By Donald Wittkowski
From Kathy McFarland’s vantage point, it appears that Sea Isle City is having a strong summer season.
McFarland has been one of the city’s beach tag inspectors for seven years. It is her job to make sure that everyone heading to the beach at John F. Kennedy Boulevard has a tag. If they don’t, she sells them one.
Business was so brisk on Tuesday morning that she was already dipping into a second bag of beach tags to sell.
“It’s been great,” McFarland said of the summer season.
Citywide beach tag sales seem to back her up. Through Aug. 12, Sea Isle had racked up slightly more than $1.3 million in total beach tag revenue, about $7,200 more than the same period last year.
“Despite some of the rain we had, we’re on a good pace,” City Business Administrator George Savastano said about beach tag revenue.
Sea Isle had conservatively estimated about $1.2 million in beach tag revenue for 2018 as part of its municipal budget projections, so it has already easily eclipsed that number for the year.
Year after year, beach tag sales are a key barometer of the strength of the summer tourism season. In Sea Isle’s case, the all-time record was set in 2015 with $1,471,321 in beach tag revenue.
Beach tag sales also broke the $1.4 million barrier in both 2016 and 2017, but fell slightly shy of 2015’s record number.
By tracking ahead of 2017’s numbers so far this year, it appears the summer of 2018 will be another $1.4 million year for beach tag revenue. Beach tags are required through Labor Day weekend, giving Sea Isle a few more weeks to collect more sales.
Beach tag sales this year are all the more impressive considering the spate of rainy weather in June and part of July that made the early summer rather gloomy at the Jersey Shore.
“The summer has been good in spite of the weather,” Sea Isle Mayor Leonard Desiderio said.
Desiderio had some harsh words not for the weather, but for the people who are responsible for forecasting it. He said the weathercasters have gotten the forecast wrong far too often this summer, which has unnecessarily scared away visitors to the shore.
“On Sunday, they’ll tell you it will rain on Friday or Saturday of next week, but it doesn’t,” Desiderio said. “They’re the only ones who can be wrong and still keep their job.”
On a typical summer weekend, about 50,000 to 60,000 visitors will pour into Sea Isle, compared to the town’s year-round population of 2,100. During peak summer days, such as the Fourth of July, the number of tourists will balloon to 65,000 to 75,000, city officials say.
Underscoring the drawing power of the beaches, Cindy and Chuck Harper traveled to Sea Isle from their home in Tse Bonito, New Mexico, to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.
“We love the ocean. We love New Jersey. We got married here 30 years ago,” Cindy Harper said of their wedding in Chatham, Morris County.
The Harpers were heading to the beach Tuesday at JFK Boulevard, where they met up with McFarland. After exchanging smiles and some pleasantries, McFarland made sure the Harpers had their beach tags.
Revenue generated by beach tag sales is an important source of funding for the city. It covers the cost of keeping the beaches clean, collecting the trash, employing lifeguards and hiring summer police officers.
With beach tag revenue absorbing the cost, local taxpayers are saved from having to pay for all of those things, said Paula Doll, Sea Isle’s chief financial officer.
