Ocean Ridge residents are upset that some dog owners are bringing their pets to the beach against town rules. They insist town officials enforce the rules and increase patrols to keep dogs off the beach. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By John Pacenti
Man’s best friend is public enemy No. 1 in Ocean Ridge. The dogs illegally romping in the sand, playing in the surf — and yes, pooping — had town commissioners, residents and police snapping at each other like chihuahuas.
Maybe everybody was a bit tired and a bit hungry after an interminable — and draining — presentation on the town’s comprehensive plan at the commission’s March 3 meeting, but there was a lot of bark when it came to dogs on the beach.
“We hear this every single year at this time, from February 1, around May 1. We go through this every single one of these meetings,” Mayor Geoff Pugh said.
Resident Stella Kolb was rabid mad about the issue.
“This past week, I can’t tell you, there has to be at least four or five times that I have seen dogs poop on the beach, and only one of the owners would pick it up,” Kolb said.
Resident Lucy Brown added, “The worst thing about no dogs on the beach is that there are big signs on every beach access saying dogs are not allowed on the beach. So every single time that a resident or nonresident goes happily skipping past the sign with their dogs, we are saying to them, our rules mean nothing.”
Pugh got consensus on the commission to increase fines for first offenders from $25 to $100 and went one step further, addressing Police Chief Scott McClure.
“What about the next budget cycle, add whatever one of you thinks would be necessary to increase, whatever you have to increase to have somebody patrolling the beach, especially during the weekends, and taking care of it,” he said.
McClure pushed back first on Vice Mayor Steve Coz’s claim that his department wasn’t using its all-terrain vehicle on the beach. “They never left the beach,” he said. “We do one patrol every shift.”
He tried to explain that officers were giving people warnings as they walked their dogs across State Road A1A to Beachway Drive to access the beach. And they were issuing citations. However, there is a mighty big loophole for dog owners.
“Officers can only ask two questions: Is that a service dog and what service does it provide,” he said. “If they give us an answer of one of the designated services, then they can have a dog on the beach.”
McClure noted that the town has not seen a single stolen car or burglary in two years thanks to street patrols.
He stressed to residents not to confront dog owners on the beach. “Please contact us first because these people are even confrontational with us,” he said.
Lt. Aaron Choban then gave a hard dose of reality, noting that three officers work at a time and sometimes one of those officers is on personal time off.
Dedicating one of those officers to doggy patrol “leaves one officer in town to respond to any number of situations. We saw what happened with the wood chipper incident,” referring to a January incident when a tree trimmer was killed at Town Hall while putting branches into a wood chipper. “We have people in town who have heart attacks.”
Always the pragmatist, Pugh said, “I’m not saying be on the beach all the time. You guys are making it sound like I want some guy sitting there getting baked by the sun the whole time.”
Kolb then returned to the podium, saying it wasn’t just about dogs, but about safety. She and another woman were followed from the beach, she said. “I don’t pay taxes here to live like this. I am very upset. My husband is very upset. This is not about dogs.”
McClure then told Kolb, “In that circumstance you said something to somebody with a dog.”
At the end of a nearly 31/2-hour meeting, Pugh finally found consensus among everyone present: “I am about dog tired right now.”
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