No more tolerance for booze at the Beach

SYLVAN BEACH, N.Y. » Officials are beefing up security at the Beach.

Following a viral video of a multiple person fight and other instances of out-of-hand drinking, Sylvan Beach has had enough.

Mayor Gregory Horan says the village is not only enlisting additional help from the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office, it’s also contracting security agency GT Cornerstone from Boonville to work the beach on weekends to crack down on drinking. The drinking is disruptive and disrespectful to residents on the beach, Horan said, and leads to increased amounts of trash left behind at the family venue.

“We feel we have no choice,” Horan said. “There has always been a no alcohol policy on the beach.”

As of late however, Horan says drinking on the beach has reached new heights of excess this summer.

“We can’t tolerate it,” he added.

Drinking is not allowed on the beach, period, Horan says, and signs and part-time employees help enforce that policy.

“We want the right crowd here,” the Sylvan Beach mayor said, adding that the beach is for the entire family. “It has just reached a point where I feel we have to do something.”

Sylvan Beach is going to use $25,000 from its portion of Oneida Indian Nation gam- ing revenue to hire additional Oneida County deputies and the private Boonville contractors to beef up patrol during weekends. Deputies will increase their patrol on Saturdays and Sundays, while the contracted security will monitor the beach Friday through Sunday.

“We didn’t relish that,” Horan said in reference to the $25,000 tab. “But some residents have been requesting [stricter enforcement.]”

Part of the impetus for beef-

ing up security at the Beach stems from a recent board meeting in which some 40 residents attended to voice their displeasure with the latest incidents at the beach and the level of drinking involved.

“We are not just throwing money at it. We are going to start slow and steady and evaluate the effect,” Horan explained. “We’re going to get ahead of this.”

The Sylvan Beach mayor expects the full security presence to be in place prior to the July 4 holiday weekend.

DISPATCH FILE PHOTO Bathers enjoy the summer weather at Sylvan Beach.

DISPATCH FILE PHOTO Tyler Cianfrocco decided he wanted to play in the sand when his grandmother, Nannette James, took him to Sylvan Beach for ice cream.