FILE PHOTO
One of the Swampscott fire pits
BY LEAH DEARBORN
SWAMPSCOTT — It looks like barbecues will be allowed on the town’s beaches after all.
At its Thursday night meeting, the Conservation Commission said it wants to allow beach fires on a trial basis until Labor Day, but they need a request from the fire department, which will be coming within days.
Acting Chairman Thomas Ruskin said the commission will implement a permit process on a temporary basis to gather more data about its effect on Fisherman’s Beach and Phillip’s Beach.
Last month, the Board of Selectmen approved the beach fire pits after a two-year ban. But the board wasn’t aware at the time that Conservation Commission approval was also needed.
Thursday night’s meeting of the commission was to determine if a review by the panel would be necessary before the pits could be installed.
Four concrete fire pits were recently built at Fisherman’s Beach and Phillip’s Beach. But they had to be removed in accordance with Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection regulations that ban beach structures.
Swampscott Fire Chief Kevin Breen said that when fires are allowed, there will be four sites at Phillip’s and two at Fisherman’s.
They would be open within a designated area of the beach and monitored on a permit basis. To receive a permit, people would have to come to the police station and pay a $50 deposit which would be refunded upon the return of the placard.
If fire burners don’t have the permit displayed by their fire, public safety officials would instruct them to douse the flames and be on their way, said Breen.
He said that fires on beaches were banned in the past because of the amount of debris left behind on beaches, including both rubbish and fire remains. He wanted to reinstate a permit process because people were having fires on the beach despite the ban.
“Youth are concealing where they have their fires, going up into the dunes,” said Breen. “It’s a matter of trying to bring some order to this chaos.”
Town Administrator Thomas Younger said that there has been a history of allowing beach fires and the current permit process is meant to add structure to the process.
A number of residents opposed the fires with environmental concerns regarding leftover ash and enforcement of the blazes.
Swampscott resident Amy Friend Roberts said she was concerned about enforcement and feared more bonfires despite regulations.
“Where’s this ash actually going?” she said. “If everyone was responsible and it was truly a cooking fire, it wouldn’t need five hours of burning.”
Breen said that no bonfires will be allowed on beaches and that fires would be limited to 30 inches in diameter, with a maximum height of 24 inches.
Younger responded to resident complaints by saying that the town has purchased a beach cleaning rig and that the Department of Public Works is committed to sending summer help staff to make a more aggressive cleanup.
Ruskin said that in regards to fires on beaches, the commission is only concerned with burned wood that’s going back into the water with the tide, and specifically on Phillip’s Beach, the conservation of vegetation.