I don’t think there is much question that the gloves are off in the unfolding battles over access to the shoreline in Westerly, with the Watch Hill Fire District and Watch Hill Conservancy suing the town and state to block public access to the long sweep of pristine beach at Napatree Point.

And now the town has loaded up its own cannons to protect public shoreline access in Watch Hill, filing a late-hour bid to the federal government to take ownership of the magnificent four-acre peninsula where the Watch Hill Lighthouse, declared surplus government property, stands.

The Town Council voted 5-1 on Monday to seek the lighthouse property, attempting to undermine a planned transfer to the private nonprofit Watch Hill Lighthouse Keepers Association, which has been managing it for the Coast Guard for decades.

Despite many requests from town officials, public access advocates and the press, no one involved in the proposed transfer to the association has made public any detailed language in the new deed or agreement that might specify exactly what access to the property would be guaranteed to the public.

This new intervention by the council, it seems, puts Democrats in Rhode Island’s congressional delegation, Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, as well as Rep. Seth Magaziner, who represents Washington County, on the hot seat, choosing sides between the public and some of the privileged, wealthy and influential property owners in Watch Hill who seem to want to keep the public away from their shoreline.

Let’s be honest. If this isn’t class warfare, then what is?

An owner of one of many mansions that surround the lighthouse property is a gorilla of political giving with a PAC in his name controlling $175,000 in the last election cycle.

The lighthouse neighbor gave a whopping $10,000 to the Rhode Island Democratic state committee and party in 2014, among hundreds of personal political donations made over the last decade.

I’ll bet if he made calls to the offices of the Democratic senators or representative to talk about the future of the lighthouse property, they’d be promptly returned.

My own calls, to press delegates for the politicians, asking what they plan to do about the town’s request for the lighthouse property, have not.

The keepers association has not responded either.

The board of the association is made up of many of the kinds of influential and wealthy players that you might expect from such a storied summer colony, including CEOs, lawyers, money managers, someone whose family built the spectacular Watch Hill mansion now owned by Taylor Swift and the sister-in-law of Rahm Emanuel, former Chicago mayor and White House chief of staff to Barack Obama.

The association would seem to have much more influence in Washington than at Westerly Town Hall. They also have a lot of money, more than $1 million in investments, according to a 2021 tax return, and probably lots more where that came from.

Many summer residents of Watch Hill don’t live there year ‘round or even vote in Rhode Island.

You would think that would help Rhode Island politicians to decide which side to choose in the evolving battles over shoreline access in Watch Hill. But maybe not.

One apparent attempt by the Watch Hill Fire District and Watch Hill Conservancy to engage in local politics involved paying Edward Morrone of Watch Hill, a former Rhode Island state senator, to “monitor” local politics for them.

Public records have confirmed the district paid Morrone $30,000 before he was elected to the Town Council, of which is he is now president. Morrone, a Democrat who has refused requests to recuse himself from Watch Hill matters, will not say how much the Watch Hill Conservancy has paid him, and those records are not public.

In a recent executive session of the council, according to reporting by The Public’s Radio, Morrone threw a briefcase across the room during a profanity-laced tirade and asked one of the councilors supporting public access to “step outside” to fight.

His was the only vote against the resolution seeking town ownership of the lighthouse.

He’s taken an undisclosed amount of money from an organization that is now suing the town, for “monitoring” local politics.

He is an embarrassment to the town and to the litigious Watch Hill organizations who paid him.

He ought to resign.

And Rhode Island’s delegation to Washington ought to listen to its constituents, who want public access to the magnificent Watch Hill Lighthouse peninsula guaranteed in perpetuity and managed by the people who should rightfully own it.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com