OLD SAYBROOK -- The town's ownership of the roads in Cornfield Point could actually extend to the edge of Long
Island Sound, making the Cornfield Point Association beach town property. At least, this is one legal argument Town Attorney Mike Cronin made Wednesday when describing to selectmen how the lawsuit the association brought against the town earlier this month can be countered.

That suit contends 10 road endings in the Cornfield Point beach neighborhood are actually the association's, not the town's. Cronin said according to the deeds from the 1920s and 30s turning the roads in the neighborhood over to the town, it appears the roads may have extended to the water until the hurricane of 1938. The bluffs where the roads now end were formed by the state after the hurricane and may be setting up false barriers, Cronin said.

Even if the roads end at the start of the beach and not at the water, there's a good legal argument to be made for public beach access under state statutes concerning tax-exempt status, Cronin said. Tax exemption is granted on certain lands as long as the public is able to use them, he said. The Cornfield Point Association did not intend a precedent-setting beach access case when it brought suit. It is seeking to establish the 40-by-100-foot road endings are association property and that the town has no right to make them accessible to the public. The suit has infuriated the selectmen.

"I've lived in Cornfield Point for over 30 years, and I consider this my neighbors' attempt to steal something from the public. It's offensive," Selectman Bill Peace said. "This is sad; not a happy situation at all," said Selectwoman Velma Thomas. First Selectman Michael Pace said Wednesday he will attempt to force the association to make public minutes, records of votes and other documents through the Freedom of Information Act. "I've heard from enough Cornfield Point residents to believe they didn't have prior knowledge their associationwas bringing suit. I want to know if there was a vote on this," Pace said of the pending FOI action.

Most Cornfield Point residents who've spoken out in meetings over the months and in private oppose the town's intention to remove fences and other encroachments on the road endings put up by adjacent property owners and to allow limited parking by the public. But at Wednesday's meeting, Dee Marx, who has lived on Gates Road in Cornfield Point with her husband for the past four years, said no meeting of Cornfield Point residents was called to vote on whether to use association money to sue the town. Now, she said, she finds herself in the unenviable position of having to help pay, through association dues, for a lawsuit against the town and also help pay as a taxpayer to defend the suit.

But Marx did say later that at the June annual meeting of the association a vote was taken to retain a lawyer for the road ending issue, though she didn't know it would lead to a lawsuit. Association President Theodore Kopcha, who was blocked by a very angry Pace from speaking during Wednesday's meeting, has said the June vote gave the association board the go-ahead to take whatever legal action was necessary. Meanwhile, Pace said the town would probably countersue the association to challenge their actions to block the public from their property. However, that suit won't be filed until the selectmen vote to do so.

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