Beach parking issues to be focus of Monday meeting

SEABROOK — The Seabrook Beach Village District will host an open meeting Monday at the precinct building on Route 1A to discuss recent concerns about the lack of beach parking.

Throughout the summer, residents, summer visitors, and daytrippers have been challenged to find sufficient parking at Seabrook beach.

Complicating the problem, several beachgoers have attempted to circumvent the resident-only parking restrictions by creating fake parking placards.

A police investigation into this situation is ongoing, and an update is expected at Monday’s meeting. The selectmen and Town Manager will also use the meeting as a forum to discuss long-term parking solutions for the beach district.

Seabrook Police Chief Lee Bitomske has recommended that selectmen create a committee to deal with ongoing beach parking problems.

The committee would include the chief or another police officer, Selectman Raymond Smith, and representatives from the Fire Department, the Department of Public Works, and Seabrook citizens, including uptown and beach residents. The goal would be to make beach access fair for town residents, with the possibility of purchasing state land south of the Hampton bridge on 1A to increase parking, installing meters, or changing current ordinances.

As for the fake parking placards, Bitomske has declined to comment on the exact number of properties involved while the investigation is ongoing. In each case, it appears that the property owners are retaining the legally issued beach parking placards and issuing counterfeit ones to tenants or friends, who may not know that they are using fakes.

“They are taking and making duplicates and they’re keeping the real ones for themselves,” Bitomske said.

Referring to the recipients of the false placards, he noted:

“They’re the victims as well as the town.”

Each year the town of Seabrook issues special parking placards in a different color to beach landowners, two to each property. This year they are printed on brown matte cardstock. The counterfeit ones are thinner, shinier, and most are brown on just one side.

“It is a bogus byproduct, and it is not fair to the people trying to maintain the lawful ordinance down there,” the chief said.

Castaways Restaurant under fire

Another topic expected to be discussed at the Seabrook Beach District meeting Monday is the ongoing issues at Castaways restaurant, which has garnered several complaints over the summer relating to occupancy, noise levels, and the use of fire pits.

At the August 19 Board of Selectmen meeting, Castaways neighbor Teresa Kyle lodged a grievance about the smoke emanating from the restaurant’s outdoor fire pits.

“The smell permeated my house. I have a husband with very bad lungs; he has COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease),” stated Kyle, who called Seabrook police one evening last week at around 9 p.m. due to the amount of smoke that entered her home. Police then contacted the Seabrook Fire Department, and the flames were subsequently extinguished.

Kyle cited the ongoing issues and expressed frustration with the apparent lack of a solution.

“I can’t even be comfortable on my own property, and nobody seems to be doing anything about it,” she said.

Selectmen Chairman Aboul Khan advised Kyle to contact the building inspector for Seabrook Beach and stated that the Seabrook police are continuing to look into possible violations. “We’ll find out if anything is happening,” stated Khan.

Selectman Edward Hess and the town manager pledged to make Castaways an agenda item at the next selectmen’s meeting.