MEXICO BEACH — Discussion of a possible Leave No Trace ordinance continued during a Mexico Beach City Council workshop last week.
The issue was raised at a previous workshop by Councilwoman Mary Blackburn, who suggested the council explore an ordinance similar to those recently instituted in Gulf County, Fort Walton and Panama City Beach.
After initial discussions the council decided that if it would institute an ordinance, it would need to take a more liberal tone to fit with the city’s mindset.
Councilmembers said while there were no issues with trash on the beaches for the majority of the year, the weeks from Memorial Day through the Fourth of July put extra burden on beach patrol and cleanup crews that couldn’t navigate their vehicles and trash trailers across the beach through a sea of dilapidated tents, chairs and toys.
When Public Works employees are unable to drive on the beach, they have to walk trash barrels back and forth causing extra manual labor.
Turtle patrol volunteers had also expressed concerns to the city about the trash causing problems for wildlife, disrupting the environment for sea turtles and snowy plovers in the area.
“It seems like everyone is going with a Leave No Trace ordinance,” Blackburn said. “The holiday weeks are just awful. If (Mexico Beach) is going to grow, we have to be proactive. It’s a problem and we need to solve it.”
Councilman Jeff Tendler said that while he saw the benefits of a Leave No Trace ordinance, he was unsure as to whether or not visitors would follow it.
“Are we trying to regulate something that can’t be regulated?” Tendler asked his fellow councilmembers. “For those people whose tents fall over, they are going to leave it (on the beach) regardless of an ordinance.”
Councilwoman Tanya Castro suggested addressing the immediate problem beach cleaning crews encounter trying to service the beach.
“It’s a problem for the city. It is a short period of time, not a year round thing,” Castro said. “We need something easy to understand and easy to enforce.”
Blackburn suggested the council explore an ordinance only effective for a certain time frame out of each year.
Conversation then moved on to additional signage that could be placed at beach walkovers to notify visitors and residents to remove the items brought with them in the evening.
Castro said that despite an ordinance that prevents owners from bringing their dogs on the beach, it continues to be a code enforcement issue and signage alerting visitors to the rules have not been effective.
“We still have a problem with dogs on the beach even though we’ve had an ordinance in place for years,” Castro said.
Mayor Al Cathey said he had spoken with local real estate agents who didn’t see the same problem as the council.
“What I’ve gathered is that the issue is not as big as what I’m hearing from the table,” Cathey said. “We have to have a little tolerance in the summertime. It’s crowded, but the beach patrol does its job.
“We need some balance in what we’re doing. Sometimes we overreact.”
City administrator Mell Smigielski will continue to draft a modified Leave No Trace ordinance for the council’s consideration.