OPINION: Mystic YMCA limits public access at Williams Beach Park and Sandy Hook memorial playground
Aug. 19—The pages of The Day, back in the summer of 1954, were filled with stories about the creation of Mystic's Williams Beach Park, dedicated to the memory of civic stalwart Benjamin Williams, president of the Rossie Velvet Mill, whose family returned the $1,000 the Mystic Community Center had paid them for the land.
"This makes William Beach Park an outright gift to the people (of) our village," said Community Center President Charles A. Brooks in June 1954. "The center directors, and I am sure, the people of our community, appreciate this fine gesture."
Later in the summer, an enormous parade marking Mystic's Tercentenary, led by the governor and attended by some 40,000 people, ended at the newly dedicated Williams Beach Park. All the proceeds from the events by the Tercentenary Committee, more than $9,000, were donated to the community center.
Donations were also made by major employers like Electric Boat. One company donated the proceeds from the sale of its building. Someone gave the money they made by selling a schooner.
I learned about all that this week, after hearing some complaints from members of the Naik Family Branch in Mystic of the Ocean Community YMCA, who say they are frustrated that Williams Beach Park has been closed to Y members and the public between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. summer weekdays, this year and last, because of its use for a camp program.
"I do not think it is right to deprive the public and paying Y members access to the beach during prime hours in the summer," wrote one Y member, who noted he also donates generously to provide scholarships for campgoers.
The writer, who sent me a picture of the stone monument dedicating the park as a "Gift to the People of Mystic," erected in 1954, noted that the YMCA has also closed public access to the playground at the park that was built as one of a series meant to remember the children killed at Sandy Hook.
I couldn't reach anyone from the Where Angels Play Foundation, which raised the money and built the 26 playgrounds.
I might note here that I have enormous respect for the Ocean Community YMCA for all it has done for the communities in Mystic, Westerly and Richmond, R.I., where it commendably runs very fine facilities. I am a grateful member.
But like those who have reached out to me in complaint, the idea of limiting public access ― during prime summer hours ― at a beach park created by generous donors who asserted it would be owned by the people of Mystic, doesn't seem right.
I also wonder how the Y can legitimately cordon off a memorial playground, created with donations from people who expected public access to it, and restrict its use during prime summer hours to only children enrolled in a private camp.
I met at the park with YMCA President Maureen Fitzgerald, at her invitation, and she said the public is now denied weekday access to the waterfront and playground to protect the safety of children enrolled in the camp. She said this was the recommendation of risk assessment professionals.
The precautions have grown more important, she said, because of the growth in camp enrollment and increased use of the beach since the pandemic, which has also created stress on parking. She noted that the beach is still open to the public before and after camp hours and on weekends.
Some of the safety issues she cited are distractions the public could create for lifeguards watching the children and the potential for kids being molested.
"Our priority is the safety of the children," she said.
It's an enormous waterfront, hundreds of feet long, but I would have to take Fitzgerald at her word that it is impossible to safely cordon off a portion of it from campers for use by the public. Maybe a lot has changed since 1954, when The Day reported 130 children were enrolled in a swimming lesson program at the public beach.
The Y camp serves 250 children with 50 counselors.
What concerns me most is that the YMCA now insists that the park is private, apparently ignoring the wishes of the original donors who called it a gift to the public. The public is excluded only during camp hours now, but the removal of state coastal access signs and noise about limited parking is worrisome.
The Y notified the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the town when it first closed the public access.
Members of the Mystic Community Center, financially struggling in 2003, agreed to a merger with the YMCA in which the Y assumed $700,000 in debt and ownership of the Mystic property, then valued at $3 million.
Reporting at the time said the merger agreement restricts the Y from selling the property. It also makes the Y the same organization that accepted the Mystic property on Harry Austin Drive, named for the original constable at Williams Beach Park, as a gift to the people of Mystic.
The president of the organization in 1954 acknowledged it as owned by the public, an "outright gift."
I've heard reasonable worries from some of those people, who believe their park should not be used exclusively on summer days for kids enrolled in a private camp.
This is the opinion of David Collins.
