Jersey Shore towns report record beach badge sales

Mother Nature’s kindness, and a later-than-usual Labor Day, steered the way for record beach badge sales at towns along New Jersey’s coast.

“It’s 100 percent our best year ever,” said Howard Woolley, business administrator for Long Branch.

Woolley said badge sales in the city brought in more than $2.1 million, a substantial increase over summer 2014. Badge prices have stayed the same for years.

Daily and some seasonal tags, though, shot up in price in Manasquan, and that helped contribute to the record $1.94 million earned this summer.

The town’s numbers were actually lagging at the end of June, but the weather soon made an about-face, and precipitation was practically nonexistent on any weekend day thereafter.

Even with the distribution of thousands of free beach tags to veterans and active military, Cape May’s beaches had a very good summer season.

“Our tag sales through the end of Labor Day reached $2,436,000, which was about $340,000 greater than in 2014,” said City Manager Bruce MacLeod.

In Seaside Heights, Mayor Tony Vaz cited numbers similar to the summers before Sandy made landfall in New Jersey nearly three years ago. There’s been a gradual uptick since.

“We’re happy we made a comeback,” Vaz said. “Our boardwalk looks fantastic; our business community looks fantastic.”