By DOTTY NIST
In the wake of a July 4 beach incident in Seagrove involving a crowd of teenagers, fighting, and minor injury to two beachgoers, Walton County Sheriff Mike Adkinson recently suggested an agreement with the county commission.
The proposed agreement would provide for his personnel or Walton County Code Compliance officers to close or restrict beach access entry by non-residents in order to get better control of beach access areas at times of peak use in the interest of public safety.
The July 4 incident had taken place at the Dogwood Neighborhood Beach Access. There had been videos of it on social media. It is still under investigation by the Walton County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO)
Sheriff Adkinson discussed his proposal with the Walton County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) at the July 11 BCC regular meeting at Freeport Commons.
Adkinson stated that by Florida law he already has authority to limit or restrict such access as needed, and would do so when necessary, although he would prefer to proceed with an agreement in place with the BCC.
“Because when I do it,” Adkinson commented, “I’m doing it in response to one singular action, right? I think it’s incumbent for the Board of County Commissioners to have say in this so that there is some kind of consistency and agreement in the way we do business.”
“So what I would like to do,” he continued, “is have you guys consider or look into the possibility [that] we set some type of blanket understanding that for the purpose of high intensity, high traffic areas or times, that we go ahead and make the decision to either, say, to allow the sheriff’s office or code enforcement, however you want to do this, to close accesses to people that do not live in Walton County…”
He envisioned a one-way closure that would not apply to people coming off the beach, just onto the beach.
Adkinson said such an agreement would give the WCSO “some relief.”
“I don’t know how many of you are actually familiar with this,” Adkinson told the commissioners, “but we’re dealing with multiple crowds in excess of 1,000 people, not just in Seaside—at Rosemary we actually had to pull people from Dogwood to go to Rosemary and assist. Same thing in Miramar. So it’s pretty significant.”
Adkinson said the WCSO had approximately 25 personnel working in the area on July 4 and still were not able to get control of the crowds.
“So, we’re going to do some things a little bit differently, and one of those is what I would like to have from you is a consent agreement that during peak times, we can call it from March maybe to Labor Day, some version of that…,” he told the officials, “that you as a body agree with our position to close as needed, or limit traffic as needed, on beach accesses.”
Noting that the request had not been included as an agenda item, the commissioners opted not to take immediate action on it.
“Mr. Chairman,” District 5 Commissioner Tony Anderson responded, “I personally am not prepared to vote for this today. I would like to meet with the sheriff.” He said he was not saying either that he was opposed or in favor of “the overall picture of what he’s talking about,” just that he did not think the BCC should be making a decision without more discussion with Adkinson.
Walton County Commission Chairman Danny Glidewell agreed, saying that he had not been prepared to consider the request.
“Just to be clear,” Adkinson stated, “I think this is something we just need to be discussing and kind of move forward on…and we need to decide how and when that should be applied. Pragmatically, I can go ahead and do it now as necessary. But I think for it to be a policy—to your point Commissioner Anderson—-it needs to be thought out and needs to be put out there—and then some parameters on it so that we understand what we’re doing and we can tell the public.”
