{"id":7822,"date":"2016-03-09T00:36:24","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T05:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=7822"},"modified":"2016-03-09T00:36:24","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T05:36:24","slug":"brick-beach-booze-checkpoint-plan-spurs-heated-discussion-before-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2016\/03\/brick-beach-booze-checkpoint-plan-spurs-heated-discussion-before-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Brick Beach Booze Checkpoint Plan Spurs Heated Discussion Before Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lifeguards<\/a>

Lifeguards could enforce a beach alcohol ban should a new ordinance be passed by the township council. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Brick Township council members approved a plan to empower lifeguards at the township\u2019s three ocean beaches and Windward Beach to search coolers and containers to see if beachgoers are sneaking in alcohol, but not before one council member came out strongly against the plan.<\/p>\n

The 6-1 vote Tuesday night means checkpoints will be set up at beach entrances this season where the alcohol ban will be enforced. Councilman Jim Fozman cast the only dissenting vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour cooler\u2019s going to be searched, your backpack is going to be searched,\u201d said Fozman. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have a 17-year-old lifeguard doing this. They\u2019re not trained \u2013 what if someone has a needle in there?\u201d<\/p>\n

Councilwoman Andrea Zapcic, a proponent of the plan who helped write the ordinance revision to put it into place, said the searches would not be invasive to beachgoers and would not put lifeguards at risk.<\/p>\n

Fozman, however was not convinced the plan would be implemented problem-free. He said he wondered whether the alcohol searches could lead to enforcement of other banned items being brought onto the beach. Township code, he said, prohibits numerous activities from ball playing to boogie boarding, depending on the hour of the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s check for balls, let\u2019s check for boogie boards, flotation devices, we\u2019re going to check for all of that, right?\u201d Fozman\u00a0said in jest. \u201cWe\u2019re not just going to profile somebody who has a large cooler and say, \u2018hey, let\u2019s go get that guy,\u2019 right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Zapcic said that last summer, police were called to the beach 23 times. Six summonses were issued for various offenses, including three\u00a0that were alcohol-related. Of the incidents, seven were related to alcohol in some way, said Zapcic.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone under the influence that needs to be rescued from the ocean is putting lifeguards at risk,\u201d said Zapcic, explaining that intoxicated swimmers in trouble often fight lifeguards trying to rescue them.<\/p>\n

Last season, lifeguards had to rescue one intoxicated person who was \u201ccombative,\u201d\u00a0said Councilwoman Marianna Pontoriero.<\/p>\n

Council President Paul Mummolo, a former lifeguard, concurred, saying he once had to rescue an intoxicated man from the water who would have died had he and a nurse been unable to revive him.<\/p>\n

Zapcic said ordinances either banning coolers or authorizing searches on them are common. One version of the ordinance or another have been put into place in numerous Shore towns, including Seaside Park, Avon-by-the-Sea, Spring Lake, Bay Head, and Island Beach State Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe specifically worked with [Police] Chief [James] Riccio in terms of how to best enforce this provision,\u201d Pontoriero\u00a0said. \u201cIn my opinion, one incident regarding alcohol is too much. If you shouldn\u2019t be operating a vehicle while under the influence, you shouldn\u2019t be swimming in a body of water, either.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brick Township council members approved a plan to empower lifeguards at the township\u2019s three ocean beaches and Windward Beach to search coolers and containers to see if beachgoers are sneaking in alcohol, but not before one council member came out strongly against the plan. The 6-1 vote Tuesday night means checkpoints will be set up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,20],"tags":[1945,77,394,24,168],"class_list":["post-7822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-shore-environment","tag-alcohol","tag-barrier-island","tag-brick-beach-iii","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-lifeguards"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/IMG_2015.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-22a","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}