Jersey Shore Beach Ranked Among Best in the World

Cape May has been ranked as the ninth best beach in the world, according to the 2011 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice Beach awards.

The ranking is based on reviews from users of TripAdvisor, one of the largest travel websites in the world. Award winners were determined based on the most highly rated beach destinations by travelers in TripAdvisor reviews. Unlike any other honors, TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice winners are based on millions of real and unbiased reviews and opinions from travelers around the world.

Top 10 in world

1. Providenciales, Turks and Caicos 2. Boracay, Philippines 3. Palm/Eagle Beach, Aruba 4. Negril, Jamaica 5. Tulum, Mexico 6. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina 7. Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman 8. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic 9. Cape May, New Jersey 10. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica

Top 10 in U.S.

1. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina 2. Cape May, New Jersey 3. Panama City Beach, Florida 4. Miami Beach, Florida 5. Sanibel Island, Florida 6. Clearwater, Florida 7. Honolulu, Hawaii 8. Captiva Island, Florida 9. Poipu, Hawaii 10. Siesta Key, Florida

Cape May also recently named one of the Top Ten Small Towns in America.

Ocean County is also home to many popular beaches such as Point Pleasant Beach, Lavallette, Seaside Heights, Seaside Park, Beach Haven, Ship Bottom, Surf City, Harvey Cedars and Barnegat Light.

Ocean County offers forty miles of barrier beaches which form Barnegat Bay and Little Egg Harbor Bay, offering ample watersports. In addition to being the northeast gateway to New Jersey's Pine Barrens, Ocean County is also home to several state parks:

• Barnegat Lighthouse State Park
• Island Beach State Park
• Double Trouble State Park
• Brendan T. Byrne State Forest
• Jackson State Forest
• Forked River State Marina

The Jersey Shore; home to some of the worlds best beaches.

Karl Hess, Ocean County Real Estate, Keller Williams Jersey Shore

LBI, Consolidate or Lose Funding

New Jersey Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney says he is working on legislation that would pull state funding from municipalities that do not share services with neighboring towns.

Long Beach Island is 18 miles long, with six separate municipalities and local governments and five police departments and police chiefs. Long Beach Township is the largest police department and patrols 12 of the island's 18 miles.

As an example, if you eliminate four of those chiefs and you could see a savings of $170,000 per chief between salaries and benefits. You don't need five police chiefs. Just add some more officers and have one department cover the whole island.

On Long Beach Island, steps have already been made to share some police services. The Long Beach Township Police Department currently provides police dispatching services to the Ship Bottom, Beach Haven and Harvey Cedars departments, although Ship Bottom is considering moving its dispatching services to the mainland municipality of Stafford Township.

But according to Sweeney's plan, this is not enough - and he's calling on local mayors to step up and accept savings through shared services.

Long Beach Township Mayor Joseph Mancini said he thinks taxpayers are afraid they will lose their town identity and the personal touch of police departments through consolidation.

"I'm a firm believer that the island municipalities should share as many of the services that we possibly can. It just makes good sense. I really feel that the island is moving that way. I really don't think Trenton is looking at making it one town, I think they're looking at making one police department, one DPW, one court system, and that's where it has to go," Mancini said.

Surf City Mayor Leonard T. Connors said a lot of services already have been consolidated on Long Beach Island, including police dispatching and water services. As far as consolidating police departments across Long Beach Island, Connors said if the other towns agree to it, he might also agree.

In Ocean County alone there are 33 different municipalities, so conslidation only makes sense, right?

Karl Hess, Jersey Shore Real Estate

This article orginally appeared in the Asbury Park Press