If the beach is still there for the summer season, will I need to pay for a beach badge??

Easement forever ...who takes care of the beaches and lifeguard expense. Not to mention the potential loss of incme from the badges. It's a bad deal to grant anyone perpetual anything

Its about time! No one should own our state's beaches - period. When I was a kid my family owned a bungalo on a lagoon lot in the Dover Shores section of Toms River. At the end of of the street was the Barnegat Bay and the beach was for the residents. Eventually money changed hands and first one side of the street, then the other was sold and made private property, with only the width of the street left as our neighborhood beach. Our state's natural resources belong to the people, not only the wealthy.

probably if it's a public beach, that's part of what pays to take care of it, lifeguards, etc...

My opinion: Grant the easement or invoke eminent domain and just take the land.
Many home owners in Ortley Beach had their homes destroyed or severely damaged because the selfish owners of private beach front would not allow beach replenishment on their property. It is time to say the beach is public and engineered beaches are mandatory to protect property behind them. Anyone in the way of that must stand aside or be removed. If it cannot happen at the local level, then its time to ask Governor Christie to do it for us state wide.

This will certainly be a tough decision when weighing the options. What to do? Open access to all beach goers and gain the unwanted intrusion of 1000's of people every day (some of which will be interested more in the houses than the beach), or save the privacy of the associations and incur a large cost. Aren't there already enough open access beaches. Glad I don't have to make this kind of decision!

Idiots! Dumping some sand for the safety of public/which IS a public policy issue & is NOT adverse possession. Hey, Township, that if water breaches the beach area and causes harm to the rest of the Community through those UNPROTECTED areas that you knowingly ignored will be YOUR liability. Please accept this as notice of such. Some of the beach properties have been washed/wind blown away...no longer existing or just foundations. So, exactly what are they protecting now? Exactly, nothing so why spend the expense to protect a foundation. Since nothing will be placed in those areas you BETTER make sure that the street areas have adequate dunes to protect the rest of the community behind those properties which no longer exist or are severly damaged and will not have dunes at their expense put in. The streets behind those properties ARE Township owned and should be Township maintained...I say this because we in OB know how much attention the Township paid attention to our infrastructure previously (hence the monumental problems now). I wonder which brain trust came up with this one. Again, YOU need to think of the community, now. And, when (or if) the beach owners rebuild, then deal with it. But, WE/the entire community needs protection NOW. If I had a beach property and it was destroyed, I would not agree to this. I would rebuild at my leisure and not give a worry about the missing dunes, I have nothing to protect. The rest of the community does!

private beaches area joke, and they should be held accountable for any measures neccessary to provide the island the same as any where else. you should have to ether pay for your own dunes or the state will pay and get the access. thier should be no gray area.

As someone involved in the situation, it needs to be known that the town would not explain anything to the private beach associations when asked what the parameters of this so-called agreement were. They hid behind " We cannot legally advise you" when all we asked for was clarification, not advice. Be aware , too, that our private beaches must still be paid for and maintained by our associations- we have to pay for lifeguards, badge checkers, and maintenance - not a single penny will be, or ever was contributed by Toms River, So we are expected to privately pay for a beach that will now be open to the public.

The "So Called" dune that Earle has provided is a joke. There's no internal support or compaction so the first good North East storm this money spent will be washed back into the ocean. Private beach owners are better off building these dunes the correct way with snow fencing and dune grass.
NDURO (RSB Resident)

Pat S is 100% right. ...we as a private owned beach do pay for lifeguards, badge checkers,badges and maintenance as well as.....property taxes on the beach to the Township of Toms River!
We in the private beach areas are not rich wealthy people,we are just people that at some time made a good decision to buy there. Anyone else can do it....just work hard,save and pay a lot in taxes.....for nothing in return from Toms River....like we do.
We will rebuild our own dunes,we ask for nothing from the state or town.

First of beach badges anywhere is BS. That crap that the money raised pays for maintence is just that crap. Our taxes r plenty high. ALL township residents should be aloud on beach free. You want to raise funds charge the Bennys

Many of these people have owned these house for 50 plus years. My house has been in our family for almost 50. None of us are wealthy and we do like our community and trust everyone in it. Fitzsimmons is a crook and Toms River wants more money so they are treating us like assholes. We will do it ourselves.

@shellfish it's crap get a grip, that should come out of our property tax child, so the sorry ass!! You should buy us all badges since your speaking for everyone assboy

I'm saying full time residents shouldn't have to buy beach badges

Toms River should then be obligated to give these private beach communities back their sand that was their dunes so we can replenish our own sand dunes. What gives them the right to keep it?

Ajv...I don't know what you are trying to say. It does NOT come out of the property tax. Toms River does NOT and will NOT pay for any of those things out of anyone's tax dollars. Most associations are NON-PROFIT associations. All money made by selling badges is put into the beach. It doesn't go into anyone's pocket. Do you understand now why beach badges are required?

Then Ajv,....why should "non full time residents" pay.....full time taxes?

If your a property owner than you pay property tax

Please make ortley like island beach state park. Keep your taxes and whining and bring it elsewhere. Jamo's! It is obvious that no matter what is done u cant please everyone. So make it one big fishing, surfing, clamming, waterfront local area. Keep the checkpoints to filter the shit(i will fund that) . Where's the argument?

Agreed !!! Bravo Halpha2

I found the one comment about all the garbage on the beach not their garbage very interesting. Are they under the impression that ocean front private properties are the only tax payers that had to clean up garbage that wasn't theirs? Why exactly should my taxes pay to remove "your" garbage? We lugged garbage to the curb, which the township picked up, or paid to have it removed if it was too large, e.g. a jet ski, lumber from other's docks etc. So why do you believe you are more entitled? We all pay taxes, they benefit us all as a community, equally. I don't believe the town is obligated to fix my bulkhead, dock, or my landscaping, so why should it pay for "your" beach?

If the town wants us to make a perpetual easement and give the public access to our beach in exchange for dune replenishment (which, by the way, they won't tell us if this is a one shot deal or "perpetual" as they expect the access to be!) why should we be expected to use our homeowners' dues to maintain it? Our taxes help
support the public beach. The town wants to make our beach public, but expects us
to pay the associated costs. We are either private or public; it can't be both ways.

I say replenish ALL the beaches in Ortley NOW. Fight the battle as to who pays for it and who is permitted on the beach later. The dunes are an issue of public safety. They do not protect the one oceanfront property. They protect the entire infrastructure down the road. Dunes saved many of these associations' homes, e.g. Midway in SSSP. Why then would Toms River not have seen the wisdom of this barrier system on their public portion of the beach? I would hazard to guess that a large, effective dune structure is not present in Ortley because the beach has narrowed significantly in the past 15 years and to reduce it further by building a 20 ft. high by 40 ft. wide dune structure would cut into their tourism revenue. I think that Mother Nature is making the call on this one though. Protect what little beach remains or lose that entire town with the next storm.

Mr.?- to answer your question- yes, we did pay for the beach! We also paid for our roads which we maintain at no expense to Toms River. Both were purchased from the developer, and every homeowner in our association was assessed in order to purchase the property(which he legally owned) from him. We aren't squatters who
just decided to claim it as our own.

What good is having access to a beach that formerly was private if it has no restrooms or parking facilities.

Now let me get this straight...Toms River appropriates $1.4m for dune replenishment and all the private associations say "no thank you"...since the private associations are at least 6 or 8 times the size of the "public beach", I have to assume that Toms River will be no be using at least $1m. Where will those funds go??

Grant the township an easement?

Sounds easy enough.

its very easy.....if you choose to do it.
As said before we own the beach and roads we pay taxes on,we maintain them and fix them and clean them.Toms River does two things for us....garbage and recycle pick up.....that's it.The Island and 10 miles inland should be dozed and become free public space...that would insure that the full time people from the Parkway west will be safe....hope it doesn't affect any of you...that would be a shame being you worked and saved to buy the house you live in.
It really is not a discussion that can be held any longer when it seems it becomes the haves and the have nots.....as in shark tank.....I'm out. Have a nice day all.

People need to have dunes.......don't be stupid people. The beach is for everyone to enjoy! We need to do beach replenishment. Must have dunes! It's pretty simple. Love the Beach......Replenish it! Locals hear us roar!

From what I hear the OB community in Toms River does allow the public to buy beach badges already, but there is no parking or bathroom facilities. There is no space to add those facilities as the houses are on their own 50 x 30 lot one right after the other. The owners and summer renters of that community are not allowed to park on the streets either as the roads are too narrow, so if other communities are set up the same, there is little or no way to make those more accessible to the public.

Being that the owners in that community (whether summer or all year) pay the same property taxes as an all year Toms River resident (that has voting rights) they should still be entitled for "some" assistance from the beach replenishment pie.

Whether these communities accept the easement or not, they are helping pay for it with their property tax bill regardless. They can still remain private because their own association fees along w/ badge fees pay for the beach maintenance, lifeguards the rest of the year, but I do believe the state needs to set the Dune requirements for the entire shore line and all townships and association fees need to help with the cost. However, if an association states they will repair their own dunes and continue to put up 4 ft piles of sand and a dune fence, and call that dune, that is not nearly enough to protect the community behind them.

Since most ocean front homes in OB were destroyed, now is the time to set new height requirements and pilings for any homes that close to the ocean. You can still get an ocean view if your home is high enough, but you can't possibly risk all of the other homes for it. The State needs to set the dune height for the state and then set the building code height period. if you are not walking up an incline or ramp to get to the beach, then your dune is too low. Just because you are private does not mean you can make the call for the rest of the township. Water does not pick and choose, it will go through the lowest point. The townships need to work with the private communities to preserve the shoreline, not give them an ultimatum.
-Signed summer renter

Giving the town an easement sounds simple, but since the town refuses to answer the questions we've posed and won't clarify just what is our responsibility and what is Toms River's, signing over our beach would be like signing a contract without reading it beforehand. It just isn't simple or prudent without answers.

Locals should not have to pay to use any of our beaches!!

Interesting how I always hear barrier island residents complain about the lack of services they get from Toms River with the high taxes they pay. Now I am hearing it again when you say you paid for and own the beach and paid for and own the roads also, and all you get is garbage (twice a week in summer) and recycling! So the associations snow plow your own roads, police your properties, and own your own fire protection services? No wait, my taxes also pay for that, right? And who now is repairing damaged infrastructure? Is it the associations or Toms River? nothing personal and I am not looking for an argument - just saying.

I hope that all the bickering between Toms River and the Ortley homeowners is resolved quickly because if another storm comes along before the dunes are completed you probably won't have a home to be fighting about.

I would like to point out that the Toms River owned beaches have required the purchase of a beach badge of some type for at least the last 50 years. So all of you who are calling for free beaches are going to be disappointed. That will never happen here.

Very interesting reading with the varied opinions, but I don't think I've seen anyone say that it's OK to get ahead in this world.
Why shouldn't someone be able to own property at the shore? Why should that person be considered some kind of jerk for having 2 homes possibly? It's about time we go in the other direction and think getting ahead should be the goal, instead of looking for a handout toward equality for all.
Does it stink to see people have what you want? Of course! But then do something about it!
As for the stuff about "owning the roads", I believe the association paid to have them put in.
And before you start ranting 'spoken like one of the haves', I don't live on the island, I don't live at the beach, and I don't have 2 homes.

Mr.? FYI- when I had a car fire, it was Seaside Heights that responded, not Toms River. And please keep in mind that our tax dollars also are paying for those things that you mentioned. We're not looking for handouts, just what other taxpayers have come to expect!

I still defer to my previous comments above; the Township should protect the community and dump the sand.

But, also as noted in other comments fed/state funds have been used by officials to assist in building/rebuilding other areas which are not open to the public without either a ticket or a fee (thereby limiting "public" access anyway).

So, while I would NEVER agree to anything in perpetuity (btw - no one in the practicing and relevant legal field uses that language anymore...take a CLE class once in a while); if you do, charge a fee (like the Townships do). You can charge whatever you want and thus limit the access anyway.

Also, as noted in my above comments....colleges receive public/taxpayer funds (state and federal) and use applications and tuition to limit its student body; entertainment venues throughout the State used public funds (fed and state) to assist in their building process and charge tickets for entry (while the public is allowed...it is limited to those who can afford to enter)....etc. Quite frankly, the Township does this, too, with its beach badge...it charges AND it has used public funds for a long time; similarly with regard Island Beach STATE Park.

Donna- my home in Ortley is my primary residence. Please don't assume that all the houses at the beach are only vacation residences.

@shorefriend maybe since your such a fan we will put all the fing Bennys on your street so they can take up all parking, scream profanity all hours and use your front lawn as a urinal. Is that what your saying. Nice job

@beachfan same for you let Benny stay on your street and use your front lawn for a toilet, if all your interested in is there money. Lets not forget the constant profanity spewing from their mouths. I sure you want your children exposed to all the Bennys positive behavior

Pat S......Fire protection is another example of how Toms River Barrier Island Taxpayers get riped off. Here's how the scam works. Toms River Barrier Island Taxpayers pay a portion of their real estate taxes for "fire protection". Combined, these homeowners pay approximately 1 million dollars. Toms River Fire District then "contracts" with the Seaside Heights Volunteer Fire Dept to provide fire protections for Toms River Barrier Island Communities...........the contract is for about $100,000! The nine hundred thousand dollar question is where does the "extra" $900,000. go?????????

You all have been financially raped for the past 20 years. Too bad you had to wake up because of a disaster. Your nightmare is just beginning as you will have to beat the machine to survive this. Property tax revolt is your best chance and the LOSS should become one barrier island township. Would have been smart to do this BEFORE a disaster but no one wanted to wake up from their fantasy world.

Heard that the new Ortley Beach dunes are already half gone after Wed.storm. Has anyone seen the beach today?