Beach, volleyball league rates rise

Sun lovers and volleyball players can expect to pay more to get on the beach this summer after the City Council voted unanimously at Tuesday's meeting to raise entrance fees.

The council increased the cost of a daily beach pass from $10 to $12, and the license fee that league volleyball teams pay will jump from $60 to $150 per team.

City Manager Charles Theofan said that with the expectation that beachgoers will pay the extra $2 and buy the same number of daily beach passes as last year, the city should raise about $300,000 more on the fees than it did in 2009. The last time the city increased the price of a daily pass, from $7 to $10 in 2007, the number of passes dropped but the city still managed to bring in some $400,000 more in revenue than it had in 2006.

“We feel that it's time to do this,” Theofan said. “We're doing it as an adjustment to try to have a proper balance between those people attending our beaches and the revenue we anticipate receiving.”

Theofan's optimism that the passes will sell as well as last year is based in part on reports of possible beach and pool closures at Jones Beach and Lido Beach, which could potentially divert some beach patrons to Long Beach. “What we've seen, from 2005 to 2009, is a steady increase in the number of various seasonal passes for residents and nonresidents,” he said.

The city will not change the prices for seasonal passes, and will keep the price of daily passes for those ages 13 to 18 at $10. It will not increase the $19 price for a combination Long Island Rail Road round-trip ticket and beach pass. At the request of Council Vice President Mona Goodman and Councilman Mike Fagen, however, Theofan will ask the LIRR to increase the fee for its half of that package deal next year.

Both Theofan and Council President Tom Sofield said that most beachgoers who buy daily passes come by train and frequent the eateries and other businesses in the central business district near the railroad station. “We don't think it's going to have any impact at all on our businesses in any way,” Sofield said of the rate increase.

One resident, Dan Lampart, argued that $10 for a daily passes is already too high. “Because if you have a family of four, that's $40 right there,” Lampart said. “That's a lot of money.” Sofield responded that a family of four can spend $60 to go to a movie for 90 minutes, but for $20 less they can spend a whole day at the beach.

Lampart also speculated that raising rates will make people less likely to come to Long Beach when a whole carload of people can get into Jones Beach for $10.

“Something you need to recognize,” Fagen told Lampart, “... is that we don't have the luxury of being able to reduce revenues at a time when our overhead is increasing.” Fagen explained that between paying lifeguards and maintaining the beach and parks, the city spends about $1.7 million. “And we're truly dependent on the beach revenues,” he added. “At a time when everybody's fees, everybody's overhead is expanding, we don't have much choice.”

Resident Richard Boodman said that people who come from New York City to Long Beach will likely go to other beaches, such as Brighton Beach, for the greater variety of amenities and entertainment. “Don't kill the golden goose,” Boodman said.

Fagen disagreed, saying that Long Beach's beaches are nicer than those in Brighton Beach. Sofield said he heard the same arguments the last time the city raised the daily pass fee, “and it didn't hold true then. I don't think it's going to hold true now.”

Meanwhile, the more than 400 teams that make up two volleyball leagues face a 150 percent increase in the fee to continue playing on city beaches each weekend. Theofan said that in recent years, the Recreation Center has charged $100 per team, and that he had spoken with representatives of both leagues and they agreed to the higher rate. “There was no argument whatsoever because they certainly are knowledgeable about the services that we provide,” Theofan said, referring to the city's cleanup and security.

The city collected $34,000 from the leagues in 2007, $38,000 the following year and $42,150 last year. Each team pays its league about $700. “So I think that's a pretty fair deal,” Theofan said of the city's addition $150, adding that with the increase, the city will collect an additional $21,000 this year. “So we'll be making $63,000.”

Fagen suggested that the city charge the leagues a flat rate of $25,000 each, and Theofan agreed to consider that possibility next year.

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