They want to make beach access a Shore thing.
State officials stepped up pressure on an Ocean Grove landowner group that banned beach use on Sunday mornings by blocking access to its boardwalk.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection sent the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, a Methodist Heritage organization, a notice of violation on Thursday demanding that the group allow the public to access the beach via the boardwalk there, NJ.com reported.
The DEP – which followed up on a warning letter sent on August 13 – gave the group 10 days to comply by removing the chain-and-lock barrier blocking beach access from the boardwalk Sunday between 9 a.m. and noon.
Michael Badger, the organization’s president, said Friday that no fines had been issued.
The department also asked association representatives to “engage in compliance discussions” with the agency “aiming to resolve this matter as quickly as possible,” Robert H. Clark, the region’s supervisor, wrote in a letter to the association’s director of operations, Steve Columbo. Badger told NJ.com that representatives of the group will meet with the state, to make sure all the facts are heard.”
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection gave organizations 10 days to comply. Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Ocean Grove, founded in 1869, has a population of 3,000. Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, whose vision is to “be a seaside community where all generations can know and grow in Jesus,” has for 154 years closed nine access points from the Ocean Grove boardwalk to the sand for three hours on summer mornings from Memorial Day through Labor Day weekend.
The group works to preserve the religious heritage of the town, which was founded in 1869 by a Methodist minister. After 100 years, the New Jersey Supreme Court deemed the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association’s charter unconstitutional, but the association still owns all the land and has a role in governing the seaside community of 3,000 in Neptune Township.
However, despite their efforts to limit beach use on Sunday mornings, Ocean Grove’s boardwalk and pier remain open throughout the summer, and the beach itself is accessible to neighboring towns – north from Bradley Beach or south from Asbury Park.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
