Boardwalk Amenities an Issue, Resident Says

WILDWOOD – For the past two Wildwood Board of Commissioners meetings, Wildwood resident Alexander Brannen has raised the issue of Boardwalk bathrooms and other amenities not being available when there are still plenty of visitors in town. 
Brannen said that after Sept. 12 there were no restrooms open on the Wildwood Boardwalk, while other shore towns are providing comfort facilities. He also said the benches and trash cans between Cresse Avenue and the Convention Center are rusted or in bad shape. 
“You can’t take a pee, you can’t sit on a bench, you can’t put trash in a trash can…is that what a tourist town is all about?” he asked. 
Mayor Pete Byron said the restrooms are not maintained by Wildwood Public Works but fall under the jurisdiction of the Boardwalk Special Improvement District (SID). 
“The mayor of North Wildwood is the (SID) president – you will have to ask him,” Byron said. 
North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello said he has a management company that has a contract with the SID. He also serves as the executive director. The public restrooms on the Wildwood Boardwalk, he said, are owned by the City of Wildwood but about 10 years ago Wildwood stopped its ownership and staffing of the restrooms. The care of the restrooms was taken over by the SID, which is a private, nonprofit company. The members of the nonprofit are the property owners on the Boardwalk, who all pay a special assessment on their tax bills, which is used for various things, including operating the restrooms. Commissioner Krista Fitzsimons suggested the SID could reallocate some money to keep the restrooms open longer.  
Rosenello said the SID sets the schedule for the Boardwalk restrooms, which he said costs a quarter-million dollars per year for salaries and wages.
“They try to cover peak times and hours,” he said. 
Rosenello said it’s very expensive to keep the restrooms open as much as some would like, especially with the minimum wage as it currently is. The 2022 New Jersey minimum wage was $13 per hour, and it is increasing to $14.13 in 2023. However, they are looking at the 2023 budget now and will release a final schedule for restroom operation around the new year. 
At the Oct. 12 commissioners meeting, resident Keith VanMeter suggested the boardwalk property owners form something akin to a homeowner’s association and have them take over responsibility for its care, maintenance and security. 
“Let them worry about the police. Let them worry about the trash and let them worry about fixing it. Because, from the way I understand it, I think that it costs us money and we make no revenue off of it,” VanMeter said. 
All the property owners on the Boardwalk do pay property taxes to the municipality in which they are located, as well as licensing fees.
“I don’t think I would want to put that liability on, you know, thousands of different individual owners,” Byron said.
Byron said the businesses on the Boardwalk, and others, generate taxes for the state in terms of sales tax, but nothing ever comes back to the city.
VanMeter also asked the commissioners to have a representative of the Wildwood Police Department give a monthly report at the city meetings. 
Thoughts? Questions? Email csouth@cmcherald.com.