I know many don't see the Beach Breeze/Defuniak Herald so I thought I would post this article from July 12th that I found interesting. It looks like we will have more fireworks in addition to handcuffs on the beach. By the way, note that this will affect private individuals and vendors so let the funn begin..
Items left on beach to be removed
By DOTTY NIST
"Remove it or lose it," is now the rule in the evening on Walton County beaches.
To alleviate what has been identified as "a severe problem," Walton County has initiated a coordinated approach to have beaches clear of clutter in the evenings. The clutter of chairs, awnings, umbrellas, and other items on the beach has long been a complaint of South Walton Turtle Watch volunteers.
Federally-protected native sea turtles come onto the beach during their spring and fall nesting season, and their reproduction can be hampered by obstacles left on the beach in the evening. Human beachgoers can also run into or trip over these obstacles as they walk on the beach at night.
On June 28, Pat Blackshear, county planning and development services director, announced a cooperative effort between the county, the tourism council, and the sheriff's office to address the problem.
Blackshear explained that items left on the beach would be tagged and then removed after 24 hours if not taken off the beach by their owners. The policy applies both to private individuals and beach vendors, who are being notified by mail.
Walton County Sheriff's Office and Walton County Code Enforcement personnel will share patrol and tagging duties. South Walton Tourist Development Council (TDC) personnel will pick up tagged items once the 24-hour period has elapsed, and owners will forfeit items that are picked up.
TDC Executive Director Kriss Titus commented that, while Walton County's beaches have been honored by the Clean Beaches Council, she believes that the TDC has not been getting the message out about the importance of an uncluttered beach.
She said the TDC plans a "remove it or lose it" marketing campaign and will post information on its web page urging visitors to comply.
Replies
658
Meow
i'm in.
...I miss all the funn. 
Admin
I hope you are right Poodleone, but I think it is the changeover.I was on the beach yesterday afternoon at Grayton, and it looked like people were taking down their tent condos because they had to leave early this morning. There were plenty still up and "furnished" when I left, and I imagine there is a nice mess there this morning thanks to the storm that blew through last night!
I should get dressed really quick- have freinds coming in for the week, and I am sure I could find a few skim boards and beach toys buried in the lake, maybe even a few chairs and an umbrella. Actually, I might just go pick up trash around the outflow- it's like having friends come to visit and your house has trash all over the yard.
Reminds me - I heard someone tell a person who left tents, toys, and holes on the beach one time, "how would you feel if I came to your town and did the same thing in your front yard?"
Beach Fanatic
Isn't there a rule somewhere about camping onthe beach? This surely looks like camping......
SoWal Expert
Reminds me - I heard someone tell a person who left tents, toys, and holes on the beach one time, "how would you feel if I came to your town and did the same thing in your front yard?"
I've said that a few times.
Beach Fanatic
Originally Posted by kurt [ame="http://www.sowal.com/bb/showthread.php?p=267686#post267686"]
[/ame]
Reminds me - I heard someone tell a person who left tents, toys, and holes on the beach one time, "how would you feel if I came to your town and did the same thing in your front yard?"[/quote]
So have I on another thread
. Just harrassing you guys a little! (I got bored with the sharks.)
[/ame] Reminds me - I heard someone tell a person who left tents, toys, and holes on the beach one time, "how would you feel if I came to your town and did the same thing in your front yard?"[/quote]
So have I on another thread
. Just harrassing you guys a little! (I got bored with the sharks.)
percy
There are a lot of visitors out there who do not know about this "rule". I went to TDC's website to see if I could find something out on this, similar to what a visitor to our area would do.BMBV, perhaps it will be added to the website on the day the "Remove It or Lose It" ordinance starts to be officially enforced, which is July 23. Definitely would have been a good idea to have a blurb already on the website, but I'd hope as of the 23rd something will be posted.
Rereading the article, I do see it says the ordinance will be enforced (and, yes, I use the term loosely) on any area deemed beach, be it public or private.
P.S. Skunky, Jenay, John R, my kids need some snorkel equipment.
SoWal Expert
Saturday mornings at the beach are so quiet...Kate and I were the only ones there since most people had left or were packing up their stuff. Wish we could have stayed for awhile longer!
Anyhoo- we picked up around the lake. Two bags of trash, 1 broken skim board, 1 broken and rusty chair, one rusty full-size shovel, 5 pairs of shoes, lots of firework trash, and a kazillion pieces of a plastic bucket that had been blown to bits by a pack of firecrackers. Actually, I have seen a LOT more trash before- today was a light day.
Meow
Thank you to jdarg and Princess K. You are my kind of people! 
BMBV...thank you for the clarification. IMHO, so many of the "rules" of the beach are just plain common sense...but, I also realize that unfortunately common sense is sorely lacking in today's society.
BMBV...thank you for the clarification. IMHO, so many of the "rules" of the beach are just plain common sense...but, I also realize that unfortunately common sense is sorely lacking in today's society.
SoWal Expert
BMBV, perhaps it will be added to the website on the day the "Remove It or Lose It" ordinance starts to be officially enforced, which is July 23. Definitely would have been a good idea to have a blurb already on the website, but I'd hope as of the 23rd something will be posted.
Rereading the article, I do see it says the ordinance will be enforced (and, yes, I use the term loosely) on any area deemed beach, be it public or private.
P.S. Skunky, Jenay, John R, my kids need some snorkel equipment.
I trashed two masks in the last two days. One found at Seaside yesterday, and another found at Grayton, this morning. I'll keep you on the lookout list.
Beach Fanatic
If the stuff was next to a TDC trashcan, the garbage people will remove it, thinking it is trash. Often the TDC trashcans are beside the walkover entrances on the beach. ;-)
This morning my wife and I were sitting on our walkover and the TDC garbage man came by. There was a tent frame next to the TDC trash container and he took big cable cutters and cut it up and loaded it into his vehicle. It obviously was in the wrong place, in his opinion. GOOD FOR HIM! The TDC does a great job of cleaning the beach for what they have to work with.(Oh, I ended the sentence with a preposition. The language usage patrol will get after me.)
Beach Fanatic
In my opinion the biggest offenders are some local beach chair/umbrella companies. They deliver daily yet do not pick up daily. Now why would our tourists pick up daily if vendors leave similar stuff all year long? Companies licensed for business in this County consciously violate this ordinance everyday without any repercussions. Seaside and Watercolor do have to pick up all the beach funiture they rent out daily so why don't all beach vendors have too also?
needs to get out more
good question. if you look at the photo of the stuff at the 83 access, it appears that that rental stuff stayed out overnight.
SoWal Expert
I would like to personally thank the a$$hole who so thoughtfully dropped their little blue plastic cocktail sword on Grayton Beach. Your lovely little toothpick ended up embedded in my heel on Friday. Now it is infected and hurts like hell. 
Meow
I would like to personally thank the a$$hole who so thoughtfully dropped their little blue plastic cocktail sword on Grayton Beach. Your lovely little toothpick ended up embedded in my heel on Friday. Now it is infected and hurts like hell.
Psssssssss.
SoWal Expert
Psssssssss.
I'll spare you the gory details. I'd call Skunky, but I think I traumatized him with my toenail issue. I can't keep sticking my feet in his lap every week.
SoWal Expert
Beach Fanatic
Tonight is the night to not let your crap stay on the beach. please leave a new truck on the beach cuz it will be mine the next day. Jdarg sorry to here about the injure, if ya need help egreasing the beach let me know we will get you there.
Beach Lover
I will beat this horse one more time.(oops.after Mike Vick maybe I shouldn't say that) We were on Grayton Beach last evening for sunset. I counted 10 tents left , some just the frame several had the tent blowing in the breeze......also about half a dozen piles of chairs and skim boards ,1 stacked up about 3 feet high.... It just looked trashy as he!!...... 
It just looked trashy as he!!...... 
Beach Comber
Ordinances and bylaws aside, wouldn't any self-respecting person simply take notice of the natural beauty of the beach and, out of respect for Mother Nature, not trash it up with molded plastic, accordian tent frames, and other general junk? Campers honor the "leave it as you found it" credo. Beach-goers, locals or tourists, can do the same.
I was on the beach last Friday late in the afternoon at Gulfview Heights as one group was preparing to leave. They stacked six skimboards, an inflated boat, four chairs, coolers, etc. into a big heap - under a tent, of course. The mom told her son, "I don't think we should leave all the skimboards here. Someone may come along and think it's a party and take one." - Huh? So, one skimboard was removed, five were left, and I guess that eliminated the threat of a "party" bustin' out where skimboards would be pilfered. I'm still scratching my head trying to understand what she meant.
As they were leaving, I politely mentioned to one of the moms that the county periodically makes sweeps at night and their stuff may not be there in the morning. The woman said, "Well, we've been here all week and nothing's happened. Maybe we'll come back and get it later." (Which, to their credit, they did.) What I really wanted to say was "I don't enjoy schlepping stuff to and from the beach anymore than the next guy but I pick up after myself -- simply because it's the right thing to do. And, oh by the way, as I'm headed towards the walkover, I actively seek out trash along the route and pick it up since I'm walking right past the County-posted trash bags."
This whole crap-on-the-beach situation is just another manifestation of the eroding respect our society has experienced over the past couple of decades.
"R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me!" Sing it, Aretha!
I was on the beach last Friday late in the afternoon at Gulfview Heights as one group was preparing to leave. They stacked six skimboards, an inflated boat, four chairs, coolers, etc. into a big heap - under a tent, of course. The mom told her son, "I don't think we should leave all the skimboards here. Someone may come along and think it's a party and take one." - Huh? So, one skimboard was removed, five were left, and I guess that eliminated the threat of a "party" bustin' out where skimboards would be pilfered. I'm still scratching my head trying to understand what she meant.
As they were leaving, I politely mentioned to one of the moms that the county periodically makes sweeps at night and their stuff may not be there in the morning. The woman said, "Well, we've been here all week and nothing's happened. Maybe we'll come back and get it later." (Which, to their credit, they did.) What I really wanted to say was "I don't enjoy schlepping stuff to and from the beach anymore than the next guy but I pick up after myself -- simply because it's the right thing to do. And, oh by the way, as I'm headed towards the walkover, I actively seek out trash along the route and pick it up since I'm walking right past the County-posted trash bags."
This whole crap-on-the-beach situation is just another manifestation of the eroding respect our society has experienced over the past couple of decades.
"R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me!" Sing it, Aretha!
Meow
Will someone give us a report on the new ordinance and it's effect?
SoWal Expert
Will someone give us a report on the new ordinance and it's effect?
Our friends are in a Rivard rental in Grayton. There is a notice about "Remove It or Lose It" posted on the fridge, that is very clear about remvoing your things from the beach every night.
needs to get out more
Ordinances and bylaws aside, wouldn't any self-respecting person simply take notice of the natural beauty of the beach and, out of respect for Mother Nature, not trash it up with molded plastic, accordian tent frames, and other general junk? Campers honor the "leave it as you found it" credo. Beach-goers, locals or tourists, can do the same.
the self-respecting have been replaced by the lazy, empowered clueless...
Beach Lover
the self-respecting have been replaced by the lazy, empowered clueless...AMEN !!!!
Beach Fanatic
Someone once said "Ya can dress up a pig, but it's still a pig."
needs to get out more
right on.
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