Perdido Key, Fla. – (OBA) – Jeff Bergosh relates an upcoming effort to reestablish public access to the Gulf in the Gulf Beach Subdivision to a fight that ended almost a year ago to add Beach Access 4 on Perdido Key. It is directly east of the Crab Trap restaurant.

“Again, it was like the court of public opinion when they hired a lawyer and we couldn’t build a public access,” Bergosh, the District 1 Escambia County Commissioner, said. “They spent a ton of money and the judge just smashed them. I’m proud of that. I think the same thing would happen.”

Bergosh and staff spent some giddy days the week of April 10-14 researching the deeds from property along the Gulf that is being portrayed as private by some of the owners. Research revealed otherwise.

“I’ve talked to six lawyers in three days,” he said. “I’ve lived it and I can tell you I feel with great certainty that all the deeds out there – we’re researching the western Perdido lots – but I believe that all of them will have that similar language in there.”

Each of the 64 deeds uncovered in the research say the southernmost 75 feet of the Gulf parcels have a perpetual easement written into the deed when the lots were declared surplus and sold by the federal government.

“So why have we been kicked off of our public beaches?” he asked in his blog. “I am going to find out, and I am going to liberate this beach for all of us to use.”

He believes this issue, too, is likely to be decided by a judge.

“You’d have high-powered lawyers on both sides but it’s going to be pretty difficult for a judge to look at original deeds and talk about a 75-foot easement on the southerly most 75 feet of all the Gulf front parcels for a perpetual easement for public use,” Bergosh said. “I think that’s too much to set aside. Plus given the testimony of people like me and people who even to this day go out there and don’t obey the signs because they know about it.”

Several locals still use portions of the beach declared private in recent years. Bergosh spent his childhood wandering those very beaches and would like to see them accessible and sign-free again.

“From my perspective of a guy who grew up here, I used to go out to those beaches,” Bergosh said. “We weren’t real rich people who had boats or could go on vacation so I would walk up and down those beaches and we fished and we had our folding chairs, our sand spikes and our poles and I loved Perdido Key. And, I always have.”

Bergosh said some of the lawyers might try to claim adverse possession or by the fact they’ve occupied the parcel for more than 20 years they have earned full ownership.

“The problem that they will have is that has never been the socially accepted rule,” Bergosh said. “That’s why they’ve had to keep people kicked off of there. But some people have still gone out there like surfers. I think any stepping back from that even the court of public opinion is going to squash that.”

In fact, the adverse possession standard might help those owners in the event the beach is eroded to the point where 75 feet from southernmost spot might be right in the middle of structures on the parcel.

“In other words, if you built a shed and a massive fence on my property and I never questioned it for 20 years,” Bergosh said. “Then suddenly I woke up and found out and you would say it’s mine by adverse possession.”

Current owners of the Gulf-front lots could make similar claims, Bergosh said.

But if beaches are officially deemed public again the county could take action if there was severe erosion and likely eliminate those potential problems. And, address safety issues raised by several recent drownings in Perdido Key.

“There’s a way for us to co-exist and lately the genesis has been drownings,” Bergosh said on April 14. “We had two more yesterday, two last week and if it’s all private out there I can’t put a lifeguard. Now that I believe there’s a large public easement and once we prove that not only can we renourish after storms without a bunch of red tape and also provide for safety.”