East Hampton lawmakers are close to enacting an alcohol ban at Indian Wells Beach after rowdy out-of-towners held wild, spring break-style parties there over the last two summers, according to The Associated Press.
The usually family-friendly stretch has become an issue for residents who now calling it "Fratster Beach," the AP reported.
Officials said the worst offenders would drink themselves to oblivion, stumble drunkenly into the surf, use the sand dunes as toilets and expose other beachgoers, including children, to an uncensored array of unseemly acts, according to the AP.
In addition to being the only municipality on the east end of Long Island that allows alcohol on the beach, East Hampton is one of the few tourist destinations in the country where drinking on the beach is still allowed, the AP reported.
Towns in the Carolinas and Florida started banning drinking on their beaches in the 1970s, according to the AP. San Diego enacted a ban in 2008 after a Labor Day celebration turned violent.
Dan Limmer says he and other Long Islanders have had to abide by drinking bans in other towns for years, and called East Hampton "behind the times," the AP reported.
"Why is a law being created now when it's always been a law on other beaches?" Limmer says, according to the AP. "They shouldn't have a different set of rules. We can't drink, so why should they?"
Citing complaints about such behavior, East Hampton councilwoman Sylvia Overby proposed a measure in the spring to completely ban alcohol at Indian Wells and an adjacent beach during daytime lifeguard hours, the AP reported.
This week, ahead of the long Fourth of July weekend that is expected to attract tens of thousands of visitors, they came to an agreement: a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ban on alcohol on the main 2,000-foot stretch of the beach where most visitors congregate and lifeguards patrol during swimming hours, according to the AP. A public hearing on the proposed ban is scheduled for July 17.
Supervisor Larry Cantwell says East Hampton is open to all comers as long as they're responsible, the AP reported.
"It's the behavior that's being created by the drinking that's the problem," Cantwell says, according to the AP.
