Willard Beach in South Portland, Maine, is Back Open

The longer-than-anticipated wait for Willard Beach in South Portland is finally over.

You can officially romp around on one of your favorite southern Maine beaches ... woo woo!

South Portland Parks and Recreation shared the short but exciting news on their Facebook page:

Earlier this week, the city was under the impression they might be able to get the beach back up and running safely to the public by Tuesday, June 6, due to a hazardous pipe burst involving sewage. YUCK.

This re-open date, however, was not the case.

To our surprise, I think it was worse than they had originally thought it was once they tested the water before allowing people back in the ocean to go swimming.

The town of South Portland needed more time to investigate and really make sure they wouldn't harm anybody by opening up too soon so they kept it closed until Friday, June 9! (By the way, we appreciate you not letting us go swimming in poo).

This is exciting for not only us beachgoers, but also for the dog mamas and daddies. The good boys and girls also weren't allowed to romp the beach in the earlier hours of the morning the way they're usually allowed to until 9 am.

Sidenote: Yes Willard Beach is a dog beach, but it still has strict guidelines to follow when bringing your pup to swim in the water and thrash around in the sand.

Romp summer hours are between MAY 1 and SEPTEMBER 30 between 7 am and 9 am. Then for the night rompers, you may bring your fluff starting at 7 pm until 9 pm.

YAY for local beach life opening again :)

LOOK: See America's 50 Best Beach Towns

Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out, Stacker consulted data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.

Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.