Update: The Beach at the Curley Community Center will Reopen Tuesday
Halleluiah!
Update:
The Boston Herald is reporting that the beach at the Curley Community Center will reopen on Tuesday after being closed for three long years! The City finally submitted its Beach Operation and Management Plan and it was approved by Conservation Commission. So get your beach chair and sunblock ready! You can read more details about the reopening here!
Original Post:
After a lovely ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday at the new and improved Curley Community Center, residents asked the question when the beach would open. Evidently, we will be waiting a little bit longer, but there is hope that we can see the beach potentially reopening this summer. The beach has been closed since 2019.
Back in June, we reported that the City of Boston needed to submit a Beach Operation and Management Plan (BOMP) to the Boston Conservation Commission for approval. We also included a letter from local elected officials asking the City of Boston to file that plan. The filing deadline of June. 21st was missed, but the BOMP was submitted on June 30th. A hearing will be held later this month on July 19th. The public can offer testimony. The Conservation will also accept written testimony for agenda items via email at [email protected] prior to the hearing. Written testimony be submitted by 3:30pm on the day of a 6pm hearing. You can learn more about that here.
City Councilor-at-Large Erin Murphy is calling for an emergency meeting to open the Curley Community Center Beach.
Curley Beach OpeningWhat about the plovers?
Hmmm…well, this sign is slightly deceptive.
According to the National Heritage + Endangered Species Program of Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife – it does not require a closure of the beach due to the presence of piping plovers, but rather submission and approval of a beach management plan to avoid impacts to piping plovers and their habitat. So the beach is closed due to the delay in the BOMP and the need for BCC approval -which it looks like it will receive. In fact, of all beaches in the state with piping plovers, the Curley Community Center beach is the only beach that is currently closed.
“We are now in the heat of summer so I support doing whatever it takes to re-open the beaches at the L as soon as possible,” said Senator Nick Collins. Until they do, the decision to fully close its beaches puts the City at risk of violating the state law protecting the public’s access to the water. Given the only hurdle is Boston’s Conservation Commission, that more than necessitates calling a special meeting to approve the beaches re-opening,” Collins added.
So fingers crossed, there will be beach access this summer for all residents to enjoy!
Maureen Dahill is the editor of Caught in Southie and a lifelong resident of South Boston sometimes mistaken for a yuppie. Co-host of Caught Up, storyteller, lover of red wine and binge watching TV series. Mrs. Peter G. Follow her @MaureenCaught.
As I stated in previous commentary, someone needs to tell the Piping Plovers to Pipe Down & relocate. I suggested a corporate relocation program to another beach, That will soon be announced & the beach will re-open prior to September. We soon can return to deifying Four Leaf Clovers over Four Feathered Plovers!
By the time this gets sorted out, summer will be over.
It should be OK for the New Year’s Day madness, the plovers will be down south in warmer weather.
They’re getting people used to being restricted and told what we can do, where we can go.,
ie. Freedom to access public waterways thru long drawn out procedures and foot dragging.
AGENDA 2030
There is so much beach access on either side all along the Harbor Walk. Easy to find alternative places to swim.
Who is on the conservation committee and why won’t they meet with us? How can this committee allow open space and green space to be taken for development? Are they all climate change deniers?
I honestly thought that the beach was going to be closed for the summer. It’s good to see common sense prevailed.
Please see my July 9th post above.. The Koz had it right once again ! “Oh ye of little faith,” above start listening to The “Koz”.
If I had to guess, Congressman Lynch probably stepped in to restore sanity. He works out down the L, runs The Island daily & is sane. Time and time again he’s the “ only adult” in the room to solve major issues facing the city. By the Way Monica, where is “The Harbor Walk” ?