Blogfinger photo at recent OG Sunday morning confrontation CMA vs. protestors. 8/27/23
CMA Pres. Michael Badger clutches the chain which blocks beach access on Sunday morning 8/27/23. Paul Goldfinger photo.
Asbury Patch. (Online hyperlocal news report 9/16/23:). Received by email to Blogfinger.
“OCEAN GROVE, NJ — The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association has been issued a violation notice by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection over its continued practice of blocking public beach access on Sunday mornings.
“In a letter dated Thursday, Sept. 14, the NJDEP said the camp meeting association is in violation of a provision of the Coastal Area Facility Review Act that requires public access be maintained so the public can reach the sand below the mean high water line.
“A request for comment from the camp meeting association was not immediately answered Friday evening.”
So, despite Michael Badger’s confident assertion that he will be able to convince the DEP to allow the long-standing regulation of Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association beach closures on Sunday mornings in season, the DEP has ruled against the practice.
The DEP letter dated 9/14/23 from NJ DEP to CMA is a “Notice of Violation” and requires that the CMA engage in “compliance discussions” with DEP.
A group of protestors had been forcing their way onto the beach each Sunday morning all season. And although their style of pushing past the chain/lock/badge checkers has been rather crude, no one has been able to stop them. And they had right on their side because there is no law or ordinance that could have kept them out, and the NTPD refused to get involved.
When the CMA ran the town, until 1980, they did have ordinances to support their rules. (“blue laws”) including the Sunday closures, but once governance was turned over to Neptune Township, none of those “blue laws” could be enforced.
Only unenforceable CMA rules were left and this one—Sunday morning closings–prevailed only because of the good will and fear of confrontation by beach goers.
So what’s next? How about alcohol sales in OG restaurants and maybe even a bar or two in town? The business district could use a shot in the arm in the shape of a bar scene. Blogfinger could even have a “bartender of the week.”
The closing down of the CMA’s Sunday beach policy is of little concern as a practical matter, but as a matter of principle, that is another story and may be symbolic of a rise in secular residential opinions as to what kind of town OG will be in the future.
Blogfinger has talked itself silly about how a greater balance of secular vs. religious lifestyles will be in the cards for this once theocratic “Christian Seaside Resort.”
ZORBA Broadway show music.
I pray(word intended and yes I am serious but no am not very religious) that OG always remains a dry towne . Amen.