The Public’s Radio — Weekapaug Fire District seeks court ruling over popular Westerly shoreline sand trail

The sign for the Sand Trail posted at the entrance of Quonochontaug Barrier Beach in the Weekapaug section of Westerly. Alex Nunes / The Public’s Radio

August 4, 2023

By Alex Nunes — The Weekapaug Fire District has filed a motion in Rhode Island Superior Court, asking a judge to find the town of Westerly in contempt of a decades-old agreement that covers use of a road known as the Sand Trail that runs down the middle of the Quonochontaug Barrier Beach.

The fire district, which owns significant shoreline land but has no fire department, says the town is in violation of an agreement that governs the use of a dirt road that’s regularly accessed by fishermen and beachgoers.

The July 27 filing takes issue with a town resolution passed earlier this year that referred the Sand Trail to the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council for consideration as a state-designated public right-of-way to the shore.

That step, the district says, went against a 1997 “consent judgment” between the town and fire district that settled a lawsuit brought by the Weekapaug Fire District after the town told the district to remove parking spaces on what the town council had said was a public road.

The agreement declared the Weekapaug Fire District owner of the Sand Trail and outlined public uses on the road, like walking and driving four wheel drive vehicles from Labor Day to Memorial Day, through an easement granted by the fire district.

“The Judgment fully and finally, and unequivocally, settled and resolved the ownership of the Sand Trail and the use thereof,” fire district attorney Joseph Farside writes in the motion.

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