If you're heading down to Sea Isle City this Wednesday, you'll see all kinds of great restaurants like Primo's Hoagies, Steve's Grilled Cheese, Shoobies Restaurant, pizza places like Phil's and DNunzio's, ice cream from Yum Yum where they put a gum drop in the bottom of the ice cream cone.

But what you won't see are beach tag inspectors.

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No, they have not been sent to the southern border to patrol for illegal crossings. Sea Isle City's beaches are free on Wednesdays.

I was as shocked as you are when I spent my vacation there last week and was able to take the money we saved ($5 per person) and put it into one of the many great local businesses.

It turns out Sea Isle has been doing this to attract people for the past 25 years. It's just another reason for people to love their motto "Smile, You're in Sea Isle."

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According to the Sea Isle News, "The free beach days were the idea of the late Irene Jameson, Sea Isle’s legendary former public relations director. Jameson also conceived of Sea Isle’s annual Polar Bear Plunge, a wildly popular event that draws tens of thousands of visitors to town in February..."

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Of course, there are six other New Jersey beaches that are free including Atlantic City, Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, North Wildwood, Strathmere, and Carson's Inlet. And technically Sandy Hook, but what they lack in beach fees they make up by charging you $20 per vehicle to park.

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If it were up to me, beaches in New Jersey would be free. If not totally at least on Mondays and Tuesdays. In fact, we even assembled a band aptly named "The Not Ready For Drive Time Players" to record a song parody "Jersey Beaches Got To Be Free."

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Steve Trevelise. Any opinions expressed are Steve's own. Steve Trevelise is on New Jersey 101.5 Monday-Thursday from 7pm-11pm. Follow him on Twitter @realstevetrev.

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