Old Lyme — In what First Selectman Tim Griswold described as a difficult but necessary decision to keep both beach visitors and residents safe during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, town officials agreed during a teleconference meeting Wednesday that the town’s three public beaches will close indefinitely Saturday.

Though the Board of Selectmen has been discussing and considering the closure of town beaches for some weeks now, Wednesday’s decision finally materialized after weather reports this weekend showed sunny skies and warm air, especially on Sunday — a forecast, Griswold said, that was sure to draw crowds of people who’ve been cooped up in their homes due to the pandemic.

“Unfortunately, to prepare for what will be a good weather day, we knew we needed to be ready,” Griswold said by phone Wednesday. “Saturday may not be the best day, but Sunday the weather is looking great ... and instead of reacting to a busy crowd, we knew we needed to plan for it ahead of time.”

Closures will apply to White Sand Beach; all of Hains Park, which includes the Rogers Lake beach area; and Sound View Beach, which is well known for large crowds that can sometimes get rowdy.

Even though the decision was mostly focused on Sound View, it didn’t make sense to close one town beach and not the others, Griswold said. “It’s regrettable because when you consider Hains Park, it’s way out of the way and probably only locals go there," he said.

The town already started moving barricades into place at Sound View Beach on Wednesday, Resident State Trooper Matthew Weber said, and has put in an order with the state to receive three electronic road signs to alert drivers of the closures.

Weber said he and his officers also are planning patrols and increased police presence in beach areas to keep people off the sand and that “summer rangers” will be at the top of Hartford Avenue reminding drivers trying to enter the Sound View neighborhood of the order. Griswold said street fences at the tops of Swan and Portland avenues also will remain closed to incoming traffic.

Though Weber said he and police were still working on what enforcement will look like for those who deliberately break the rules, police who monitor illegal parking also will be patrolling several parking areas around town — such as a state-owned parking area by the Black Hall River — where Sound View visitors have been known to park on busy days before walking sometimes more than a mile to get to the beach.

And while the town’s public parking lot in Sound View and several public parking spaces on Hartford Avenue will be closed to reduce crowds, Sound View Commission Chairman Frank Pappalardo said by phone Wednesday six permitted private parking lots — totaling about 150 spaces — in the neighborhood will remain open to help maintain some patron flow to the two neighborhood restaurants, Kokomo’s Restaurant and Beach Bar and The Pavilion, who rely on beach crowds every summer to stay in business.

Private beach associations will be responsible for maintaining their beaches how they see fit, Griswold said — “we can’t enforce town rules there” — while the small strips of beach in front of Kokomo’s and Pavilion also can’t be enforced, as both are private property.

“The Pavilion (and Kokomo’s) can keep their beaches open but we want them to supervise it and make sure they don’t overcrowd it or have clusters of people,” Griswold said. Ledge Light Health District has been notified of the closures and will be monitoring both restaurants to ensure both follow proper social-distancing protocols, he said.

Per the governor's executive orders, patrons ordering takeout are not allowed to eat food on the restaurant premises. In this case, that rule also would apply to both restaurants' privately owned beach strips. Pappalardo said with that in mind, the restaurants still may allow patrons to simply sit or lounge — as long as they are not eating — on their beaches and that both restaurants were planning to do so.

“We are concerned about the revenue and we wish we were included in on these conversations with the town,” Kokomo’s general manager Drew McLachlan said by phone Wednesday. Kokomo’s has remained open to the public for takeout, operating on scaled-back staffing. And because it remained open throughout the winter, McLachlan said shelter-in-place orders have not completely decimated business but “we’ve definitely seen a severe cut in revenues.”

To potentially help make up for that, McLachlan said Kokomo’s is planning to open its beach for a fee to those who are willing to reserve and rent beach chairs. Last summer, he said Kokomo’s charged $5 to $10 per patron to use its private beach but fees would likely increase this year.

McLachlan said lounge chairs will be placed at least 10 feet apart from one another and there will be caps on how many patrons will be allowed on the restaurant's thin sliver of beach at any one time. He is working on a cellphone application for patrons to reserve seats before arrival.

“We’re not discouraged by (the town’s decision) but it will reduce foot traffic, and we think we will probably feel that,” McLachlan said. “I wish we had been included in the conversation sooner, and I do think that this (decision) is coming a little late. ... But we are really looking forward to working with the town to make sure that we are properly following social distancing and that we are compliant when we open back up normally again.”

m.biekert@theday.com