Your Arlington, your views

On a cool, gray Sunday, my wife and I took a walk up the bikeway from our home. Our goal: to circle the Res and return, about 3 miles. Bicycle traffic was light, and at Hurd Field, we snaked between young soccer upstarts before rounding the Res, where we saw the water at its low ebb.

Exiting the woods at the playground near Reservoir Beach, my wife stopped to tie her shoes. In the distance, I could see what appeared to be people with bags. Were they collecting trash?

We walked closer and saw three men, perhaps in their 20s and a young girl. They appeared to scooping sand from the left side of Reservoir Beach into 10 white plastic bags. They were putting the white bags into stronger dark trash bags.

A large pickup truck stood just outside the fence in the Res lot.

My wife walked near them and asked whether they were permitted to take sand.

One fellow said he was and added, “It’s public property.” He added that the police had “driven by and waved.”

We weren’t too sure.

As we walked away, we said the Res is certainly a public beach, but we did not think the sand was there for the taking.

As we walked on Lowell Street, we called Arlington police on a cell phone and reported the incident. We had noted the pickup’s license and reported it.

On Bow Street a few minutes later, we saw an APD car pass.

No more than 15 minutes after our initial call, the APD called us back to report that no one had been found taking sand at the Res.

I publish the following photo as evidence of what my wife and I saw on a walk to the Res on a gray Sunday.

Bob Sprague