Lavallette Debates Opening Guarded Beaches for Memorial Day

Lavallette life boat. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

Lavallette officials set the borough’s official bathing season at a council meeting this week, however a debate is continuing over whether guarded beaches should be open for Memorial Day weekend, and if beach badges should be required.

The official beach season, in which beaches will be guarded and patrolled daily – and when beach badges are required – will run from June 14 to Monday, Sept. 1, which is the Labor Day holiday. The council was also asked to consider opening either four beaches or all of its guarded beaches for the Memorial Day holiday, however the feasibility and cost of doing so was questioned. Lavallette has, in the past, experimented with opening guarded beaches on Memorial Day, as well as after Labor Day, however no official policy on how to handle the “off-season” dates exists. In one such experiment, Lavallette opened a small number of its beaches with guards for the Memorial Day weekend and did not require badges.

“All of the other towns that were open required badges, so everybody came to Lavallette for free, and it was bedlam,” recalled Councilwoman Joanne Filippone, adding that the weather is often cool during the unofficial start of summer, and ocean water temperatures are usually too low to be inviting for bathers.

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Years ago, the borough conducted a study on whether it was worth it to open beaches on Memorial Day.

“We did a study on the rationale for opening or not opening on Memorial Day weekend,” Filippone said, with the cost estimated to be about $65,000 as calculated more than 15 years ago. “We could be out a lot of money.”

The, there are logistical issues if badges are to be sold. Weekly badges would not be available since the beach would only be open for four days, leaving beachgoers with the choice of purchasing a season badge or a daily badge. In many cases, Filippone said people may not understand that they need a badge for the holiday weekend, or that badges will have to be purchased at the shack on Jersey City Avenue rather than at beach entrances. If all guarded beaches were to be opened, staff would have to be hired and ready for work by the end of May.

“No one says we have to open with guards for Memorial Day because the beaches are always open anyway,” Filippone said.

Opening beaches was favored by several other members of the council, including Councilman Michael Stogdill, who oversees beach operations. It is expected that the issue will be further discussed at the May 5, 2025 council meeting. Should the governing body decide that fully guarded beaches should be available for Memorial Day weekend, it would not be precedent-setting, and would only apply to the 2025 season.