Executive Order No 2 Issued Closing Beaches

3/21/2020

3/21/20 @ 4:55 p.m. - We regret to inform you that Executive Order No. 2 was just issued closing the County's beaches effective at 6am on Sunday, March 22nd. This includes all pedestrian and horse traffic, in addition to the vehicular traffic and camping that was temporarily restricted in accordance with Executive Order No. 1 issued earlier today. Any person on the beach after 6am tomorrow morning will be trespassed and subject to a misdemeanor in the second degree.

Should you have any questions, please contact the County Manager's Office at (904) 530-6010 between 8am and 5pm, Monday-Friday. Or you can email us at [email protected].

-Sabrina Robertson
County Manager's Office

5 Comments

Kimberley Spivey

3/22/2020 01:33:24 pm

Will exercise in the form of walking or jogging be allowed on the beaches? What about for property owners?

Howard Mac

3/23/2020 12:32:02 pm

Closing the beaches is excessive and ridiculous. It is the only open space for many and “social Distancing” can certainly be practiced. We all want to stop the preaching of the virus but unreasonable laws such as “executive order #2” is punishing, not productive. Enforcing social distancing would be a much more productive law.

Sabrina Robertson

3/23/2020 12:34:14 pm

Thank you for reaching out to express your views on the beach situation. As you know, this is certainly an unprecedented event and we are having to make tough decisions to ensure the safety of our residents.

We decided initially on Saturday to only restrict vehicles on the beach as this seemed to be what was causing the large areas of congregating. However Saturday afternoon, the City of Fernandina Beach made the decision to close their beaches which consists of everything north of Peters Point. This would have caused everyone to migrate south the County beaches and our areas were already difficult to manage. The County’s Health Director, Sheriff, and Emergency Management Director determined that the best solution was to follow suit and close our beaches as well.

We are reevaluating this issue and looking for alternatives to be able to provide some limited access to the beach. The biggest challenge is that the Sheriff’s Office just doesn’t have enough deputies to patrol all areas of the beach to ensure people are maintaining their distance or to check IDs of every person on the beach to see whether or not they are a resident. We will continue to evaluate this and will make decisions based upon recommendations of the Health Director. Public safety is our first priority and we fear that if “word” gets out that our beaches are open, people from surrounding areas will flock here.

Please keep in mind public parks and bike trails are still available for use should you need somewhere else to walk or bike in the meantime.

Thank you for your patience as we navigate unchartered waters and try to find a solution to accommodate the residents with their safety in mind.

Ric Domnitz

3/23/2020 12:45:41 pm

It seems that those of us who are property owners on the beach are being punished because of the conduct of others migrating toour beaches. Perhaps the best move would be to restrict beach access to property owners and their family. The Sheriff has been doing an admirable job policing the current beach ban and their very presence would likely keep the beach restricted to property owner access. That would greatly reduce the stress to owners and their family utilizing social distancing.

Sabrina Robertson

3/23/2020 02:50:58 pm

We are reevaluating this issue and looking for alternatives to be able to provide some limited access to the beach. The biggest challenge is that the Sheriff’s Office just doesn’t have enough deputies to patrol all areas of the beach to ensure people are maintaining their distance or to check IDs of every person on the beach to see whether or not they are a resident. Also, we never want to give the impression that the beach is off-limits to everyone except those residing or having property on the beach. As you know, this has been a point of contention for quite some time.

We will continue to evaluate this and will make decisions based upon recommendations of the Health Director. Public safety is our first priority and we fear that if “word” gets out that our beaches are open, people from surrounding areas will flock here.

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Nassau County, Florida

Executive Order No 2 Issued Closing Beaches

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