Boardwalk Closing Hours Coming In Seaside Heights After 'Horrific' Memorial Day Weekend

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, NJ — Seaside Heights will have closing hours for the boardwalk and new fines for those who violate rental codes as the Borough Council introduced five ordinances Wednesday night in response to a "horrific" Memorial Day weekend.

"It was the worst in my 59 years in Seaside Heights," Mayor Anthony Vaz said after the ordinances were introduced. "This, in my opinion, was horrific."

An estimated 100,000 people poured into the borough for the holiday weekend, and there were more than 80 arrests of adults and juveniles, business administrator Christopher Vaz said. Of the 63 adult arrests, 41 were people ages 18 to 20, he said.

To put a halt to the unruly behavior, Police Chief Thomas Boyd shut down the boardwalk shortly after midnight on Memorial Day.

That will be a prominent part of curtailing problems moving forward, as the boardwalk will have closing hours set under a new ordinance. During the week year-round, it will shut down at midnight, and on Fridays and Saturdays it will be open until 1 a.m.

On Memorial Day and Fourth of July weekends, the boardwalk will close at 10 p.m., borough attorney Robin LaBue said, reading the ordinance titles into the record.

Backpacks would be banned from the boardwalk as well under the ordinance, with limited exceptions, she said.

Three other ordinances will increase the penalties for violations of the borough's rental ordinances, including those for short-term rental properties, those who rent properties without a certificate of occupancy or exceed the maximum occupancy, or who fail to obtain a mercantile license to rent a property.

An additional ordinance will establish fines for "unreasonable disturbances," LaBue said.

Details provided were limited, but Anthony Vaz said there will be mandatory minimum fines substantially higher than the current $100 fines, which he said were not enough of a deterrent. Maximum fines could be as high as $2,000.

"Financially it's not going to be a nice situation for anyone who doesn't obey the rules," Anthony Vaz said. "We hope these will curtail many of the behavioral problems we had with our young people. These are five. My heart tells me there are many more to come."

All five are set for second reading and votes at the June 18 council meeting.

Christopher Vaz said the police department statistics for the weekend showed there were 887 calls to 911, 747 calls for service, 151 motor vehicle stops, 81 calls regarding disturbances or fights, 10 motor vehicle crashes, and 46 parking complaints. In addition to four stabbings, there were two sexual assaults reported, he said.

Anthony Vaz said code enforcement was busy as well, issuing 98 summonses for violations of the short-term rental regulations, 89 for not keeping proper registration and property maintenance, 14 for overcrowding, 14 for renting without a certificate of occupancy, 10 for renting without a mercantile license, and 7 for causing an unreasonable disturbance.

Councilman Mike Carbone, who owns the Beachcomber, said the bar confiscated 60 fake IDs on Friday night of Memorial Day weekend, and more than a dozen on that Saturday.

Anthony Vaz said a lack of consequences for those violating the rules was a major part of the problem, and why the borough is taking measures to increase the penalties.

The other part is the lack of respect for authority, "even for their own parents," Seaside Heights Police Sgt. Eric Hershey said. "If I had talked to my mom that way, she would have kicked my head off."

The signing on Tuesday of the new state law that makes it a crime to incite a public brawl will help as well, Anthony Vaz said, because it can be used to punish those using social media to create the pop-up parties and similar events that have led to chaos in towns up and down the state. The law includes fines of $1,000 to $10,000 and sentences of up to 18 months in prison.

"This gives some teeth to the solutions," he said, adding the social media aspect has been a complete nightmare for towns up and down the Jersey Shore and elsewhere in the state.

The social media aspect of it has been extremely frustrating, Anthony Vaz and Lt. Luigi Violante said.

The police department has detectives who monitor a variety of social media platforms looking for problems such as pop-up parties to shut them down. In the case of one that was shut down before Memorial Day, Violante said that when the court injunction was served one of the organizers, he told authorities he had been doing it "just for the likes" and was not planning to be in Seaside Heights in person.

Another kid involved with encouraging large numbers of youngsters to go to Seaside Heights has 1.5 million followers on social media, meaning the message spreads far and wide, he said.

That's why the law against inciting a public brawl is an important step forward, Anthony Vaz said.

"It gives it some teeth," he said. "I'd like to see more."

The number of juveniles stopped for violating the borough's 10 p.m. curfew was not given, but Hershey said parents were issued summonses for the curfew violations when they picked their children up at police headquarters.

The proposed boardwalk closure times for Memorial Day and Fourth of July match the 10 p.m. juvenile curfew that already is in place. Officials said that combined with the increased penalties and fines will be a step toward deterring those who plan to come to Seaside Heights just to be unruly.

"We have worked hard in the last 10 years to change things and make this a town for where people want to bring their families," Anthony Vaz said.

"We are not going to let rowdy people take over," Councilman Rich Tompkins said.

"If you are not going to respect our town, get out," Hershey said.