Nahant public hearing a split decision

NAHANT – Residents at a public hearing last week for the Short Beach Master Plan reported a long, lively but ultimately disappointing discussion as citizens expressed reservations about plans for the Nahant Life Saving Station while town officials wanted to focus on general beach improvements.”I was a little disappointed that we didn’t spend more time focusing on the Master Plan portion of it – seemed to be a concentration on the Life Saving Station,” said Town Administrator Mark Cullinan. “But by and large it went fine.”Resident Brian Olmstead agreed.”My overall reaction was that they actually spent little time on the improvements to the beach itself,” he said.The Master Plan for Short Beach Improvements and Preservation will address topics from restoring sand dunes and controlling algae to adding parking and burying utility wires, according to Cullinan’s presentations on the topic to Town Meeting and to selectmen.The plan is part of a multi-year, multi-phase project using $225,000 from Community Preservation Funds to rehabilitate the beaches and the Life Saving Station.Town Meeting passed a sub-article in April that appropriated $190,000 for the master plan and the site design and construction of landscape improvements for the Life Saving Station.Cullinan explained in discussion at Town Meeting and other selectmen’s meetings since, that the plan – Phase II of the multi-year project – cost $30,000. The remainder of the $190,000 was to fund Phase I of the multi-year project: the site design and construction of landscape improvements for the Life Saving Station.But Cullinan said that several citizens last week did not understand that the money was to be divided, either due to misinformation or because they did not attend Town Meeting.But Olmstead disagreed that the projects were not connected.Most of the immediate projects in the planning process involve the Coast Guard Station, he said, and this project should not receive public funds because it includes a function hall that will be rented to private individuals.”The very idea of a public beach is in public trust for the public,” Olmstead said. “That is what all the planning is for, not to create private businesses that excludes the public unless you pay them.”Olmstead said this makes him suspicious of town officials’ motives.”I don’t understand why the? Coast Guard Station becomes the tail that wags the dog,” he said. “So they are formally talking about something else, but what drives it is that you have to get necessary things for the function hall, it has to have a place to have caterers, parking? etc. and that’s what they want now. They want to turn the lifeguard station into something that will pay money in lieu of taxes and they don’t want to talk about it publicly.”But Nahant Preservation Trust President Mike Rauworth said that the discussions about the “nuts and bolts” of a renovation project are things that a committee, not a public hearing, discusses.Cullinan agreed.”Whether deciding to rebuild the wharf, or build stairs at 40 Steps you don’t have public meetings to decide how they will be designed,” said Cullinan. “But a master plan is different – by nature a master plan is a plan where you want to get input. But when you are designing something you want to leave it to professionals.”