
WILDWOOD — “The beach is great,” said Jason Harting, of Philadelphia, as he was exiting the beach with a group of friends this weekend. “I just don’t like having to walk around under layers of sand for the rest of the day.”
Finding a place to shower and change, Harting told this reporter, is definitely a challenge.
“It makes day trips kind of difficult,” he added.
As an operator of a parking lot in this city, Charla Lewis told city commissioners in a written letter July 25 that two of the most common question asked of her is, “where can I get changed” and “where can we wash off the sand.”
Lewis wrote that it has become difficult to suggest any where for tourists to shower or change since there are only two bath houses left, which happen to be at opposite ends of the boardwalk.
She said that while there are foot faucets at the end of each pier, often beach goers complain that they frequently malfunction.
“The beach is the original reason Wildwood became a tourist destination,” Lewis said and noted that these two is-sues are “at the heart” of the experience at the beach.
She wrote that her travels to many of the East Coast beaches, even those in Mexico and the Caribbean have a shower where beachgoers can wash off the sand.
Lewis said that according to a guide of the world’s best beaches, providing facilities for changing and showers is one of the criteria for being included.
“I guess we can never hope to be included in this list as long as we ignore a basic need of beachgoers,” she said.
Contact Suit at: (609) 886-8600 ext. 25 or lsuit@cmcherald.com
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Comments (24)
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Sat, 02/20/2010 - 11:41am - Posted by: albie27
The knuckle dragging imbeciles who decide these things couldn't possibly fathom anything going untaxed, uncharged, and completely for free no matter how much it might benefit the entire county. Don't bother installing beach showers if you're going to try and attach a fee...its counterintuitive to the entire idea of getting people to COME THE HELL DOWN HERE AND SPEND MONEY.
The state should have mandated decades ago that in order to get their precious beach funds each year, every last one of these shore towns should have to provide public facilities like exist in every other tourism driven seashore area in every other state on the eastern seaboard.
It is atrocious the difference in how Florida sees and caters to visitors who flock to their outdoor recreation opportunities, be it beaches, boating, fishing, you name it. Anyone who has ever been to a public marina or used a public boat ramp outside of this state understands how laughable our state and local governing mafia are.
New Jersey as a whole is just a gigantic financial black hole happy to simply suck every dime it can into political gains, payoffs, back scratching and crony/nepotism. The idea of ever putting a dime BACK for the overall good is purely alien.
Wed, 12/16/2009 - 3:47pm - Posted by: erwin34
Almost every beach i've been to in canada has showers.
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Wed, 12/02/2009 - 4:19am - Posted by: jadenn
Well I think it would be better if they would provide few more accessible shower and bath rooms where the guests and tourists can also change after a fun day on the beach. And I think this should not be an issue for they should really provide it.
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Mon, 09/07/2009 - 2:21pm - Posted by: scmomdukes
i remember coming to Wildwood as a teen and being able to shower and change after a day at the beach to be able to go out to dinner and go to the boardwalk so don't tell me this would deter spending in the area. This town has gone so downhill with these condos and the ruining of the cars event because they are now harrassed by the cops. This town is turning into dullsville and soon the money spent here will come to a stop if Mayor Troino doesn't wise up. Wildwood has always been a relaxed community where different events made people feel goo and the performers felt goo to come here but not anymore. Pretty soon it will be a ghost town It had character when the rooming house were here. You could just come into town and go around looking for places with vacancies but now it isn't as easy and now people are struggling with money and have no where that is economical to relax. The foreigners have less places to stay for the season. We are so worried about getting the wrong kind of people here that the decisions made have attracted the wrong kind of people and now we have to live with this and feel unsafe.
Sun, 08/16/2009 - 11:29am - Posted by: starsinthesky
There are little spigots/faucets on the boardwalk for washing your feet off. Not absolutely sure where they are located but you could contact the Wildwood's website to ask or even go onto it and do a search. There is a fully functioning bath/shower house and parking lot off of 24th Avenue. I've used it in the past with family-friends and was worth the price.
Thu, 08/13/2009 - 6:03am - Posted by: maxy
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Wed, 08/12/2009 - 12:06pm - Posted by: Nathanial11
The tourists come to the beaches, and they should at least deserve to be clean and sand-free when visiting other places in the area...
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Mon, 08/10/2009 - 12:21am - Posted by: mariannabella
Why not put in showers? Seems like the only sensible thing to do really. The tourists come to the beaches, and they should at least deserve to be clean and sand-free when visiting other places in the area...
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Mon, 07/27/2009 - 12:01pm - Posted by: meggs
I love bathing and showering and this is really my life. If you will ask me than i would like to prefer Kansas City Plumber for plumber works. They are real professionals and know how to work.
Wed, 07/01/2009 - 8:56am - Posted by: Plastering_Courses
Is Home Depot using Re-Bath for subcontractors fix bathroom tubs and showers?
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Fri, 06/19/2009 - 8:34am - Posted by: john123
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Nice article.....I have one doubt , .How to brighten the bathroom tiles and clean efficiently?
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Wed, 09/03/2008 - 7:28pm - Posted by: Anonymous
i cannot believe how many people cannot spell spigot correectly. i agree with the implementation of a fee and reimburse the user with coupons. the sponsors can shoulder the cost of the SPICKETS
Thu, 08/07/2008 - 12:02pm - Posted by: Anonymous
Personally, having travelled around the country, I am not sure why anyone ever comes back to Cape May County for vacation. EVERYTHING costs ..... nothing is ever provided to the tourist to make their stay enjoyable that does not cost money. Everyone that lives here that doesn't own a tourist-related business, and even some who do, complain constantly about visitors to this area and try and make it as unfriendly a place as it can be. Showers and changing areas are offered at the best beaches of this nation. Even the beaches in New Jersey are mostly fee only - except for the Wildwoods but you have to pay out the nose for parking, if you are lucky enough to get a spot close to the beach.
Cape May County government officials and businesses have to stop being so short sighted. They only worry about "this season" and, maybe "next season". They have to look at the Tourist Industry from a broader perspective. Each town competes with all other towns for visitors - don't want "riff raff" to visit (i.e., day trippers) and want things to remain as before - except, of course, for higher profits this year. I've lived here the majority of my life, and do not expect anything to change.
Wed, 07/30/2008 - 10:43pm - Posted by: Anonymous
Oh please don't even suggest spending anymore money. A simple spickets will turn in to a 5 million dollar adventure on my tax dollar. Larry, Mo, and Curly can not balance a budget please don't give them anymore ideas to spend money
Thu, 03/27/2008 - 5:58am - Posted by: Anonymous
Cold Showers at two block interviles is a must, if you want to atract first class tourists.
Redesign parking and the city would get its investment back tenfold. Take a page from Florida, Start welcoming tourists instead of rapeing them.
Wed, 03/19/2008 - 7:58am - Posted by: Anonymous
Good idea. but it can't be a public facility. At first this would attract those family day trippers we want, but soon it would evolve to use by all those types of people we do not want to attract, (and we cannot put that in print). Maybe we should go back to privately operatred changing areas. They should be expensive to use, but then a percentage of the cost could be returned in the form of discount tickets good for the remainder of that day.
Wed, 03/05/2008 - 11:54pm - Posted by: Anonymous
This is so typical of the Wildwoods and the control of the Hotel Motel Association. They don't want day trippers! God forbid someone should come to Wildwood and NOT stay overnight. It has always been this type of backward thinking from this organization that holds Wildwood back. Maybe, just maybe a day tripper, if he had a nice time would come back and STAY!
Fri, 02/08/2008 - 5:34pm - Posted by: Anonymous
Here's a clue, go home and take a shower and don't come back.
Tue, 01/29/2008 - 9:41pm - Posted by: Anonymous
If you put showers then ,no one will spend any money, people come down park up the back streets leave there cars all day , get off beach change in car , eat there lunch,,then go to the board walk or go home, small fee should be charged
Mon, 01/21/2008 - 1:59am - Posted by: Anonymous
There is a shower house on 24th Avenue, a half block off the boardwalk.
Sat, 01/19/2008 - 5:23am - Posted by: Anonymous
Wake up Wildwoods. Tourists spend money, even day tourists. People need to clean the sand off after the beach. Take a look at Florida. All beaches provide shower spickets
Sat, 12/08/2007 - 6:16pm - Posted by: Anonymous
I think they should have a place to shower and change it's a normal request give them a portable hot showers
Tue, 10/09/2007 - 9:35am - Posted by: Anonymous
it would be a good idea to invest some of the room and tourism tax to build simple shower spickets on the beach near the boardwalk. This would be a much better attraction for the tourism industry than buying the new dump truck for the public works dept. The city has all winter to design and construct a shower spicket on the beach.
Wed, 08/01/2007 - 11:37am - Posted by: Anonymous
Where are these foot faucets? I've never seen them.