Long Branch Beach Badge Sales Total Over $1 Million

The heat waves and consistently sunny weather have driven beachgoers to Long Branch this summer, resulting in a huge number of beach badge sales.

Long Branch Chief Financial Officer said the city has already collected over $1.2 million in beach badge sales since the season began on Memorial Day.

"Thirty four days in, we hit $1 million," Mehlhorn said this week.

The city collected a record $1.6 million in beach badge revenue all of last summer. Mehlhorn said the city should break that record this summer.

"Barring some bad weather or something unforeseen, we should surpass last year's total," Mehlhorn said.

Mehlhorn said the city's decision to charge for beach badges until 7 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday has helped raise the number of badges sold this summer. The city recently passed an ordinance that would keep lifeguards on most Long Branch beaches until 7 p.m. and the extend the hours they can be sold from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Mehlhorn said the city collected over $20,000 in overtime beach badge sales alone on July 4 weekend.

"That more than made up for the extra hours the lifeguards spent on the beaches," Mehlhorn said.

The council had to make an emergency appropriation of about $7,000 for additional lifeguard salaries so they could stay past 4 p.m. on weekends under the new ordinance.

Mehlhorn said any money the city makes from beach badge sales is used to pay for beach-related expenses such as lifeguard and beach badge checker salaries. He said Long Branch Police and Department of Public Works employees who patrol and do work on the beach also are paid for through beach badge sales.

"We really don't make any money here off the beaches, and we can't operate on city beach funds," Mehlhorn said. "Any remainder we have goes into our surplus account."

He said even though the city made $1.6 million in beach badge sales last summer, the city was still $300,000 in the hole in terms of revenue meeting expenses. He said that total is actually lower than it has been in past years, but that he is optimistic that the difference will be smaller this year as sales continue to climb.

"The sales have been great, "Mehlhorn said. "The last three years keep topping themselves."