BELLEAIR SHORE - Two women sat beneath pink umbrellas on Saturday afternoon, watching their five grandchildren splash in the dark blue waters off Belleair Shore beach.
About 3:30 p.m., a police officer walked across the sand and told the woman they needed to leave. They were sitting on private beach property, the officer said. The women soon learned that the former mayor of Belleair Shore, Robert Clayton, had called police demanding they be removed from his property. He lives in a cream-colored brick house on the beach. Police said he is the only resident in the community who does not allow anyone to sit on the sand behind his home.
"I paid $500,000 for a house so we could walk down the street and sit on the beach," said nearby neighbor Alvin Firestone, a retired New York schoolteacher, whose wife had taken the grandchildren to the beach. "They're telling us the beach is private property?"
Technically, it is, said Belleair Beach police Chief Ernie Armistead.
Residents in Belleair Shore own the beach behind their homes between the seawall and the high tide water line. It's written in their property deeds, which date to the 1950s, Armistead said. Other than three public access areas along the beach, the property is private. People can walk or run along the beach, but cannot sit for long periods if residents disapprove.
But most homeowners are gracious about the access, police said, and no one complains except Clayton, who lives at 1260 Gulf Blvd. He can be unpredictable, police said, so officers pair up before responding to any calls at his home.
Clayton, 53, is well known in the tiny gulf-front community of pricy homes. He was convicted in 1998 of misdemeanor battery and criminal mischief after grabbing a beach visitor parked illegally in a town-owned lot. Clayton already had made national news in 1995 when, as mayor, he had police ticket two women for drinking coffee on the beach. He was forced to resign.
When a reporter knocked on his front door Saturday evening, Clayton peered through the glass then walked away. He did not return a call for comment.
Firestone said he plans to research court decisions and see whether it's legal for the residents to own the sand behind their homes.
