Cornfield Point, Old Saybrook

The public shore access point at Cornfield Point in Old Saybrook was closed off with rocks earlier this summer. After I waged a political battle about it, the rocks were "mostly" removed.
There was always two parking spaces and a handicapped space, with a bike rack. Now, there is one public space, a handicapped space, and no bike rack. There are three remaining stones blocking the second public parking spot and the bike rack is gone.
If this truly is a public shore access point, how did we, the public loose one spot? Why was the beach association allowed to trump public tax payers?
I ask that you look further into this matter, with the aim to restore the area to it's prior status with a bike rack, two regular parking spots and one handicapped parking spot.
I eagerly await your response.
Thank you.

#Following

Good job fighting this and hound dogging it Rich! Odd they took the bike rack away....pretty innocuous having people bike there

Maybe it's time for a CTF surf casting and BSing event there. We can all park at Saybrook Point Inn or somewhere and use 1 car to shuttle us all, and I'm sure there's a CTFer here with a handicap hang tag for the other spot.

We can also do a trash pickup scavenge there before we leave so we're seen as friendly users of the spot, and environment minded ambassadors.

I'm in! Great job, fish man !

May be fun to get a flotilla of boats out there, anchor out front, and all play Pigs (Three different ones) "Big man Pig man..." from Pink Floyd Animals on full volume for about four hours while we fish for bass and blacks. Sounds like an event Mitch would sanction!
But seriously, every one that I know that fishes there regularly picks up and does police the area. There is no litter nor any other stated concerns going on. I just want both parking spots returned, and the bike rack returned. This, after all, is a DEEP shore access point listed on their website. I read that to mean that it belongs to the taxpayers. Not just the beach association.
I would love to hear a reply from our DEEP representative on the status of this.

I don't think the Deep really keeps up with this thread or website anymore since skip left. Might be a better idea just to call them directly

I still get to the Fisheries Advisory Council meetings and the Marine Advisory Group too but have nothing on the schedule until December. Unless another meeting is called but not likely.
So I agree the best thing to do is to call DEEP.

I talked with a town employee. He said he would mistakenly plow the other three rocks away from the parking area come the first snowfall. May be just jawing, but we have to fight for access. Not fair that our taxes pay for these access points and they are being taken away. The law in CT is that beach association presidents have jurisdiction over taxpayers. Something wrong there.

Beach Association Tax Jurisdiction applies only to those homeowners in a deeded association. Many shoreline towns have beach associations that levee their association fees as taxes so there is way to enforce even collection among all association members. They have absolutely no jurisdiction over anyone who is not a member of the beach association.

This is Leydon v. Town of Greenwich all over again. Read that case and go directly to the Ct. State Attorney General like we all did with the Bantam Lake boat launch issue where the state lost the lease to the state boat launch and the Town of Morris turned the launch into a town-only launch. We challenged that saying that non-residents must have access and the state's AG (Blumenthal at the time) ruled that the Constitution's 1st Amendment right to assemble guaranteed the right to use the Town of Morris Bantam Lake boat launch. Equally egregious is limiting access through unreasonable fees (economic barriers) or restrictive physical access (rock barriers blocking off parking), etc.
What the Beach Association is attempting to do here is to say that there is access to the public but it just isn't as robust as it was before but it is enough. This is similar to the Lake Waramaug strategy where instead of a deep water boat launch at the State Park where dozens of boats could launch and park the lake community lobbied the Governor (Rowland) for a special deal where the DEP would give the Town of Washington 100,000 dollars to expand the town boat launch (six more parking spots, limited hours, public access with boat washing pre-requisite) and allow the public to use it under egregious restrictions in lieu of the double wide deep water launch at the State Park with a 100 acres of field parking areas.
This is all designed to limit access. Go to your local legislatures and the AG and file a grievance.

Rich / The Fish Man: Any update on this issue Rich?

The answer to 9 out of 10 questions is... money

It’s the American Dream in all its Glory

Is this spot still a viable spot I looked on old saybrook recreation website and it shows it as a community spot all along the shore. Is this still correct?

Has anybody had any trouble in this area with the residents that live there?

I know people who fished it last year. I have never from shore so I can’t talk about parking, access, resident neighbors, etc.

I have only fished it a few times but always by boat. This was last July on a live 12” Porgy.

That’s a nice hog there! Yeah just want to make sure there are no big conflicts fishing from the beach there, I wanted to fish off Blackpoint but that areas shore access looks completely private

We have fished Cornfield from a boat and and usually have done quite well.