2023 Sunday morning beach closure. 2023. Blogfinger photo.
By Paul Goldfinger, MD. Editor and unofficial proofreader of the Coasterican reporting regarding Ocean Grove. The information below is from today’s (7/24/25) Coaster.
This is not a court ruling. It is a “decision ” by a New Jersey Office of Administrative Law judge to the NJ Department of Environmental Protection which is the agency that threatened and coerced the CMA with big fines unless the beaches were open on Sunday mornings in OG.
So until today, the practice of Sunday morning beach closure has been essentially banned . But will the CMA now resume its Sunday closures? The Coaster piece included no responses from the CMA.
Meanwhile the CMA has not given up its demand that they be able to legally continue their time-honored beach closure practice. The Neptune Mayor woke up from a deep sleep, at least as Ocean Grove is concerned. He tries to reassure We-The-People in the Coaster by saying that this is “due process.” Really Mr Mayor?
The Mayor is quoted, “There is a process for everything and we’ll see how it plays out. We’ll get the ruling and then we’ll know moving forward whether the beach will be open or closed on Sunday morning. We don’t know what the CMA will do now.”
Everything in this article is based on past history; a story reported on by Blogfinger; and today’s Coaster which got the scoop.
Interestingly, in the past, the CMA came up with a variety of reasons why they need to close the beach for 3 hours on Sunday, but in the Coaster article they report that the past decision to reduce the closure from all day to noon has a religious basis because church services are over at noon, but that is not what Michael Badger of the CMA said in the past.
You all may recall that a group of Grover miscreants were breaking through the entrance chain in order to force their presence onto the Sunday morning beach. Here is a link to a Blogfinger post about this topic:
Blogfinger post on Sunday beach closures.
GEORGE STRAIT: Note that our taxes have risen sky high–Is it time to move to Texas?