Legislators: Keep Towns, Not County, In Control of Beach Operations

State legislators representing beachfront towns in Monmouth and Ocean Counties issued the following statement regarding a bill that could turn over the operations of municipal beaches to the counties:

“While we appreciate the desire of our colleagues to assist our towns impacted by Sandy, the measure discussed yesterday would harm and not help shore towns as they try to recover from this historic storm. 

“Towns up and down the coast do a tremendous job managing their beaches and providing access to beachgoers at a reasonable cost.  Giving counties control over municipal beaches creates another taxpayer-funded bureaucracy that will do little to lower the cost to the public and may actually reduce services available to those who utilize the beaches. 

This initiative has sparked legitimate concerns that beachfront towns will lose the authority to make decisions that will have a significant impact on their community.  While we support efforts to realize efficiencies through consolidating services, taking away the ability of towns to run their beaches fixes a problem that doesn’t exist.”  

The Republican legislators signing on to the statement include: Senators Chris Connors, Jim Holzapfel and Robert Singer; and Assembly members DiAnne Gove, Brian Rumpf, Greg McGuckin, Dave Wolfe, Sean Kean and Dave Rible.