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Wildwood Beaches Will Remain Free...For Now

By David Madden

WILDWOOD, NJ (CBS) -- Beach fees are a sticky subject down the shore, and one of the few towns that doesn't impose them has spent the last few months thinking about it. Now, they've come to an interim decision.

That long walk on the beach in Wildwood will remain free this summer, even as the town wrestles with the million dollar annual cost of keeping the beach clean. And that's no small task, given that some 300,000 people hit Wildwood's beaches at the peak of the tourist season.

"Once we get some information, then we can determine if we want to pursue it, and if so, will it go to a referendum so that the people have the right to make a decision," Mayor Ernie Troiano Junior explains.

But any referendum isn't likely to appear before November, and some in Wildwood are pushing for cabanas and beach bars as an alternative funding source.

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