08-04-2025
Old Lyme considers creating a dog park, adopting jet ski regulations
Old Lyme — The town has no official dog park, but the selectmen are looking to change that.
Selectman Jim Lampos said Monday he has a spot picked out for the park. Located in the Cross Lane Recreation Area behind the fire department, he said, it's a place where people already walk dogs.
It's 100 feet off the wetland, it's dry, it's level," Lampos said before Monday's Board of Selectmen's meeting. "It would take very little to turn it into a dog park..."
The site, which has parking and a trail that curves around a pond, is more specifically located south of the firehouse, north of the pond and east of the lower Mile Creek School playground.
Lampos wrote in his proposal the town would need to install a fence and do some landscaping to create the park, but there would be no clear cutting of trees.
First Selectman Martha Shoemaker said residents have wanted a dog park for years.
Resident Ross Burr, walking his Corgi, Axel, by Town Hall on Monday, said a dog park is a good idea. He added that he'd be concerned about out-of-town beachgoers and their dogs crowding the park in the summer and said it would be a good idea to designate times for certain, larger breeds to avoid dog fights or injuries.
Lampos said there would be a "long road ahead" to create the dog park as it would need approvals from several local commissions and if it costs more than $20,000, voter approval. The town would also likely have to set up a committee to develop the park.
Jet ski ordinance
Lampos also introduced a draft ordinance overseeing jet ski and other watercraft use at the town's private and public beaches.
"The background is about 10 to 12 years ago we were having trouble with people landing on (Sound View Beach) and fueling on the beach, going over the swim area, Lampos said.
The draft ordinance says jet ski riders cut swim lines with their propellers, and spilled gasoline on the beach when they refueled there.
Back then, the town cracked down, asserting that jet skis are prohibited from the boat lane, which is only to be used by a water taxi. The situation improved, Lampos wrote, and the water taxi shuttled Kokomo's Bar patrons and other beach users from the shore to their vessels.
But the issue has resurfaced as jet ski traffic has increased, Lampos said.
Boats and jet skis are using the water taxi lane at Sound View Beach to moor, tie up to swim lines, or land in the public area of the beach, which Lampos wrote is hazardous to swimmers.
But the town has no ordinance saying jet skis must use a water taxi lane and stay out of the swimming area, so there's nothing to enforce. With an ordinance, the town could conduct enforcement. The proposal calls for a $150 fine for a first offense, $300 for a second and a third violation could lead to seizure of the vessel.
Anyone approaching Sound View would have to moor outside the swim area and take the water taxi to the shore, and couldn't use the water taxi lane at Sound View, which would be reserved for the water taxi or emergency vessels.
It also states no vessel, powered or not, could be within 100 feet of any swim area and could not land at any beach designated for swimming except the Sound View Beach water taxi.
Jet ski riders would have to stay in designated water lanes and couldn't refuel on the beach, and moorings would have to be at least 50 feet from the swim area, though the selectmen expressed a desire to make that buffer larger.
Shoemaker said this ordinance is a first draft and has go through a legal examination. Voters would then have to approve it.
