{"id":4053,"date":"2020-04-29T02:06:22","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T06:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/?p=4053"},"modified":"2020-04-29T02:06:22","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T06:06:22","slug":"northern-ocean-county-beaches-and-boardwalks-could-reopen-next-week-mayor-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2020\/04\/northern-ocean-county-beaches-and-boardwalks-could-reopen-next-week-mayor-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ocean County Beaches and Boardwalks Could Reopen Next Week, Mayor Says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ortley

Ortley Beach, Toms River, N.J., Sept. 2019 (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

A group of Ocean County mayors representing all of the municipalities on the northern barrier island are planning to meet next Monday to discuss reopening beaches, two mayors confirmed Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Toms River Mayor Maurice \u201cMo\u201d Hill said Gov. Phil Murphy is expected to make an announcement later this week on a plan to reopen golf courses and some other specific outdoor recreation activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we are waiting for the governor to give us direction,\u201d said Hill, whose town includes both a beach and golf course. \u201cBy the end of the week, we should have direction on outdoor space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Towns began closing their beaches and boardwalks in March after the coronavirus epidemic began hitting New Jersey particularly hard. In New Jersey, though executive orders have been established by Gov. Phil Murphy ordering the closure of state beaches and parks, municipal beaches remain under the jurisdiction of local mayors.<\/p>\n

Hill and Brick Mayor John Ducey both said the mayors of all towns on the northern barrier island (which includes Point Pleasant Beach, Bay Head, Mantoloking, Brick, Lavallette, Seaside Heights, Seaside Park and Berkeley Township) will be meeting to discuss plans to reopen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working on a plan to reopen our beaches,\u201d said Ducey. \u201cI am working with all of the other mayors on the barrier island to possibly have the same restrictions and the same opening date.\u201d<\/p>\n

That reopening date may come sooner rather than later, according to Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to make a move on the beaches this weekend,\u201d said Hill. \u201cBut if the governor opens the parks and golf courses, I think they\u2019ll start to see beach and boardwalk openings starting next week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sources hinted there may be restrictions on access. In Florida, the first state where cities and counties began reopening beaches, these have included social distancing rules to keep people apart on the sand, limits on the number of people sitting in a group, parking cutbacks to avoid overcrowding and \u2013 in the case of Jacksonville, Fla. \u2013 a ban on sunbathing and only allowing active walking, surfing, swimming or fishing.<\/p>\n

The most secure bet about a local reopening plan is that towns will coordinate with one another to avoid crowds funneling into a particular town because the neighboring town\u2019s beach remains closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will be a decision made by all the mayors on the barrier island and the beachfront,\u201d said Hill. \u201cThat way we can do it in unison so we don\u2019t have one beach open and all the others closed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

A group of Ocean County mayors representing all of the municipalities on the northern barrier island are planning to meet next Monday to discuss reopening beaches, two mayors confirmed Tuesday night. Additionally, Toms River Mayor Maurice \u201cMo\u201d Hill said Gov. Phil Murphy is expected to make an announcement later this week on a plan to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3,17],"tags":[982,22,11],"class_list":["post-4053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-ocean-county-news","tag-beach-reopening","tag-ocean-county","tag-toms-river-nj-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Screen-Shot-2019-09-13-at-4.15.45-PM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}