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Boston Sports Institute, Wellesley

Morses Pond temporarily gets a new gate, courtesy of Mother Nature

August 5, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

morses tree down
Tree blocking path to Morses Pond beach

Wellesley uses the metal gate on Turner Road to block access to Morses Pond and its parking lot. Mother Nature on Tuesday added a second barrier, in the form of a felled tree during the storm, to make it even harder to access the beach off-hours.

I happened by at around 7:15AM to find the felled tree blocking access just after the little bridge before the check-in station at the beach. Dog walkers were in a tizzy, spreading the word among themselves that you were going to have to be pretty athletic if you wanted to walk pupsie around the small pond.

Give the Department of Public Works credit though. Those guys were on it by 7:30AM, clearing away the tree and debris presumably in time for the beach to open up.

morses tree down
DPW on the job

 


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Filed Under: Morses Pond, Weather

Linden Square, Wellesley
Write Ahead

The return of Morses Pond

June 20, 2020 by Duncan Brown Leave a Comment

Morses Pond
Flags mark reserved beach spots

 

With twenty socially distanced areas now available at Morses pond, the much loved local hangout is once again giving Wellesley residents the chance to enjoy some sand and sun. To reserve one of the highly coveted beach spots you need to go to the Wellesley recreation page and sign up for a two-hour time block. At the moment reservations can only be made three days into the future, and getting one is quite competitive. New reservation spots open up at 7AM every morning and are filled almost immediately during this swim-at-your-own-risk season (See “Morses Pond won’t have lifeguards, but could have life”)

Even the Swellesley Report couldn’t get a spot (OK, let’s say I haven’t exactly been an early riser of late), forcing us to instead embark out without one in an attempt to investigate what the scene was like. Unfortunately, upon arriving, all of the current visitors were on their way out, as their two-hour slot had just ended, leaving a 30-minute waiting period before the next wave of visitors came. So we didn’t capture that full beach shot we had figured on.

Jake, a Mopo employee who was directing cars into the parking lot and checking reservations, said that for the most part people stay for the whole two hours, “especially people with kids,” and that people start to make their way out after the fifteen minute warning they are given before their time slot runs out.

swings
No swingers allowed

 

Spending time at the beach is valued time for Wellesley families with younger children, as well as a way for nannies to entertain kids in a socially distanced world, as Ruby Cramer, a Mopo employee working on checking people into the beach noted. She has seen a lot of nannies but not a lot of “older kids.” The Swellesley Report cannot help but suspect that for many high school students the requirement of waking up at 7am to reserve a spot may be a strong deterrent.

Emily, a Wellesley resident who had secured two time slots since the program began, had high praise for the system and for the other visitors’ etiquette. She said it had been easy to maintain her distance, and pointed out the cars in the lot which people had conscientiously parked with a good bit of distance between them. In the water, even the younger visitors are aware of social distancing, Emily said, telling about how a young girl who swam near her backed away and told her they “needed to stay far apart.”

Although not the same as in years past, both employees and visitors both expressed a sentiment of gratitude that the pond is able to be open in any capacity, and to do so in a safe way.

MOPO
MOPO staff
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Filed Under: Morses Pond

Page Waterman, Wellesley
London Harness, Wellesley

Morses Pond reservation race is on in Wellesley

June 7, 2020 by Bob Brown 2 Comments

The Wellesley Recreation Department has opened up the online reservation system for claiming stakes to 20 sections of the Morses Pond beach come Monday, June 8. Spots are filling up quickly, though the system only lets you reserve 3 days out to avoid anyone hogging up all the spaces at once.

If you want to reserve a spot, you’ll need to answer a few questions, such as about how many people are in your party and how many vehicles you’ll have. Reserving 2-hour time slots is free and for residents only. The blanketing area on the beach will have slots available from 10 am – 12 pm, 12:30 pm – 2:30 pm, 3 pm – 5 pm, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm daily. Gates will be open 9:30am-8pm.

morses pond reservations

The town is not providing lifeguards or other amenities, including bathrooms or a snack shake. The town’s Rec Commission determined it would be way too difficult to properly train lifeguards, provide the usual menu of services (kayak rentals, etc.)  and keep patrons and staff safe under state rules designed to contain the spread of COVID-19.

So you’ll need to prepare to make your experience enjoyable. You’ll also need to know your limitations and those of your kids, as the pond will be swim-at-your-own-risk.

A handful of park rangers will roam the premises to make sure people are playing, or sitting, by the rules.

Morses Pond

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Filed Under: Morses Pond

Stretch Lab, Wellesley

Morses Pond beach won’t have lifeguards but could have life

May 26, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

morses pond playground off limits

Update: 5/27: A Board of Selectmen report that the gate will remain open at Turner Road during the day and parking will be available for residents for now. But the town was disappointed that police removed 70 people from the beach yesterday who disregarded the fencing installed to block access. The hope is that park rangers will be able to monitor the situation in the future and that the DPW will provide support, including for trash disposal.

And if you have the clever idea of heading over to lovely Farm Pond in Sherborn, stop.  Sherborn Board of Health: “Tthe beach & boat ramp at Farm Pond is currently closed until further notice with the gates being locked. We are working hard to get safety measures for visitors and staff in place so that the Farm Pond Reservation can open once again.  Please check this website for official notices regarding Farm Pond.”

Wellesley’s Recreation Commission, which has been wrestling for months with COVID-19’s ramifications on the Recreation Department’s offerings, decided this week that the town will not offer its usual array of Morses Pond services. That means no lifeguards, beach passes, kayak rentals, snack shack or bathrooms.

It was pretty obvious from recent Rec Commission meetings that the members were leaning this way, despite continuing to explore seemingly all angles. They crunched all sorts of numbers to figure out how reducing parking, making the beach residents-only, or other configurations might make things manageable in light of strict COVID-19 inspired rules about operating such a facility. They’d also been monitoring what other communities have been doing, and a number (Bedford, Foxborough, etc.) have already decided to close their beaches.

If the Morses Pond beach is to be available this summer it will likely be in a swim-at-your-own-risk way, but more town departments will be weighing in before that becomes sanctioned (parts of Morses pond already are swim at your own risk). In addition to safety concerns at the beach, with its notorious drop-off from the sand, sanitation and other issues will be factors in any decision.

The town is trying to make sense of beach and other guidelines set forth by the state in its reopening plan, and decide on what will work for Wellesley (th School Committee this week voted “to authorize the re-opening of school-owned fields and tennis courts in conjunction with the reopening plan for NRC-owned land that is currently under development.”) With temps on the rise this week, dozens have already been flocking to the closed beach.

The Rec Commission’s decision in large part came down to overwhelming challenges in providing a safe environment for staff and patrons. Lifeguards would essentially need to bring family members with them to serve as training buddies each morning. The wearing of masks by lifeguards and the possible double duty of policing social distancing provides another set of challenges that the commission deemed untenable. Rec Commission member Jim Rodrigue also raised the question of whether the beach crowd could result in “viral shedding” that could impact the wider community’s safety.

The possibility remains that the town could devise a compromise approach. Perhaps re-locking the Turner Road gate to dissuade crowds. Perhaps posting bouncers at the beach entrances to keep chuckleheads from being too chuckleheaded.

“I think this is one of those problems that whatever you decide, when you squeeze it in one place like that doll where the eyes pop out, or somewhere else the arms or whatever, there’s not going to be an easy solution,” said Rec Commission Chair Paul Cramer.

Having the beach closed for official Recreation Department activities is no huge hit financially for the town, as it typically loses $30K-$60K on the venture. Slap on thousands more in expenses to cover regular deep cleanings and that would get even uglier. What’s more, half the usual revenue comes from daily fees, and that option wouldn’t be offered in light of the move toward contactless transactions, says Rec Director Matt Chin.

But the beach is held dear in town for many reasons, especially for those who don’t have the luxury of escaping to a beach house. It also provides dozens of summer jobs for locals (including one of the Swellesley Jrs., in years past) and offers a nearby place to cool off and hang out for residents, many of whom will likely be staying closer to home this summer in light of travel restrictions and health concerns.

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Filed Under: Morses Pond

Potty talk, social distancing police & the serious issue of Morses Pond this summer

May 21, 2020 by Bob Brown 4 Comments

Visualize the postcard. Here’s one possible scenario for beach goers at Wellesley’s Morses Pond this summer:

“The way guidelines are currently laid out you see a lot of No’s. There’s no swim lessons, there’s no grill rentals, there’s no picnic tables, there’s no playground, there’s no volleyball, you can’t throw a frisbee. You’d literally be coming to the beach, sitting in the sand with a mask on, taking that mask off, waking down to the water, swimming, coming back to your plot of beach, putting your mask back on, and that’s your day at the beach.”

This from Wellesley Recreation Director Matt Chin, who is actually no marketing slouch.

His description of not-such-a-day-at-the-beach (granted, mask rules might not be so strict for those hanging with family) came during Wednesday’s Recreation Commission meeting. If you have 2 hours to spare, watch Wellesley Public Media’s recording of the Recreation Commission meeting and it will give you a sense of the many issues being weighed.

The town has shut the beach down for now before its usual opening date in early June and hasn’t made any definite decisions for the summer. But town officials spanning the Rec Commission and Rec Department to the Natural Resources Commission, first responders, the Health Department, legal, and Board of Selectmen will all have a say in this situation before it’s over.

 

One centerpiece of the meeting was a grid featuring 5 possible scenarios that take into consideration everything from lifeguards to bathrooms (no port-a-potties that contain “storage”) to parking capacity to grill rentals. Options–and this is not to say the chart represented all possible options–ranged the traditional summer experience to the status quo. Doing anything in the middle raises questions of whether the town is actually managing the pond, and that can lead to certain expectations by the public as well as liability issues.

Morses Pond, Wellesley
Morses Pond, Wellesley

 

No decision was made about the pond’s fate at the meeting, held a day before a meeting of those operating beaches at in surrounding communities. The town is also trying to gets its arms around the latest state guidance on beach operations.

But as Rec Director Chin stressed throughout the Rec Commission meeting, his goal is to provide the public and his staff with safe opportunities–a huge challenge in light of the pandemic.

Among the most challenging issues will be asking staff, many of them teens, to regularly be in “a confrontational position” regarding the policing of mask wearing and social distancing. They’ll need to deal both with those not following rules and self-appointed social distancing police. Not to mention there would be little rotation of jobs at the pond, which has the potential to make certain jobs really dull.

As Rec Commission Chair Paul Cramer summarized: “The traditional experience raises a LOT of issues.”

But so does going the other way. Not having the town operate the beach and letting people fend for themselves…minus bathrooms, among other amenities, at a public water supply. Taking this swim-at-your-own-risk approach during the heart of summer during the COVID-19 crisis is a lot different than doing it at the end of last summer, when plenty of people were still away and college kids had started to head off.

As Commission member Jim Rodrigue pointed out, too, “there will be less and less mask wearing as the temperatures get warmer and warmer, because it’s not comfortable…” Or as Police Chief Jack Pilecki said, sun tanners aren’t going to want to wear a mask that results in a pale patch.

In the end, Rec Director Chin said the town is going to have to provide some level of management, even if the beach is technically closed for the summer.

“Just to walk away from it, I don’t want our department to do that. I’d love to be able to help in some way,” he said. “If it means I stand at the gate and have to explain to people what’s going on, then that’s what we’re going to do.”


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Filed Under: COVID-19, Morses Pond

Wellesley closes Morses Pond beach, hiking trails remain accessible

May 13, 2020 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

The Wellesley Board of Selectmen has made it official: the Morses Pond beach area has been temporarily closed, as we first reported over the weekend. The closed sections include the beach, bathhouse, swimming area, picnic area, and playground. A re-opening date has not been set.

Turner Road gate, Morses Pond, Wellesley
The gate at Turner Road was open, so I slipped  in to see what I could see.

Starting Wed., May 13, the gate at Turner Road will be open 7am – 6pm to allow visitors to park in the parking lot and have easier access to the hiking trails around the pond and the North 40 area. The open gate will also give residents on Turner Road a break from large numbers of vehicles parking on the street, and will  make it easier for the cops to monitor the beach area

Morses Pond parking lot, Wellesley
The parking lot at Morses Pond was empty but for my vehicle.
Morses Pond, Wellesley
A town worker puts the finishing touches on the Morses Pond fencing.
Morses Pond, Wellesley
The beach, bathhouse, swimming area, picnic area, and playground are closed.

Morses Pond, Wellesley

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Filed Under: COVID-19, Health, Morses Pond, Outdoors, Safety

“No one wants to do this…” but Morses Pond beach access likely to be cut off

May 9, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

The Wellesley Natural Resources Commission this week discussed the touchy subject of what to do about Morses Pond in light of concerns over COVID-19. As we reported recently, Morses Pond is becoming a hot spot with social distancing implications and would only become more so if the weather ever improves.

NRC Director Brandon Schmitt said department heads met this week to discuss the topic, which has generated lots of emails from the public. Reports have come in about people not social distancing at the beach, which includes a pavilion that would need to be sanitized for people to use it safely.

Morses Pond
Morses Pond beach access is available, but maybe not for long

 

One possible scenario is that beach access will be temporarily shut off, but that the gate at Turner Road will be opened. This would allow people to park in the parking lot and have easier access to the hiking trails around the pond. It would also give residents on Turner Road a break and would  make it easier for the cops to monitor the beach area.

While this could be the best approach, Schmitt acknowledges “No one wants to do this.”

NRC Chair Katie Griffith pointed out that Morses Pond is different than other open spaces in town in that it has a central destination area: “I think it really does pose a safety concern in terms of congregating. It’s such a tough position to be in because you want to do what’s right for the health of our community.”

It’s possible that the parking lot itself could become a social distancing concern, though the thinking is that if the beach is closed, not too many people will head to the lot.

It’s too early to say whether the beach will open at all this summer, but the safety the the public and employees will be the chief considerations in any such decision. Schmitt described the possible opening as “very uncertain.”

The beach usually opens in early June.

 

Time tracker: We watched the NRC Meeting this week so you didn’t have to. We spent at least 90 minutes watching it and another 90 minutes summarizing highlights in this post and  this post about Lee Field. If you find this independent news service valuable, please consider contributing to The Swellesley Report. Thanks!

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Filed Under: COVID-19, Health, Morses Pond

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