{"id":16387,"date":"2024-07-12T05:42:13","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T09:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/?p=16387"},"modified":"2024-07-12T05:42:52","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T09:42:52","slug":"ballgames-on-the-beach-seaside-heights-residents-split-over-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2024\/07\/ballgames-on-the-beach-seaside-heights-residents-split-over-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballgames on the Beach: Seaside Heights Residents Split Over Regulations, Enforcement"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Beachgoers<\/a>

Beachgoers play football near the water. (Credit:
Jon Dawson\/ Creative Commons\/ Flickr)<\/p><\/div>\n

Have beaches grown too crowded for ballgames to be safely played on the sand? Some residents in Seaside Heights say they have, and are causing a safety issue, while others believe people should be free to toss around a volleyball or play \u201csticky catch\u201d with balls and velcro rackets and the like.<\/p>\n

Those who believe common sense, rather than a strict policy, should prevail are more in line with the borough\u2019s policies, which will continue to be reviewed after some residents voiced concerns over ball-playing converging with crowds seated on the beach who may not be expecting an errant ball to fly in their direction and potentially hit them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs ball-playing actually allowed on the beach, because there are footballs all over the place?\u201d one resident asked at a recent borough council meeting.<\/p>\n

The answer, according to Borough Administrator Christopher Vaz: \u201cTechnically, no.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prohibition on beachfront ball-playing, however, is generally enforced when officials determine the beaches are crowded enough to warrant it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow the lifeguards have been managing it is to push it back toward the dunes in the early-morning hours, and if it gets out of hand, they\u2019re supposed to shut it down,\u201d Vaz said. \u201cAt a certain point on Memorial Day weekend, I saw on the cameras that there were too many people playing ball, so I called [Lifeguard Capt.] Jay Boyd personally and just asked for them to shut it down.\u201d<\/p>\n

On crowded days, large groups of people playing ball near the dunes can produce its own issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other problem is that the balls are going onto the dunes, and the kids are climbing all over the snow fences and the railings, and that causes a problem,\u201d Vaz said.<\/p>\n

The resident who asked about the official policy said heavy objects, such as regulation footballs, are being thrown near unsuspecting beachgoers sitting in their chairs, even closer to the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really don\u2019t think they should be playing ball, especially on the weekends,\u201d Councilman Richard Tompkins said.<\/p>\n

Another resident at the same meeting had a different take.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually have a picture on my phone of an empty beach, and they were saying, \u2018no ballplaying,'\u201d he said. \u201cIf it\u2019s an empty beach, why can\u2019t they play?\u201d<\/p>\n

Vaz agreed, but said police officers and lifeguards often have to make a judgment call, and sometimes the policy is implemented across town if beaches are crowded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s pretty much how we\u2019ve been doing it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The resident said police have been diligent, but he did not favor a policy that would ban ball-playing altogether.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the Franklin Avenue end, the police are doing it and the lifeguards are really being responsible, but I do have a video where they\u2019re saying you can\u2019t, and they have an empty beach,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The ordinance is expected to remain on the books as-is, however Vaz said he will sit down with the police department and lifeguard supervisors to make them aware of the issue when it does come up.<\/p>\n

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

Have beaches grown too crowded for ballgames to be safely played on the sand? Some residents in Seaside Heights say they have, and are causing a safety issue, while others believe people should be free to toss around a volleyball or play \u201csticky catch\u201d with balls and velcro rackets and the like. Those who believe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,8,5],"tags":[2743,2744,1959,1709,20],"class_list":["post-16387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seaside-government","category-police-fire-courts","category-seaside-heights","tag-ball-playing","tag-beach-football","tag-featured","tag-seaside-heights-beach","tag-seaside-heights-nj-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/4535599008_f0d56ff5cc_k.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgsn9q-4gj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}