Wildwood Considering Beach Tags Once Again

The idea will be discussed at a commissioners meeting next week. Wildwood recently adopted a budget that raised property taxes.

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Just over a year since the last time Wildwood considered charging for its beach, the mayor says the city is once again considering beach tags. Previous attempts at instituting beach tags came in 1976 and 1981.

Most of the South Jersey shore beaches cost money; only Atlantic City and the three municipalities of the Wildwoods are free. The plan to bring beach tags to Wildwood, which will be discussed next Wednesday at a Wildwood Board of Commissioners meeting, would not effect the beaches in North Wildwood or Wildwood Crest. Though one has to imagine beach tags in Wildwood would make those towns more likely to start charging for the beaches, leaders of both said they weren’t interested in beach tags last year.

The last time Wildwood considered charging for its beaches, the city said it hoped to raise $1.2 million from beach fees. Beach upkeep costs $2 million a year in Wildwood.

“It’s just been kicked around,” Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr. told the Wildwood Leader. “We’ll look at it, see if that is something that would benefit the taxpayer.” The city planned a referendum on beach tags last year but shelved the idea. A new budget for the city increased property tax rates, however.

In other Wildwood news, a man was shot by a crossbow in the Gilmore Hotel on Schellenger Avenue.

[NBC 10 | Wildwood Leader]