To the Editor:
As a Westport resident for 20-plus years, I’ve enjoyed kayaking from Compo Beach where I keep my boat in a dry stall that I rent for $100+/per season.
In the past, the town maintained a hose with available water for cleaning the boats each time they came out of the Sound. However this year, the hose and any available water for boaters with dry stalls disappeared!
I went looking for a hose and found several new hoses with running water for the power boats and sail boats at Ned Dimes Marina. One of the boaters told me that the town diverted the water for the kayaks into drip lines/hoses
used exclusively for newly planted grass that was part of the “upgrade.”
What’s wrong with this picture? For starters, I paid $100+ for keeping my kayak at a location where I could both take it into the Sound and properly maintain it afterwards. I went home and got a huge bucket which I filled with water
from new hoses at the boat docks and carried the water several hundred yards to my kayak and washed it before putting it back on the rack.
I am all in favor of exercise, but lugging a bucket full of water because no water or hose was available near the kayak stalls was not part of the deal.
Please stop diverting the hose/water that over the years has been part of the boat launch area, so that us dry stallers can keep our kayaks free of corrosive salt without breaking our backs carrying water that should be readily available on site.
Thank you.
June Eichbaum,
Westport
