Leavitt Park Beach
 

The town of Meredith have not been good stewards of Leavitt Park Beach. They have let a jewel of our town go unpolished for years. There is an erosion problem that has put all the sand in the water. So we are left with dirt and grass and this year they have not mowed yet.I went to parks and recreation to tell them my concerns offered to mow the grass they told me they would call me on that 4 days ago and I am still waiting for that call.

Probably not the right place to voice your concern, call the town.

He did call the town, to no avail.

But also, isn't this an OK place to complain about a whole bunch of things?

So, I stopped in there yesterday after pickleball to take a swim, cool off, and actually take a good look at Leavitt Park Beach.

Found one flattened aluminum 16-oz can of Bud Lite on the lake floor in about four feet water depth, and placed it into a very nice Rubbermaid enclosed trash container as I left the beach. Maybe discarded by some ice fisherman or boater, sometime?

A Meredith facility sticker is required for parking. There were only three cars parked in the unpaved, parking lot, and two of them had stickers plus my Subaru for a fourth car which has a sticker. The one car that did not have a sticker was like a $50,000-car .... a very nice gray Audi suv without a sticker ...... omg ..... call 9-1-1. The parking area probably has room for maybe 30-cars, total.

It's a very nice place to swim because the lake bottom is very smooth and soft with NO rocks in the swim area and way out beyond the swim line to 7' water depth, no rocks, what-so-ever, like zero rocks. Have to wonder if the "no rocks" is natural or were they all removed sometime in the past 80-years or sometime? Walking to the north, out front the 400' of heavily wooded shoreline area in Leavitt Park, the lake bottom becomes rocky and water shoes are probably needed for walking as is frequently the situation in Lake Winnipesaukee.

I went to the town in person the old fashion way.

Sure, you can complain here but I doubt it will get you anywhere.

As kids we would carry them out to deeper water... sometimes stacking them up to the point that we could stand on them.
The raft was always too full.

The town of Meredith has been derelict in their responsibilities when it comes to Leavitt park beach. Maybe if enough people complain in enough forums, they will get off their butts and take action on some steps to improve the situation.

I live within eyesight of Leavitt park and see a lot of what goes on there. I get my dogs out late at night for their last time and see cars pull in the parking lot and turn around so their headlights face out to the street. They stay for 10 minutes with the car running and lights on and then leave. On more than on occasion, there have been used prophylactics at the kayak launch. The town used to lock the gate at 10PM and open it in the morning. How much effort would it take to resume that?

A couple weeks ago some delinquents spray painted F%$& Joe Biden on the boulders at the beach. Politics aside, I'm pissed about that. Dog crap all along the sand. Nice thing for little kids to be playing in.

Things got really bad During Covid and that's when the town went resident only. That is unfortunate, but it made a improvement in the situation.

Things went downhill when the town stopped the lifeguards. I realize that's expensive, but for less than $1000, cameras with hard drives could record some of this stuff. Signs stating there are cameras would be a bit of a deterrent.

Meredith has money for other stuff. Time to anti up with at least some small stuff to start.

Sorry for the rant but this has been going on for a while. I sent email to the selectman about this a while back. Not a single response. I guess they don't care.

If you all ready went to the BoS, and they aren't willing to do something about it ... maybe petition a warrant for the next town meeting.

I believe Meredith has enough voters of high moral character that they would rally against litter and vandalism.

It is not really the situation that Leavitt Park Beach is for Meredith residents, only. To park your car in the parking lot a pink Meredith facilities sticker on the windshield, lower right hand corner is required, however using Leavitt Park Beach is open to anyone/everyone. It is parking a motor vehicle that requires a sticker.

So, a school/summer camp bus from nearby Center Harbor or Moultonborough would be very welcome to unload their bus full of summer campers and counselors to use the beautiful Meredith beach and Meredith-Lake Winnipesaukee swim area but not to park their bus probably because it's a relatively small parking lot so its for resident parking only.

There has been a lot of discussion on the Meredith Town Crier Facebook page of the problems I have mentioned.

Petitioning a warrant for the next town meeting is a good idea and probably the next step.

One of the things we like best about being so close to Leavitt Park Beach is when the summer camps come is seeing and listening to the kids having a great time. We used to go to the beach to watch the kids taking swimming lessons years ago before that stopped. None of that is the problem here. I would think/hope the camps could get exceptions to park a bus for that activity.

The town should also clean up or replace the bathhouse it's getting run down. Also it would be nice if they brought back the Little Free Library that was removed after being spray painted.