Outdated sign at Swampscott beach removed

SWAMPSCOTT – Residents can walk guilt-free after dark on Swampscott beaches now that the sign that claimed Whale?s Beach was closed at sunset has been taken down.Days after Puritan Road resident Geraldine Shore asked the Board of Selectmen why she wasn?t allowed to indulge in her choice evening pastime, Selectman Glenn Kessler said he put in a call to the Department of Public Works to have the sign removed. Kessler said the sign, which prohibited anyone to be on the beach from sundown to sunrise, conflicted with updated town bylaws that do allow people to be on the beach during that time.Kessler relayed the information to Shore at a Traffic Study Meeting on Monday. Shore said she drove to Whale?s Beach with her camera to check herself, and sure enough, she said the sign was gone. “I?m very happy that the sign is down,” she said Tuesday. “Why that was put up I?ll never know.”Shore said the selectmen informed her they are still working on the “private property” signs sticking out of the sand at Whale?s Beach, as the town struggles with a few residents who claim ownership to the beach. Shore said that issue is still “a disaster,” and that now there are plastic cones in addition to the signs at the beach.?I think it?s an eyesore, having signs up all over the place,” she said. “There should be hardly anything down there, except beach chairs, the rocks and the water.”