Beach mayor and council host first town hall meeting

POINT PLEASANT BEACH — The first in a planned series of town hall meetings was held on Tuesday by the mayor and several council members, who addressed a range of issues facing the borough in a less formal atmosphere than the town’s council meetings.

Prior to the two-hour meeting, Mayor Doug Vitale told The Ocean Star his hope was that the town hall meeting would increase transparency among the residents and elected officials of the borough, and that more such town hall meetings would be held in the future.

“As a part of my commitment to increase transparency and communication with our residents, I will be holding several sessions to give our residents and taxpayers the opportunity to have an open dialogue with the governing body…free of time limits and agenda topics,” said the mayor.

With the meeting room at near-maximum capacity Tuesday, Mayor Vitale, Councilman Michael Ramos and Councilman Art Gant fielded questions on a variety of matters from dozens of residents, covering topics ranging from garbage collection to recreation. However, several topics in particular arose during the meeting, including the town’s building department, thoughts on the state of the borough’s short-term rental ordinance and beach updates.

In the wake of large-scale beach-access-point closures in Point Pleasant Beach late last summer, the beach as a topic was prominently discussed at Tuesday’s town hall.

In September 2023, Jenkinson’s, the private company that owns a large portion of the town’s shoreline, closed off all access points to its beaches, following an off-season drowning and subsequent lawsuit.

In response, while the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) did not levy a penalty on the company, it did meet with representatives from Jenkinson’s to request that it voluntarily open its beaches.

Upon a resident asking about the 7 p.m. curfew on the beach, the mayor explained the conclusions from recent meetings between municipal officials and the private entities that own a majority of the borough’s coastline.

“Myself, Councilman Gant, Councilwoman Byrnes, Christine Riehl, (Police Chief Robert Kowalewski) and Lt. (Clint) Daniel had a meeting with all the beach owners; so, Jenkinson’s all the way down,” said the mayor. “We talked about three things; we talked about the beach curfew, we talked about the cooler size and we talked about beach access. We were able to get an increased cooler size — and thank you Councilman Gant, for doing all the labor and the research on that.”

An ordinance was introduced at the April 16 council meeting that would increase maximum allowable cooler sizes on beaches from nine quarts to 28 quarts.

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