Partial ban on booze starts Saturday at Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett

A partial ban on alcohol along a 2,000-foot stretch of Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett begins Saturday, East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said.

Signs announcing the ban were installed Friday, with enforcement beginning this morning, Cantwell said.

The partial booze ban is in effect when lifeguards are on duty, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.

The ban was requested by beachgoers complaining of rowdy behavior, including public urination, and was approved unanimously July 17 by the East Hampton Town Board.

The New York secretary of state's office certified the law on July 22, Cantwell said Friday.

Cantwell says the ban shows "drunk and rowdy behavior on the beach is not going to be tolerated."

He said the ban would be enforced by marine patrol officers, traffic control officers and the lifeguards. "We'll have personnel either on site or on call to respond" to complaints, Cantwell said.

The town board initially weighed a proposal to ban drinking at Indian Wells and Atlantic Avenue beaches. That proposal was scrapped amid a dispute between the town board and town trustees over which body has jurisdiction over town beaches.

Town trustees, who generally are responsible for town waterways and beaches, instead accepted a modified proposal to ban alcohol only at Indian Wells.

Residents and officials said drinking at Indian Wells appeared to have abated. Alcohol-related summonses are down this summer; police issued about 60 summonses each in 2012 and 2013 for violations such as public urination, littering and having open containers of alcohol, officials said.

A separate alcohol ban went into effect Friday on sections of beach along Fire Island National Seashore, just west of Ocean Beach. The federal government is prohibiting alcohol consumption on two 300-foot-wide stretches between the Islip communities of Atlantique, Robbins Rest and Corneille Estates / Summer Club.