Madison Made Less Money This Summer With New Beach Parking Plan

MADISON, CT — There is no disagreement that the installation of the new beach parking system at town beaches this past summer to try and ensure adequate parking spaces for Madison residents and good traffic flow for those visiting had a series of problems during its first year.

The Beach and Recreation Commission and the Board of Selectmen recently met to go over those problems and to begin formulating a plan for the 2020 beach season.

Park and Recreation Director Scot Erskine stated that the Commission is still in a fact-finding phase with the contractor to determine the best ways to move the system forward next year.

There are also roughly 130 outstanding tickets to be collected with some of them being appealed, Erskine reported.

Erskine stated that the contractor is going to provide the Town with a list of other municipalities that use the Complus system successfully.

The Commission will be reviewing the system again at their next meeting and will bring an update to the Board in November.

He added that this past season only saw 4,696 passes sold but part of this was the late start as the system was not implemented at Memorial Day as it had been in the past. The total dollars collected for 2018 was $176,000 and this year the total dollars collected were $151,000. The average is roughly $160,000 per season. With the $10,000 still outstanding the total collected for this past season would roughly be $161,000, Erskine claimed.

After the town experienced overflow crowds at town beaches during an unusually hot July 4th weekend, officials made changes to the already in place parking system fees to hit the wallets of out-of-towners more for flocking to Madison on beach days this summer.

Selectmen approved revising hours of parking at the Surf Club to 9:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and to also move hours of enforcement to 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. at East Wharf Beach as well.

Those changes increased the hourly parking rate at all Town beaches from $3/hr to $10/hr, to be replaced by a daily rate system when the computer software allows it; and, setting a daily minimum pass rate as part of the current Beach Pass System, at $50 per day Monday – Thursday and $75 per day Friday-Sunday and Holidays; to be implemented in accordance with the software requirements of the contractor.

Now, before next beach season the Commission is looking into a sticker system going forward and perhaps if the sticker could be scanned by the scanner. Erskine confirmed that the Commission was looking into any and all avenues forward for future pass seasons.

Rob Card, Commission Chairman stated that the Commission decided to have two additional meetings about this particular topic. He reiterated that every idea is on the table and the Commission plans on coming back to the Board with different options of how to move forward for future pass seasons.

The Commission’s goal is to make the pass purchase easy for all Town users and considering all costs to the Town.

Selectman Bruce Wilson stated that the Commissions should not look at this only from a revenue perspective. He stated that he hoped the plan going forward was not driven by revenue but by user experience.

Selectman Al Goldberg questioned the role of the Town’s insurance carrier regarding the Town’s liability for beach safety.