September 15, 2005
All-angler accessible
By ERIC GERSHON
STAFF WRITER
OSTERVILLE - For a long time, fishing from the jetty at Dowses Beach was an awkward proposition for an angler in a wheelchair.
Basically, the determined fisherman would need a friend to guide him down the uneven surface of the rock jetty at East Bay and help him get settled on a flatish rock.
Absent the escort, there was no way to get close enough to the bluefish- and striper-rich waters.
''For disabled people, everything stopped at the parking lot for them,'' said Al Melcher, the 78-year-old leader of the Barnstable Disability Commission.
But the construction of Barnstable's first and only handicap-accessible fishing pier at Dowses has given disabled anglers a new measure of self-sufficiency. A ramp 85 feet long and 5 feet wide leads from the edge of the pavement over the sand and onto the 40-by-20-foot pier.
''It took my people almost 10 years to be able to do this,'' said Melcher, a Cotuit resident who walks with a cane because of a series of car accidents.
Melcher says the project cost $72,000, most of it generated one $50 parking citation at a time.
Fines paid by able drivers cited for parking in handicap spaces have been earmarked for disability commission projects.
The town recently raised the fine to $100 and began keeping half for the general fund, a sour development in Melcher's view.
At the moment, he is focused on the upcoming dedication of the new pier, scheduled to coincide with a fishing tournament from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the site.
''This area here is probably the best fishing spot in Barnstable,'' Melcher said yesterday, allowing that he doesn't fish much himself.
''Anything you do for the disabled benefits everybody,'' Melcher said.
Eric Gershon can be reached at
egershon@capecodonline.com.
(Published: September 15, 2005)
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