Presently the beach area of Mauch Chunk Lake Park is restricted to Carbon County residents only. And they seem to be relishing it.

“It wasn’t crowded at all today,” said Monica Pascolli of Jim Thorpe. “I’m enjoying this. I hear they might open it to out of town people again and if that happens and we have people coming from Allentown and Hazleton, I don’t know if I’ll come back.”

Since early this month, the beach and swimming area have been designated as county-use only by the Carbon County Commissioners.

As a result, social distancing as prescribed by health officials due to the COVID-19 outbreak has been obvious.

Noah Rodgers, a lifeguard, said presently he and other lifeguards patrol the beach by walking around. He said they haven’t been sitting on guard stools.

He said he feels fairly safe from COVID-19 because “Carbon County is a low incident area.”

The resolution adopted June 4 by the commissioners state that the Carbon-only rules will stay in effect either through June 30 or while Carbon County is in the yellow phase of the COVID-19 parameters. Carbon moved to green status in early June.

Jason McElmoyle of Jim Thorpe said personnel seem to be enforcing the county-only resident rule. He said he had to show his driver’s license before coming into the park.

Jon Demetrine of Lehighton said he loves the beach at Mauch Chunk.

“I love it more now that it’s not so packed,” he said. “I bring my family here a lot.”

Because it’s for Carbon only residents, no fee is presently being charged for park admission.

The refreshment stand at Mauch Chunk Lake Park is open. The girls manning the stand - Megan Rosahac, Cloey Sterling, Anna Figura and Leah Figura - said they were busy selling mostly ice cream.

The resident-only policy does not pertain to boaters. The boating docks are not in the beach area.