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Ahead of the 2019 beach season, which starts Memorial Day weekend, the Asbury Park Public Arts Commission partnered with the local branch of the Boys & Girls Club of Monmouth County to launch an intergenerational art’s program.

“We created this program to help build a sense of community,” said Public Arts Commission member and youth beach art program lead, Marilyn Schlossbach of Food For Thought By The Sea. “In its second year, the program has grown, allowing even more youth to participate. And we are lucky to have artists George Bates and Lisa Badach serve as mentors for the program which helps foster creativity and build self-confidence.”

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The art beautification program, which kicked off in 2018, concentrates on getting Asbury Park’s beaches ready for summer visitors, City officials said. Participating youth helped paint 80 recycling cans and 20 beach lockers that will be placed along city beaches. Their theme is recycling and water.

“Asbury Park’s comeback is based on a lot of factors and the arts is one of them,” said Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn. “Being on a passionate Arts Commission, led by Asbury Park art industry force Jenn Hampton, that is creating programs to allow kids to work on art projects that will be seen by thousands of people is exactly the kind of thing that makes Asbury Park so great. We have a ton of ideas and a lot more in store for 2019, including a mural on City Hall and a youth photography camp, so stay tuned.”

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Also, areas of note ahead for the 2019 beach season include:

North End Beach Access: While the process for building a new boardwalk [expected for the 2020 Summer Season] moves along, the beach will be accessible from the North End for the 2019 Summer Season, as will beach lockers. Entry will be available to the beach from Ocean Avenue at all previous beach entry points. Restrooms and a beach ticket booth will also be available at the Seventh Avenue entrance.

Waterwheels Adaptive Beach Chairs: Through a partnership with the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, WaterWheels adaptive chairs, which allow residents and visitors living with paralysis to safely navigate the Asbury Park beaches, are available to rent at no charge. The chairs easily move over the sand, and into the water, with the assistance of two caregivers to steer the equipment. WaterWheels can be reserved in 2-hour time slots during the regular beach season when lifeguards are on duty: Memorial Day through at least Labor Day, Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m, Weekends and Holidays 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information and reservations, visit cityofasburypark.com/waterwheels.

Beach Pass Credit Card Payments: Beach pass pay stations will be available at every beach entry on the boardwalk to help reduce wait time for visitors buying daily beach passes. The pay stations offer a credit card payment option for buying beach passes. Season beach badges and daily passes can also be bought by credit card through the Viply mobile app by visiting cityofasburypark.com/viply.

Pay-by-Plate Parking: Earlier this year, the City moved to a Pay-by-Plate public parking system which eliminates the need to enter parking space numbers. Parkers in the Waterfront area will use zone #33300 when parking and will be able to move to different spaces within that zone during their purchased time. Parkers can save their license plate for easy re-use in the existing mobile parking app, which can be downloaded at asburyparkapp.com. For the parking pay stations, parkers can save their license plate info at myparkingreceipts.com to tie it to a specific credit card.

For more information about the Asbury Park Beaches, visit cityofasburypark.com/beaches. To buy season beach badges and daily passes through the mobile app, visit cityofasburypark.com/viply. And, for more information on the City of Asbury Park, visit cityofasburypark.com.

[Feature photo courtesy of Amy Quinn; gallery photos courtesy of the City of Asbury Park]

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