Home Care In Ocean Grove, NJ

UPDATED 1/25/26 20:00

MONMOUTH COUNTY - After a massive snow storm belted the Eastern Monmouth County region with ten inches of snow, beginning early this morning (Jan 25th), municipalities are continuing snow removal and safety precautions. The snow and subsequent sleet, which began at 5:00 PM, are expected to end by 11:00 PM tonight.

Per a State of Emergency issued by Governor Mikie Sherrill, New Jersey State Offices are closed tomorrow, Monday, 1/26.

At the time of the publishing of this article (1/25/26, 19:00 ) there is one active Winter Storm Warning from the U.S. National Weather Service:

In Neptune Township, plow operations are continuing and motorists are strongly advised to stay off all roads overnight. Neptune Township Schools are closed tomorrow, Monday, 1/26. Forecasts can change quickly, so be sure to continue monitoring the National Weather Service, Neptune OEM, and your trusted local weather source for updates. Sign up to receive emergency notifications and automatic weather alerts from Neptune Township. Text “neptunealert” to 888777 or visit: https://member.everbridge.net/84492207259688/login

Neptune City Schools are closed tomorrow, Monday, 1/26. The Borough reminds residents to avoid all on-street parking prior to and during the storm to assist with snow plow operations. Additionally, all sidewalks must be cleared within 12 hours following the end of snowfall, in accordance with local ordinance.

Neptune City's trash collection scheduled for tomorrow, Monday, 1/26 is canceled, and Neptune City Borough Hall will be closed.

For Neptune City alerts, sign up at Nixle https://www.everbridge.com/products/nixle/

The Monmouth County Board of County Commissioners is thanking residents for staying off of the roads and urges continued caution, but advises residents to remain cautious as the storm continues through this evening.

The forecast is anticipating the snow to start mixing with sleet and freezing rain, leading to icing and up to an inch of sleet. The storm is expected to begin tapering off early this evening with precipitation wrapping up by midnight.

“We thank our residents for staying off the roads during the storm. With minimal traffic, our crews are able to work efficiently and safely,” said Monmouth County Commissioner Director Thomas A. Arnone. “I would especially like to recognize the dedication of the 275 Monmouth County employees, and all first responders, who are braving the storm to ensure County roads remain passable and that access to essential County operations is maintained.”

The Monmouth County Public Works Operations Center is activated as of midnight last night and will remain operational until all snow operations are complete. More than 210 trucks and 50 additional pieces of equipment are currently deployed throughout the County.

For news and alerts from Monmouth County, visit www.visitmonmouth.com or follow @MonmouthGovNJ on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

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After years of back-and-forth rulings, the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has ordered Ocean Grove to open its beaches on Sunday mornings.

It's known as God's Square Mile – a historic beachfront section of Neptune Township called Ocean Grove. Land there is owned by the Camp Meeting Association and, beginning in 1869, closed its beaches on Sunday mornings for religious purposes through 2024.

“We want to go on the beach on Sundays. There's no reason we shouldn’t be able to go on the beach on Sundays,” said Don Greenberg, a volunteer with the Jersey Shore Region’s Surfrider Foundation.

Groups like Surfrider Foundation challenged the religious community's 9 a.m. to noon Sunday closure.

“The state holds nearshore and portions of the dry sand in trust for the public,” said Greenberg.

In July, an administrative judge ruled Ocean Grove could keep Sunday closures, but on Dec. 26, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette issued a 38-page response, superseding that decision, ordering the beaches opened.

LaTourette writes: "OGCMA remains free to practice its religion, but it must provide public access to the Ocean Grove beach as required by the law and its CAFRA permit."

Surfrider members say permits for the new pier and federal replenishment also required the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association to agree to the state's access rules.

“If you're going to accept beach replenishment or dune replenishment, it's conditioned upon access. So, you can't block access and take money from the feds or the state,” said Greenberg.

These Surfrider members say the Camp Meeting Association can and will likely appeal the decision on religious grounds.

“We're hoping to get out there this summer and enjoy the beaches on summer Sundays…it's going to be great,” said Matt Gove, a policy manager for the Mid-Atlantic Region’s Surfrider Foundation.

News 12 reached out to the Camp Meeting Association for reaction and comment on this latest decision by the New Jersey DEP.

Jersey Shore Arts Center66 South Main Street, Ocean Grove, NJ 07756

Born and raised in New Jersey, first rose to international attention with The Shipwreck From The Shore, his 2014 debut for New West Records. Inspired in part by time spent studying with the Pulitzer Prize-winning Irish poet Paul Muldoon, the album garnered rave reviews on both sides of the pond, with NPR inviting D’Amato for a Tiny Desk Concert and lauding that “he writes in the tradition of Bruce Springsteen or Josh Ritter," and Uncut proclaiming that his songwriting "echoes with early Bob Dylan."

D’Amato followed it up in 2016 with the Mike Mogis-produced Cold Snap, which earned him his first national TV appearance along with an Artist You Need To Know nod from Rolling Stone, who hailed his writing as “folk music raised on New Jersey grit.” In 2017, D’Amato released a collaborative EP titled Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, which raised more than $10,000 for refugee aid, and in 2019, he returned with Five Songs From New Orleans, a stripped-down acoustic collection that earned even more praise from Billboard to Rolling Stone. Along the way, D’Amato toured extensively across the US and Europe, sharing bills with the likes of Ben Folds, Valerie June, Keb’ Mo’, The Felice Brothers, American Aquarium, and many more.

After more than a decade in New York City, D’Amato headed west to record his 2022 album, At First There Was Nothing, relocating to American Fork, Utah, for recording sessions in the autumn and winter with acclaimed songwriter and producer Joshua James. Bristling with joyful energy and piercing insight, the record marked D’Amato’s first full-length release in six years. Drawing on everything from hazy ’60s soul to rootsy ’70s rock and roll, the songs are loose and playful, even as they grapple with faith and trust, mortality and loss, resilience and regret, all set against sweeping sonic backdrops every bit as epic and rugged as the landscapes that inspired them.

D’Amato’s latest release is 2024’s five song EP, The Salvage Sessions, Vol. 1. He is also a member of the folk rock supergroup Fantastic Cat, which released its first album, The Very Best Of Fantastic Cat, and made its national TV debut in 2022. Rolling Stone called the album "a wildly satisfying collection of folk-rock, country, Americana, and good old rock & roll" and dubbed the band "the supergroup-you-need-to-know." Their follow-up LP, 2024’s Now That’s What I Call Fantastic Cat, was hailed by Americana Highways as offering “lots of sharp young voices, hooky melodies, snappy playing and a momentum that begins right at the start.”

is a three-time Asbury Music Award-winning performer and lead singer of the band Des & the Swagmatics. Her career began as a backup vocalist in the bands deSoL and Captain James and the P.A.I.N. before branching out into a solo career. As the leader of the Swagmatics, she headlined a show at the Stone Pony this past summer and performed at the kickoff show for the 2025 Asbury Porchfest.Deseree Spinks is a three-time Asbury Music Award-winning performer and lead singer of the band Des & the Swagmatics. Her career began as a backup vocalist in the bands deSoL and Captain James and the P.A.I.N. before branching out into a solo career. As the leader of the Swagmatics, she headlined a show at the Stone Pony this past summer and performed at the kickoff show for the 2025 Asbury Porchfest.

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Religious leaders in Ocean Grove have lost their fight to continue to block access to a private beach on Sunday mornings in the summer.

Last week, State Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette overturned an earlier ruling and said the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association (OGCMA) cannot chain off the boardwalk entrance to the beach one day a week in the summer for religious reasons.

In a long-awaited 39-page decision, released last week, LaTourette wrote that while the section of beach is privately-owned, the state had spent money to replenish and upgrade it and that the public must be allowed to access the sand.

“State law requires that Department permittees, including OGCMA, provide public access to privately-owned beaches, and the Department is duty-bound to protect public access at every juncture,” the commissioner wrote. “Furthermore, OGCMA has for decades accepted and enjoyed the benefit of substantial state investment in the nourishment of its privately owned beach, which publicly funded projects are explicitly conditioned on the provision of public access.

“In view of these rights and obligations, OGCMA’s summer Sunday morning beach closures are an unjustifiable violation of the public’s right to access.”

On Tuesday, a man who answered the phone at the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association directed NJ Advance Media’s questions to Chief Operating Officer Natalie Stephens-Stewart, who did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association owns the land in the Ocean Grove section of Neptune.

The association has clashed for years with some local residents over rules that kept beach access ramps chained off on Sunday mornings between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend.

The association cited religious freedom and its origins as a Methodist community camp in challenging a 2023 order from the Department of Environmental Protection to stop using chains and padlocked barriers blocking beach access from the boardwalk. If Ocean Grove defied the order it risked fines of up to $25,000 per day.

The association opened up the beach on Sunday mornings in May 2024 while it appealed the order.

However, an administrative court judge ruled June 26 that the association was within its rights to restrict beach access from its boardwalk. The judge rejected the state’s argument that restricting beach access ran afoul of the state’s Coastal Area Facility Review Act.

The judge’s ruling noted that those seeking to visit the beach still had the option of getting on the sand by walking in from adjoining beaches to the north or south during the hours on Sundays when the nine access points from the Ocean Grove boardwalk were closed.

The state Office of the Attorney General filed a response on July 18 urging LaTourette to reject the judge’s decision and stand by the original order to open the beach. Under the original timeline, a decision by the commissioner was due in mid-August, before the end of the beach season. However, the extensions pushed the deadline beyond Labor Day.

The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association leases land in the neighborhood on a long-term basis to homeowners and businesses. It also sells leases for 114 tents and 20 cottages for use during the summer season, according to the judge’s ruling.

Ocean Grove was governed by the association as a religious enclave for a century, until the New Jersey Supreme Court declared its original charter unconstitutional. It is now part of Neptune, though the association still controls the privately owned boardwalk.

Critics of the Sunday beach access restriction separately took issue with the association’s decision to build a $2 million pier in Ocean Grove in the shape of a Christian cross that opened in April 2023.

Approximately half of the pier — the extension over the ocean — has been closed since December 2023 due to concerns about its structural integrity. It will remain off-limits “for the foreseeable future,” the association announced Oct. 6.

LaTourette was scheduled to either affirm, reject or modify an administrative judge’s ruling in June in favor of allowing the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association to continue blocking beach access on Sundays.

However, a third extension was granted to allow more time for the state Department of Environmental Protection to make a decision.

The new deadline was Dec. 26, five months before the start of the summer beach season. An earlier 45-day extension was granted in September.

OCEAN GROVE, NJ — Ocean Grove must open its beaches to the public starting at 9 a.m. on summer Sundays, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) mandated in this final order it released Dec. 26.

The ruling ends a legal battle that's been simmering for years between the state of New Jersey and Ocean Grove, which was founded as a seaside retreat for Methodist religious groups and still has a strong Christian presence today.

Nearly all of the land in Ocean Grove is owned by the Camp Meeting Association, a Methodist Christian 501(c)3 non-profit. Every Sunday in the summer, the Camp Meeting Association closes public access to Ocean Grove's beaches, saying the town wants a quiet atmosphere so residents can go to church. From 9 a.m. to noon on summer Sundays, the Camp Meeting Association puts a chain and padlock on the beach's main entrance. This is only on Sundays in the summer months, when the town is at a full population; the beaches are open daily the rest of the year.

For years, the DEP and multiple New Jersey Attorneys General have argued that is violating New Jersey's Public Access Law, which says all beaches in the state must be accessible to the public, within reason.

In July, New Jersey administrative law judge Tricia Caliguire sided with Ocean Grove, and said they are allowed to keep the beaches closed.

But NJ DEP commissioner Shawn LaTourette was allowed to overrule her, and he did in his Dec. 26 decision. New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin had already filed an objection to Caliguire's decision in July, calling on LaTourette to overrule it.

"For centuries, the public trust doctrine has ensured the right of New Jerseyans to freely access (beaches)," LaTourette wrote on page two of his final order. "State law requires public access to privately-owned beaches. Furthermore, the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association has for decades accepted and enjoyed the benefit of substantial state investment in the nourishment of its privately-owned beach, which publicly funded projects are explicitly conditioned on the provision of public access. In view of these rights and obligations, Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association's summer Sunday morning beach closures are an unjustifiable violation of the public’s right to access."

Michael Badger, past president of the Camp Meeting Association, previously told Patch he thinks the town is a victim of religious persecution from the state of New Jersey.

"Keeping the beaches closed leads to a quieter, less crowded and more relaxed Sunday morning in Ocean Grove: You do not have the crowds that you have on a Saturday morning. You don't have the jingle from the ice cream trucks running up and down the beach. You can get a parking space so you can walk to breakfast or yes, walk to church," he told Patch in this 2023 article.

He also argues there are many other Jersey Shore towns that close or partially block off their beaches from time to time — and are not threatened by the state.

"After Long Branch had that problem with the pop-up parties, they closed their beaches at night," Badger said. "And Asbury Park, which just had the Sea.Hear.Now festival, put barricades up at either end of their beaches to prevent people from getting onto the beach. Those barricades were in place all weekend."

In recent summers, both Ocean City and Seaside Heights have closed their beaches at 8 p.m. to discourage teens from gathering there. Neither town was issued a violation notice from the state.

The Attorney General previously said beaches can be closed when there is a safety risk to the public, or environmental concerns.

This past summer: Judge Rules Ocean Grove Can Keep Beaches Closed On Sunday Mornings (July 2025)