Waterford — The town’s purchase of a formerly private stretch of beach has brought into question rules about flotation devices like boogie boards and skimboards, frustrating beachgoers accustomed to using them there.

People arriving at Waterford Beach when the season opened last month were surprised to find lifeguards telling them that devices like boogie boards, skimboards and paddleboards needed to stay in their cars.

Those kinds of flotation devices have been banned from the swimming area patrolled by lifeguards at Waterford Beach and Pleasure Beach for years, Waterford Recreation and Parks Director Brian Flaherty said.

The boogie boards pose a safety risk, Flaherty said.

"Children and adults who do not know how to swim will go with non-approved Coast Guard flotation devices … and it gives them a false sense of security," he said.

Skimboards, which resemble small surfboards that users stand on to glide across the small waves near the shore, are even more dangerous, he said.

But until last year, a stretch of beach to the west of the town property known as Bingham Beach was owned by the estate of the Bingham family — not the town — and therefore not subject to town rules.

Lifeguards would respond to an emergency in the Bingham part of the beach, but only enforced rules in the Waterford-owned swimming area and allowed board use outside of it.

"There was a tacit understanding that as long as you went in the area that they did not formally allow flotation devices … that a blind eye was turned toward it," said MaryLou Gannotti, a Waterford resident who said she goes to the beach several times a week in the summer.

The town decided to purchase the Bingham Beach in 2014, and the sale became official last year.

The 2.5-acre property included shoreline between Camp Harkness and the town beach that added 250 feet to the western end of the town-owned beach property.

That 250 feet is now subject to town rules, which ban any non-Coast Guard approved flotation devices, including boogie boards and skimboards, Flaherty said.

"We had a set of rules and regulations in place … and we didn’t feel it was consistent to have one set of rules and then just allow another set of rules for the Bingham area," he said.

Numerous Waterford residents have called and emailed the department to voice their displeasure about the rule change, he said.

Gannotti’s husband, Greg, and their two sons normally skimboard on the Bingham Beach every summer, she said.

They arrived at the beach last month after the official opening day, and were surprised when a lifeguard told them to keep their skimboards off the beach.

"The emotion is disappointment," she said.

Gannotti started a Facebook group, which generated 92 "likes" as of Tuesday, asking the town to reconsider the extension of the ban on beach boards.

"It feels like the ban was very sudden and very arbitrary," she said. "Not everyone can be continuously sitting in a beach chair — sometimes you just want to move your body."

Flaherty said Waterford Town Attorney Robert Avena has said the town would likely need to add signs specifying an area for board sports and would likely need to budget more lifeguards to patrol that stretch of the beach.

The Recreation and Parks Department is awaiting word from the Connecticut Interlocal Risk Management Agency, which provides insurance for Waterford and other municipalities.

Allowing swimmers to use the boards on town property poses a liability risk, Fleherty said.

"We’d have to see if there’s some way we can do this," Flaherty said. "We’ll take a look at it, we’re reasonable — but we’re not going to put the department or the town in danger."

Once CIRMA evaluates the risks to the town of allowing boards, the town's Recreation and Parks Commission will consider its recommendations, Flaherty said.

Gannotti said she hopes a compromise can be reached.

"There are people who wish to participate in board sports at Waterford Beach," she said. "How can we feasibly allow them to do this?"

m.shanahan@theday.com