Beach parking and Castlewood Park

Something needs to be done about parking at the parking meters. This weekend there were several vehicles that were way too long for the parking spots and were out in the road several feet. Don't know why the drivers feel like its ok to impede traffic, but these vehicles need to park somewhere else or be ticketed. The Castlewood Park situation also needs to be controlled. People stay way too late (till midnight or after) and make far too much noise for a residential area.

Do we have a police dept, that issues real tickets for real violations. Do they know what a violation is???
If Castlewood Park is not posted for parking hours, there is no violation.
We need more postws signs for people out of town, who do not know our quirky ways, like impeeding traffic. Maybe some warning tickets.
Remember, tourist come here for a good time and not to be hassled for MINOR violations.

I tried to take my children to the park at castlewood this weekend, in fact 2 different days and could not even get in to the park. It was wall to wall people, at 10 this morning! The person cleaning the park was having problems just trying to get the trash up, every time she emptied a can someone would fill it right back up. All I can say is she had patience and a mess that had to be cleaned.

I think the town needs to address this problem now, before the next big weekend. Maybe they could charge people who don't live here, I pay double taxes and couldn't use the park closest to my home. I had to take my children to the park across from the hill.

I called the Police {10:31 PM} and just like they usually do they drive bye never using their spot light which is usually used at least by other police departments to see in the dark so you can actually patrol a area to see what is going on but maybe that is the answer they don’t want to no or they just don’t care. You should not have to call the police all time about these problems or any others on the beach it should be routinely patrolled on the weekends not just Monday –Thursday. However, their seems to be two sets of Rules/Laws those for the town residents who must follow them. Their has been a crack down lately on resdital parking and golf carts, town stickers which is ok that is the law at least for the town residents .The other set of Rules/Laws or should I say the people who don’t have to follow the rules/laws are the people who come on the weekends and sleep on the beaches, trash the beaches and the park and now have started using the park at the point as their personal motor home court. And I did drive by the beach and park at around 11:45 pm Sunday night and early Monday around 6:00 am the tents where still up and the cars were still at the new Castlewood motor park at the point. This was all in plain sight there is no excuse the police can give. This and other problems at the beach you usually try to stop before they are out of control but not Colonial Beach they like doing everything the hard way or not doing anything at all .Or maybe if some on the Town concil lived by the park and beach at the point something would be done.

Although thrilled to see so many visitors in the beach this Memorial Day weekend, something needs to be done about overcrowding in Castlewood Park. Perhaps we could start by establising MAXIMUM capacity, then direct visitors to Robin Grove Park and to Ellinore Park--(next summer) until the land is sold. Things on the point are out of control on holiday weekends. Perhaps an immediate solution would be a police satelite station IN THE PARK during peak weekends under a canopy?? Something, anything, would be a start.

After reading all the complaints, I drove by today and saw all the parking, park overflowing,tents (don't know how long they had been there) and grills on the beach. Have to agree if I saw it as a drive by, why can't our police force see it. I also heard from a resident on Danridge that the noise was exceedingly loud last night and that neighbors were given ticket for facing wrong direction when parking. Why is our police officers cracking down on residents without a warning ticket first. I agree we need to stop people that are living here and not paying any personal property tax, but let's not alienate all our residents.

Council members and Chief Hawkins, can you hear us? Maybe the citizens will remember and respond at election time.

I know castewood park is a hot button issue for our residents. We currently have one vacany due to the economy that cannot be filled and we still managed to have four officers out today. As far as the trash in the park. We cannot issue a summons for littering unless we see them drop it to the ground. As far as the parking issues, we issued multiple parking tickets today for impeding traffic on Irving for the violation that Sandy stated and parking in the boat trailer parking only area in castlewood park. We had an officer assigned to nothing but the beach all weekend. They arrested two drunk in publics on the boardwalk saturday night and one dui arrest was made. They are doing a great job. They have no control over how many visitors go to the park. The statement made that the citizens should not have to call the police is incorrect. We are a small Department. If citizens see a violation or suspicious activity they should call. We all have to pull together as a community. We cannot be everywhere at once with the manpower we have. The officers do an exceptional job. If there are two out and they each arrest a drunk in public it takes them off of the street for almost an hour. I assure you they are working hard to make this Town safe and enjoyable for the families that live and visit here. As far as the tents on the beach you are correct there is no excuse and i will address that Tuesday. There is no violation for parking at the park at night. There is a fine line as one of you previously stated. The economy is bad and we rely on tourism to survive. We still will enforce the law as we are charged to do. There are some things we cannot do if there is not an ordinance or state law prohibiting an action. I know some of you are frustrated but we will address and get through these issues. Please call me with any issues you have.

Have to Agree. The supreme court just ruled against a Virginia locality as far as unreasonably loud ordinances. We are having to rewrite ours and purchase decible meters. We are working on it so we can comply with the ruling.

Castlewood Park is not the only problem at the end of the point. The all night fishing is another thing residents have to put up with. Sometimes it is difficult to sleep with all the talking and noise made by the people fishing off the rocks, not to mention when they decide to leave at 3 or 4 in the morning and pull up their trucks to load up. With the taxes people pay to live on the water, they shouldn't have to put up with that. There should be a curfew for people fishing there as it is a residential area.

Before you start about the noise at point -- hey take a chill pill and let the people have a good time -- when you start complaining -- excuse me after we left the battle of band on town hill there was alot of music at the ole Parkers dock -- they had music and you could hear it all over the beach -- because music and noise travels on the water. I enjoyed sitting on our porch and listened to the music -- if you are going to complain -- complain about everyone. You are talking about people on the point -- did you see the people on the town hill on their golf carts that sat outside of the fence so they didn't have to pay $5.00 to go in and participate at the battle of the bands.

Someone was complaining about filling up the trash cans at the point -- excuse me it is better than throwing the trash on the ground.

Some of the people at the point are people working at the berry farm and winery -- so before you complain -- as long as they are following the law -- leave them along. Complain about the people that drove their golf carts and were to tight to pay the $5.00 on the hill.

Enjoy the summer and stop complaining -- yes complain if they are breaking the law but but but ----------

I live on the Point and for the past three years, have written here and to the Mayor and Town Council about the abuse of the park by non-residents. I cannot use the playground many weekends because of the crowds. One of the benefits a town should realize from tourism is revenue to the local community...hotels, shops, and restaurants...taxes and jobs. The crowd that comes to Castlewood Park and many of our beaches bring coolers of food and leave nothing in our community other than trash. I recommend that we enforce the parking of trailers and boats and limit parking at Castlewood Park/Beaches to golf cart only. Colonial Beach is a special place....lets work to keep it from being abused.

Luv the Beach wrote:

I live on the Point and for the past three years, have written here and to the Mayor and Town Council about the abuse of the park by non-residents. I cannot use the playground many weekends because of the crowds. One of the benefits a town should realize from tourism is revenue to the local community...hotels, shops, and restaurants...taxes and jobs. The crowd that comes to Castlewood Park and many of our beaches bring coolers of food and leave nothing in our community other than trash. I recommend that we enforce the parking of trailers and boats and limit parking at Castlewood Park/Beaches to golf cart only. Colonial Beach is a special place....lets work to keep it from being abused.

While I agree with most of what you had to say, you lost me when you want the parking at Castlewood Park to be golf cart only. Not all of the residents of town own a golf cart and therefore would be denied use of that park unless they walked to it. On the otherhand there are many visitors that rent golf carts and they would have the use of the park. I know that it is difficult to find a parking solution that would be perfect for everyone, but this one solution needs a little more thought.

Love the beach -- before you start saying that people bring cooler and food to the beach at Castlewood Park -- yes they may bring cooler but you'll see those people at the ice cream place, the 7-ll, McDonalds getting snacks and etc for their children. If Castlewood Park is full you can take your children to the playground across from the Ice Cream place and you too can buy ice cream while the children play.

Chill out and enjoy the summer ---

[. Perhaps we could start by establising MAXIMUM capacity, then direct visitors to Robin Grove Park and to Ellinore Park--(next summer) until the land is sold. Things on the point are out of control on holiday weekends. Perhaps an immediate solution would be a police satelite station IN THE PARK during peak weekends under a canopy?? Something, anything, would be a start. please dont send them to the only serene jewel we as citizens have left you dont want robin grove to become the slum castlewood has become

The point is that weekend visitors should not be catered to at the expense of the residents. Of course the town benefits from money that is spent by them, but not to the extent that people who live here year-round and pay hefty taxes to do so should have to put up with parking problems, noise past a reasonable hour, camping out on our beaches, etc. I bet a resident who pitched a tent on the beach and tried to stay all night wouldn't be so hospitably treated.

new idiot wrote:

[. Perhaps we could start by establising MAXIMUM capacity, then direct visitors to Robin Grove Park and to Ellinore Park--(next summer) until the land is sold. Things on the point are out of control on holiday weekends. Perhaps an immediate solution would be a police satelite station IN THE PARK during peak weekends under a canopy?? Something, anything, would be a start. please dont send them to the only serene jewel we as citizens have left you dont want robin grove to become the slum castlewood has become

OUCH! Do you really believe Castlewood Park has become the slum park of Colonial Beach? Come on??? Isn't the real problem simply having too many people in the park at one time? Last weekend, a grill was lit near the trunk (and gas tank) of a car because there wasn't any available space to put another grill. If we don't come up with a reasonable plan, we will have a repeat performance on the next holiday weekend, and the holiday weekend after that.

We are talking about this at 3 p.m. this Thursday in the Public Safety meeting. Anyone with concerns or ideas should attend. Your ideas are welcome. We have some ideas that will be discussed and taken to Council.

Chief Hawkins wrote:

We are talking about this at 3 p.m. this Thursday in the Public Safety meeting. Anyone with concerns or ideas should attend. Your ideas are welcome. We have some ideas that will be discussed and taken to Council.

Thanks Chief!

Chief Hawkins wrote:

We are talking about this at 3 p.m. this Thursday in the Public Safety meeting. Anyone with concerns or ideas should attend. Your ideas are welcome. We have some ideas that will be discussed and taken to Council.

Thank you Chief. I can't get off work this afternoon but will leave things in your capable hands!

Was anything resolved in the Public Safety meeting this afternoon?