Old Lyme ― As the swallows begin the first synchronized salvos of their seasonal southern migration from the lower Connecticut River Valley, a prime viewing spot off Tantummaheag Landing remains a battleground in the fight between private property rights and public access going back to pre-Revolutionary times.

First Selectman Tim Griswold this week told the Board of Selectmen a sign identifying Tantummaheag Town Landing was taken down by “persons unknown” soon after he installed it.

The roughly 12- by 24-inch metal sign with the town seal on it announced the landing is open from 8 a.m. to sunset.

At the center of the dispute is a strip of land with access to Lord Cove that bisects property owned by George Frampton and Carla D’Arista at the end of a narrow street lined with million-dollar homes. To the west is the Connecticut River and the undisturbed marshes of Goose Island, where the storied murmuration of the swallows annually catches the eye of kayakers, canoers and landlubbers alike while the birds make their twilight vortex in the sky.

In addition to installing the sign, Griswold said town public works crews uprooted roughly five plantings that were obstructing vehicle access for people unloading kayaks. A backhoe with a mower attachment also attempted without much success to rid the launch area of invasive aquatic weeds to make it more accessible.

The sign was later discovered lying on the ground in front of the property and was retrieved by a town employee, but has yet to be reinstalled. Some of the vegetation obstructing the trail was also replanted, according to Griswold.

“So we’ll have to address that shortly,” he told fellow selectmen.

Griswold points to centuries of public use and a more recent title search to bolster his argument that the town owns the land. Frampton, an Ivy League-educated lawyer who served as assistant special prosecutor during the Watergate hearings before turning his focus to environmental policy, derives a different conclusion from the paper trail.

Frampton maintains 300-year-old meeting minutes and land records show the town hasn’t had any rightful claim to Tantummaheag Landing since 1713. He said an agreement between landowner Richard Lord and local officials moved the public right-of-way outside the boundaries of what is now Frampton’s property. The agreement also specified all public use would end with Lord’s death, which Frampton said occurred in 1727.

A report last year from consulting attorney Elton B. Harvey of the Farmington-based Isaac Law Offices said land records going back to 1701 revealed the intent to create a public way from what is now Route 156 to the cove. He pointed to the landing as part of the resulting “highway” that has been used to access the cove ever since.

Frampton, who has likened the town’s overtures to Vladimir Putin’s annexation of parts of Ukraine, described the local dispute not as a war but as a legal issue.

“Bringing a bulldozer down our back driveway, tearing up our plantings and trees that in no way have impeded pedestrians, and digging up and destroying our cable line, the town has engaged in more unlawful behavior and criminal trespass,” he said Wednesday. “As the Board of Selectmen are now well aware, our back driveway is private property and any claims the town has to access of any kind must be approved by a court of law.”

He declined to comment on who removed the sign.

Resident State Trooper Matt Weber said he and another officer were present at Griswold’s request when the first selectman and public works crews were at the site Aug. 1 to put up the public access sign, remove the plantings and mow the phragmites. Weber said he has not received any complaints from Frampton about the activity there that day.

The first selectman after Tuesday’s meeting estimated the town has spent $40,000 to $50,000 on legal fees related to the ownership question. He said he sees the fight as worthwhile because residents have long shown support for open access to the landing.

“I think they’re saying ‘it’s a town landing, we maintain it, we want it and we’re not leaving it,’” Griswold said.

Neighbors on intersecting Coult Lane have complained since shortly after Frampton and D’Arista purchased the property in late 2020 that they were being denied access to the landing. They blamed town officials for failing to take action to mark the property as public.

Selectmen in February 2021 approved a recommendation to create a designated parking area for two vehicles; install signage marking the entrance, closing time and parking area; and specify that no changes to the vegetation could be made. Residents subsequently expressed concerns that no signs appeared.

Two-and-half years later, it was Griswold himself who installed the sign before it was taken down.

He described negotiations with Frampton between then and now, conducted through town attorney Jack Collins, as unproductive and increasingly polarized. He said vehicular access to the area remains the sticking point.

“So the saga continues,” he said.

Frampton did not comment on how he plans to proceed. He said only that he has made his case to selectmen that the land does not belong to the town and hasn’t for more than 300 years.

“They are also well aware that the only legitimate 18th-century right of way was terminated in 1727, never came across our property, and tracked the bridges and causeways of Tantummaheag Road as it moves past our property and up the hill onto neighboring property,” he said.

e.regan@theday.com