Boaters and residents along Rochester’s Snipatuit Pond are on notice to not take seriously posted warnings of fines for revving powerboat motors on the town’s recreational waterway.
The Rochester Police Department recently posted on its Facebook page a disclaimer to the signs that state there is a new Massachusetts law in effect as of July 7 at Snipatuit Pond, imposing a 25-horsepower limit for boats on the pond and “no power loading.” Another of these signs read “Smile You’re on Camera… No Littering… License Plates Are Being Recorded… Do Better… We Are Watching.”
The department responds that the signs have been circulated by an unknown “sign fairy,” noting that usage of official logos on the signs indicating the backing of the Buzzards Bay Coalition, the Environmental Police and Rochester Police is not authorized.
“The Rochester Police Department did not make, post, or endorse these signs,” the Facebook post reads. “Our signs would be way betta. We’re not watching your every move like Bigfoot in the bushes. We’re not issuing $500 fines for fictional boating crimes. There is currently NO 25-horsepower limit in effect at Snipatuit Pond.”
Rochester Police Chief Michael Assad, Jr. said the town has collected all the signs, a total of four of them. The larger point is the confusing effect they may have left behind in people’s minds. Yes, the department wants to keep the community clean. But Assad wants residents to know “we didn’t post them,” he said. “And none of the agencies with logos on the posting have said they authorized them, our Police Department, the Buzzards Bay Coalition, the Environmental Police.”
While there is an active investigation to find the “Poster Fairy,” Assad said that person won’t necessarily be charged or fined. “We’ll talk to them and educate them, tell them they can’t post something if it’s not authorized,” he said. “If property was damaged, we could charge them. But we don’t want to charge them if it’s not warranted.”
“We do not know who posted them,” Conservation Agent Merilee Kelly elaborated, “but we know from the people who have called us and contacted the agencies with their logos on the posters that these agencies had nothing to do with them. The Massachusetts Department of Fisheries doesn’t even post on regulations.”
She said it was quickly determined to be a hoax. “So, we took them down,” she said. “It was the boaters that saw the signs and called us, called a lot of places around town about this.”
By Michael J. DeCicco