Gate Reopened As Jenkinson's Stays Silent On NJ Beach Access Order

POINT PLEASANT BEACH, NJ — For the last three weeks, the owners of Jenkinson's Pavilion have been silent as criticism has raged over the company's closure of all its beach access gates.

Even a warning letter from the state Department of Environmental Protection has not prompted the company to issue any kind of statement on its decision to chain and lock its gates.

It appears the DEP letter, dated Sept. 19, has had an effect, however: one of the gates has been unchained, a Point Pleasant Beach resident told Patch.

A gate near Trenton Avenue was found to be open on a walk along the boardwalk after Tropical Storm Ophelia moved through over the weekend.

A message requesting comment from Jenkinson's was not immediately answered. The company has been tight-lipped since it started closing access gates the day after Labor Day, following a weekend where lifeguards and good Samaritans up and down the Jersey Shore rescued dozens of people from rip currents, many after lifeguards had left the beach for the day.

Four people drowned over Labor Day weekend after getting pulled out by rip currents, and in spite of warnings about dangerous rip currents all over — at beaches, on social media and from traditional news outlets — there were rescues nearly daily along the Shore as people continued to swim.

Jenkinson's was the lone entity that completely shut down beach access to try to deter people from swimming; even the borough-owned Maryland Avenue beach in Point Pleasant Beach was accessible to those who wanted to walk on the beach.

There has been speculation that Jenkinson's closed the access because of a lawsuit pending against the company, filed by the family of 69-year-old Anthony Timpanaro, who drowned in September 2020. The lawsuit alleges Jenkinson's failed to provide enough warnings of the dangerous surf conditions and says the company should have shut down all beach access. Jenkinson's has not responded to requests for comment on the matter.

The NJDEP letter said DEP officials visited the site and saw the chains and locks, which it cited as violations. It also cited signs posted that say "beaches closed", "beach entrance closed" and "beaches closed, no swimming or wading" as part of the violation.

The letter, signed by Robert H. Clark, region supervisor of the Bureau of Coastal and Land Use Compliance and Enforcement, warned the company must allow access to the sand and the water.

"The Permittee cannot limit vertical or horizontal public access to any dry sand area covered under this permit nor interfere with the public's right to free use of the dry sand for intermittent recreational purposes connected with the ocean and wet sand," the letter said. "If a permittee undertakes any regulated activity authorized under a coastal permit, such action shall constitute the permittee's acceptance of the permit in its entirety as well as the permittee's agreement to abide by the permit and all conditions therein."

NJDEP had sent a similar letter to the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association on Aug. 10, and on Sept. 15 issued a violation notice to the association, which blocked off its beach stairs from 9 a.m. to noon on Sundays. The Christian organization says it is being targeted for religious reasons.

A message to the NJDEP asking about potential penalties for entities that continue to block beach access was not immediately answered Tuesday.

New Jersey has fought multiple battles with a variety of entities over public access to the ocean, a right guaranteed under the Public Trust Doctrine, which has its roots in Roman civil law and English Common Law, according to the NJDEP website. Read more: Jersey Shore Beach Access Battle Has Precedent Dating Back 2,000 Years