Nahant selectmen committed to planting grass at Life Saving Station

NAHANT – Following a technicality at Town Meeting that left the Nahant Life Saving Station out of the beach grass planting at Short Beach, newly appointed selectmen Chairman Rich Lombard guaranteed it wouldn’t stay neglected.The long-anticipated action on the Short Beach Master plan was halted at Saturday’s meeting when Town Moderator David Conlin noticed the article being voted on was different than one that was in the warrant sent out to residents in that it included the Life Saving Station area in the plans to plant beach grass on the shoreline to protect the dunes.Conlin would not allow anyone to amend the article so it included the station. “What I’m trying to avoid is that we do this and somebody challenges it because it’s beyond the scope of the warrant,” he said during the meeting. “And if that happens nobody will get grass anywhere. So I’m going to restrict this motion to the language in the warrant as it was published.”Selectman Michael Manning argued that the plan was to include the entire beach, including the Life Saving Station, and so the Board of Selectmen submitted a promise to the town that the entire beach would have beach grass.Lombard said it was behind the Life Saving Station that the rocks and debris were tossed in the road by the surf during coastal storms.”I’m not in favor of leaving out the Coast Guard station, but we’ll work around that somehow,” said Lombard at the meeting.On Friday, Lombard reaffirmed that the selectmen were committed to getting that area of the beach planted when the rest of the beach grass was planted in the fall. Lombard said Town Administrator Andy Bisignani was working with the Department of Public Works to draw up a plan, which Bisignani confirmed on Monday after the vote passed Town Meeting.When asked where they would receive the funds for the planting since the area was excluded from the article’s appropriation, Lombard said, “Beach grass is cheap ? it will all be worked out.”Kait Taylor can be reached at [email protected].