The adult swimming access point at Stissing Lake, which opened July 4, has been closed after Dutchess County health officials determined that it was not properly permitted.
The swim-at-your-own-risk access point, a few feet from the town beach, allowed residents to enter the lake even when beach lifeguards were off duty. But county officials said that because the town maintains the entrance, it must be regulated as part of the bathing beach rather than treated as a separate access point.
The distinction leaves the town with two main options: seek an amended bathing beach permit, a process that would require additional engineering and safety reviews, or remove the official access point. The Pine Plains Town Board has not yet decided how to proceed and is expected to discuss the issue at its Aug. 20 meeting.
Supervisor Brian Walsh said he received a letter from the Dutchess County Health Department on Aug. 12 directing the town to close the access point. The letter followed an Aug. 4 meeting among Walsh, members of the Conservation Advisory Council and Brandy Vadala, an associate public health sanitarian with the county Health Department, who asked the town to voluntarily close it.
“Basically [the letter] just says what they found is an unpermitted area and we need to close it for now until we come up with a solution,” Walsh said. “It doesn’t give the breakdown of exactly what needs to happen.”
Walsh said the town had not applied to expand its bathing beach permit because officials did not consider the access point itself a beach. He said he tried to explain to county officials that it was intended as an entrance for swimmers heading into the larger lake.
“It’s not a bathing area where people are gonna go right into the water and start swimming right there,” Walsh said. “They’re gonna enter the water and then they’re gonna swim across the lake or out into the middle of the lake. I tried to explain that, but I don’t think that that was acceptable.”
Vadala said an inspector first noticed the new fence along the lawn during a routine visit in June. The county then consulted with the New York State Health Department, which determined that the access point could not be treated separately from the town beach and instead constituted an expansion of it, she said.
“The expectation is, you’re maintaining it, which means you’re sponsoring it, which means it needs to be regulated,” Vadala said.
To reopen the access point, Vadala said, the town would have to amend its bathing beach permit. That would require hiring an engineer to evaluate water quality in the portion of the lake outside the existing beach, the shoreline slope at the entrance and potential safety hazards.
Without an amended permit, she said, the access point would have to remain closed.
If the town pursues the permit change, Vadala said, the process would likely not be completed before the swimming season ends in about three weeks.
“We know this is a hardship and people love freshwater lakes,” Vadala said. “Believe me, I think our lakes are gems for Dutchess County and I’ve just got to make sure they’re safe for the patrons and safe for the liability of the owner. My job is just to work with the municipality, to help them establish this beloved swim area, so we can say it’s regulated. We want to be able to tell them 100% this is good to go, enjoy your swim.”
A quicker option, Vadala said, would be for the town to remove the official access point altogether.
“So a solution could be to remove this, and then people can figure out how they’re going to get into the lake,” she said. “Because if they’re accessing the lake now in the current pathway, that’s a town sponsored access point, and swimmers using that would be bound to be responded to.”
Vadala said swimmers who use the access point while it is closed would be trespassing. Walsh said no one is policing the area.
“It’s the same concept as when the beach is closed,” he said.
For some swimmers, the closure is a setback after years of using less formal routes into the lake.
Leigh Butler, 70, of Gallatin, said Stissing Lake had become a regular place for exercise and gathering with friends. She described the new access point as a safer, more organized alternative to the unofficial entrances they had previously used.
“I think it’s really unfortunate,” Butler said. “I hope that we don’t get caught up in a lot of bureaucracy, and try to allow people who live in these towns to be able to use their natural resources.”
Lauren Kaplan, chair of the Conservation Advisory Council, said the group would work with town and county officials to determine how the access point could reopen.
“The CAC will work closely with the town and county to better understand the issue at hand,” Kaplan said, “And address them so that the adult swim lane can once again increase access for all to safely enjoy the lake.”