Belmar To Suspend Season Badge Sales
BELMAR – Belmar will temporarily suspend the sale of season badges to comply with social distancing guidelines on Friday.
Belmar announced that it will shut down the sale at 5 p.m on Friday.
The sale will resume after Memorial Day weekend on Tuesday, May 26.
The decision comes a week after long lines of people were waiting to purchase badges in Belmar, sparking some concern this past weekend.
Belmar's seasonal beach badges went on sale at Taylor Pavilion on Saturday, and the Belmar Social Distancing Task Force and Belmar Police Department were working and surveying the beach, boardwalk and the beach badge sales for social distancing and coronavirus guidelines.
Aerial pictures from Belmar’s Drone, Air-87 on Saturday showed many people adhering to social distancing guidelines on the beach and boardwalk.
"Belmar thanks everyone for their cooperation in these challenging times as we prepare to open for Memorial Day weekend," the town said.
Gov. Phil Murphy said during a recent press conference that the angle of the camera could be deceiving, but he said the drone shot indicated that most people were being "compliant."
Murphy did say he would like to see more people wearing masks, even though they're not required.
But the scene also drew the attention of people on social media who were upset that many people stood in clusters and didn't wear masks.
@GovMurphy acceptable ? I haven’t hugged my parents in over two months and fear for my health if I step into a store as i am Immunocompromised but belmar couldn’t get it together to sell & scan electronic beach badges this year I hope there isn’t a spike from this pic.twitter.com/aDOHdD7V4e
— j (@duckyb89) May 16, 2020
Let’s all be honest everyone screaming to be free from this lockdown, especially NJ, know that once y’all are outside there’s no such thing as social distancing.
— Eddie (@cheeburgerpapi) May 17, 2020
Videos also showed the scene:
I can't believe how many people are at the beach in Belmar, New Jersey! No physical distancing, few masks. NJ has 143,000 COVID cases and 10,138 deaths. pic.twitter.com/DR7aNRziGq
— Cleavon Gilman, MD (@Cleavon_MD) May 17, 2020
Belmar Mayor Mark Walsifer told NJ Advance Media that adjustments needed to be made in anticipation of Memorial Day weekend, noting that many people went to the boardwalk to buy badges since the town hall is closed.
“It just opened the floodgates for everyone to come down and buy seasonal beach badges,” Walsifer told NJ Advance Media. “It’s not that we’re selling more than last year. It just happened all at one time.”
This article originally appeared on the Manasquan-Belmar Patch
