Local Voices
Opinion: Will East End Beaches Be Open By July 4?
The ultimate decision belongs to Gov. Cuomo alone.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has now been on the record as saying he will open segments of the New York States economy when he considers it safe to. He believes social distancing will be necessary to prevent a second wave of the new coronavirus even after the numbers of deaths and new admissions to hospitals plateau and recede as they seem to be doing now. That may mean keeping the East End beaches closed perhaps beyond the 4th of July, some have said.
Eventually social distancing with the hefty state fine up to $1,000 will have to be enforced by public official at East End beaches as crowds increase when the temperature rises into the 70s and 80s.
Local proprietors cannot begin to believe there could be a world without open East End beaches and neither can town officials. However, in the end, it will not be their decision and the way Cuomo is projecting his multiple models and possible outcomes, there is a scenario with public parks and beaches closed at least into late September.
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It has not yet been established if local police will aggressively enforce the spacing statutes at town beaches in the summer but if there is no handle on protecting uninflected people from active carriers of coronavirus something drastic will have to be done, such as closing parking lots and patroling the beaches.
The situation of surfing being banned because of overcrowding in the water off shore will also most likely be addressed. At the present time in the colder waters this overcrowding is not a problem.
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Decisions, according to Cuomo, will not be made anytime soon nor be based on economic factors; as he has stated over and over again, saving lives and overall public safety is his supreme responsibility.
This topic of possible long-term beach closures will be coming up in Cuomo’s press conferences soon. Do not be shocked if he admits he wants to err on the side of safety and keep beaches and public parks closed — even if certain segments of the state’s businesses are allowed to reopen.
T.J. Clemente is a Patch columnist. The views expressed here are the author's own.