Some people believe they’re a public art exhibit. Others say they’ve been erected as a deterrent to parking in the Truman’s Beach lot in Orient.
Some hate them. Others love them. But no one seems to know why they’re there.
A series of wooden posts, or pilings, erected along the entrance to Truman’s Beach in Orient, just east of the causeway leading to East Marion on Route 25, has caused a flurry of speculation in town this week, with some crying out against the new structures, saying they aren’t aesthetically pleasing, and others saying they’re an improvement — but the majority just wondering why they’ve been put up in the first place.
The posts, which were erected by the Orient/East Marion parks commission, were installed, beginning on Sept. 30, to “focus on making it safer, going in and out, and making it easier for the attendant to work,” said park commissioner Walter Strohmeyer. “Before, there was a 60-foot wide foot entrance, with people coming from all directions.”
Attendants, Strohmeyer said, have to ask to see beach passes and stickers. “Sometimes, they had to chase people.”
The new posts, he said, also allow for additional parking space. And, he said, the posts make the situation safer from the point of view of drivers coming in and out. “It directs them,” he said.
The posts, he said, were donated by Jim Latham of Port Lumber.
As for rumors of gates, Strohmeyer said no gates are forthcoming.
And, when told that some believed the posts were a modern art exhibit, he laughed.
Resident Ellen Rowe, who was in the parking lot Friday, said she “loved” the pilings and that they served a necessary purpose.
As for some who think the posts are meant to restrict access to the beach, or are meant to keep people from parking in the lot, Strohmeyer said, “Some people don’t like change, I guess, and this is a change. But a 60-foot wide entrance was just a free for all.”
