Margate: We are ready for ‘Club Wa’ teen beach invasion

MARGATE, N.J. — Summer homeowners in Margate had an idea.

To discourage the hundreds of teenagers who leave suburban Philly homes to swarm Margate’s beaches and turn the Wawa into Club Wa over Memorial Day, prompting viral mayhem, the city should start requiring beach tags over the holiday weekend.

The summer homeowners volunteered to “man the bulkheads”: to collect the money for beach tags or send the teens away. The city said no thanks. Seasonal beach tags ($7 before June 1, $15 after) won’t be required until mid-June.

“They don’t think it would be a good idea and would be putting the homeowners maybe in harm’s way,” said Jay Weintraub, a financial planner from Bucks County who founded the Margate Homeowners Association.

“OK. They don’t want volunteers," he said. "Unless they get the fireman or policemen to man the bulkheads, there won’t be any changes this year.”

But the city said it’s ready. Officials are plotting strategy for the annual invasion, in which hundreds of teenagers have gathered on the beaches, some fighting, drinking, and causing a related ruckus around the nearby Wawa, dubbed Club Wa by sardonic locals for its unlikely cult status as a hangout for teens down the Shore.

Margate Commissioner John Amodeo, who oversees public safety, met with Police Chief David Wolfson and other officials earlier this week to review the city’s game plan.

“The Police Department has an excellent plan in place,” Amodeo said Wednesday. “A lot of it can’t be made public. They’re setting up certain things. What they’ve learned over the last two years is what they have to do to man the areas that are most impacted. That’s what’s in the works.”

Amodeo said police and the city analyzed the last two years, when the teenaged crowds reached nearly 1,000, to see where the congestion was.

He said additional police would be assigned to shifts over Memorial Day weekend and overtime was being offered to the entire 29-member department to further bulk up holiday staffing.

“There will be police officers stationed throughout Margate," he said. "As needed they will be positioned as to what the control center will determine. They want to see if they can disperse the crowds before they actually congregate and cause problems.”

Wawa, he said, will increase security around its store on Washington Avenue as it did in the last two years to control the large gatherings of mostly suburban Philly teens who, when down the Shore, seem to view Wawa as the center of their social life, making it difficult for others to just go and get a half-gallon of iced tea.

Wawa spokesperson Lori Bruce confirmed that security at the Margate store would be enhanced over Memorial Day weekend. “Yes, and we plan to continue the same successful security measures we took last year which resulted in [a] good experience for all of our customers,” Bruce added in an email.

Amodeo said the city cannot legally prevent anyone from coming to its beaches. He said requiring beach tags in May was not practical. He said he wished the kids were merely coming to the beach to play bean-bag games.

“It’s public access,” he said. “Only after they’re intoxicated can they search a backpack.”

He also noted that when juveniles are taken in for being intoxicated, they are not jailed, but rather remain at the Margate police station until their parents arrive, further straining city resources.

“Last year, they were sitting in the Police Department waiting for 12 hours waiting for parents to come from Blue Bell,” Amodeo said. “The police are going to be very proactive. They’re going to keep Margate safe. We’re going to handle it.”

“Officers will be stationed in our business district so that people who want to patronize the stores will be able to get into the stores,” he said.

Weintraub said the summer homeowners won’t be leaving their beach chairs or barbecues to become self-styled shoobie sheriffs.

“We cannot be vigilantes and police the beaches,” Weintraub said. "Some people would love to do that. The police will have to handle it."

Amodeo may have further strained relations with owners of second homes at the Shore when he said at a March 21 public meeting that everyone could just hope for rain on Memorial Day as a solution — a comment that did not go over well with the second-home crowd, which all winter long dreams of sunny May beach days. Amodeo said he was joking.

“Quite honestly, that infuriated a lot of people in Margate to be such a callous response,” Weintraub said. “The sad part is the kids are destroying property. Somebody came outside, there was a young couple fornicating in back of their car. Two kids were peeing on the side of the house. The city’s not responding in that way. They’re just burying their heads in the sand and hoping it goes away.”

With attention on Margate, the problem has the potential to merely shift across the border. Amodeo said the neighboring towns of Ventnor and Longport are on alert as well.