When George Santayana wrote “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” he was not envisioning people repeating their own mistakes. But that is what is transpiring at Wasque Point on Chappaquiddick this spring. In 2007 the Schifter family completed a large house about 300 feet from the bluff edge. Six years later, with the house poised to fall into the ocean, they are proposing to move it about 300 feet from the edge while damaging the environment and native artifacts and disrupting users of this magnificent landscape.

All of Norton Point Beach, on the Edgartown side, has been reopened for oversand vehicle access, The Trustees of Reservations announced Saturday. The piping plover chicks which had been using the eastern end of the beach for feeding have successfully fledged, so under state shorebird guidelines vehicle access is allowed again to this beach.

The Edgartown side of Norton Point Beach stretches for two miles from Left Fork to the Breach in Norton Point.

Swimming in the breach on either the Chappaquiddick or Edgartown side remains strictly prohibited.

In its management of Norton Point Beach, which is owned by Dukes County, the Trustees of Reservations produced a net surplus of $16,785 in the last fiscal year.

The county will receive more than $3,000 of that money through an agreement with the conservation group. Two years ago, the county enlisted the help of the Trustees to manage Norton Point beach with an agreement that the county would receive 20 per cent of what the group earned at the public beach.