Westport Camping Grounds residents fearful for its future

While a petition asks Westport to buy the land, its residents hope to keep their ‘home’

By Kristen Ray
Posted 7/28/18

The recent announcement of Martin Costa’s plans to sell the Westport Camping Grounds has many thinking ahead to future uses of the land. While a petition for the Town to purchase it for the …

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Westport Camping Grounds residents fearful for its future

While a petition asks Westport to buy the land, its residents hope to keep their ‘home’

Posted

The recent announcement of Martin Costa’s plans to sell the Westport Camping Grounds has many thinking ahead to future uses of the land. While a petition for the Town to purchase it for the benefit of the school circulates and the Board of Selectmen voted on Monday to create a committee to analyze all options the grounds can serve, there is an entire community who is less than thrilled with any of these prospects. 

“When I go to the library and see them signing that petition, I don’t even want to see it,” said Donna Teixeira.

Mrs. Teixeira’s viewpoint represents the other 100-plus adults who currently spend their summers on the campground’s sprawling 33 acres, owned by Martin Costa. For 44 years, people from up and down the East Coast have enjoyed the the woodlands, reveling in the unique ‘adults-only’ concept that maintains the site as an escape from the hustle-and-bustle of daily life, while still offering basic amenities like free WiFi, showers and coin-operated laundry.

With Mr. Costa looking to sell the property within four years, though, this annual retreat could be a thing of the past.

As a sixth-grade math teacher back in Florida, Mrs. Teixeira finds the reprieve from the school year chaos as vital. Wanting to remain near family but fed up with the expenses of owning a summer home in Westport, she and her husband, Frank, decided to sell their home in 2016 and ultimately looked into other options.

“We’d been driving by the campgrounds for years, thinking it was private property,” said Mrs. Teixeira. After simply driving in one day, it became clear to the couple they had found their new seasonal rental.

“It was the perfect solution for us,” she said. 

As one of three year-round occupants on the site, Mark DeMello couldn’t agree more. For six years, he, his wife and their dog have enjoyed serene summer days in their RV. Tired of the cost of traveling during the offseason, they decided two years ago to rent from one of two apartments year-round, allowing themselves the indulgence of taking in the breathtaking scenery the campsite offers even during the offseason.

“It’s our life,” Mr. DeMello said.

Over the years, he’s added personal touches to his RV’s rental space, decorating it with quirky garden fixtures, setting up a hammock and even putting down rocks to keep the place from becoming flooded with mud during rainstorms.

He’s not alone; all across the campsite, picnic tables, flower pots and welcome signs can be found adorning the grounds, offering just a brief glimpse into the time and energy the site’s occupants have put into making their summer rentals feel like home.

Manager Brad Fitzgerald also does his part to maintain the welcoming atmosphere for his residents, bringing doughnuts to Wednesday night bingo and upkeeping the grounds — including, he says, his claim to fame: restoring an old walking trail from the 1970s, now renamed Fitzy’s Trail.

With the obvious appreciation that he and his fellow campers have for the campsite, Mr. Fitzgerald brought up at a recent potluck supper the idea for their community to purchase the campgrounds themselves. However, many of the current residents can’t afford such a large investment. Right now, their only hope is that through word-of-mouth, someone will approach Mr. Costa with a proposal to buy and maintain the site as campgrounds.

As pages of the petition are filling up fast with signatures and a new committee is formed, however, some campers are forcing themselves to think ahead to other options. With Mr. Costa not in a rush to sell, though, others continue to be optimistic for the future of their beloved campsite.

In the meantime, Mr. Fitzgerald will continue to manage the day-to-day, Mrs. Teixeira will revel in another kid-free summer and Mr. DeMello will keep buying his lottery tickets, hoping that maybe, just maybe, he’ll win big and save the Westport Camping Grounds for them all.

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