Perdido Key, Fla. – (OBA) – A controversy over what part of the beach on Perdido Key is private and what part is public is bubbling up again in Northwest Florida.

District 1 Commissioner Jeff Bergosh presented evidence in a blog post on April 11 that the original deed for several lots in the Gulf Beach Subdivision contain phrases that designate the Gulf of Mexico shore as public beach.

“The southernmost 75 feet from the Gulf of Mexico northward of every lot … contain a perpetual easement for a beach for public use,” Bergosh wrote. “So why have we been kicked off of our public beaches? I am going to find out, and I am going to liberate this beach for all of us to use.”

The lots were declared surplus and were sold off by the federal government in 1957 to a variety of owners with the deeds containing the clause about public access, Bergosh wrote.

A local citizen, Michael McCormack, contacted Bergosh after doing some research and asked for certain documents. When those were found, Bergosh wrote, it revealed what he believes is the true status of the beaches in question.

“Thanks go out to citizen Michael McCormack for sending over a clue earlier this morning alluding to just this and ultimately requesting the documents from me (which I in turn requested from staff) which tipped over the first domino in this cascade of a truth bomb that evolved over the course the afternoon,” Bergosh wrote. “His email and subsequent public records request of me led to the entire legal staff and multiple staffers from environmental going on a title/deed search today.”

County Property Attorney Steve West soon reached out to Bergosh confirming the deeded access.

“Attached is the first of several emails transmitting the original 1957 deeds to the properties along the Gulf of Mexico in Gulf Beach Subdivision,” West wrote in an email to Bergosh. “The deeds are in order (lots one through 64), and each has the same language that the southerly 75 feet is subject to a perpetual easement for beach and public use generally.”

Bergosh was beyond excited at the revelation and gushed about how people have for years believed this was public property that owners were putting private beach signs on.

“What staff found and what I am now going to post on this blog shows what many of us have suspected and obviously some have known for a long time: The first 75 feet of Perdido Key Beaches (from the water going north) are public beaches after all,” Bergosh wrote. “The southerly 75 feet of each Gulf-side parcel from the state park all the way to Johnson's Beach – and probably all the western lots too – we are still checking.”

Bergosh noted that from the 1960s through the 1980s the public used the beaches in question and growing up on the key he used to fish there regularly with his dad.

“Nope,” he wrote, “this is a recent phenomenon, one which I am going to make a special area of focus for the time I have remaining on this board. I am going to work, within the law, to liberate all those miles of beaches that have been apparently illegally blocked from use by the very people the U.S. government intended to always (perpetually) have access – you and me and the citizens. We've been blocked for many, many years.

“That is going to change. Quickly.”

Bergosh said if the shoreline erodes so that the 75 encroaches on buildings or pools the owners could claim adverse possession after having occupied the site for so many years.

He ended his blog post with three links to the original 1957 deeds online.

“Read the original 1957 deeds for yourself, all of them, here, here and here,” he wrote.

The revelation comes a few days after two people drowned in rough surf helping with the rescue of some children who were caught in a rip current.

“We've got a pressing public safety need,” Bergosh said told WEAR-TV. “We need to have lifeguards. We can put lifeguards out there if it is what it says it is. I'll find a way to fund it.”