Protest $20 Entry Fee To Sandy Hook

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As the warmer weather of summer gets closer, the Sandy Hook beach going public is still being threatened with a 100 percent increase in fees by the National Park Service. The National Park Service’s explanation for the 100 percent increase is that they want to be at similar cost levels as local municipal beaches, in order to not undercut their beach business..Have you ever heard such hogwash? The beaches and all of Sandy Hook are national park land and the citizens of our country are its owners.  There is no logical reason for the NPS to concern itself with what municipal beaches charge. Sandy Hook national park land has been, and is, supported by federal funding, which comes from U.S. taxpayers, and park patron entrance fee revenue.  Who cares what area municipalities choose to charge for their beaches use, in order to help balance their budgets?  For Sandy Hook patrons to be facing a $20 entry fee, a 100 percent increase for beach use, is truly scandalous, especially since patrons at Gateway National Recreation Area beaches located in New York, pay so much less.  At Riis Beach (Jacob Riis State Park), the current fee is $5. At the Staten Island beaches of Gateway National Recreation Area, there is no fee! They are free!
 
I know of no other U.S. National Park that has different entry fees, dramatically different, dependent on which entry point is used to gain admittance.
 
The National Park Service seems to have singled out New Jersey’s park patrons as **ITALSpatsies**ENDTALS. We New Jerseyans have had enough, and the National Park Service’s faulty logic of being comparable with local municipal beach fees doesn’t make any sense and is down right insulting.
 
So, please call your federal senators and congressmen to enlist their support in stopping this preposterous proposed fee increase before it is too late. Otherwise you and your families will be paying $20 for a Sandy Hook beach trip this summer.
 
Peter P. O’Such, Jr.
Fair Haven