Beach Bash:
Congratulations:
The second annual Ravens Beach Bash will kick off May 30 and run through June 1 in OC PAGE 1B
The Stephen Decatur baseball team captures the 3A East Regional title; the program’s first championship PAGE 41A
INSIDE THIS ISSUE: BUSINESS . . . . . . . . . . . 1C CLASSIFIED . . . . . . . . . 12C ENTERTAINMENT . . . . . . 5B LEGALS . . . . . . . . . . . . 14C
LIFESTYLE . . . . . . . . . . . 1B OPINION . . . . . . . . . . . 20A OUT&ABOUT . . . . . . . . 21B SPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . 41A
MEMORIAL DAY OBSERVANCES AND CELEBRATIONS ABOUND…PAGE 1B
Ocean City Today MAY 24, 2013
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BACK IN BUSINESS Hurricane Sandy did its worst to the Ocean City fishing pier downtown, but after months of repair work, the installation of pilings and planking, the resort icon was scheduled to see the first fishing line cast from its deck Friday morning in a re-dedication ceremony. Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan
was given the honor of heaving the initial hook, line and sinker. The fishing pier has been a fixture in the Ocean City landscape since it was completed in 1907. It is approximately 500 feet long, and provides ample space for recreational fishing.
Park skates past closures Faced with huge crowd, council backs down on reduction in operations during off-season ZACK HOOPES ■ Staff Writer (May 24, 2013) The Ocean City Council conceded this week to return $21,000 of funding to the city’s Ocean Bowl Skate Park, which had been scheduled for additional closures this winter, although the town will still be forming a committee to investigate the park’s usage and possible future service cuts. But the relief decision came only after a lengthy, politically motivated debate between elected officials over two appropriations that would have otherwise been a slam-dunk. Both were minor amounts of money for causes that directly benefitted at-risk children, the trump card of budgetary pinochle. City Hall was packed Monday night
with opponents of the skate park’s closure, first among which was Mike Durkin, the Worcester Prep senior and avid skateboarder whose online petition has garnered almost 500 signatures. A sense of impending popular shame, however, seemed to have gripped the council even before Durkin
approached the microphone to speak during the public comments section of this week’s meeting. “I’m going to let you speak, but I want you to know that we are working on it,” said Council President Lloyd Martin. “I think everybody was happy at the last meeting when they left … and I was hoping you would be on that committee.” At its previous session, the council consented to form a subcommittee for skate park usage that would meet in the coming months to evaluate the closures of the facility planned for 2014. However, the council declined to go so far as to include funding in the 20132014 fiscal year budget to keep the facility’s operating hours at their current level. “We’re just going to push it down the road a little bit,” Durkin said Monday night. “If it’s closed in the budget, it’ll probably stay closed.” The move was also heavily criticized by Councilman Brent Ashley, who said See COUNCIL on Page 3A
Up in smoke Ramadan bros. taken to NY for cig smuggling NANCY POWELL ■ Staff Writer (May 24, 2013) The 303-page indictment of two West Ocean City brothers and their associates in an alleged multi-million-dollar cigarette smuggling scheme would seem to cover virtually everything. But the one thing that law enforcement officials do not know and are concerned about is where the money went. Meanwhile, Basel Ramadan, 42, an Oyster Harbor resident and his brother, Samir, also of Oyster Harbor, were extradited to New York this week. According to the indictment released last Thursday by New York See DESTINATION on Page 5A