Revenues and Rescues At Summer’s End
By TOM SHORTELL and JOANNE L. PAPAIANNI
Local beach towns are reporting increases over last year’s total revenue in beach badges with Asbury Park seeing an increase of about 30 percent in badge sales.
“We had a terrific season,” said Gary Giberson, Asbury Park director of public maintenence.
Giberson said more than 50,000 people visited Asbury Park beaches, bringing in around $355,000 for the season, around $80,000 over last year’s mark. He attributed the improvement to a surge in daily passes. Asbury Park’s beaches will be open again this weekend, so the final number is still expected ro rise.
In Bradley Beach, the official season ended with lifeguards rescuing more than a dozen swimmers from the water Monday as rough water dragged them away from shore. Beach Manager Dick Johnson said Monday’s rip currents were some of the strongest he has ever seen.
The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association is not yet reporting its final numbers, but Rev. Scott Hoffman said they are ahead of its budget for the year.
“We had a terrific year at the beach in spite of a washed out opening weekend,” he said adding he was unsure if the total sales would be ahead of last year’s record number.
“I’m not quite sure if we’re going to be there this season, but we’re going to be pretty close,” he said. Over 140,000 sunbathers visited Ocean Grove’s beaches this year.
Phyllis Quixley, the administrator of Bradley Beach, said the borough raked in $991,590, an increase from the $954,000 the town made in beach badge sales from last year.
Quixley said the raise is due to the annual events like fireworks Bradley Beach sponsers during the summer. “Beaches are lovely, and people chose Bradley Beach. It’s a beach people feel comfortable at,” Quixley said.
The borough of Avon-By-The-Sea made $9,845 over last year’s badge sales for a total over $1.3 million. Sheila Sullivan, administrative assistant, credited the weather with the improvement over last year’s sales.
“It appears the weather must have been much nicer. There was not one day when we didn’t sell a badge,” she said, adding there were at least five days in 2007 when that happened. “That’s a big difference.”
Bradley Beach guards rescued a total of 13 people on Labor Day, none of whom needed medical attention.
One rescue involved a mother and child who tried to ride a wave on a jet ski and possibly underestimated its size and tried to retreat. The wave caught the pair pushing the jet ski almost into the jetty. The guards helped the mother out of the water and the child’s father, who was on a jet ski with another child rode over to pick up the young girl.
Johnson said the next wave picked up the jet ski and smashed it on the jetty, causing significant damage.
Another rescue involved a seven year old child who was pulled two jetty lengths out into the ocean. Lifeguards were able to swim out and bring the child to shore, Johnson said.
On Tuesday Johnson said six lifeguards were cleaning up the beachfront when they heard people shouting for help. There were five people involved including school age children and teenagers.They all got “sucked” out into the water and had difficulty getting back to shore.
The guards were able to swim out and help all five back to the beach, but three were sent to the hospital as a precaution.
“They (the swimmers) were nervous,” Johnson said.
Fifteen minutes later two others were rescued by the guards.
At that time, Johnson said, he made the decision to shut down the water.
“We put guards on vehicles and had them go back and forth telling people they are not allowed in the water,” he said.
Johnson said Wednesday that one beach was open for swimming with four guards on duty.
Two other guards traveled the beaches telling swimmers not to go in the water or to go to the guarded beach.
Johnson said anther rescue occurred Tuesday evening just after six o’clock when a swimmer had to be pulled out by the A.N.S.W.E.R. team.
“Surfers were able to keep them afloat until the A.N.S.W.E.R. team got to them,” he said.
Johnson said the main problem is people don’t realize how strong the ocean can be.
“People just don’t want to listen, they say ‘I can swim,’ but then they lose their footing,” he said.
He also said when the water is at lower levels people start getting braver.
“They start getting brave and that’s when you have problems,” he said.
The mayor said beach crews will be pulling in some of the trash receptacles and closing some of the bathrooms in anticipation of the coming storms now building in the south Atlantic.
“We’ll be battening down the hatches,” she said.
“And they are talking about putting guards on the following weekend…depending on the weather,” Johnson said.
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