OC Today WWW.OCEANCITYTODAY.NET
MAY 19, 2017
SERVING NORTHERN WORCESTER COUNTY
LIFESTYLE
CRUISIN’ OCEAN CITY More than 3,300 cars to be on display, music and parade featured this weekend– Page 50
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Resort sees turbines as big ill wind
Rep. Harris hears inlet complaints
Business people, officials follow up PSC ruling with outrage and major concern
Fishing community says its tired of Corps studies and wants action to be taken
By Katie Tabeling Staff Writer (May 19, 2017) Ocean City officials and business leaders voiced their opposition on wind farms quickly and clearly days after the Public Service Commission (PSC) endorsed two proposals with no guarantees that they wouldn’t be seen from the shore. Carousel Group Managing Partner Michael James has been one of ‘Think about what the most vocal 200 windmills opponents and would do to the took his consunrise. People cerns to Rep. Andy Harris come here to (R-1st) during enjoy that. They’ll a summit on be walking on the resort real esbeach, seeing tate last Thursday and to the these things that business com- are 670 feet tall.’ munity during Michael James Friday’s Ocean Carousel Group City Economic Development Committee breakfast meeting. “Think about what 200 windmills would do to the sunrise,” James said to Harris on May 11. “People come here to enjoy that. They’ll be walking on the beach, seeing these things that are 670 feet tall. They say we’ll benefit from this, but it’s Delaware, Virginia and New Jersey beaches that’s going to benefit.” Supporters like the Business Network for Offshore Wind, a nonprofit that focuses on advancing wind energy, point out there’s a different view of the turbines. “I’ve gone out to the water in Europe’s beaches and you have to strain to see their turbines. But when you see them, they’re like elegant machines against an ocean backdrop,” See HARRIS Page 5
GREG ELLISON/OCEAN CITY TODAY
CELL GAME A crane lifts a segment of a telecommunication pole, as workers with Capital Heights, Marylandbased Teltronic Towers oversee the progress on Monday. The cellular antenna pole, at the corner of Baltimore Avenue and Worcester Street, is part of a temporary site aimed at improving AT&T mobility in Ocean City.
GOP going after Mathias in 2018
By Brian Gilliland Associate Editor (May 19, 2017) Maryland Republicans need to pick up five seats in the State Senate in the 2018 election to disrupt a nearly century-old veto proof Democratic majority in the legislature, and the effort, dubbed the “Drive for
Five,” leaves Sen. Jim Mathias in familiar territory: in the center of the bull’s-eye. Mathias is one of six senators being targeted by the GOP in its quest to pick up the five seats. “Worcester County has generally See SENATOR Page 11
By Katie Tabeling Staff Writer (May 19, 2017) Local watermen and other fishing industry representatives urged Rep. Andy Harris (R1st) last week to lean harder on the Army Corps of Engineers to find a solution to the sandbars and shoals that are hampering navigation of the Ocean City Inlet area. The corps is gathering information on the 53foot scour hole near H o m e r Gudelsky Park (previously known as Stinky Beach) and Rep. Andy Harris its impacts on local waters. But fishermen told Harris during a meeting at L & L Marine Equipment in West Ocean City that the solution was simple: reconfigure the Assateague Island jetties. “It’s been studied to death, and if they studied it, they studied it wrong,” Bahia Marina owner Shawn Harman said. “We see this every day. We live it. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that extending the south jetty at Assateague is causing us problems. It creates a big hook that catches everything.” The Army Corps of Engineers built the jetty to stabilize Ocean City’s inlet when it was shaped by a hurricane in 1933. Before that, the resort and Assateague Island were contiguous. Over the years, sand washed away from Ocean City’s beach is deposited on Assateague in a north-to-south movement. See CONGRESSMAN Page 10