"Property owners here are already paying a beach fee in the form of the taxes they pay. . . . It seems unfair to keep expecting they will be the ones to bear all of that burden as costs continue to rise," said Wildwood City Commissioner Pete Byron, who said the bill for keeping the beach clean had risen about 14 percent annually in recent years.
Officials are completing an analysis to determine whether the badges would cost too much in the long run, Byron said. Wildwood has such a vast oceanfront - about two miles long and nearly a half-mile wide in spots - that it may be too expensive to create restricted-access points where badges could be checked and sold, he said.
The city also is investigating whether different revenue-generating activities on the expanse might prove as lucrative - and less infuriating to tourists. Private cabanas, beach bars, RV camping areas, storage-box rentals, and expanding the resort's new offseason horseback-riding program all have been mentioned, Byron said. No timetable has been set for a decision.
One possibility is to put the badge question to voters in the form of a referendum, which has not happened in Wildwood for 30 years. In any case, the beaches will be free in 2012.
If tags prove necessary, Wildwood would sell them for less than the Shore average of $5 daily, $10 weekly, and $20 for the season, Byron said.
Nearly all Shore resorts - with the exception of Strathmere, Atlantic City, and the Wildwoods - require beachgoers to buy badges. In most places, that has been the case for more than four decades. Towns are not allowed to profit from the sale of tags.
