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Beach club price rates are staying flat this year — but club members should anticipate an increase in 2014.

“We’re holding rate the same as they were last year until we hear back from FEMA and the insurance companies,” Deputy Mayor Chris McLoughlin said at the March 26 commissioners meeting. “They will go up next year but it’ll depend on what we get back and we won’t know that for some time.”

The Beach Club will open on June 14. The opening date is slightly later than usual due to damage the club’s grounds sustained during Hurricane Sandy [pictured at right, post-storm]. At this week’s meeting, commissioners discussed some plans for the season.

GUEST BOOKLETS

Booklets are available now via email. This is part of the borough trying to be “a little greener,” Mayor David McLaughlin said, but residents can also have booklets faxed to them or printed out at Borough Hall.

Borough Administrator Lori Osborn said that an announcement about how to get guest booklets will be posted online and in Borough Hall. The borough will also reach out to residents who might not have email or Internet access.

“I have a list of everyone we don’t have emails for and if time passes and we don’t hear from them, we’ll mail them the booklet,” Osborn said. “But I don’t want people to get used to having them mailed.”

The commissioners also introduced an ordinance that requires two tickets per guest over the age of 12 on holiday weekends.

Resident Mark Horowitz asked if the price could go back down to one ticket after 3 p.m. Allenhurst Beach Club co-manager Chris Rogers said that it would be feasible, it would just be a matter of rewriting the computer program used for entry.

Guest tickets can be bought in a bundle of 10 for $100, or singly for $15 per ticket.

The public hearing for the ordinance will be on April 9, at 7:30 p.m. in Borough Hall.

CABANAS

No decision has been made yet about rules governing cabana rentals, Mayor David McLaughlin said, but a policy will come together by the Beach Club’s June 14 opening.

“This is a problem where it’s like trying to eat soup with a fork,” Mayor McLaughlin said. “We were here until 10:30 p.m. at a workshop meeting on this, but I think it’s aggressive to come up with something by opening day.”

“And just a reminder, no one is going to be happy,” Deputy Mayor McLoughlin said. “Across the board, it’s going to be impossible to make everyone happy.”

Mayor McLaughlin urged residents to get in touch with the Borough via phone at 732-531-2757 or email with their own ideas or concerns related to the issue.

One change cabana owners can definitely expect is having to sign a user agreement with terms for the renter and a reminder of the rules, Mayor McLaughlin said.

Cabana renters will also be required to put down a $500 deposit at the beginning of this summer, Commissioner Terence Bolan said.

“At the beginning of the season you put down $500 deposit and it will sit there for three, four, 30 years, and 30 years from now if you suddenly hate the beach club you can get that back,” Bolan said.

Deductions from the deposit could come from damages, or from failing to empty the cabana at the end of the summer. That has been a problem in the past, Osborn said.

SNACK BAR

When the snack bar was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy its lease was nullified, said Comissioner Bolan.

“There was no wiggle room,” Bolan said.

Plans to set up a food truck or similar short-term solution with snack bar manager Gavin DeCapua have stalled, Bolan said.

A snack bar could be incorporated into the rebuilt Mr. C’s restaurant, which was demolished in February, Bolan said.

“Some projections looks like it’s a way better idea — one central kitchen, no rodent problems because food will be in a more secure location — so we’re looking forward to bigger and better, newer and better facility,” Bolan said.

As the restaurant will not be rebuilt in time for the 2013 summer season, a temporary snack bar will have to be used for this year.

“There’s still a partial facility so his lease is still operational. We’d have to modify terms but he’s expressed an interest. Mr C will have burgers and hotdogs to fill the void a little bit and get us through the summer yet but we’re still working on that,” Bolan said.

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