In Madison, Life's A Beach, If You Can Get There

MADISON, CT — The unofficial summer season opener, Memorial Day weekend was a wash when it came to beach-going. This weekend, with sun and heat, the masses headed to the shoreline. For Madison residents, there was "frustration." From the lengthy time it took for folks to get parking passes to the influx of motorists in search of a beach after Hammonasset shut its gates once it reached capacity, folks were none too happy.

First Selectwoman Peggy Lyons took to Facebook to address the situation, noting beach staffing issues, non-resident beach passes, Surf Club traffic, events and congestion, and also reminding folks about the

new free shuttle service to Hammonasset.

"I know there was a lot of frustration with the beach situation today (it reached 90 degrees!). I want to assure the public we are always trying to find creative ways to address the many congestion problems - there is no simple solution but we always welcome new ideas.

Although a bit lengthy, I’d also like to provide some background and a few facts:

- The Town has never been able to fully staff gates/lifeguards until the school year is completed. Many kids are seniors and are finishing up their final days. This means we can’t fully staff gates and all life guard stations in early June. We typically won’t see the summer season fully staffed until after June 14th, when school is officially over. This has been consistent for many, many years. Also some of the kids this weekend are new and learning the system.

-This summer the Town put a new policy that caps the number of non-resident visitor passes. We have 600 parking spaces across all 3 beaches. You can only buy a non-resident parking pass at the Surf Club in order to encourage people to visit our largest facility. Most people, when they purchase a pass, stay at the Surf Club. Today we sold a total of 65 non-resident visitor passes ( below the cap); 6 of these were used to park at East Wharf. The Surf Club never closed, only West Wharf and East Wharf, our smallest parking lots. The vast majority by far of people parking at all of these lots were residents.

-This weekend there were many sports competitions going on at the Surf Club. The gates had to manage many sports families including visitors attending events. We must recognize that the Surf Club not just a beach - it is a multi-purpose recreational facility. Spring sports will end in a few weeks. This should relieve some congestion.

-Today, Hammonasset closed its gates at around 1 pm. This created a surge in our Town of last minute visitors who turn up at our gates. It is hard to provide advance purchase for these people since they typically are not planning to come here, they are planning on visiting Hammonasset and we are the back-up plan, often via GPS.

-We have looked at a 2 lane entry way to the Surf Club to relieve congestion; we have to either move the entry into the parking lot (and give up lots of parking in an area seniors prefer) or provide an alternative exit route. Currently we are exploring plans for an exit road onto Route 1 through exchange field, but this will require additional planning and funding. In the long run, this should decrease gate congestion.

-Some have mentioned mobile visitor passes. While this is a great idea and we have explored it, cell phone service is difficult at the Surf Club ( as we learned in summer 2019), it also requires advance notice before people get in line at the gate, and lots of advanced signage, along with other complications. It would also not necessarily stop the spontaneous traffic backlog from the Hammonasset overflow.

-The new 9 town transit Madison Shuttle to Hammonasset just got launched. This allows people to park at 79/ commuter lot or train station and take a shuttle to Hammo. I am hoping this encourages people to find other ways to visit the state beach. This still needs to be promoted more.

I hope this gives you some assurance that the Town is aware of the issues encountered today and always exploring ways to improve."