WILDWOOD – Wildwood Board of Commissioners approved, on first reading, budgets for the Wildwoods Special Improvement District (SID) and Wildwood Business Improvement District (BID).
The budgets, for the non-profit organizations that handle day-to-day boardwalk and downtown operations, will be up for second reading and a public hearing at the March 25 meeting, said City Clerk Chris Wood.
SID and BID are run and managed by boards comprised of commercial property owners in Wildwood and North Wildwood on the boardwalk and in the Wildwood downtown district.
“SID owns and operates the Tram Cars, provides daily boardwalk cleaning, maintains the boardwalk restrooms, manages the weekly and July 4 fireworks, as well as the Monday-through-Thursday night entertainment,” Patrick Rosenello, executive director of SID and BID, stated in an e-mail.
“BID owns and operates Byrne Plaza, manages the DOOWW advertising campaign for downtown Wildwood and works with the City of Wildwood on capital improvements and business development in downtown,” continued Rosenello, who is also North Wildwood’s mayor.
Rosenello said his roles with SID and BID, which he’s held since 1998 and 2004, respectively are “totally separate and distinct from my elected position.” Rosenello, who also owns two businesses on the boardwalk in Wildwood — began serving as North Wildwood mayor in 2014.
“The money is collected by the cities in the tax bill and turned over to the SID and BID. The cities do not provide funding,” Rosenello said.
Rosenello will be present to answer questions at the March 25 hearing, Wood said.
