By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Sea Isle City is planning to raise the price of beach tags for the first time since 2011 to help pay for the growing expense of maintaining its 4½ miles of shoreline.
City Council introduced an ordinance Tuesday that includes a $5 across-the board price hike for seasonal, weekly and daily beach tags. A public hearing and final vote on the ordinance are scheduled for Council’s Oct. 24 meeting.
Under the proposal, seasonal tags that are good for the entire summer would rise from the current price of $25 to $30. Sea Isle offers a discount on seasonal beach tags if they are bought before May 15. The discounted price will increase from $20 to $25.
Weekly beach tags will increase from the current price of $10 to $15 and dailies will double from $5 to $10.
Revenue generated by beach tag sales is an important source of funding. It covers the cost of keeping the beaches clean, collecting the trash, employing lifeguards and hiring summer police officers. The revenue also helps to pay for Sea Isle’s share of beach replenishment projects, including one that is scheduled for this fall.
“The fees for beach tags have not been changed since 2011, and we believe this is a reasonable cost for the summer usage of the beaches given the magnitude of services that are provided during the season, as well as for the services required to maintain our beaches throughout the year,” Mayor Leonard Desiderio said at the Council meeting.
Beach tag revenue is usually in the $1.3 million to $1.4 million range annually for Sea Isle. For the summer of 2023, it came in at $1.3 million, a slight drop from $1.319 million for the same period in 2022, according to Sea Isle’s chief financial officer Jennifer McIver.
Sea Isle’s all-time record for beach tag sales was set in 2015 with $1,471,321 in revenue.
Desiderio said the city’s expenses for cleaning and protecting the beaches continue to go up. As an example, he cited the city’s plan to buy more of the popular beach mats that make it easier for senior citizens, people with disabilities and families with young children to walk across the deep sand.
Sea Isle is also responsible for paying a 12 percent share of a beach replenishment project this fall in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Desiderio estimated Sea Isle’s cost for the project will be around $3 million.
Tropical Storm Ophelia caused significant erosion on Sea Isle’s beaches over the weekend in the downtown area as well as the southern tip of the island in Townsends Inlet. Those parts of Sea Isle, fortunately, are the same areas that the Army Corps of Engineers plans to restore with the beach replenishment project.
“In regard to our beaches, as we all know, we just experienced some rough weather over the weekend, which took a toll on our beaches with a fair amount of erosion – particularly to the downtown and south end beaches,” Desiderio said.
“The good news is that a beach replenishment project is scheduled to be awarded soon by the Army Corps of Engineers,” he added.
According to plans, 252,000 cubic yards of fresh sand will be placed in central Sea Isle from about 29th Street to 53rd Street. Another 388,000 cubic yards of new sand will restore the beach in the south end from about 73rd Street up to Townsends Inlet, Army Corps spokesman Steve Rochette said.
Bids have been opened for the beach replenishment project – which also includes Strathmere and the southern end of Ocean City – and are being evaluated by the Army Corps before a contract is awarded, Rochette said.
Meanwhile, beach tags are required in Sea Isle from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Children under the age of 12 are allowed on the beach for free.
Sea Isle also has a special program for military veterans and active-duty servicemen and women. Complimentary weekly beach tags are given to eligible active-duty military personnel and their families. Veterans are eligible for one complimentary seasonal beach tag.
For more than 25 years, Sea Isle has also offered a perk to beachgoers by not charging them for beach tags on Wednesdays. Throughout the summer, Wednesdays are the one day of the week when Sea Isle’s beaches are free.
The free beach days on Wednesdays traditionally are popular with day-trippers, church groups, youth summer camps and other organizations looking to save money.
