Projo — Armed with dusty old maps, activists fight to reclaim beach access in Weekapaug

Ben Weber, attorney Michael Rubin and Stephen Cersosimo, from left, walk down the path designated by the Weekapaug Fire District as a private right of way to the beach for local residents and their guests only. The three are fighting to restore public access to the shoreline. Bob Breidenbach/The Providence Journal

Oct 1, 2021

By Antonia Noori Farzan — WESTERLY — Ben Weber started working for his father's construction company when he was a teenager. So a few years later, when a security guard at Fenway Beach in Weekapaug tried to tell him that he wasn't supposed to be there because it was private, he knew the solution was to find a public easement. 

Weber, then 20, went to Westerly Town Hall and came away with a map that he held on to for years. In his recollection, it showed that the state owned a section of the cove that was shaped like a slice of pie, with the widest part providing ample room to throw down a towel on the dry sand. Because it was public land, the Weekapaug Fire District, which owns the rest of the beach, couldn't eject him. 

He eventually lost that map, something he's still upset about, and he's never found another one like it. But more than two decades later, he's using that same strategy to fight for the public's right to access the shoreline in Westerly. 

…