Residents Raise Objections to Budd Lake Beach Closure

By DIANNE ALWARD-BIERY

Cleaver Senior Staff Writer

HARRISON – Initial actions at the Sept. 23 Harrison City Council meeting included Adoption of Sept. 8 meeting minutes for both the regular City Council, and the Special City Council meeting.

In his report, Mayor Dan Sullivan began by commending fire chief Chris Damvelt for a great event and great turnout at the recent fire department golf outing. Damvelt attributed the success to others involved, and filled out Sullivan’s comment, noting the large number of teams participating, and that $9,400 (net) had been raised. He also pointed out that firefighter Jeff Meixner had won $470 in the 50/50 drawing, a sum he had immediately donated back.

Next up was the Visitors portion of the agenda, which saw many city residents voicing their concern over the closure of the beach access area on the east side of Budd Lake. Council had recently approved ending the lease on that property, as it had been determined to not receive much usage, thus not worth the expense to the city for its upkeep.

The citizen voices present raised much disagreement with that, saying they and others used that beach regularly and were confused and stymied to find the beach shut down without any notice to residents, or the opportunity to voice their position on the matter prior to that shutdown. Many spoke of the generational family/neighbors connections to that beach, and others spoke of purchasing property because of that nearby beach – and concern their property value would decline with the loss of that asset.

One visitor spoke of his extensive experience in local government and inferred that the actions taken to close the beach had omitted a variety of steps needed to legally do so, specifically significant failures of due diligence, transparency and basic intergovernmental cooperation. This, he said, led to the loss of a priceless community asset.

Some of the residents believed that the city could still rescind their action and bring back that beach. In actuality, the lease had been legally ended, sending control of the property fully back to the owner: the Harrison Community Schools District. The fact of the matter is that the district was in no position to take on the liability of the property as public-use beach front, and HCS had already secured a real estate firm to handle the sale of the property. At the time of the City Council meeting, the school district already had received three offers on the property – one of which was sizeable. The school board was scheduled to choose/accept one of the offers during its Oct. 6 Committee of the Whole meeting.

Council members repeatedly explained that while residents’ concerns were understood, the property was no longer under the oversight of the city, and they would have to be taken up with the property owner: HCS.

Reports of Committees and Department Heads began with Mike Freeman, zoning/ordinance enforcement officer, who noted things were continuing to be quiet around town.

Anita Yager, events coordinator, reported that the Wedding Expo slated for October at The Venue on Main has seen vendors renting spaces “like crazy.”

Kathy Maharas continued her light-hearted water humor with “Turn on the tap, keep life on track.”

Damvelt and Barry Wallace had an alarm callout earlier in the meeting, so there was no fire report.

DPW Superintendent Sam Russell was absent, as was City Manager/Clerk Justin Cavanaugh who was on a vacation planned since January.

Under New Business, Council moved to:

-Approve the Engineering Proposal for Byfield Drive MDOT Category B Project.

-Approve the Community Center Grant-Harrison City Park Change Order No. 2

-Approve Harrison Wood Truck receipt (old one was demolished when moving it was attempted during the project work)

-Approve Community Center Grant-Harrison City Park Pay Application No. 1 in the amount of $209,311.54

-Approve Community Center Grant-Harrison City Park Pay Application No. 2a in the amount of $162,601.31

Council meets next at 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 6 at Harrison City Hall, 2105 Sullivan Drive.

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