Prison-Built Beach Lockers a Big Hit in Seaside Heights

Beach locker boxes manufactured in a job training program with the New Jersey Department of Corrections. (Photo: Wildwood Crest Borough)

A growing number of colorful lockers available for rent by beachgoers is coming to Seaside Heights, with some placed at an additional location for the coming season.

The lockers arrived in town in the middle of the summer last year, and quickly became popular with sun-worshipers looking for a spot to keep a change of clothes, personal items or whatever else they might need to store while taking in the sand and surf. The lockers, built from timber with shingles to keep them dry, are sold to municipalities by the state Department of Corrections.

While inmate work programs often elicit images of a stereotypical license plate manufacturing operation, programs that promote valuable trade skills in New Jersey’s correctional system offer opportunities to build different types of structures and devices that are both solidly-made and aesthetically pleasing. Numerous Jersey Shore towns have purchased the beach locker boxes through the program, including several in Cape May County. Seaside Heights was the first local community to purchase them – and they proved to be a big hit.

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This year, they will be found along the oceanfront and, for the first time, at Sunset Beach – the official name of the southern bayfront area near the municipal dock and bay beach.

“We put several down by the bay,” said Mayor Anthony Vaz. “We’ve gotten some more and we’ve reallocated some there after getting some requests for that. They sold out last season, and it was only half a season.”

Beach lockers in Seaside Heights, N.J.’s Sunset Beach. (Photo: Shorebeat)

Beach lockers in Seaside Heights, N.J.’s Sunset Beach. (Photo: Shorebeat)

The borough recently added a reservation form on its website for those interested in renting one of the lockers. They are priced at $300 for the entire season, May 26 to June 30, or $150 for monthly periods between the same dates.

This year, the lockers will be placed at numerous locations around the borough:

• Hiering Ave. & Ocean Terrace (Off the Beach)
• Lincoln Ave. (On the Beach)
  
• Franklin Ave. (On the Beach)
  
• Webster Ave. (On the Beach)
  
• Kearney Ave. (On the Beach)
  
• Fremont/Hancock (On the Beach)
• Sunset Beach (Near the Boardwalk)

The beach locker program began on a trial basis last summer, with officials aiming to gauge its popularity.

“People really liked them, and they’re selling out very quickly,” said Vaz. “We’d like to obtain more. We got these from the prison system, there was a lot of demand, and the question now is where we can put more of them.”