councilors want the same respect for Winthrop Beach that the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation affords some of its better known properties.

At last week’s council meeting, President James Letterie requested that the town meet with a representative from DCR in the next month or two to discuss access points to Winthrop Beach.

“I know we had discussion at the end of the summer on the DCR, they took one of the ladders off up by the green bars, one of the first points of access to the beach, and they took it down,” said Letterie. “I think they had reasons to take it down, I think it was made by someone in the town and they didn’t want to take the responsibility for that. But they had promised to give us access back, and to the best of my knowledge, that is still not happening.”

With the summer season sneaking up, Letterie said he wants to be proactive and make sure the access is there for residents.

“I’ve asked (the town clerk) to reach out, hoping that we might have a (DCR) representative sometime in March … to give us an update on access to the beach to make sure our residents have access,” he said. “It’s very dangerous now to jump down five or six feet.”

Precinct 6 Councilor Stephen Ruggiero said he walked by the access point recently and it was still boarded up.

“This is the type of thing where DCR is responsible … for state parks and beaches throughout the Commonwealth, and it is another example of us getting potentially overshadowed because there is something happening in Revere or Walden Pond,” he said. “I think, just like we are doing with the MBTA, we need to rally together here and make sure we get some support from the council and the community as well to get some attention from them.”

Letterie agreed that it seems like Winthrop gets short changed when it comes to the beach and its upkeep.

“You look at Revere Beach and how it’s raked every day … and we need to act instead of react,” said Letterie.