Wild parties, drugs, illegal camping rampant at Portsmouth beach. Residents want it stopped.

Zane Wolfang, Newport Daily News
Updated ·4 min read

PORTSMOUTH – While teenagers have been clambering over the railroad tracks adjacent to the Sakonnet River Bridge to drink beers and spray graffiti inside the abandoned boathouse on Narragansett Boulevard beach for years, Nicole Gotovich says the problem took a new dimension after the state rebuilt the bridge and added free public parking underneath.

Even though the beach is out of the way – Google maps does not even offer a route to drive there, so people have to be familiar with the area – residents say it is packed every weekend with partiers and campers who arrive both by car and by boat, stay the entire weekend even though there are no restroom facilities, and leave piles of trash behind when they return home.

Gotovich, a resident of Common Fence Point and the acting chair of the Common Fence Point Improvement Association’s preparedness committee, has compiled with the help of fellow residents of Common Fence Point and the Hummocks a list of illegal activities which occur in the area on a weekly basis.

She ticks off offenses such as public defecation and urination, illegal fires, fireworks, overnight camping, drug use, open containers, loud and late parties, boats speeding and doing donuts in the no wake zone, and trash left on the beach including broken glass, dirty diapers, used condoms and used needles.

Overflowing trash cans procured by a private citizen from Fall River who uses Narragansett Boulevard Beach beach after Nicole Gotovich chastised him and asked him to clean up the beach.
Overflowing trash cans procured by a private citizen from Fall River who uses Narragansett Boulevard Beach beach after Nicole Gotovich chastised him and asked him to clean up the beach.

Town Council refers issue to Harbor Commission in part because of its law enforcement capability

Carol Mello, who lives on Massasoit Avenue close to the beach and also serves on the Harbor Commission, put it bluntly in her public comment to the council: “I think the DEM and the police really need to have a lot of involvement, because most of what’s happening here is against the law.”

Vicky Newbold, who lives on Railroad Avenue underneath the Sakonnet River bridge at a property which beachgoers regularly trespass on to access the path and the beach, brought a letter she had received from Town Administrator Richard Rainer back in 2017 which contained a list of plans and policy solutions to the problems at and around Narragansett Boulevard Beach. She said none of the plans have yet been implemented.

Town Councilor David Gleason, who lives in Common Fence Point and is on the board of trustees of the Common Fence Point Improvement Association, agreed with his neighbors. He said the council had previously tried to tackle this same issue back in 2016 with limited success, and that illegal activity at Narragansett Boulevard Beach has increased since then.

He recommended involving state agencies including RIDOT, RITBA, and RIDEM Wildlife Enforcement, and said he had added an item on the Aug. 15 council agenda to discuss that recommendation. In the meantime, the council voted unanimously to refer the issue to the harbor commission.

Multiple property lines and property owners transecting the property complicate policy and enforcement solutions

A weatherbeaten, handmade multi-lingual sign on the path to Narragansett Boulevard Beach asking people to clean up their trash in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Vietnamese.
A weatherbeaten, handmade multi-lingual sign on the path to Narragansett Boulevard Beach asking people to clean up their trash in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Vietnamese.

The town owns most of the roads leading to the parking lot under the bridge, but the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority controls a section of road directly underneath it.

The path to the beach is a CRMC-designated public right of way, but it crosses the property line of a private residence before snaking up and across the old railroad tracks leased from the state by Newport Dinner Train operator Eric Moffet.

People have been wondering for a long time whether the beach is owned by the state or by the town of Portsmouth, but Gotovich claims it is neither. She pulled town maps which seem to indicate the beach is part of the utility easement which runs along the north side of the railroad tracks and has been owned by Narragansett Electric since 1925.

Town Planner Lea Hitchen confirmed to The Newport Daily News that some of the beach is part of the utility easement owned by Narragansett Electric, and the rest of the beach is part of the railroad property leased by Moffett's Seaview Transportation Company.

List of possible solutions to mitigate the problems at the beach

Gotovich has offered a list of proposed solutions to the problem that includes:

Nicole Gotovich, acting chair of the Common Fence Point Preparedness Committee, poses on the path to Narragansett Boulevard Beach adjacent to Railroad Ave in Portsmouth, RI on Thursday, June 13 2023.
Nicole Gotovich, acting chair of the Common Fence Point Preparedness Committee, poses on the path to Narragansett Boulevard Beach adjacent to Railroad Ave in Portsmouth, RI on Thursday, June 13 2023.

  • Clear signage under the Sakonnet River Bridge spelling out penalties for offenses

  • No overnight parking without a town resident sticker

  • $1,000 fine for littering

  • Prohibit all alcohol

  • Ask private railroad operator to put up a no trespassing sign

Correction: This article was corrected on 7/20/23 to reflect the fact that Seaview Transportation Company does not own the Newport Secondary railway. Seaview leases the railway from the state of Rhode Island.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Narragansett Boulevard beach in Portsmouth plagued by illegal activity