Sea Bright Talks Rentals, Beach Prep, Outdoor Dining

By Allison Perrine

SEA BRIGHT – The mayor and council looked at several ways to support the borough and its business district through the coming summer months, despite limitations and shutdowns imposed by the state amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among discussions at the Thursday, May 14 workshop meeting were ideas on how to tackle short-term summer housing rentals, outdoor dining and beach operations. No final decisions were made during the meeting that morning, which was held remotely.

“With COVID trending downward in terms of new cases, the state luckily is trying to clear some of the restrictions on the public and also on businesses,” said Mayor Brian Kelly. “So, that’s the kind of trend we’re hoping for. We’ll continue to be safe in Sea Bright.”

Vacation Rentals

In April, the state Office of Emergency Management issued an administrative order allowing certain municipalities and counties to restrict short-term housing rentals for seasonal tenants through the pandemic. Sea Bright representatives decided that because the borough is a popular vacation spot, the town would take that step.

Effective April 16, Sea Bright suspended short-term and seasonal rentals until further notice. It did not, however, impair the ability of hotels, motels, guest houses, private residences, and the like, to accept individuals for temporary residence in special circumstances, like health care workers or individuals supported by federal, state or local emergency housing assistance.

“We felt it necessary to impose these restrictions and, early on, I think it was a good idea,” said Daniel J. Chernavsky, emergency management coordinator for Sea Bright. “We had people scrambling from all over New York, North Jersey, everywhere, looking to get out of there and… escape the city. So, we were concerned with an influx of people.”

His initial concern was that out-of-area families might have three-month rentals in Sea Bright through the summer while also commuting to and from New York for work. It would be hard to track these people if they were to get sick, he said.

But at the meeting May 14, Chernavsky said his concerns had been eased. In a county-wide OEM conference call the day before, they were told the state entered a CommCare Database agreement purchase with New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut to help with contact tracing of people who become infected and travel out of state.

“I think at this point, I would be OK either way with continuing it or opening up short-term rentals back to what we had,” said Chernavsky. “We’re not traditionally a Belmar or Point Pleasant where they have these Airbnbs every day, every week.”

According to business administrator Joseph Verruni, the borough has about 46 shortterm rentals. That includes weekly, monthly and multiple month rentals. The state’s legal definition of short-term is six months or less.

Council President Charles H. Rooney III said, as the owner of rental housing in Sea Bright, he does not think the borough should ease the restrictions yet. “You’re going to have people in and out of this town, you don’t know who they are,” he said.

Councilman Marc Leckstein noted that, pandemic aside, the borough would not be tracking who comes in and out of town for short-term rentals through Airbnb. “It might make sense to lift it at this time because it’s not targeting what we’re actually saying we’re nervous about. What Charlie’s talking about, I believe, are the really short-term rentals and we’re not targeting it now.”

Outdoor Dining

For the past few months, restaurants have been operating on delivery and takeout or curbside pickup options only; customers have not been allowed to dine-in since the pandemic struck. Now, as restrictions begin to ease throughout the state, the borough is looking at what life might look like for customers and restaurateurs throughout the summer.

Woody’s Ocean Grille owner Chris Wood suggested that the town designate a common area with outdoor seating for Sea Bright licensed businesses to operate takeout services from. He noted that while some restaurants in town, like Woody’s, Donovan’s Reef, Tommy’s Tavern + Tap, EvenTide Grille and The Rum Runner have “ample” outdoor seating, others don’t have the same luxury. Places like Alice’s Kitchen or Super Golden have “very limited” sidewalk, he said.

“I’m worried about Sea Bright businesses staying open. We don’t want Sea Bright to have empty storefronts,” said Wood. “I think this will help increase revenue in the summer months and hopefully September and October, if we’re still not allowed to be at 100 percent seating capacity by then.”

Borough attorney Roger McLaughlin said there are a couple of “major problems” with the concept. One is that when establishments have liquor licenses, their license premises are defined. They can only serve on those license premises.

“In our situation, if we wanted to set aside a park of the parking lot to allow restaurants to serve there, you wouldn’t be able to do that because you’d have public property, including Ocean Avenue, in between the two licensed areas,” said McLaughlin.

Donovan’s Reef owner Christine Carducci said she has drawn up a detailed plan laying out how and when she can reopen her business completely. Currently, she is retrofitting the building so it is better suited for contactless operations, she said. Ultraviolet lights will be installed in the restrooms with contact-free devices to keep them as clean as possible. Personal holsters of hand sanitizer will be spread out throughout the establishment. Signage will be posted with information about social distancing and sanitation guidelines.

Carducci said masks will also be available for employees and customers. Staff members will go through training on social distancing and cleaning. And an electrostatic disinfection device will be utilized daily to evenly coat surfaces with disinfectant.

“I’d like to get back open, even in a limited way, as soon as I could,” said Carducci.
Donovan’s Reef representatives announced this week that it will reopen its beach area only, for season beach badge holders, Saturday, May 23.

Beach Operations

Police Chief Brett Friedman said he and his officers are prepared and ready for beaches to open Memorial Day Weekend. Parking kiosks are now up and running. And, while the chief said officers could certainly sanitize the kiosks periodically throughout the day, visitors are also able to purchase parking through the mPay2Park application on their mobile phones.

To help some of the businesses with curbside pickup, Friedman said the department will start heavily enforcing 30-minute parking on Ocean Avenue this summer. The belief is that it will help some of the turnover, he said.

The article originally appeared in the May 21 – 27, 2020 print edition of The Two River Times.