Controversy swells over beach access
Town staff and Lee County Sheriff’s deputies have been busy keeping the Chapel Street access completely open after a resident adjacent to the access has erected barriers to direct people to a walkway.
Former town council candidate and Traffic Mitigation Agency member David Tezak has been erecting barriers to force people using the Chapel Street beach access to use the walkover instead of walking directly to the beach, according to Beach Public Works Director Jack Green,
Green said the area on the south side of the access should remain open to make it more convenient for people with bicycles or disabilities to access the beach from Chapel Street and has instructed employees to keep the area open.
“There are folks who have some sort of disability and folks with bicycles or strollers and the local folks who live in the area, why would they use the dune walkover when they could just out on the beach?” Green said.
A lawsuit was filed against the town last year by Helen and Wayne Tezak, owners of the adjacent property, claiming that a portion of the beach access actually belongs to them.
According to the lawsuit, the Tezaks have maintained the strip for their own use.
Neither Tezak nor Town Attorney Anne Dalton would comment on the ongoing lawsuit.
Green said his staff has visited the beach access frequently in the past few weeks to remove barriers from an area near the walkway.
“The Tezaks have, on a daily basis, put up a barrier that generally consists of nothing more than one or two boards,” Green said. “We respond at least twice a day. Once in the morning when we’re picking up trash we remove the barrier and again in the afternoon when we pick up trash we remove the barrier. And we’ll respond when residents or visitors call and say, ‘There’s a barrier up.’ We then respond and take the barrier down.”
Marine Resources Task Force member and Beach resident Jay Light, who lives on Chapel Street, said he had an encounter with Tezak while using the beach access last week.
Light said Tezak told him he had to use the walkover instead of walking directly onto the beach.
“He said, ‘You have to go over the walkway,'” Light said. “I said, ‘No I don’t. This is Chapel Street. It’s a public right-of-way and I’ll go onto the beach any way I choose, sir.'”
Light said at that point, he crossed the barricade and went onto the beach.
Green said he has been frustrated with trying to keep the access completely open.
“It certainly has,” he said, “and quite honestly, it has been frustrating to the Tezaks. Right, wrong or indifferent, we’re in a situation where tempers can flare and we just don’t want that.”
Green said deputies have been called numerous times to help defuse the situation.
“Law enforcement has involved more or less as a protective measure for our maintenance guys,” he said.
Meanwhile, council members held an executive session on the issue on Dec. 18. Council members aren’t allowed to discuss details of executive sessions but on the same day, town manager Scott Janke sent a letter to the Tezaks saying the town would erect their own barricade until the matter is resolved in court.
“I am writing this letter with the hope and expectation that we can work cooperatively over the upcoming weeks so as to assuage the hostility that has arisen as a result of your unrelenting attempt to construct a barrier to access the beach via the Chapel Street beach access and your continued confrontations with residents, town employees and visitors to the beach who have attempted to utilize the Chapel Street beach access,” Janke wrote. “I have instructed town employees to construct a barrier with appropriate signage at the end of Chapel Street and to ensure that the barrier remains in place for at least a period of 60 days.”
Green said of the 25 beach accesses that the town maintains, the Chapel Street is the only problem area, adding that he hopes once the lawsuit is decided the problem will be solved.