Sandy Hook: The Gateway to a Fee Hike

Sometimes the best things in life, like a little sun, sand and surf in the summer, just can't be free ... or more affordable. In fact, there may be a higher price to pay for it all on Sandy Hook.

While price hikes are even more unpopular in a bad economy, officials say that if visitors to beaches want the same amenities they've enjoyed for years, they might have to pony up more cash at the federal park's entrance.  

Those amenities include lifeguards, regularly cleaned restrooms and showers, security for visitors and overall protection of the peninsula's vast natural resources, according to John Warren, a Gateway spokesman.

Because the price of providing those perks has gone up, the proposed doubling of entry fees as recommended by National Park Service (NPS), which oversees Gateway and its unit, might be unavoidable, Warren said.

"We're very sensitive to the fact that there is a recession going on," he said. "We have people in our own families that have lost jobs and who are struggling."

However, if NPS gets its way and the increased park entrance fees per vehicle go into effect, as planned, by Memorial Day weekend, 2012, the hike would be the first since the summer of 2001, he added.

NPS had originally wanted Gateway to raise the entrance fees in 2010, but then reconsidered given the ongoing recession and rising unemployment. The federal agency reasoned that hiking fees then could shut financially strapped visitors out of , Warren explained. 

Economic times are still tough, he acknowledged, but raising entry fees or cutting services on the public beaches are the only options that NPS sees.

"We didn't go forward with this last year because it wasn't a good time," Warren said. "Now we don't have a choice. There is no good time to [raise prices].

Meanwhile, a six-week-long public comment period on the proposed new entrance fees ended last week. Fielding and reviewing public comment on the plan is required under the Federal Lands Recreation Act of 2004 (FLREA), which governs Gateway and the NPS. The park service is a division of the U.S. Dept of the Interior.

The public has spoken via email to the NPS and now officials at Gateway's New York City headquarters are combing through their in-boxes to read each message.

Feedback read so far has been mostly positive and some of the respondents have  suggested alternatives to doubling the entry fees, according to Warren.

"We're reviewing them now," he said. "The comments are all over the place. There's a wide variety of ideas. They understand that we held the line on this longer than we should have."

Some of the emails supported increasing, but not doubling the per-vehicle entry fee.

"They say, 'If you're going to raise the fees, don't raise them so much,'" Warren said. "The question is: what would be the best fee increase for which we could keep the same level of service? We're willing to consider the alternatives suggested by the public."

The NPS proposal also calls for the time when park entrance fees will be charged to be extended from 5 to 6 p.m. That idea has hit a sour note with visitors who have come to Sandy Hook's Beach E for free concerts staged on Wednesdays in June through August starting at 6 p.m.

The concerts, which attracted more than 40,000 visitors during the 2011 season, are sponsored by the not-for-profit Sandy Hook Foundation, one of Gateway's partners in operating summer recreation, according to Warren.

Foundation members have objected to extending the hours for collecting the fees because some of those going to the concert start entering the park at 5 p.m.

"We want to consider [the entrance fee] the people going to the concerts because of our relationship with the foundation as our partner," Warren said.

As has been practice in the past, beach entry fees would continue all summer through Labor Day weekend during daylight hours.

Over two million visitors come onto the Sandy Hook peninsula annually for recreational, cultural and environmental activites and programs, Warren said. Of those visitors, about 1,800,000 come during the summer months from locations in the New York metropolitan area as well as Pennsylvania and Delaware, he added.

Under the proposed fee structure, parking fees per standard-sized vehicle would be hiked from the current daily rate of $10 to $20. The $20 rate would cover two consecutive days instead of one.

A season pass for a standard-sized vehicle would increase from the 2011 rate of $50 to $100.

Daily passes for an oversized vehicle, specifically, one more than 20 feet long, would double from $25 to $50 for two consecutive days. A season pass for an oversized vehicle would cost $150.

Visitors holding NPS-issued Senior or Access passes will continue to pay half of the entrance fee as they have in previous years.

Those biking or walking to Sandy Hook will not be charged an entrance fee. Visitors to non-beach areas such as the Sandy Hook Lighthouse or Fort Hancock will also not be charged an entrance fee.

Park visitors are given a pass to display on their windshield upon paying the entry fee, Warren explained. Once the visitor parks in a beach parking lot, the pass is to be visibly displayed. Security personnel check parked vehicles and ticket cars that do not have the pass displayed.

While acknowledging that increasing the park entrance fee by any amount could be a hardship for some visitors, Warren pointed to other area beaches in New Jersey where patrons shell out cash for individual daily or seasonal beach badges at a price per person rate.

The beaches under Gateway's purview are still a bargain because the entry fee is per vehicle, not per person as it is at beaches where badge revenues go towards a municipal beach utility, he said.

"Even with the increases, the fees are comparable and lower than what people are charged at other beaches in nearby areas," Warren said. "It could still be affordable for everyday American families."

U.S. Representative Frank Pallone (D-6), whose constituency includes much of the Monmouth County shore area, begs to differ, given the current economic climate.

"Doubling fees for daily and season passes is outrageous during a recession," Pallone said in a statement to constituents.

The Gateway unit also oversees the Jacob Riss Park, part of its Jamaica Bay beachfront unit in Queens and Brooklyn, New York.