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Showing posts with label Beach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beach. Show all posts
Thursday, 15 August 2013
Confessions of the beach badge checkers
Meg Mayer may just be 20 years old, but in her two seasons checking badges on the Bradley Beach boardwalk, she?s heard ? and seen ? it all.
Take the time she caught someone trying to get on the beach using a doctored badge that was several years? old.
The colors were the same, but the shapes were different. The would-be beach scofflaw took an old badge and tried to cut it into a circle, to match this year?s round badge.
?But I caught him,? said Mayer with a grin.
Welcome to the world of New Jersey?s beach badge checking crew. It?s a job that would be obsolete in any other state where the beaches are free. But as any beachgoer knows, this is New Jersey ? where it can cost you up to $10 just to sit on the sand for a day.
Badge checkers like Mayer and her older sister, Catherine, who?s also in the badge-checking business, ensure visitors over the age of 12 pay. In her six years on the job, Meg Mayer has heard every excuse from, ?it fell off in the ocean,? to ?badge? Why do I need a badge? I didn?t need one last year.?
She?s also had to deal with her share of rude people, Catherine Mayer said.
?I once got called an idiot by someone? who felt they were waiting too long in the line to get on the beach, she said. ?For every one mean person, you get two nice people.?
She said the only time she felt intimidated was when a person said that he wasn?t going to buy a badge, and dared her to call the police before walking on the beach. Mayer said took him up on his dare and called the police.
Richard Johnson, the lifeguard supervisor who manages the checkers, in Bradley Beach, said he marvels at how seriously the checkers take their jobs.
?They all have phones, and they will call each other up and down the beach when someone tries to get for free,? he said. ?Watch out for this one, he?s coming to you.?
But make no mistake. For many beach badge checkers, the allure of the job isn?t catching scofflaws, it?s getting paid to go to the beach.
That?s Allison Outwater?s philosophy. The 20-year-old Wall resident has been getting paid to go to the beach here since she was 14.
Outwater is one of nearly three dozen ?beach tag checkers? in Avon, those folks who sit at the entrances to the borough?s beach and make sure every visitor is a paying customer.
?May I see your badge, please,? Outwater, smiling, says to a small group of female sun-worshippers on a recent day. The women pass by, flashing the wrist bands that identify them as day-trippers.
It?s not the most exciting of jobs, but, several checkers say, it lets them get some sun and relax.
Outwater said she gets a lot done during her shift, from studying for the upcoming semester at Stevens, practicing her crocheting or doing math puzzles.
?I like math,? said Outwater, who is majoring in civil engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology.
As one who sits outside for hours during the summer for a living, Outwater and her peers must have developed some degree of expertise in sun protection. So does she have any recommendations for sun protection?
?I don?t use sunscreen,? she said. ?I just tan. I always have. My mother is the same way.?
The tag checkers serve an important purpose other than making sure the borough doesn?t lose beach money, said borough Administrator Tim Gallagher.
They?re some of the first borough representatives seen by visitors, Gallagher said. ?They?re supposed to be pleasant, ask them for their badge and say ?thank-you,?? he said. ?They do public relations for us, answer a lot of questions.?
Each of the borough?s 32 checkers earn $53 a day. In total, Gallagher said, the borough budgets nearly $53,000 a year for the badge checkers.
?All paid by the beach utility,? he said.
Outwater took the job at first ?because I needed a job and decided this would be good, and they accepted 14-year-olds,? she said. ?I figured it would be fun and I could sit outside all day.?
It?s not just tag-checking that Outwater and her colleagues perform at their posts. They?re also babysitters, guidance counselors, meteorologists and direction-givers.
And excuse-listeners.
?We get ?em all,? she said. ?A lot of people say my friend has it on the beach. We tell them to go get it and show us.?
Some people will try other means to get on the beach without paying, she said. Such as flirting.
?Two days ago was the last time it happened,? she said. ?You just kind of ignore it.?
?People try to jump over the railings, they pretend they don?t speak English to try to not pay,? she said. ?I tell them they have to pay or we will call the police and they will get a ticket.?
Further south down the boardwalk is Alex Melendez, 17, of Neptune. This is Melendez?s first summer as a tag checker.
?I love it,? he said. ?I do a ton of reading,? he said. ?I?m a nerd, so I read a lot of graphic novels. ?I also listen to a lot of music.?
It?s not all fun and games, the checkers say. Sometimes, people do get nasty.
?You get you?re occasional people who aren?t awesome, to put it in the nicest terms,? Melendez said. ?But if I can?t handle them, the police can.?
Outwater said her first encounter with someone who ?wasn?t awesome? came when she was a 14-year-old newbie.
?There was a family that kept going on the beach, I knew they didn?t have tags,? she said. ?The woman kept getting very close to me and screaming at me. So I had to call the police.?
But those instances aren?t the norm, she said.
One other important thing tag checkers must do, Outwater said, is learn to recognize the local residents and regular beachgoers.
?Especially at the northern end of the beach, I know all of the regulars because that?s where my family goes to the beach,? she said.
And the checkers must also learn to be a flexible at times.
?Sometimes people will something like, ?I have my sister?s tag in my bag, and she looks like this,?? Outwater said. ?Then the sister will come, and say, ?My sister has my badge.? You just have to learn to look for people.?
A little further north, in Bradley Beach, Lauren Massa, 27, of Marlton sits at her post, catching up on her reading in between checking for badges.
This is Massa?s first full season as a checker.
?It?s a job where you can pass the time easily,? she said.
Massa is one of 22 tag checkers employed by Bradley Beach, said Johnson, the lifeguard supervisor. There are 14 on duty each day ? 12 at posts and two relievers ? each of whom is paid between $7.25 and a little more than $9 an hour.
The borough spends a little more than $65,000 a year on tag checkers? salaries, Johnson said.
Even in her relatively short time in the position, Massa said, she?s heard a variety of excuses from people trying to get on the beach for free.
?Sometimes it?s, ?I left it at home,?? she said. ?I usually say you?ll have to go back and get it.?
Most of the people she challenges ?are pretty good about it,? Massa said.
?I had one person raise their voice to me,? Massa said. ?They try to intimidate me, but if you stand your grand, they just get a badge or they leave.?
Johnson said the oddest experience he?s had on the beach occurred last year, when he had to call the police on a man who refused to pay the $8 for a one-day pass on the beach.
When the police ran a check on him, Johnson said, they discovered that he was wanted in northern New Jersey on a warrant.
?When he got to the street, he just bolted,? Johnson said. ?The police had to chase after him.?
?All that for an $8 badge,? he said.
Bradley Beach man charged with sexual assault
BRADLEY BEACH — A 46-year-old borough man has been charged with sexually assaulting a woman in a residence who was asking for train money, authorities said.
Al-Jihad Muhammed has been charged with sexual assault, Deputy First Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Clark said. Muhammed is being held in Monmouth County Jail in Freehold in lieu of $200,000 bail.
The assault is believed to have happened after the victim made the request for train money, Clark said. After the request, the attacker forced the woman to have sex with him. The victim and her attacker were acquaintances, Clark said.
The Asbury Park Press asked the Monmouth County Prosecutor?s Office for a photo of the suspect, but they refused. State law allows authorities discretion in releasing suspect photos, but they often refuse to do so, saying they are prohibited by the Monmouth County Prosecutor?s Office.
Thursday, 1 August 2013
Syringes wash ashore at Island Beach State Park
ISLAND BEACH STATE PARK — The source of 36 syringes that washed up at the state park late last week still is a mystery to investigators of the state Department of Environmental Protection.
DEP spokesman Larry Ragonese said all beaches were open Tuesday and the source of the syringes found Friday at Island Beach State Park still is being sought.
?We are hoping something might help us to link the source of where they came from but that has not happened yet,? he said.
After lifeguards were alerted syringes washed up on the beach, staff canvassed the park Friday and again Saturday morning before the park?s opening, Ragonese said Tuesday.
?The syringes were found and removed all along the 10-mile island,? he said, noting debris and plastics consistent with north westerly wind ?generally results in a wash-up.?
Ragonese said it was possible that the wash up could have brought the debris from the New York harbor area and the syringes were of a type generally used by diabetics.
?It might have been from a wash-up from a sewer system, which due to the wash-up from the weather and despite screening of that area, got through and washed up on the beach,? he said.
Another full-scale raking of the park?s coast took place Sunday morning and Monday. Close monitoring also took place throughout those days and no additional syringes were discovered, including Tuesday.
?We alerted the Ocean County Health Department of all findings and are reviewing the debris wash-up. This has led us to be at a triple level alertness,? Ragonese said. ?The state has been working very hard to get these beaches (at Island Beach State Park) up and running and we never want to see even one syringe wash up.?
Four ocean beaches in Spring Lake and two beaches in Sea Girt were closed Monday as a result of Sunday night?s rainfall, according to the DEP. Those beaches reopened Tuesday.
Water quality samples were collected at all ocean and bay beach monitoring locations and results will be available Wednesday .
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