Point Pleasant Beach Keeps Midnight Bar Closing

Bars in one of New Jersey’s most popular beach towns will have to close at midnight starting in July.

The council in Point Pleasant Beach unexpectedly rejected an ordinance Tuesday night that would have let the bars remain open until 2 a.m. if they paid an extra fee to fund additional police patrols.

Residential neighborhoods have long complained of rowdy bar patrons returning to their cars in the early morning hours.

The borough and boardwalk bars tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a deal to help pay for added patrols to cut down on neighborhood disturbances. The bars had offered $800,000 over five years.

The bars and others have asked the state to void the midnight closing ordinance that the borough passed last month.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)