Lock the gates: Heritage State Park nixing nighttime parking

FALL RIVER — Last call at the parking lot at Battleship Cove and Fall River Heritage State Park is about to be shortened.

The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation has already made some fairly recent improvements to the public parking lot and its adjacent pedestrian area.

In late August, 250 feet of new chain link fence was installed, to restrict people from venturing down to the water’s edge, and the fire lane and curbing near the Leonard Kaplan pedestrian bridge was given a new coat of paint.

But arguably the most noticeable physical alteration to the site is due to occur before the end of September, according to the Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Visitors who have become accustomed to parking at night — either to stroll the boardwalk on the Taunton River that extends north to the city pier, or to simply hang out in the parking lot — are in store for a rude awakening.

That’s because the parking lot at 5 Water St is about to be blessed with a pair of gates.

The gates, which will be locked each night at dusk, are being installed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation, or DCR for short.

DCR manages public parks in the commonwealth including Fall River Heritage State Park, with its educational visitors’ center and outdoor grassy meadow, where in previous years — before the advent of COVID-19 — free entertainment, such as family movies and Shakespearean plays, have been presented in cooperation with DCR.

But during the past year — and especially since mid-March when Gov. Baker declared a state of emergency in response to the pandemic — the parking lot has been beset with problems that authorities say have included increased littering; illegal fireworks; and rowdy behavior that on occasion has included cars and motorcycles speeding through the lot.

DCR, in an email to The Herald News, said the new gates are being installed “at the request of the Massachusetts State Police for security reasons to manage after-hour visitor activity.”

Installation of the separate 30-foot and 27-foot gates, DCR says, will cost $50,000.

Metal foundation posts were installed weeks ago, but a delay in delivery of construction materials, DCR said, has stalled installation of the actual gates.

DCR on Wednesday said the pair of gates should be in service “in the next couple of weeks” and that their installation should take only a single day.

Fall River Heritage State Park, which was established in 1985, according to DCR is supposed to be open “dawn until dusk.”

The parking lot accommodates visitors to the 14-acre state park; the Battleship Cove maritime museum with its USS Massachusetts battleship and other WWII naval vessels; and the city-owned historic carousel, which years before was part of the former Lincoln Park in Dartmouth.

State police presence

Lt. Tim Blackwell, commander of the Dartmouth State Police barracks, said his troopers regularly patrol the parking lot at night to alert after-hour visitors that the park and its lot are closed.

Blackwell says it’s about time the gates will finally be installed.

“It’s great for us, because it gives us the ability to enforce the rules,” he said during a phone interview, adding that “I assumed with covid it would limit access to state parks, but there was no way for them to do it with no gates.”

Blackwell says since his officers began conducting night patrols they’ve made a handful of arrests for active warrants, illegal drugs and issued summonses for motor vehicle infractions and underage drinking.

“We’ve towed cars when (the operators) don’t have licenses,” said Blackwell, who noted that recently he personally supervised the removal of three motorcycles from the parking lot.

Blackwell, 45, says it’s unfortunate that a small minority of visitors in recent months have abused the parking premises: “They leave it trashed and don’t respect the property like it should be,” he said.

Blackwell points out that the Massachusetts Environmental Police, which he says is short-staffed, has “primary jurisdiction” over the state park.

“We work hand in hand with them,” he said.

Steve Ponte says he knows firsthand what the small DCR staff at the park has had to contend with in recent months.

Ponte, who is director of facilities for Battleship Cove, said it wasn’t unusual this past summer to come to work in the morning and see broken bottles and other trash in the parking lot.

“DCR has done a really good job cleaning up lately,” he said.

Ponte says he’s in favor of the gates being installed.

“It’s a very good idea actually. It will keep the trouble out, and you can’t really do it if the gates are wide open,” he said.

The 30-year-old Ponte, who has worked at Battleship Cove for 10 years, says it helps that Fall River police drive through at least a couple times during daylight hours.

But he says the most dramatic change has occurred after hours.

“There’s been a huge change since the state police started coming in here at night,” Ponte said.

“They make announcements on their loudspeaker,” he said, adding that “they don’t take no b.s. when they come through here.”

Ponte said it’s not unusual to see ambulances coming into the parking lot. He says he assumes that a fair number of those medical calls involve drug overdoses.

And he said enforcing parking hours should help in terms of attracting more visitors to Battleship Cove and Heritage State Park.

“The waterfront needs help. We need more people to visit,” Ponte said. “And we don’t want them to be scared.”

Battleship Cove this past spring, as result of COVID-19 precautions and guidelines, had to cancel all private parties and overnight events for children that normally would have been held on board the USS Massachusetts.

Park visitors give thumbs up

Jeff Souza of Fall River says he enjoys walking on the Robert Correia Boardwalk, named for the former mayor and state representative, but only during the day.

“I feel it’s unsafe at night,” he said.

Souza, 62, said he likes the idea of installing gates, but he said it’s probably inevitable that some of the people who have caused problems at night will begin parking and congregating further north in the parking lot at Veterans Memorial Bicentennial Park.

“You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t,” he said. “When you close one area off they migrate to another.”

Ernie Robinson, 87, called the decision by DCR to install the gates “a good, good idea — I’m all for it.”

Despite the fact that a handful of small, posted signs warn that both bicycle riding and fishing are not permitted on the boardwalk -- which is often crowded in the afternoon with dog walkers and parents pushing baby carriages -- it’s not unusual to see both rules broken.

Robinson said he was at Heritage State Park on Sunday when an animal control officer and harbormaster responded to a call that a young swan had become ensnared by fishing line.

It turns out that a treble, or triple, fishing hook had fully penetrated the bird’s webbed foot.

“It’s very shallow when it’s low tide. They (swans) can put their head down and touch bottom,” said Robinson, who said he’s convinced that the problem was caused by someone fishing in an illegal spot.

DCR also has noted that in March it instituted a “carry in, carry out” trash policy for visitors to all state parks “in effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”

At Heritage State Park that policy led to the removal of three of four DCR trash receptacles that had been strategically placed, starting at the Kaplan pedestrian bridge and extending north just past the entrance to The Cove.