Wildwood’s Untapped Potential

If ever there were a town which would be a dream community to live in year around or part of the year, it would be Wildwood by the Sea, New Jersey. The town has everything going for it. Just the fact that it faces the Atlantic Ocean makes it one town in a million.
It has a beach to die for; at a time other shore communities are fighting to keep the ocean from eating their sand, Wildwood’s strand is stable and growing, and unlike many beachfront communities, it doesn’t have to spend millions on beach replenishment.  While we are talking about sand, consider the quality of Wildwood’s; I have been on numerous beaches in the world, and none has nicer sand, and most are coarser or rockier. Further, you don’t have to worry about cutting your feet on the coral, nor do you have to concern yourself with stepping off a “cliff” – the beach’s slope is ideal.
Added to the above, Wildwood’s amusements are world class. Wildwood’s restaurants are imports from the old country, with chefs’ recipes having been perfected over the centuries and handed down through the generations. As a tourist location, Wildwood is within a day’s drive of several states and some of our nation’s largest and most prosperous cities.
Tell me, if you can, why the Herald receives so many complaints via social media, Spout Off and letters to the editor about the town these last numbers of years? In a nutshell, the taxpayers feel they pay far too much and receive far too little bang for their tax buck. They see other shore communities taxing a great deal less, while simultaneously making significant improvements.
This perception is so wide-spread that in the last election, the voters dismissed their leader, hoping for a new start. Does this mean that Wildwood will now rise like the fabled Phoenix out of the ashes? No, not at all; not unless citizens put their collective energies and thinking behind the new leadership. The forces, which have created the problems, are entrenched there, and new leadership alone, without strong public backing, will not be able to overcome them.
Take the issue of central dispatching of police and emergency services, for example. Our county freeholders commissioned a thorough, professional study of the issue and came to the determination that, with centralized communication, timeliness and reliability of emergency services could significantly improve, while greatly reducing the costs to the taxpayers. This is particularly the case in times of major storms and catastrophic events.
When the study was presented to the Cape May County community, including the county’s police chiefs, the Wildwood chief of police at the time disputed the potential benefits.  When he was asked what was erroneous in the study, he simply stated, “It’s not going to save money, because we’re not going to do it.” I was there; I heard him say it with my own ears.
This gets me to the point made above: support your newly elected government. The taxpayers elect a governing  body to spend  their tax dollars wisely, but clearly, the chief took that power onto  himself, to speak for the town and say what  the elected  officials alone had the power to say (by the way, Wildwood is still  fighting central dispatch).
Wildwood needs a comprehensive plan to remake itself into the community its people are crying out for. With Wildwood’s potential, it won’t take a brain surgeon to see what needs to be done. It will take drive and nerves of steel to stand up against those who defend the status quo.   It will also require supporting the new leadership team, by both attending the public meetings and by sharing your thoughts on all available public forums.
The ball is in your court of the people of Wildwood.