Ben Rich Skewers Sheriff on Beach Closing

Letter: Another government nanny?
Another government nanny
Posted: March 25, 2015 - 7:22pm

By BEN RICH
Another government nanny

Editor: If you are a taxpaying citizen of St. Johns County, beware!

When I came to our county in 1995, you could drive anywhere you wanted on our beaches, 24 hours a day, seven days a week and you needed no “sticker” or daily “pass” to enjoy your Atlantic Ocean! Today however, your Sheriff can and does arbitrarily close your beach during its now restricted hours of access, any time he decides for any reason. He did so on March 20, 2015 because he thought that it was a danger: Too foggy. He didn’t close route A1A which runs 300 feet west of the beach, nor did he close any other roadway in St. Johns County due to fog. However, if you paid for a sticker to use the beach from dawn to at least 11:38 a.m. , when I tried to with my grandson, you couldn’t, because the Sheriff thought that one half-mile visibility was too dangerous for me to drive at a maximum of 10 mph over sand. So I drove home with my confused grandson over the 206 bridge and Intracoastal Waterway at 50 mph, 500 yards from the beach in 10-mile visibility!

The next time I decide to go to the beach, will the Sheriff decide that the water is dangerously cold and close it? Will he declare jelly fish a human hazard and close it? Or will he just arbitrarily and capriciously close it because he can?

We are at a time in our country when abuses of power by government officials is the rule rather than the exception. We need to demand accountability in our elected and appointed employees. As you know, “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.

Do you need another government Nanny? Wake up people!

St. Augustine

Rich is a former St. Johns County Commissioner

Opinion Editor’s note: We suspect, Mr. Rich, that the difference between closing a state road and a beach during a socked-in fog may have been that children such as your grandson are not digging sand castles or chasing errant beach balls in the middle of A1A or 206.