$10 million for Jones Beach improvements

Jones Beach State Park will see $10 million in additional improvements this year, continuing to build on renovations and upgrades made at the park in 2014. Aesthetic and structural improvements will be made to the bathhouses; and a new outdoor facility will promote healthy, active outdoor recreation; and there will be additional infrastructure improvements.

The work is part of a $65 million revitalization planned for Jones Beach, as outlined in the New York State Parks 2020 plan, which aims to transform “one of our flagship parks to its former grandeur,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo stated in a press release. This year the state is investing $18.5 million in Long Island’s state parks, with more than half of that going to Jones Beach, which is one of the busiest parks in New York state. According to the 2020 plan, Jones Beach is the largest ocean swimming facility in the country.

Last May, New York state unveiled a plan to repair existing infrastructure in the park and to provide new recreational activities and dining facilities. The plan is designed to build on Robert Moses’s vision of a public park in an extraordinary setting. The park, which has 6.5 miles of ocean beaches and natural wetlands, opened in 1929.

Last summer, the state began renovating the exterior of the West Bathhouse, including its pools, the cabana and the changing areas. On the east side of the Central Mall, the state opened a pilot food site.

This summer, renovations will continue at the West Bathhouse. A first-floor renovation will include a new food service and retail area with a pedestrian connection to the pool. Rest rooms will be renovated at the Field Six Bathhouse, and the state will build a new eatery there as well.

The New Adventure Experience zip line will be completed between the Central Mall and the East Bathhouse, and a summer pilot dining program, with food trucks and stalls, is planned at the East Mall site.

Additionally the state Parks Department, with the help of state and federal agencies, will add 3.4 million cubic yards of sand on the coastline to re-establish beaches and protective dunes adjacent to the park and along Ocean Parkway, and will enhance native plant and animal habitat.

“New York is home to some of the top outdoor recreational and historic sites in the world, and it is critical that we safeguard them for generations to come,” Cuomo said. “With this funding, we are building on our past success in improving the infrastructure of our parks and developing them into economic engines for local communities.”