Sandy Hook Holds Public Meeting On Alcohol Ban Thursday

HIGHLANDS, NJ — The National Park Service will hold a public meeting this Thursday, April 11 to discuss their much-disliked ban on alcohol at Sandy Hook, which they just announced last week.

The meeting is being billed as an "open house," and will be held at the Chapel at Sandy Hook on Hartshorne Drive inside the park.

WHEN: Thursday, April 11 from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

WHO: National Park Service staff and members of the public

WHY: Gateway National Recreation Area has restricted alcohol and smoking at Sandy Hook.

Join park service staff to learn about these new rules.

Last Tuesday April 2, the National Park Service announced that Gateway National Recreation Area/Sandy Hook will ban alcohol entirely entirely, effective immediately, to howls of displeasure from throughout New Jersey. We're pretty sure we could hear the dismay from Delaware Bay.

Booze is banned from being brought onto beaches, parking lots, park grounds, picnic areas and boating docks. The problems arose because many other beaches along the Jersey Shore have long banned alcoholic beverages, so Sandy Hook became known as the place where people could bring booze, a park spokeswoman said.

"Sandy Hook has become a party beach," said Chief Ranger Greg Norman. "People don't come here for a beer, they come here for a six pack."

Between 2012 and 2016, 58 percent of the 919 arrests made at Sandy Hook were alcohol-related, said park spokeswoman Daphne Yun.

She also summarized a few of the booze-related mishaps that have happened at Sandy Hook in recent years: A man fell four feet off a loading dock because he thought it was a short cut between the snack area and the bathroom. A motor vehicle accident resulted in all four occupants being injured, two of whom had to be medevaced by helicopter out of the park. Another man passed out drunk in the sand with waves breaking over his head.

These were just three of the 328 alcohol-related incidents at the Sandy Hook Unit between 2016 and 2018, she said.

"The ban is effective immediately, but this summer is going to be an introduction period, where we get park visitors used to this change," said Yun. "But citations will be issued to repeat offenders who keep bringing alcohol into the park. Fines start at $50 for the first offense, and then $100 for the second."

Yes, the no-alcohol rule will also apply at Gunnison Beach on Sandy Hook, New Jersey's only (legally) nude beach.

Related: Sandy Hook/Gateway Nat'l Park Bans Alcohol Effective Immediately