Resident Says Bum Rogers Not Complying With Noise Ordinance, Closing Times

by Patricia A. Miller

Summertime and the living ain’t easy in South Seaside Park.

A resident told the Township Council at the Aug. 25 meeting that noise from the Bum Rogers restaurant and bar has increased over the summer months and is making life difficult for South Seaside Park residents.

“This is not going away,” resident Karen Luddy said. “This is a constant problem.”

Luddy - who lives on 23rd Avenue, had nothing but praise for Berkeley Township police officers, who respond as quickly as they can during the 15-minute trip from police headquarters, over the Thomas A. Mathis Bridge and into South Seaside Park.

But she said a police presence is needed at closing times - 11 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on weekends.

Bum Rogers is not adhering to the closing times, Luddy said.

“Nobody wants to work with us,” Luddy told the council. “They just give us lip service. This is not the boardwalk. I’m in a residential zone.”

This was not the first time this summer that residents complained about problems with Bum Rogers.

Township Council members approved a resolution at the June council meeting setting the conditions for renewing Bum Rogers’ plenary retail consumption liquor license.

All music in the outside area must stop at 10 p.m. The outside area can remain open until 11 p.m. from Sunday through Thursday, and until midnight on Fridays, Saturdays and holidays, according to the resolution.

The liquor license approval in June came after listening to several other residents’ complaints and owner Gary Jablonski and his attorney Ron Gasierowski.

“I promise you, we are not going to get wild there,” Jablonski has said previously. “We can’t be any more of a better neighbor. It’s families and kids and music.”

Jablonski’s attorney Ron Gasiorowski has said noise is “a very regulated event’ by both the state Department of Environmental Protection and local ordinances

“We intend to fully comply with noises ordinances already existing within the municipality and the state,” Gasiorowski said.”If it’s determined we are in violation, we will remedy that.”

Luddy said at last night’s meeting when residents call police, the noise stops after police arrive. But it quickly ramps up again after police leave, as patrons congregate outside and in the parking lot.