STONE HARBOR – At a Stone Harbor Borough Council meeting July 19, Police Capt. Christopher Palmer told the governing body about enforcement issues at the Point, a designated conservation area.
Palmer said the Mother’s Day storm in May so damaged vehicle access routes that police patrols were unable to monitor the Point in the way they had prior to the storm.
With the police presence absent, the Point’s stewards reported being overrun by the sheer number of individuals who set up in restricted areas in the same manner they might in any of the borough’s other beaches. Palmer said as many as 40 to 50 boats at a time were used to access the Point. Even when police were able to resume patrols, many of the individuals who had come to the Point via boat were resistant to instructions to leave restricted space.
One action the council took July 19 was to pass a resolution ensuring that arrival by boat is explicitly added to its ordinance that regulates access to the borough’s beaches.
