MARBLEHEAD — The Board of Health assembled for a meeting Monday night, which included an update from Director of Public Health Andrew Petty in the aftermath of the recent closure of Grace Oliver Beach.
The beach was shut down by the Health Department on Thursday. The Police Department announced in a Facebook post that it “failed to meet the minimum standards for bathing beaches due to a bacterial exceedance.”
However, after just one day of closure, the beach was able to reopen due to a passable test result. With daily testing and more than 40 beaches in Massachusetts currently closed due to bacterial exceedance, Petty emphasized the importance of being able to facilitate a swift opening and closure if needed.
“We grabbed the sample Wednesday, we got the result back on Thursday and the beach was closed Thursday. We took another sample, and were able to reopen on Friday,” Petty said. “We make notification through the town, we do a mass email when it’s closed, we go down and hang a sign right at the front entrance to the beach so you can’t pass it.”
Petty explained that Grace Oliver is in a “different tier” than all other beaches in Marblehead, in that one test result exceeding the minimum standard mandates the beach be closed for at least one day.
“I think we’ve been very fortunate that only one beach has been closed for one day,” Board member Helaine Hazlett said.
