By Freeholder Candidate Danielle Davies
It’s a well-established fact that if you really value something, you should take care of it.
So why isn’t the Board of Chosen Freeholders exhausting every possible avenue to ensure we don’t lose the cash cow that is our tourism economy?
Tourism appears to be the industry upon which Cape May County hangs its hat. Tourism–related jobs make up to 60 percent of the county’s workforce, according to previous statements made by Diane Wieland, Cape May County Director of Tourism. Our county generated $6.3 billion in tourism revenues in 2016.
The one thing that all of those tourists have in common? They have to get here.
So why—after cultivating a tourist economy and spending resources boosting a shoulder season—aren’t the freeholders taking pains to make sure the actual tourists can get where they’re going?
What happens when all of our antiquated, unsafe and crumbling bridges finally fail us for good and tourists can’t get to their destinations? Or we have a major event during tourist season and one of the access bridges to the islands is out? Will that be enough to finally get them replaced?
Is that a chance Cape May County is willing to take?
Freeholder Director Thornton has mentioned that “it would probably be around $700 or $800 million dollars” to replace all of the bridges in the County of Cape May.
No one assumes that getting the funding for our infrastructure is an easy task. However, the Board of Chosen Freeholders has been at it for quite some time. If they’ve been trying to secure funding from the federal and state governments, then they’ve failed.
And if they aren’t prioritizing our infrastructure—the very infrastructure that is responsible for supporting our tourism revenue, not to mention public safety—then they’ve most definitely failed.
If you really value something—such as our dependency on a tourism economy—shouldn’t you be doing absolutely everything you can to take care of it?
We think so.
Vote for change this November. Vote for Davies and Wall for Freeholder.
Ordered and paid for by the Cape May County Regular Democratic Organization
P.O. Box 104, S. Seaville, NJ 08246
