The beaches of tiny, quirky Strathmere may be in their last tag-free season.
The Upper Township Committee, the governmental body that includes Strathmere and its mainland counterpart, is considering beach tags that would cost as much as $45 for the season, said administrator James Van Zlike.
Strathmere’s possible move to a paid beach will leave only Atlantic City, Wildwood, North Wildwood, and Wildwood Crest as free oceanfront beaches in Atlantic and Cape May County.
“We didn’t want to do it,” Van Zlike said. He said beach patrol personnel costs alone were over $500,000 per season, and the township was responsible for $2.1 million for the current beach replenishment project. “Beaches are expensive to run and maintain and operate.”
The proposed pricing for the tags would be $10 daily, $20 weekly, and a seasonal tag of $45 with a pre-season discounted rate of $30, he said, which would generate about $320,000. Veterans and active duty military would be exempt.
The beach patrol’s headquarters had to be demolished after bad weather and beach erosion left it in a precarious state. The township has yet to rebuild it.
Although ending the free beach status is anathema to many, Mayor Curtis T. Corson, Jr., said at the July committee meeting it came down to beaches or parking, both of which are currently free in Strathmere.
The township determined it would be more cost effective to hire two roaming beach tag checkers than to retrofit the town’s narrow streets for parking meters, and create a parking enforcement bureaucracy.
“We don’t have parking meters, we don’t have a parking authority, we don’t have any of that,” the mayor said at the July 13 meeting. “We would actually, because of the narrow streets, lose parking spots.”
Neighboring Sea Isle’s beach tags max out at $30 for the season, but Corson noted the city takes in $1.7 million in parking meter fees.
“We take in zero for parking fees,” he said.
Reaction was mostly negative on Facebook groups, with many questioning why any of the beaches in New Jersey required a beach tag. “Terrible idea,” said one poster. “Residents already pay high taxes.”
Corson said state law would not allow them to give residents of Upper Township a discounted price.
A beach tag ordinance will likely be introduced at an August meeting, Van Zlike said. The township last considered instituting beach tags in 2021.