Curley Center’s L Street Beach Opened

by Rick Winterson

It took over three years and more than $31 million to reopen the Curley Community Center – much longer and more costly than originally planned. And another seven weeks passed before L Street Beach could be reopened, due to piping plovers nesting there and permit delays. The young plovers fledged and flew away around the Fourth of July; the City permit that allowed the beach to reopen took longer.

On Tuesday morning, July 25, L Street Beach, the main central portion of the Curley Community Center’s quarter mile of beach, finally reopened.

South Boston Online was granted a brief interview with Andrea Flaherty, the current Director of the Curley Community Center. She went over the rules with us: for now, only the middle section called L Street Beach will be open to the Community Center’s members. Open hours will be from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., five days a week – Tuesday through Saturday. The beach will be closed on Sunday and Monday, at least for now. Parents must accompany all young people – 18 and under – onto the beach.

Another topic we talked over with Andrea was opening the beaches on either side of L Street Beach, on the K Street side and the M Street side, as well as having L Street Beach open seven days a week. Her answer was simple – as we all know, skilled help is very difficult to find around Boston. That includes people who are qualified lifeguards. Quite correctly, Andrea will expand beaches and their hours only when she’s sure that there will be adequate, safe coverage.

In our opinion, it is essential that all of us in South Boston realize the Curley Community Center is in its

“Start-up” phase. It would be impossible – and unsafe – to do everything all at once. A Start-up must be done stepby-step in order for it to be successful. We spoke briefly to the two lifeguards who were on duty on Tuesday – Evan Harris and Ben Cohen. They are both well-trained and certified in various lifesaving tasks, such as resuscitation. Ben completed his training a few months ago. Evan has been a licensed lifeguard for ten years, since he was 15. Both of them are enthusiastic about their new jobs at the Curley Community Center. Be sure to welcome Evan and Ben to South Boston when you first go to L Street Beach.