Paul Barclay, of Manchester, walked Sam and Scout on Singing Beach.
(Wiqan Ang for the Boston Globe)
MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA - The dogs begin barking as soon as they hit Beach Street. They know what's coming next: Singing Beach, one of the finest beaches on the North Shore, where dogs are free to romp and play in view of multimillion-dollar homes all winter long.
It's been a tradition in Manchester-by-the-Sea for decades, heading to the beach for some off-season dog-walking, said Paul Barclay, the vice chairman of the town's Singing Beach committee. In the middle of winter, there they are: dogs and their owners, from Beverly to Boston, strolling up and down the beach. This is no dog park; this is a doggie destination. And it's also one of the reasons why Barclay and his wife, Heidi, moved to Manchester-by-the-Sea with their dogs three years ago.
But some in this seaside community are looking to reclaim the beach for people. Singing Beach, after all, isn't just any beach. It's considered one of the state's best, the pride of Manchester-by-the-Sea, and some think it's time for dogs to start chasing soggy tennis balls somewhere else.
The town will be asked to vote on April 7 whether to ban dogs from Singing Beach year round, rather than just May through September under the current policy, eliminating a winter wonderland for dogs like Tucker the golden retriever and Scout the Australian shepherd, who were out yesterday. And town officials are now gearing up for a showdown between dog lovers, beach lovers, and those who will have to decide which they think is more important - an open space for dogs or a perfect beach for people.
"I'm guessing as many people who voted in the last primary will show up for this," said Barclay. "The town has a lot of dogs."
Dog lovers tend to be passionate about their animals and that's led to more than a few battles in recent years as suburban communities have debated where dogs can and cannot go. But these arguments rarely, if ever, involve pristine slices of seaside property, like Singing Beach. In Manchester-by-the-Sea, a town of 5,200 people, the beach is the community's icon, their Boston Common, their Faneuil Hall. And recently, Patricia Morley decided she'd had enough.
It was time for the dogs to go.
"I don't have anything against dogs," said Morley, a Beach Street resident and town employee who gathered the necessary 10 signatures to introduce the dog ban at Town Meeting in April. "But I don't like it when there are 20 or 30 in one place."
And that, Morley said, is exactly what Singing Beach has become in recent years. Dogs are everywhere, she complained, jumping on each other and sometimes jumping on people. And although the pets are banned from April 30 to Oct. 1 - prime sunbathing months - Morley believes that isn't enough, given the scattered days of warm weather during winter months that sometimes bring dogless families and other people to the beach.
She worries, she said, about crowds of dogs around children. Others complain about the small gifts that dogs leave behind.
"The dog droppings," said Nancy Hammond, a Manchester-by-the-Sea native who signed Morley's petition. "There are small kids down on the beach in the sand, running around with no shoes. And that's a health issue."
Wayne Melville - town administrator and a dog owner - admits that some people fail to clean up after their dogs. And those who do, Melville said, sometimes just toss their dog refuse aside in a tidy little plastic bags. At times, it has taken crews hours to clean up these bags, said Melville, who isn't taking sides on the issue but understands the passion of beach people. When it comes to Singing Beach, he said, people are very serious. The town has even gone so far as to limit out-of-towners' access in recent years by restricting their access to parking.
"It is a resource that people here believe should first be available to residents of Manchester and to people outside of Manchester only after the needs of the people of Manchester have been met," Melville said. "It's very territorial."
But Barclay and other dog owners say this battle is ridiculous. In recent weeks, as he got wind of the proposed ban, Barclay, who walks his dogs on the beach twice a day, said he began counting dogs, and he has never counted more than 28 at one time. Most days, he said, there are far fewer. And on cold, blustery winter days such as yesterday, the only people out there are a few tough New England souls - and their dogs.
"We're not talking about the Fourth of July weekend," said Barclay, a retired nightclub owner who said he believes most people clean up after their dogs. "We're talking about snowy December days and rainy February days when nobody wants to be there."
This, historically, is the time reserved for dogs. And as usual yesterday - even in the cold and driving snow - Barclay's dogs began to bark as soon as their owner pulled his Subaru onto Beach Street in downtown Manchester-by-the-Sea. They knew where they were headed.
So did Ciara, Kevin Leahy's 3-year-old Irish wolfhound in the back seat of his Honda Odyssey.
"As soon as we drive into downtown Manchester, she gets all excited," said Leahy, a history teacher at Beverly High School and father of three who makes the drive to Singing Beach two or three times a week in the winter. "She knows where she's going."
If the proposed ban were to pass in April, Leahy and others say they would find someplace else to go. But it wouldn't be the same. The dog lovers are beach lovers, too. There's something spiritual, Leahy said, about walking on a desolate beach in the middle of winter, the surf crashing at your feet, your dog at your side and your iPod blasting Irish music into your ears. And, of course, Leahy's dog, Ciara, seems to like it, too.
"It's tremendous," Leahy said. "I always say to my kids, 'When dogs die, this is where they go.' It's doggie heaven."
Keith O'Brien can be reached at kobrien@globe.com.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
