Daily News | After a massive summer surge, Pocono beaches consider crowd control
Parking lots in Beltzville State Park in Lehighton, Carbon County, can fill up early and there are several lots in the park.LEHIGHTON, Pa. — The line to get into Beltzville Lake State Park on weekends forms long before dawn, with cars lined up beneath the stars along a hilly, two-lane road in the Poconos.
The park, with its 500-foot-wide beach along Beltzville Lake, opened in 1972 and has been busy since the 1980s, Monk said, but mostly on weekends. The COVID-19 pandemic push to get outside changed that dynamic, however, at both Beltzville and most other state and county parks and once-secret swimming holes.
Mendez and a large group of family and friends were grilling beside a picnic table beneath an oak tree. He said the park, just under 60 miles north of Reading, is the closest beach. Beltzville has no daily-use fee and doesn’t charge for parking, though many on the beach wondered if that would ever change. In 2016, State Rep. Doyle Heffley told WNEP-TV that he received a petition with nearly 2,000 signatures from people complaining about crowding conditions at the lake. There is a Facebook group called “Beltzville State Park Concerned Citizens” and another called “Coming together to save Beltzville.
”I’m not looking to gouge anyone,” he said. “But a fee would go a long way toward helping with the infrastructure and trash disposal.” Monk said changes have already been made to deal with the crowding. The park, for instance, no longer allows overflow parking on fields there.One alternative for people turned away from Beltzville has been Mauch Chunk Lake Park, just 10 miles west in Jim Thorpe. The park, which charges a small user fee, is operated by Carbon County and has its own beach and lake — and its own crowding problems.
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