Madison Slates “Special Town Meeting” On Beach Parking

MADISON, CT - The Board of Selectmen of the Town of Madison will conduct a Public Information Session on Wednesday, July 17, at 7:00 p.m. at the Senior Center.

The purpose of this Information Session will be to review the current beach pass system, answer questions regarding the system and discuss options for moving forward with beach pass policies and enforcement procedures.

The meeting will be the first one since last Thursday, when several changes were approved by town officials to try and stem criticism of the newly implemented beach parking system.

Madison residents have been complaining a new parking system was not charging out of towners enough and the result was that Madison residents were having trouble finding spots on their own town beaches.

The issue reached a crisis point on this past July 4th when Hammonasset State Beach closed around 11 a.m. due to overflow crowds and out of towners flocked to Madison town beaches looking for a respite from the 90-degree weather.

At a special Board of Selectmen meeting on the issue Thursday evening, the Selectmen:

— approved a recommendation from the Beach and Recreation Commission to increase 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;

— approved a recommendation from the Beach and Recreation Commission to set the hours for hourly parking passes to 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. at East Wharf and West Wharf; and from 9:30 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. at the Surf Club;

— approved a recommendation from the Beach and Recreation Commission to set 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.