New Laconia Beach Regulations
 

The new regulations include no cooking, no loud music, as well as prohibitions on smoking and alcoholic beverages.

This should change the makeup of the crowds and the use of the beaches, especially on holidays.

It will be interesting to see the level of compliance and enforcement.

From the Laconia Sun:

https://www.laconiadailysun.com/news...4b0f471d7.html

That certainly will change things especially during the summer holidays. Many of the beach goers from Mass came here because they could BBQ and drink on the beach.


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In the last many years my fellow Mass residents have been treating the Weirs beach like their personal property that they bought for the price of admission, and they seem to come with little respect for others. Not saying they are looking for trouble, most seem pleasant and happy enough, they just seem to think they world thinks as they do and enjoys what they enjoy and they dont ever seem to get it that some come to Weirs for a quiet family day to rest and enjoy the surroundings.

In the last 15 years I have also noticed that its not just weekends and holidays, these crowds can be there on weekdays and they stake out huge chunks of space, there will be groups of people playing football and too often trampling small children while doing so, blaring music way too loud, and basically acting like they own the place rather than sharing it with others.

I stopped taking vacations years ago and do lots of mid-week day trips to avoid the weekend crowds, and in the last 10+ years I have noticed that there a lot of other folks doing the same. Not sure if they have the same flexibility I do, or they work different shifts or maybe weekends and/or non regular schedules but it often surprises me how many day-trippers will be at Winnipesaukee on weekdays.

I dont know that there is much you can do to fix the lack of manners/consideration for others, and I think its sad that cooking will be eliminated, but I do think this may help tone things down just a bit.

It would be sure nice to see people remember that the lake and its beaches and town docks are shared space and tone down the "I'll do what I want" attitudes. But I suppose that was as set of values from a different era,,,

I will miss the smokey aroma of various seasoned meats being BBQ'd as I idle through the Weirs Channel.

On the bright side, if there is enforcement the air may be clear enough to catch a wiff of some two stroke exhaust.

Ahh... the sweet smells of summer!

Enforcement will be a challenge


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I also would like to post my view. That said I will revert to my past usual saying "if I say something will it change anything". Probably not esp to the I have rights crowd.

____________________________________

I am a retired workaholic and continuing aquaholic

I live in the Weirs. So far, some have ignored the signs regarding cooking.

I’m also wondering if you will see more people gravitate toward the state parks so they can cook. Of course, they would have to make reservations for most of the ones with beaches.

They already have! Not a spec of real estate is available at Ellacoya and Wellington State Parks. I was told it is becoming too expensive to maintain the beaches due to daily trash pickups. A lot of folks bury their garbage in the sand. I happen to see one mother bury a dirty baby diaper! That episode alone made me avoid public beaches!

Public Beach Access
 

There is sometimes a lot of noise that the majority of the water access is privately owned and there needs to be more "public beach access". Why? So the place can be treated like ****?

My place is near one of the lesser-known public beaches in Meredith. 9 years ago, when we first bought our place, the only people that used it were some of the weekly renters in the seasonal places nearby. Everyone was quiet and off the beach by dinnertime/early evening. The volume of beach-goers has grown exponentially, and last year was crazy-town. I can't even count the number of people who would go out on their floats and tie up to my mooring ball, (boat was at dock). When I would say, "please get off my mooring", they typical response would be, "Why? You're not using it" or, "I'm just floating here, man..." "It's private property; please get off" There was even one crew last year who tied their floats to my neighbor's DOCK, till the neighbor came out and went bonkers.

And, there were also the midnight, 1, 2, AM drunken beach parties, skinny dipping, fireworks, and once a camp fire. I'll usually give a little slack for 15-20 minutes so as not to be a total A.H., as most leave after that time, but there have been a few calls to the police, (especially with the middle of the night campfire).

So, back to my original question...why should there be more public beach access when the folks who use it don't give a rat's a**??

I'll get off my soapbox now...

Not just beaches
 

It's not just beaches. Hiking trails, conservation lands, parks, etc are all being overwhelmed. When amusement parks, ball parks and the like got shut down last year, people started finding "new" places.

This is very disturbing. I wish the NH state parks were for NH residents only.

That’s terrible.

I think it the beaches were at least limited to NH residents that would help big time. Volume would be greatly reduced.

We all like to forget that nothing is free. They should charge admission and funnel the money into clean up and maintenance.

We dealt with this in my town last summer—out-of-towners destroyed two of our parks and made news. Town council was limited in what it could do because federal funds were used to secure and construct the land, structures, etc. and doing so requires that the spaces be open to the public.

It's a very hard line to walk: I use parks in nearby towns, myself, so I wouldn't want those going away, which is ultimately what happens down that road. Also, we run into adding staff to collect money and enforce rules, both of which create potential for confrontation—my town's police department had to call in reinforcements a few times.

The solution is for people to stop being jerks, but that takes education and a sense of greater purpose—models for that in politics, big business, social figures, etc. are rare and, frankly, I'm not confident the family system can overcome the social system any more.

I will say as a hiker, however, that the attitude hasn't *totally* invaded the woods. While there are people who will play Bluetooth speakers and talk on the phone, etc. it's still rare and the average person on the trail is still on board with the traditional culture.

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Good points, difficult issues. Presumably, as other states "open up" people will go to local parks and swim areas and the pressure on NH will subside.

This will never be enforced.

Why not? On busy weekends and holidays there is always a significant police presence at Weirs Beach

Just think of the optics and today's overly sensitive and racially (or fill in any other the identity metric) obsessed society and I think you get the picture.

Bottom line is all this nonsense has pretty much handcuffed LEO from doing a damn thing such as enforcing the law because at the end of the day law enforcement is no longer about enforcing anything rather selective prosecution based on a predefined prism. Yeah good luck with that!

Sorry I respectfully disagree. Most people are law abiding citizens and are respectful of law enforcement, the media tends to accentuate the bad instances for ratings and sensationalism.

Must add. More trash barrels are needed on the beach and should be picked up daily


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Boston is increasing enforcement at its beaches, and even closing one of them early, with plenty of support from the community. Lots of coverage on this in the Globe

In season the city of Laconia pickup up trash and cleans the beach about 5am every morning. I do agree more receptacles are needed.


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Where Are The Police When You Need One?
 

The police will be investigating where all the signs disappeared to. :eek2:

Don't get me wrong here, I agree most folks are good citizens and I think it's great how many families and extended families use WB for gatherings. Furthermore most seem very respectful and are there to enjoy the place. In fact I would bet most clean up after themselves and if listening to music keep it at a reasonable level. However all it takes is one - and that one being confronted by police, which turns into more than just a discussion, somebody videos that throws it all over social media and what do you know another "incident" is all over the news.

That's my point and the cops are not going to let a situation escalate so they can become the next outrage of the day to be judged in the court of public opinion. Instead I think they would be more likely to walk away then to dig in and create a spectacle.

So you're there at the Weirs checking ID's and verifying all/most beach go'ers are from Massachusetts to make that statement? WOW, you're pretty good!

I'm from Massachusetts and know several Laconia Police officers and they have informed me that most folks on the beach are locals and Manchester NH area.

Most lakefront property on Winnipesaukee are owned by MASS and NY residents.

Ya Im super good at it, its called reading license plates, no need to even check, you almost cant avoid seeing them. Even better yet, most of them have brackets/surrounds around the license plate that list the car dealers name and a quick scan shows a whole lot of cars from Lawrence area. Not that it really matters, but facts are stubborn things.

So happy you are an actual authority on the matter and your friends in Laconia are actually IDing NH residents as also being part of the group using the beach, but as any reasonable person, when Im there I try to say hello to others and occasionally have a conversation with people visiting the lake and from my experience there is a disproportionate number of Massachusetts visitors at Winnipesaukee who are from north of Boston.

Hope thats all not a problem for you.

Its only a problem for me when I see them acting badly, then it doesn't really matter to me where they come from, its just a point of information to note. In the end bad behavior is annoying regardless of where you come from and not more tolerated by actual life long Winnipesaukee residents. Ive seen many crusty locals who have been that way their whole life, so they cant blame it on the changes. And I have seen some locals who have tolerated the changes very well when I know if I were them I would be not pleased by some of the challenges.

Ultimately I guess I should be happy that if there are problems with bad behavior that it comes from locals and people from Manchester and not my fellow MA residents, after all we all know the term MASSHOLE never really applys to us or any of our neighbors, right ;-)

As a local, and a native of Laconia, I don't think we can define it as ''bad behavior'' when we never had rules against it.
Some things are rules/laws being broken, but the three signs are signifying new rules for that beach.
The Weirs is rather unique among the city beaches in that it is more of a commercial venture. The area is designed to be a tourist draw, so we get people from everywhere.
But it has not performed up to the expectations of those that suggested spending a lot of tax dollars to improve it.
The location has more benefits than Meredith (Rte 3 not being as significant a deterrent to commerce and an actual sandy beach with shallow entry), but has never really reach the zenith of the desired outcome.
These new regulations may limit the number of beach goers, but will also funnel more beach goers toward the commercial establishments.

Please don't make excuses--plenty of well known rules on litter and public consumption. Plus, your mom may have mentioned that being impolite is (almost) always bad behavior

Litter is not a ''new rule''.
Public consumption is not a ''state law'' and Laconia doesn't hold tightly to any such ordinance... only public intoxication - which is a bit more than consumption.

As for being ''polite''; that is more of a social issue.
It isn't something that becomes enforceable until the ordinance. Which is what the new signs are about.

We work on people being ''polite'' as much as we can... but sometimes it has to become an ordinance. But we don't consider it ''bad behavior''... just an uniformed situation.

If I listed what I was taught on being polite, it would stun most people...
Many things I could do, but was taught never to do.

Regulations might change
 

Some opposing views at the Monday night Laconia city Council Meeting.

“We need to take a look at the ordinance regarding beaches,” Mayor Andrew Hosmer said later in the meeting. “We should be looking at how do we make people feel welcome.”

https://www.laconiadailysun.com/news...c08f94de9.html

There is quite a difference between making people feel welcome and saying we will rent you the beach to do anything you want including burying your dirty diapers in the sand and blasting music for everyone else to hear.

Clearly its difficult to regulate manners and reasonable behavior, and sometimes rules are too restrictive and have negative and unintended consequences.

Its tough to strike a good balance, especially where dealing with people who have very different preferences and standards.

In a perfect world you would have the beach and sandbar and the quieter versions, but so far we have not been been able to pull that off, so rules/regulations become necessary attempt to strike a balance and in the end you probably don't really satisfy the party group or the more reserved people.

The struggle continues,,,

Weirs Beach - Endicott Rock Park ... http://www.laconianh.gov/1034/Weirs-...cott-Rock-Park


Rules & Regulations ... www.laconianh.gov/238/Rules-Regulations



Swim Rules/Beach Rules:

"3. Inflatables, life jackets, swim fins, snorkels, and tubes are not permitted in the water."

While this Rule #3 does not specifically mention a 2" x 30" foam swim noodle tied tightly around one's waist to make it a swimmer's belt by threading a 5/16 x 48" line down through the foam noodle center hole and securing it around your waist with a good knot it is probably safe to assume that Rule #3 would apply and a swim noodle belt would be get the NO-GO from the Laconia beach monitor, town employee, who is stationed on Weirs Beach.

Except, the home made swim noodle belt works incredibly GOOD as a swim training, personal safety aid to keep you safe while swimming and help to make you a better and stronger swimmer.

If you want to increase your safety and level of swim confidence so you have positive buoyancy and conserve your strength and energy without the fear of drowning, you should definitely try swimming the breast stroke and side stroke while wearing a 2" x 30" foam noodle tied very tight around your waist ...... and you will want to go swimming again and again ..... with the swim waist noodle belt!

If you want to swim just like 'Tarzan the Ape Man' - Johnny Weissmuller, or like that swim hottie, Esther Williams, then you should try practice swimming with a swim noodle belt tied tight around your waist!

As they attract some customers, they are pushing away other customers.
It really just takes a management team willing to do the work and define their customer.

The define our customer has been clearly made. We just need the town leadership to do the work we taxpayers pay them for. The majority of homeowners and tax payers of Laconia don’t want day trippers to overrun the beaches with their trash, play loud music and pollute the water we drink. If the day trippers donÂ’t feel welcome with our signs, they can stay home and trash their own place.

I am sure there are folks who will still come that share our values and will not be offended by a few signs. Meanwhile, I bet these folks will be more likely to buy lunch or dinner at one of the local restaurants.
What it comes down to, do you want to keep one business that sells disposable charcoal grills happy or bring in outside clientele who will open up their wallets and visit one of the many local restaurants?

The define our customer has been clearly made. We just need the town leadership to do the work we taxpayers pay them for. The majority of homeowners and tax payers of Laconia don’t want day trippers to overrun the beaches with their trash, play loud music and pollute the water we drink. If the day trippers don’t feel welcome with our signs, they can stay home and trash their own place.

I am sure there are folks who will still come that share our values and will not be offended by a few signs. Meanwhile, I bet these folks will be more likely to buy lunch or dinner at one of the local restaurants.
What it comes down to, do you want to keep one business that sells disposable charcoal grills happy or bring in outside clientele who will open up their wallets and visit one of the many local restaurants?

I'm a 55 year old native of Laconia... and in my lifetime it has never been clear what the Weirs' customer is.

From what I can tell, it is a party beach based on the ''Live Free or Die'' anything goes concept.

I know for some years it tried water parks and other family venues... but none of that seems to have stuck.

As a fan of the super noodle your post makes me wonder if it might be possible to hide a noodle belt under an oversized Tee shirt. God knows I have enough "spare tire" to help with the camouflage ;-)

Well it was just a thought.

I'm always looking for that Homer Simpson like experience and letting a super noodle do all the work floating me is just about right,,,

What is the rationale for prohibiting floats, snorkels, swim fins, life jackets, tubes?! It’s like prohibiting safety and fun at the same time. ???


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A 2" diameter noodle cut down to 30" length and worn as a tight belt has enough buoyancy to make long distance swimming much more relaxed for a 200-lb male so one can conserve energy and strength while doing a rest swim stroke, breast stroke or side stroke. It gives you big confidence for swimming in deep water and confidence is important for swimming in deep water or in somewhat COLD water.. The noodle belt keeps you balanced on top of the water while you power yourself forward with long restful breast strokes or side strokes. Instead of swimming basically to avoid going under, you are swimming to move forward at slow pace for a hundred yards or more. And, the more you do it, the better you get.

Yes, a thin 2" noodle can most likely get worn tight around the waist, under a tee-shirt. Sure, why not.

It seems that the great majority of the local population are very iffy swimmers and a foam noodle belt tied TIGHT around the waist makes swimming a hundred yards doing the breast or side stroke much more relaxed and doable. You are no longer using a lot of energy just to stay on top of the water, because the noodle keeps you afloat and centered while you slowly and safely swim out there, and back.

It's like "Hey, I can do this, I can take my time and swim a long distance. Who knew?" Plus, you can always take a rest break and just float there in a vertical position without having to tread water while the noodle belt keeps you very afloat. Somewhat similar to a Navy submarine's self-control for trim and buoyancy which is important for a submarine. Are you floating or are you sinking? As long as you are floating, you can work on moving forward by using a long distance rest stroke, breast stroke or side stroke.

I almost always stay away from the overhand crawl because it uses up too much energy, too fast.

The words of that GREAT philosopher...
 

"Can't we all just get along"? (Rodney Glen King, April 2, 1965 – June 17, 2012)

With proper enforcement, can't all of these exist together peacefully? I've been to parks where BBQing is allowed. Responsible drinking publicly is allowed in a lot of places without incidents. Floating devices? Not sure what's the big deal. Maybe overcrowding should be the primary concern.

An out-of-towner from Beacon Hill with a Weber Smokey Joe cooking wagyu beef burgers two feet from someone else, accompanied by a Bordeaux no one else can afford and speaking with that Boston accent no one can understand...Well, that may be a concern...I'll have to think about that today ...Maybe "shotgun" a Bud Light during the next squall...Contemplate the issue and then throw the empty into the Lake.

Non-Swimmers?
 

The rational should be stated.

Because we assume beach-goers are good swimmers, perhaps it's to discourage non-swimmers from endangering themselves and rescuers.

There is a pretty easy solution....

While I don't think you can charge for beach access (The City took Fed $$$ years ago). The City can charge a fee for a cooking permit... say $10 or $20. To help offset the cost of cleanup.

Woodsy

Floats, etc. are allowed since no lifeguards. Though I think they should always be allowed. Seems like a silly rule. They are allowed at state parks with or without lifeguards.

Not sure that Parks & Recreation that has the authority for regulation, has the authority for permitting in that manner.

XCR-700 YOU'RE NOT THAT GOOD! I walk by the Weirs each day and last week I surveyed the parking lot (4 days in a row) and on average NH plates were 68%, MA plates 21% and the other 11% consisted of other various states.