NJ residents feeling impact of government shutdown

<p>State-run beaches, parks, courts and the Motor Vehicle Commission offices are all closed today due to the state government shutdown.</p>

News 12 Staff

Jul 3, 2017, 10:50 AM

Updated 2,635 days ago

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State-run beaches, parks, courts and the Motor Vehicle Commission offices are all closed today due to the state government shutdown.
On any given busy day with good weather, Island Beach State Park sees about 5,000 vehicles a day.  Since Saturday, guards only let a handful of vehicles associated with Gov. Chris Christie pass through the gates.
And fewer cars means less business on what's supposed to be the busiest weekend of the year for Shore tourism.   
Bum Rogers Crab House sits just outside the gates at Island Beach State Park, and the owner says the shutdown hurts his and other local shops. 
"Everyone's gotten hurt by it," said owner Gary Jablonski.  "There's just less cars around, and I know some people are just devastated…they do a lot of their business for the whole year this weekend, and they are down at least 40 to 50 percent."
Across the bay in Toms River, customer after customer left the shuttered Motor Vehicle Commission offices in disgust.  A now iconic sign on the front door showing a picture of State Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto alerting would-be customers they weren't getting inside. 
Denise Rosetto, of H&D Rosetto Inc., wanted to get her registration up-to-date on two work trucks, now they'll sit idle until the shutdown is lifted. 
"Please don't let this happen," said Rosetto.  "Deal with it a different way ahead of time don't make us victims…it's not fair."