OC Today WWW.OCEANCITYTODAY.COM
NOVEMBER 29, 2019
SERVING NORTHERN WORCESTER COUNTY
Holiday The offices of Ocean City Today and Bayside Gazette will be closed Friday after Thanksgiving and will reopen Monday at 8:30 a.m.
FREE
City gains $9.1 million through new pier deal Franchise’s extension for 25 years secures Boardwalk tradition
JOSH KIM/OCEAN CITY TODAY
ON GUARD A mighty nutcracker guards the entrance of the dining hall at St. Mary Star of the Sea church on 17th Street, where bazaar shoppers could enjoy home-cooked food such as chicken corn chowder, as well as a cold beer. The annual bazaar took place Friday and Saturday, Nov. 22-23.
Ghost pots imperil terrapins But then there’s CPR for trapped turtles if they’re found in time By Josh Kim Staff Writer (Nov. 29, 2019) What do you do when you find a lethargic terrapin on the verge of death? You give it CPR, of course. Or at least, that was what Sandi Smith, marketing and development coordinator for the Maryland Coastal Bays Program, was instructed to do last Tuesday. “The rehabber was walking me through the whole
CPR thing and I was like, ‘Really? You can give a turtle CPR?” Smith said. On Tuesday, watermen doing abandoned crab pot cleanup in Manklin Creek in Ocean Pines found several turtles throughout the day, but many of them were dead — a typical occurrence, Smith said.
“The bait that they use for crab pots is not only food for crabs, but it also attracts turtles,” Smith said. “If they [pots] don’t have bypass reduction devices on them, turtles go into the cages and are unable to get out.” However, the watermen did find two living turtles, a See GHOST Page 63 Sandi Smith, marketing and development coordinator for the Maryland Coastal Bays Program, helped save the life of two terrapin turtles after watermen found the animals trapped in ghost crab pot cages last Tuesday. PHOTO COURTESY SANDI SMITH
By Josh Kim Staff Writer (Nov. 29, 2019) Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan revealed Monday that the City Council will give Charles “Buddy” Jenkins a 25-year extension of the inlet pier franchise that will earn city government $9.1 million. Jenkins, whose companies own Jolly Roger at the Pier, Jolly Roger on 30th Street and Thrasher’s French Fries on the Boardwalk among other things, will retain use of the See PIER Page 65
JOSH KIM/OCEAN CITY TODAY
Mayor Rick Meehan announced on Monday that the City Council would approve a 25-year renewal of its inlet pier franchise for a total of $9.1 million. Franchise holder, Charles “Buddy” Jenkins (pictured), will pay an upfront cost, through the Sinepuxent Pier and Improvement Company, of $1 million.
Gudelskys send drive for AGH well past goal $4 million donation by family stuns crowd at campaign party By Morgan Pilz Staff Writer (Nov. 29, 2019) An appropriate tune to have played at Atlantic General Hospital’s Motown party last Friday night at the Aloft Hotel in Ocean City would have been the 1964 “Martha and the Vandellas hit, “Dancin’ in the Street.” That, most likely, is what the hospital’s leadership and supporters felt like doing when Atlantic General Hospital Foundation Chairman Todd Ferrante announced that Rolfe See GUDELSKY Page 64
MORGAN PILZ/OCEAN CITY TODAY
Ioana and Rolfe Gudelsky donated $4 million to the Atlantic General Hospital’s Campaign for the Future, at the Aloft Hotel on 45th Street, Friday, Nov. 22. The overall total raised for the campaign is $12.5 million.