Tiny Strathmere is making waves

STRATHMERE, N.J. - Standing on a beach that he says shouldn't be there, Randy Roash drew a diagram in wet sand to illustrate the long rift between a sleepy shore town that technically doesn't exist and the Cape May County township to which it belongs.

A small circle represented Strathmere, a 1.5-mile-long oceanfront community of new mansions and century-old bungalows buffeted by beaches, back bays and, at one time, the rolling dunes of Corson's Inlet State Park.

"Now over here, we have Upper Township," said Roash, drawing a separate, larger circle and poking a hole in the middle of it with his finger. "This is where our government is."

The tide eventually swept Roash's drawings from the beach once covered by high dunes, but the geographic and cultural rift between Strathmere and Upper Township seems as permanent as the pilings jutting from the cold, clear water of the inlet.

On Thursday night, the Upper Township council rejected yet another bid by Strathmere residents to de-annex and to join Sea Isle City. The township's planning board rejected the request in March, after 14 months of testimony.

Upper Township doesn't want to let its only oceanfront section slip away, but a group called Citizens of Strathmere and Whale Beach has spearheaded the de-annexation process, vowing not to surrender and announcing that former Gov. Jim Florio has joined as co-counsel as the group plans to appeal the ruling in the courts.

"It's clear that Strathmere should be aligned with a contiguous community that understands how to manage a coastal municipality," Florio said in a statement released Thursday night.

The rift has taken on Colonial overtones: Defiant flags hang from porches, depicting shore birds clutching dune flowers and a lightning bolt, underscored by Latin phrases demanding liberty. Stickers adorning rear windows say DNX - for de-annexation.

Strathmere residents claim Upper Township even fired a shot across their bow when STRATHMERE was painted across the water tower in bold black with Upper Township beneath it.

"It had nothing on it and people just wished they kept how it was," said Roash, spokesman for Citizens of Strathmere and Whale Beach.

Strathmere is an anomaly at the Jersey Shore for all the things it doesn't have. It has a handful of bars and eateries, a motel and only a few stores, none of which sells raunchy T-shirts. But no boardwalk or miniature golf, no massive, metered parking lots.

Year-rounders, all 175 of them, want to keep it that way, too - a big reason some cherish their antiquated septic systems and fear that sewer lines would bring in big developers. Others have stickers on their cars that read Shhh . . . , demanding that their island hideaway remain a secret.

It has the look of an old New England whaling town on some streets; a sandy, pine-filled patch of North Carolina's Outer Banks on others. Frank Jankowski, owner of Frank's Boat Rentals, says nothing really compares.

"It's the last of its kind on the East Coast," said Jankowski, 66, whose father bought the business more than 50 years ago. "There's nothing else like it."

Jankowski is unique in Strathmere because he owns a business on the "island" and lives in "mainland" Upper Township, and he understands both parties' grievances.

Strathmere, which sends only a handful of students to local public schools, makes up nearly 18 percent of the school tax. If Strathmere left Upper Township and joined Sea Isle City, Jankowski said, his taxes would rise at home and likely would go down at his business.

Sea Isle City officials say they haven't analyzed whether taking on Strathmere would be a good idea. Ironically, Strathmere was annexed to Upper Township from Sea Isle City in 1905.

Atlantic City attorney Robert Sandman spent three years before municipal governments and state courts in an unsuccessful bid to help Avalon Manor de-annex from Middle Township and join Avalon.

The difficulty of de-annexation, Sandman says, is the burden of proof on the town that wants out.

"Basically, you have to prove it wouldn't be a detriment to the folks who are leaving or the surrounding township you are leaving," he said.

In New Jersey, where municipal and school budgets are mostly funded by property taxes, it's a difficult argument to win.

Upper Township Mayor Richard Palombo said Strathmere's dissatisfaction with services coincided with a 2007 tax re-evaluation that saw property values rise.

Strathmere homeowners pay the brunt of the taxes, Palombo said, because residents cherish an island without convenience stores, high-rises, or even sewer lines.

"You can't have it both ways," he said.

In past testimony before the planning board, the de-annexation group has argued that Strathmere and Upper Township aren't good for each other, particularly when it comes to beach replenishment and law enforcement.

Like many rural areas in New Jersey, Upper Township uses the New Jersey State Police as its police department. In the winter, that's not a problem in Strathmere. But with a summer population that can swell to 5,000, it could be, residents say.

To get to Strathmere for emergency calls or patrols, state police must travel through either Sea Isle City or Ocean City, Roash said.

Roash said Upper Township is historically reactive to beach issues, such as putting in a rock wall only after storms battered local homes. Strathmere's section of Corson's Inlet State Park, once the jewel of the north end with acres of rolling sand dunes and trails, has washed away over the years, and signs at its former entrance warn trespassers that they will be prosecuted.

"It's all gone. It's completely gone," said Strathmere resident Richard Omrod, who lives a few blocks from Corson's Inlet.

According to Roash, Upper Township has always maintained that it was New Jersey's responsibility to replenish the park but they never made an issue of it.

"Couldn't they have been a little proactive?" he asked.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection did not return a phone call seeking comment, but Palombo said the agency would not likely intervene.

"We pushed the state as much as we can," he said. "The state philosophy is that this is a normal course of nature's action." Inside Jankowski's boat-rental shop, past a sleeping dog, fluorescent lures and crab traps, the phone rang off the hook with customers inquiring about the start of flounder season.

"Yeah, sure. We'll be open all day," he told a caller.

Outside, a fleet of 16-foot fishing boats bobbed in the clear, cold waters of Strathmere Bay as workers applied fresh coats of royal blue.

After all, folks say, the fishing has always been good here, no matter what the place is called.