On Friday afternoon, Greenwich Parks & Rec issued a statement about its Greenwich Point, aka Tod’s Point, gate operations following a complaint that first surfaced on social media earlier this week.
In a post that went viral on Nextdoor Greenwich, a Stamford resident said his niece had been a visitor at Tod’s Point using a $40 vehicle pass he had purchased online for her and was told it had already been already used. The post said the gatekeeper had offered to sell her an unused pass for $25 cash.
That the incident went viral was not surprising. Beach access is a perennial hot topic in Greenwich.
The town was sued years ago over its access policy and the existing policy was put in place in response. There are only 1,100 parking spaces for a town of 60,000+ residents, and on sunny summer days the park reaches capacity. Still, in recent years State Rep Roland Lemar (D-96), who represents New Haven and East Haven, has repeatedly introduced legislation with the theme of increasing equitable access to a “scarce resource” for non residents.
According to the Parks & Recreation Department, a review of the gate operations at Greenwich Point, was completed following some confusion that took place on Sunday, September 18.
According to the statement, the encounter was brought to the attention of Parks & Rec Dept via email and social media on Tuesday, September 20, 2022.
The department conducted a full audit of the electronic guest ticketing system, both in-office and at the Tod’s Point gatehouse location, and determined that at that time of the audit, the bar code scan system was fully functional.
The statement said the confusion that occurred may have been caused by human error or a double scan of the ticket bar code. The parking ticket in question was validated at 12:19 pm.
Parks & Rec’s statement said the actions taken by the gatekeeper who processed a ticket transaction on site was in direct violation of a standing department policy which prohibits these transactions at that location.
“Our management team met with the seasonal employee to review the policy,” said Parks and Recreation Director, Joseph Siciliano. “Following the meeting, the employee is no longer employed by the Department,”
Parks & Rec said the cash transaction which occurred on Sunday has been secured and a $25.00 refund will be issued.