Blue Mountain Beach 'private' beach issue, again.....sigh
Just a heads up, I know this topic has been covered in the past ad infinitum. It didn't seem to be a problem at all last year, especially since beach traffic was down and BP had set up a couple of big tents and porta-johns between the Inn at Blue Mountain Beach and the Retreat for their workers. I will try to be brief, but I think
it's very worth posting, especially for those whose renters or family members will be using the public beach access in Blue Mountain right by the Inn this summer.
Last Sunday, the day before Memorial Day, there were four of us sitting kind of in
front of the Retreat side of things, but easily within, say, 15 to 18 feet of the water and well south of the previous evening's debris line (which was made of dark seaweed and clearly visible). I know the Retreat and the Inn think they own that part of the beach but I don't and we were well south of what I believe to be the 10 year mean high water mark. Again, within just a handful of yards of the water, honestly. Just 4 folks enjoying the beach, 2 of whom are property owners on Redfish Circle and have owned there for 10 years.
We were approached by two security guards, one easy-going and one very much an aggressive, intimidating knucklehead. I have encountered both in the past, especially the combative one. A couple of summers ago he tried to bully me to move, asked for my name, etc., and when I told him it was Angelina Jolie, he made my summer when he actually started to write it down. (I would never give a false name to the police, but then again, you don't know that I'm not she, do you?) I kept my cool, did not raise my voice in the least, nor did anyone in our group. I just declined to move, Gandhi would have been proud.
The argumentative security guard called the sheriff's office as he said he would. He also took my photo, which I did not like, but I just took his as well. The long story short is that three different WCSO people came to the beach--a deputy, a sergeant, and a canine officer (w/o dog). We had a very fruitful, adult conversation. The SO folks basically said they have an unenforceable code and they have been instructed not to arrest anyone. They agreed that the Florida AG has ruled that all beaches in the state are public, it's just the actual mean high water line that's the issue. This all took a good hour and a half, at least. The authorities (one in particular) were not very happy to be drawn to the beach as there were most likely other goings-on in the county that warranted their attention. It seems that the Retreat has had another survey done, no one had a copy, yadda, yadda, yadda.
In short (honestly, I'm trying) it ended well, with much hand-shaking between us and the cops. We ultimately chose to move closer to the water as one of them said it would flat out make their job much easier that day. Enough said. No one lost their cool, no profanity, etc. It would be *very* easy, however, for one's family or renters to be intimidated and scared. No one has to move, period. I just want readers of this message board to know what's going on so they can be prepared. We were not where we shouldn't have been. This may very well be a long summer, and it's too bad, because it looks like more people are returning to SoWal this year and everyone should have a good experience. That Sunday was a chamber of commerce type day, which is ironic because we got to meet so many of Walton County's finest. They were great, by the way. It made my proud.