After Holiday Weekend, Officials Address Changes at Rye Town Park

Perception is the reality, so the recent Memorial Day Weekend peak season opening of Rye Town Park  was a success or a failure depending on whom you talked to.

A number of plusses and minuses emerged in the wake of the park's first holiday weekend, when new policies went into effect involving differential parking and beach access pricing for residents and non-residents.

The plusses included record-breaking revenues of $36,000, $40,000 and $41,000 on peak days.

"The best Memorial Day Weekend numbers ever," according to Bishop Nowotnik, special assistant to Rye Town Supervisor Joe Carvin.

Further plusses included enhanced safety procedures and an increased Rye City Police presence, according to Rye Mayor Doug French.

More police at the park resulted in, among other things, a ticketing blitz for cars parked illegally on city streets parallel to the 28-acre park stretching along Forest Avenue, from Rye Beach Avenue to Oakland Beach to Dearborn Avenues.

The minuses included the Rye Town Park parking lot being closed for short intervals before noon on peak days (Saturday, Sunday and Monday). The closures were a "business disaster" for Seaside Johnnies, the waterfront restaurant facing Oakland Beach, because the parking lot closing and increased park and beach access pricing virtually wiped out the lunchtime business, according to John Ambrose,  one of the owners of the restaurant.

The parking closures led to traffic jams in the area around Forest Avenue and Dearborn Avenue, where overflow traffic simply was waved away without direction despite promises that the overflow would be directed to the nearby Playland parking lot.

A number of out-of-area residents thought–wrongly–they could park on side streets and walk to Rye Town Park and Oakland Beach. But that is illegal "beach area" parking from May 1 to Oct. 1, and the Rye City police ticketed accordingly, with "more than 100 tickets issued," according to Mayor French.  Tickets cost $35 apiece. Those illegally parked cars could have been  towed at the owner's expense as well, according to signage.

The Rye Town Park Commission, of which French, Carvin and Rye Brook Mayor Joan Feinstein are members, recently voted to reduce the number of parking spaces at the park from approximately 601 to 344, with 315 additional spaces in two parking areas, including the park's lawn, a cause of concern for those living in homes surrounding the park because they have told the Commission that careless drivers had allegedly come close to running over neighborhood children on several occasions last season.

However, the capacity of the park's parking lots fluctuated throughout the day, with several people being turned away completely or coming back later when the "Parking Lot Full" barriers and signs disappeared as visitors left the park and beach. A number seemed turned off and or confused by the new parking pricing and beach access fees for residents and non-residents, according to attendants.

But the differential pricing made up for any decrease in attendance numbers, according to Mayor French. He said the goal of the Commission was safety as well as fiscal responsibility, plus environmental and ecological concerns for the park and its flora and fauna. The Commission has implemented changes at the park to address concerns they've heard during more than a year of public hearings involving concerned residents who wanted Rye Town Park to once again become "a park, not a parking lot."

Though the park hasn't yet released attendance figures, French said it had record-breaking numbers during the holiday weekend.

"When it is sunny, the people are going to come, as simple as that," said Rye Town Park Director Fred Gioffre.

The park is already addressing the problems that became apparent during the Memorial Day weekend.

Seaside Johnnies, for example, has now been given 45 guaranteed parking spaces that they must supervise.

"That seems fair, they have around 60 tables, and their patrons will be given a reduced parking rate, including rebates on their restaurant bill from Seaside Johnnies (a minimum of $25 on in-house dining)," said Mayor French.

Ambrose sees that as "progress, a step in the right direction" at a time when his business is already down an estimated 40 percent to the point where he is laying off kitchen staff, waiters and waitresses and bartenders.

"We'll have to see how this plays out, but right now it looks as though they [the Rye Town Park Commission] have created a monster with this differential pricing scheme and it is going to cost them and Seaside Johnnies a lot of money," he said, adding that 60 to 80 percent of his patrons came from outside the area.

"Once a major holiday like the Memorial Day Weekend is gone, you never get that back, and in what amounts to a three-month season, that really hurts," Ambrose said.

Head Seaside Johnnies bartender Michael Sotile of Harrison, for example, said he has worked for Ambrose for more than 30 years and has been conducting his own informal survey of patrons in relation to the park's new policies. Sotile told Patch that 48 out of every 50 patrons has complained about the parking and beach pricing procedures.

Regular Seaside Johnnies patron Rocco Turso, 65, said he had been coming to Rye Town Park and the beach for more than 60 years but wasn't sure he would be back because it has gotten so expensive, even if you could park.

"You know how ridiculous it is, one of the head lifeguard's brothers had to be turned away twice, and they live in Rye City," said Turso, a Harrison resident. "Rye Town Park is becoming an expensive proposition because of the increased fees, too expensive for my taste," he said.

New parking fees for non-permit holder residents, for example, are $8 on weekdays, $9 Saturday and Sunday and $12 on holidays. Non-residents pay $12, $15 and $20 respectively. Beach access fees for residents per person are $8 weekdays and $9 on weekends and holidays, while non-residents pay $9 and $10 respectively on those days. The price dips to $2 after 6 p.m. for both parking and beach access.

Mayor French pointed out that the new increases are in line with fees at neighboring parks and beaches. He conceded there were initial traffic and parking problems that are already being addressed. He noted that even Playland and Jones Beach parking had been closed early over the Memorial Day Weekend, as early as 10:45 a.m. at Jones Beach where there are around 7,000 parking spaces, and before noon at Playland, which has with 2700 parking spaces.

"So there is an overwhelming demand," he said, especially given the economic climate where "staycations" (as in vacationing close to home) have become more popular. But, he pointed out, around 85 percent of people using Rye Town Park and the beach are non-residents, and, simply put, when it comes to differential pricing, residents come first because they pay the taxes that support the park, which has an annual budget of around $1.4 million and ran a $90,000 deficit last year.

Thus the need for  differential pricing when it comes to fiscal responsibility and safety, two  prime concerns of the area taxpayers who support the park, comprised of the estimated 60,000 residents of Rye City, Port Chester, Rye Brook and Rye Neck. The increase in pricing –about the cost of a movie ticket –should help wipe out the deficit, according to French.

Meanwhile, French sees the increased Rye City police presence as a definite plus.

"It used to be like a demilitarized zone around here because RTP security doesn't have the authority to give tickets or make arrests," said a Rye City resident who lives near RTP, but declined to be identified.

What French described as "two minor incidents" took place over Memorial Day weekend at the park. Two women argued over a diaper in the water and a Greenwich resident got into an argument with a Bedford Hills resident and belted him in the side of the head with the handle of a knife he was carrying. The man was treated for minor injuries at White Plains Hospital, but the incident was "nothing to hit the panic button about," according to a local cop.

French said that in addition to the pricing changes, the Commission will have "zero tolerance"when it comes to breaches in customer service:

"We fired one staff member on the spot for speaking back abusively to a park patron Monday, and we have made it very clear that kind of behavior will not be tolerated," he said. French also said there will be improved signage and said that the Commission will do everything in its power to eliminate any and all problems that emerged during the opening weekend, but that unintentional mistakes are bound to arise during changes of this magnitude.

The Rye Town Park Commission is scheduled to meet on June 15. The park's director, Fred Gioffre, will present a report on the situation at Rye Town Park.

For further information about the rates –including a wide variety of resident and family permit rates -- or any other park-related matters, call Rye Town Park at 914-967-0965, the Town of Rye at 914-939-3075, extension 100 or visit the park's website at www.ryetownpark.org