CHARLEMONT — For decades, the Johnson family allowed people on its tree-shaded, boulder-strewn, riverfront property to swim at what most people call “Sunburn Beach.”
But that has ended for now, at least, because too many people are coming to swim, cluttering the narrow North River Road with parked cars — sometimes on both sides of the road — and leaving trash.
“Mostly, it’s about the growing safety hazards,” said Diantha Wholey, the daughter of the late Grace and Marshall Johnson. “It was a very difficult decision. More and more people are coming, and the issues of litter and disrespect for property are growing.”
“Yes. The river is public,” she said. “But the land is not public.”
Wholey said she grew up swimming in that spot, which has been part of the family’s property for five generations. “When I was a young girl, there was never the traffic we have now.”
After the flooding of Tropical Storm Irene, the sandy beach on the Shelburne side eroded, and the Johnson family’s side of the river bank became even less sandy and more rocky, she said. But more people than ever started coming after 2011.
She said her father, who died in 2004 at age 88, was starting to pick up trash from the swimming area, and her mother was distressed about it.
Wholey believes the hotter summers and the loss of the old Buckland municipal swimming pool may be factors for the increased visitors, but there is also an increase of out-of-state license plates on the cars parked near that swimming area. One resident on a side road sometimes couldn’t get to her house because so many cars had parked. There are no sidewalks, so motorists have to watch out for children stepping out between parked cars.
Wholey said the Charlemont Police have towed parked cars that were causing safety issues.
Wholey said she had hoped the issue would “die out,” but it came up again this past weekend, when there was an estate auction at the Johnson home and there was a need for parking spaces around the home.
It was the owner’s decision to post the land, said Charlemont Police Chief Jared Bellows, “but we’ve had traffic problems there. Sometimes, it gets so congested that emergency vehicles can’t get through.”
One Fourth of July swimmer estimated there were 200 parked cars on North River Road on this year’s sweltering holiday. Bellows said he wished his department had counted the parked cars.
“There may have been in excess of 100 cars up there,” he said. “It was extremely congested on July Fourth, and there were out-of-state cars as well. We just went along and asked people to move their cars. We didn’t have to tow any that day.”
During last Saturday’s estate auction, a police officer was there to enforce no-parking areas to accommodate those going to the auction.
“It’s a tough area for us,” he added. “There’s nowhere to park and also no way of limiting how many people can go there. I honestly don’t know the solution.”
Wholey said no-parking signs have been put up and the land is posted. “We have not made any decision about how much longer.” For now, she said, “I think it’s going to stay posted indefinitely.”
“It would be nice if folks respect the fact that we’ve had to make this decision,” she said.