To the editor:

It's June again and time for the Barrington Yacht Club to host the New England Sunfish Regional on the 10th and 11th. That's when, for the grand total of seventy five dollars, the Barrington Yacht Club gets to use hundreds of feet of town beach and take over the majority of the town beach parking lot for an entire weekend. The official website states that the "staging" (is that what they're calling it, more like "invasion") will be at the west side of the parking lot.

The participants and their fans are actually instructed by the recreation department, as I was, to park their cars and boat trailers before 9 a.m. in order to park for free for two days. Who the hell else does that? That's ridiculous. Does the town do that with their parking meters? Deliberate mismanagement in favor of the BYC. Are there members of the BYC making decisions in the police and recreation departments, is the obvious question and we deserve to know. Transparency is our right and their obligation.

If it's going to be anything like last year, the tax-paying residents who actually own the beach and pay to maintain it will be displaced and made to park illegally on neighbor side-streets then forced to walk a distance to their beach carrying their stuff like a pack mule. Only one of the 20 participants is from Barrington, the rest from Massachuttes and Connecticut. Why are they allowed to do that year after year for free? We're talking thousands of dollars of lost revenue and an unreasonable imposition on town residents.

The New England Sunfish Regional is a big money maker for the BYC. The bar bill alone makes it more than worth while. Add in the dinners, parties, and tips and you've got quite a tidy sum. 

Meanwhile, all the town of Barrington gets is seventy five dollars. And you trust these people with millions of your tax dollars. Sleep tight Barrington.

Alan Sorrentino

Barrington