New Jersey pressures landowners’ group to open beach on Sundays

Metro

by angela barbuti

They want beach access to be coastal.

State officials increased pressure Sunday morning on Ocean Grove’s landowner group, which banned beach use by restricting access to the boardwalk.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Ocean Grove Camp Meeting AssociationMethodist Cultural Heritage Organization, Thursday’s violation notice requested that the organization be allowed to access the beach through the boardwalk there. NJ.com reported.

DEP, which was following up on a warning letter sent on Aug. 13, issued a group compliance order to remove chain and padlock barriers from the boardwalk blocking beach access between 9 a.m. and noon on Sundays. was given for 10 days.

Michael Badger, the group’s president, said Friday that no fines have been issued.

The department also asked association representatives to “engage in compliance discussions” with authorities “with a view to resolving this matter as soon as possible,” said Regional Supervisor Robert H. Clark. This is stated in a letter to Steve, the company’s operations manager. Colombo. Badger told NJ.com that representatives from the group plan to meet with the state to make sure they get all the facts.

For 154 years, the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, whose vision is “to be a seaside community where every generation can come to know Jesus and grow,” has been providing nine access points from Ocean Grove’s boardwalk to the sands every summer morning. It’s been closed for 3 hours. Memorial Day through Labor Day weekend.

The group works to preserve the town’s religious heritage, which was founded in 1869 by a Methodist minister. One hundred years later, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association’s charter unconstitutional, but the association still owned all the land and had no control over the governing seaside community of 3,000 residents in Neptune Township. Involved.

But despite efforts to limit beach use on Sunday morning; ocean grove boardwalk The pier is open all summer long, and the beach itself is accessible from neighboring towns: Bradley Beach to the north and Asbury Park to the south.