WILDWOOD CREST – A member of the public called into the July 10 Board of Commissioners meeting demanding the borough allow parking at the municipal pool and waive fines for people cited for parking there over the July 4 weekend.

The caller, who identified herself only as “Ann,” said a lot of residents had been ticketed over the holiday weekend for parking at the Joseph Von Savage Memorial Pool, located at New Jersey and Topeka avenues.

Mayor Don Cabrera responded, “That tells me they were parked illegally.”

The caller voiced several complaints about the ticketing and suggested that the signs prohibiting overnight parking on the municipal pool lot went up just before the holiday. Commissioner Joe Schiff said that the ordinance prohibiting overnight parking went into effect about four months ago.

Cabrera, describing the way an ordinance gets passed, said, “There is a public notice process; there was full notice given to all venues.”

The caller said an officer contacted one or more commissioners and asked whether he/she should ticket the cars or not, saying there was nowhere to park. According to the caller, the officer was told to “ticket them anyway.”

Schiff identified himself as the commissioner serving as director of public safety, and he assured her that he did not make the statement.

“That’s not true at all,” he said. “Nobody answered you that way – and I am the commissioner of public safety.”

The caller argued that parking should have been permitted in the pool lot for several reasons. One was that the borough had moved some sheds to the street in her neighborhood, eliminating six to eight parking spaces.

Cabrera said the sheds were there temporarily, albeit over the holiday weekend. He said the sheds belong to the Wildwood Crest Beach Patrol and are for storing equipment. The borough was forced to move them after the state Department of Environmental Protection cited the borough for having six sheds, trailers, lifeguard stands and fencing in a dune area.

Some sheds were relocated to the Public Works yard, where Cabrera said they were in the way of daily operations, and they were moved to the street until a suitable location could be found.

The mayor said via a text message that he went out and looked at Topeka Avenue, and there were three lost spaces due to the sheds and two lost when a storm sewer pump station was built. He said the borough will review the situation for 2025.

The caller said the borough should have compensated the neighborhood for the loss of parking by providing spaces in the pool lot. She also said the pool should not have scheduled swim team events over the weekend, and that the city should have considered the shortage of parking given the volume of cars coming into the community for the holiday.

Cabrera said the number of cars was unprecedented.

“At the end of the day this was the busiest July 4th I’ve ever seen in the Crest,” he said. “There was parking (problems) like I never saw before. It was backed up to the bay on the west side.”

The caller also cited what she considered a dangerous situation with all the cars parked on borough streets and the inconvenience for family members who had jobs to get to.

“It was borderline rude to ticket people when there was no parking and you were told there were no parking spaces,” the caller said.

Referring to the July 4 weekend parking situation as creating a need for “emergency parking,” the caller asked that the borough not stand on signage or ordinances but allow parking in the pool lot.

“I don’t care about your signage,” she said. “Do you want people to walk 3 miles? You can lean on the signs all you want; it was a poor decision. You should have overlooked it, there should be no swim team meetings on a holiday weekend. Use the pool parking and let it go.”

Cabrera said if the pool parking lot is opened up as free public parking it will be constantly full, with no spaces for pool patrons. He said if the police enforce the parking ban there will be complaints; if the police don’t enforce the ban there will be complaints.

“Tough spot,” he said. “The busy weekend is behind us now, and I think there will be no further issues.”

Schiff said he would like to say yes to the woman’s requests but said he could not do that or the borough would have to offer free unlimited parking for everyone in municipal lots.

“Parking is a problem for everyone, not just you,” he said.

Schiff said the borough has taken action to increase the number of parking spaces, even shortening parking boxes to create more room. Addressing the tickets written, he said there was nothing the borough could do.

“My word to you, in all fairness, is park legally and you will not get a ticket — and those tickets will never be waived,” he said.

Police Chief Robert Lloyd suggested that anyone who received a ticket go to court and argue their case before the judge.

Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.