Mon. Beach is stricter on non-resident rates this year

By Neil Schulman

Monmouth Beach — Mayor Susan Howard says that 90 percent of the applications for the beach club this year have gone through without a hitch, but some people are having issues as the borough works to enforce laws on out-of-town members paying out-of-town costs.

At the April 23 Borough Commissioners meeting, one of the people who’d been having trouble with the new system spoke.

Lori Road resident Linda Avallone said that when she rented a bathhouse this year — which comes with five pool badges — she changed who was on the list from the year before, removing her mother who would not use the storage space, and listing four out-of-town people. She also brought pool badges for her husband, who she said never uses the space.

But Avallone said that the borough told her she needed to put her husband on the list, which would bump one of the out-of-town people she’d added to a waiting list that can be years long.

Howard said that because of this particular situation, they would see if they could work something out. But in general the borough has been cracking down on those trying to save by claiming out-of town relatives were borough residents.

While residents can bring non-residents to the pool by purchasing them badges, they need to pay the non-resident rate. This year, the borough went through all the applications more thoroughly.

“We have people who are purchasing many other beach badges,” she said.

Howard said she’d heard relatively few complaints, and that 90 percent of applications were processed without a hitch.

Howard added that this year the borough has officially added siblings as relatives. In the past, only parents and childrens were permitted on the application.

But Avallone said that there had been little warning of the new system — officials say that it isn’t actually a new system, but the enforcement of longtime rules — and she’d spoken to several people who had problems. She feels there should have been more communication.

“We weren’t breaking the rules on purpose,” she said.