new jersey beach badges

checkers usually start at 9 or 10 depending on the beach, and they leave at 4 or 5, depending on weather too.

every town has a different beach badge. you can't use a badge for avon in belmar or vice versa.

monmouth beach they dont charge bc theres no parking - that and the taxes are through the roof. theres no lifeguards or checkers in deal either, but theres sh!t ton of people, and trash everywhere. and the sand is effin hot



there is sort of an unspoken law that towns can charge people to use the beaches bc they employ people to keep them clean and save peoples lives, but they can't charge people to use the water. this is obviously up for discussion with a badge checker that wants to be a d!ck at the time

 

Yea paying is the worst.

In most areas they check from 9-4 or 5 and some places there are gate workers who check them before you get on the beach. For dawn patrol you are safe and can usually remain in the water however long you like, no one usually kicks you out of the water but that is different everywhere. After and before those hours you are good to come and go as you want. Also, between those hours there are designated surf spots where surfers only are allowed. For DP and after 4 or 5 you can surf anywhere.

Daily badges are between i think 7 and 8 bucks, season can be 50 - 100 depending on the area.

 

Just use some of the methods Gary Busey posted in the other thread. You can almost always get on free if you just run past the checker with your board and wetsuit on. If you have three chairs and the kids and their toys then that's another story. Or jump the rail when the renta cops aren't looking and run into the water when you see them walking up and down the beach.

 

They make a lot - depending on the weather each year can be different. I was an auditor for municipalities for both belmar and bradley, they clean up - especially belmar.

 

Isn't it ironic that these towns have beach tags and parking fees to pay for tag checkers and parking enforcement??

 

not sure how entirely accurate this is, but along the lines of what was said above that the towns car charge for parking and use of beaches, but not of the water --- so i believe it is a law in some towns (long branch to be specific i think it like this) that if you are surfing on the designated surfing beach then you dont need a badge. reasoning behind that i believe is that since there are no guards on the surfing beach and you arent actually using the beach but just the water they cant force you to have a badge. same goes for fishing.

 

Delaware you pay for access to the State Park. You can purchase a sticker for the year ($27.00), this allows you access to any of the state parks. The only place that has meters left, I think is Re-****. I guess it's true in the North East... you gotta pay to play!

 

The beach and parking are both seperate utilities that are self funded. In other words the revenues cover expenses, no real profit is made and when there is it needs to be stricktly used on expensed related directly to the utility.

 

Oh, I am sure there is creative accounting to not show such a big bottom line for each utility. The expenses cover maintanence and salaries. I am certain that public works salaries get charged here to free up money in the general budget which probably cannot be traced that well. The balance in these accounts are no more than 200k to 300k, again depends on the year - weather has a big effect.

 

well, do the math yourself. No other group of towns in the country have a favored attraction (the beach) located within a 4 hr driving distance of about 80 million people. If said people come to our towns from other towns in giant masses and thus force our towns to add services to ensure the safety and cleanliness of the town. If the out-of-town visitor could be just be trusted to just do a few simple things like not toss their trash all over, watch over their kids in the water, not drive fast, drunk or unsafely, then there would be no reason to charge. Until that day comes, you pay.

 

as I wrote, do the math. Whatever someone who does not live in and pay property taxes to town with an ocean beach thinks the argument for beach badges "seems" shaky -- the math doesn't lie. Take data points like square mileage of beach, population density, population clusters, modes of transportation to the beach, etc. and you will find that NJ's beaches serve by far the most densely populated beachgoing public in the country.