LEWISTON — With few free swimming choices, Amy Perry said she and her family considered No Name Pond a nice public resource.

“We tended to go there frequently for fishing and sometimes swimming and taking our dogs there in the summer when it’s hot out,” Perry said.

But not any more. City crews installed “No Parking” signs along No Name Pond Road this month, and the two homeowners groups with stakes in the beach placed “No Trespassing” signs along the water, warning would-be users away from the private beach.

“It is a private beach, and it always has been, but they’ve always had a problem controlling it,” Phil Nadeau, Lewiston’s deputy city administrator, said.

No Name Pond is the biggest body of water in the city limits and has been popular spot for recreation for years. But it’s a small body of water compared to other Maine ponds.

“There are no public amenities, and that was part of the problem,” Nadeau said. “People were not able to take care of their business: They were leaving trash behind and other things you can only imagine. It was pretty offensive, it was a public health concern and, in some cases, a water quality concern.”

It was a big problem for a small beach.

“It’s a small body of water and shallow body of water, so there is a concern about overuse and doing damage to it,” Nadeau said. “And there’s a concern about how long it would take it to recover.”

Neighbors and members of the Waters Edge Drive Homeowners Association and the Pond Ridge Acres Homeowners Association share ownership of the beach, and they make improvements there. That included an informational kiosk commemorating the work neighbors and the city had done preserving the area.

“It was very nice, but it was completely destroyed,” Nadeau said.

Vandals didn’t take kindly to other signs neighbors installed.

“Anything put up was torn down,” he said. “They tried putting in landscaping and plantings to limit the beach area, but they ignored it or, in some cases, just tore it all up.”

Neighbors asked the city last summer to ban parking along the road and councilors agreed in November. Nadeau said the signs ban parking on both sides of No Name Pond Road between Parent and Pond Ridge roads.

“It was the culmination of 25 years, now for me, it’s just been getting progressively worse,” Gerry Audibert, vice chairman of the Pine Ridge Acres Homeowners Association, said. “So we felt we had no choice but to close off public access.”

Audibert said neighbors will call police to report people trespassing on the beach. Cars parked illegally on the street face being ticketed and towed.

“It’s a very strict, no parking enforcement that will be taking place up there,” Nadeau said.

staylor@sunjournal.com