Nahant board approves stricter parking rules

NAHANT – Nahant selectmen are making it clear that beach parking violations will not be tolerated with new enforcement that will allow the town to immediately tow anyone parking near the beach without a town sticker.Beginning June 1 and lasting until Labor Day, any car within a two-block radius of any Nahant beach will be subject to immediate towing. The motion came from Selectman Michael Manning at a meeting Thursday when he said nonresidents parking at the beach didn?t seem to respond to parking tickets.?Residents have expressed frustration that only ticketing seems to have no effect,” said Manning. “A parking ticket is cheap for a day at the beach.”Chairman Rich Lombard suggested that all of Nahant be part of the enforcement. “These people come over in vans and park behind the library, the town hall, they park in front of people?s homes. They park all over,” he said. “A ticket is meaningless, people never pay them.”Lombard added that fishermen were parking at the golf course to fish off the rocks, and were breaking beer bottles on the rocks, as well as tramping through private property to get to better fishing spots. “There?s been reports of stolen golf clubs and other kinds of activity we don?t want.”Manning and Vice Chairman Perry Barrasso felt that an immediate towing policy all over town was too excessive and would cause pains for residents who were hosting visitors from outside the town. Plus, Manning pointed out, the two-block rule would cover 50 percent of the town.Manning and Barrasso voted down Lombard?s amendment to cover the whole town, but the two-block rule passed. Town Administrator Andrew Bisignani agreed he would meet with the Nahant police chief to discuss the new enforcement.Kait Taylor can be reached at [email protected].