Long Branch to Begin Offering Discounted Beach Badges This Week

The Long Branch City Council is looking ahead to next summer and is bringing back holiday beach badges that would allow residents and other locals to purchase discounted 2013 beach passes until the end of January.

Last year, the council adopted an ordinance that knocked $5 off the regular price of seasonal beach passes every year from Nov. 1 to Jan. 31.

The discounted passes will be available at the Tax Collector’s office at City Hall, 344 Broadway, or at the Recreation Office at 3 Bay Avenue.

The city sold discounted passes in 2010, but officials wanted to expand the program for the indefinite future.

According to the ordinance, the regular price for a seasonal adult (ages 18 to 61) pass is $45. A “holiday beach pass” for an adult would cost $40. Regular-priced passes for children (ages 14 to 17) cost $30, but would be discounted to $25, the draft ordinance says. Adults 62 and older and children 13 and younger would receive free beach admission.

Beginning Feb. 1 the passes will go back to regular price, the ordinance states.