A boat launch and recreation area in a Burlington County town are closed to out-of-town residents after it became too busy over the past few weekends.

“We’ve been tracking this probably for the last three weekends down there and gradually, every weekend, it had to be becoming worse and worse,” says City of Bordentown Mayor James Lynch.

Lynch says that it was a personal watercraft accident over the weekend that was the last straw at the boat launch.

“We had a very difficult time getting down there with the ambulance and the rescue boats,” he says.

Lynch says the boat launch and recreation area are now accessible to only Bordentown City, Bordentown Township and Fieldsboro residents only, or those who already have a season pass. The picnic areas are also closed.

“That’s where a lot of families were coming down, picnicking there, not social distancing, not picking up after themselves when they left. It was a mess,” he says. “The garbage cans were overflowing and they were swimming, so I had to do something to err on the side of caution.”

With high temperatures expected this weekend, Lynch says that Bordentown police will be set up at the entrance to control who is allowed down in the area. He says that he and the chief of police will re-evaluate the situation Monday morning.

“There’s no worse feeling in the world than we’re getting that phone call that somebody drowned in the river and the boats are dispatched,” says Lynch. “That’s a horrible feeling and I’ll take the criticism on this one, but hopefully it’s going to be short-lived and we’ll have some responsibility down there.”

The mayor says that they're used to seeing about 10 daily permits sold per day on the weekends, but in recent weeks they've seen a couple of dozen sold, prompting the shutdown.