August early september 2013 ocean pines progress by Ocean Pines Progress

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Vol. 9, No. 5

August-Early September 2013

www.issuu.com/oceanpinesprogress

cean Pines will continue its 45th Anniversary celebration throughout August, with many of the events showcasing OPA amenities. A ribbon-cutting for the new Yacht Club pool is scheduled for 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 8, part of a poolside luau buffet from 4-7 p.m. at $15 per person. Also at at the Yacht Club this day is a reggae dance party, featuring Kaleb Brown, from 5-9 p.m. The festivities continue on Friday, Aug. 16, with a special offer for residents and guests to play Ocean Pines’ Robert Trent Jones golf course at the special rate of $45 for two, with cart. The Tern Grill will be serving 45 cent drafts, and Charles’ fried chicken dinners will be available for dine-in or take out at $4.50 starting at noon. Complimentary range balls will be available throughout the day. On Tuesday, Aug. 20, all Ocean Pines pools will be open free of charge when they open at 10 a.m. Shaun Hopper will be performing at the Yacht Club Pool from 4-7 p.m. and Bryan Clark will be doing a dinner and show upstairs at 6 p.m. On Thursday, Aug. 22, from 6:308:30 p.m., the Delmarva Chorus will perform songs from the 60’s in a free concert in White Horse Park with the Overtime Band, Kiwanis hot dogs and beverages, a bounce house for the kids and 45 cent root beer floats to celebrate the anniversary. On Friday, Aug. 23, the Beach Club will host a Jamaican Beach Party with live reggae music and food and drink specials. The celebration continues Sunday, Aug. 25, as the Ocean Pines Area Chamber hosts a classic car show from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Veteran’s Memorial Park. The classic cars will parade through Ocean Pines starting from White Horse Park at 10 a.m. The festivities conclude on Aug. 25 with a block party at the Ocean Pines tennis complex on Manklin Creek Road from 4-7 p.m. Events include a round-robin tennis tournament and platform tennis members will be on hand to demonstrate their sport. Volunteers will be grilling out and hosting a social happy hour in the clubhouse with music and refreshments.

THE OCEAN PINES JOURNAL OF NEWS & COMMENTARY COVER STORY

AN ELECTORAL BOOST FOR THOMPSON? Collins, Cordwell, Terry capture Board of Directors seats By TOM STAUSS Publisher ack Collins, Bill Cordwell and incumbent Ocean Pines Association President Tom Terry were the top three vote-getters in this summer’s election for the OPA board of directors. The results of the balloting were announced near the end of the annual meeting of the association held Aug. 10 in the Ocean Pines Community Center. The winning tallies were Collins, 2,257 votes; Cordwell, 1,719 votes; and Terry, 1,712 votes. Coming in a non-too-distant fourth place was Roland Langevin with 1,636 votes, 76 votes behind Terry. Langevin ran as the candidate most identified with wanting to terminate the employment contract of OPA General Manager

Collins

Cordwell

Terry

Bob Thompson, so Langevin’s defeat, together with the victory of Cordwell, generally thought to be a strong Thompson ally, would tend to fortify the general manager’s position going forward. The fifth and six place finishers in the contest were former director Les Purcell with 1,174 votes and incumbent Director Ray Unger with 1,122 votes. Unger’s loss continues the general trend in recent years of incumbent

directors losing their reelection bids. Terry’s victory this year stands out as somewhat of an anomaly, but probably reflects the fact that he’s been able, as OPA president for the past three years, to articulate a plan for addressing Ocean Pines’ overarching need to maintain or replace its aging infrastructure. Collins and Cordwell replace retiring directors Unger and Dave Stevens, a frequent Thompson critic, who has served six years on the board. Collins is a retired banker and Cordwell served in law enforcement. Of the 7,484 ballots sent out to property owners, 3,535 were cast. Of those, 3,516 ballots were counted by Scantron and 19 were counted manually. There were 45 ballots rejected by the Elections Committee.

Annual Audit: OPA loses $444,806 for Fiscal Year 2013/Page 32

New Yacht Club pool opens OPA Aquatics staff was on hand Aug. 8 to meet and greet visitors to the new Yacht Club pool. It opened for swimming the following day, and a ribbon-cutting to officially mark the occasion was scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 10. For details, see article on Page 8.

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Kiwanis pancake breakfast

A great amount of effort goes into raising money to support the programs of the Kiwanis Club of Greater Ocean Pines - Ocean City, but a greater amount of satisfaction and reward is received from the support of the community. At the club’s July 13th pancake breakfast at the Ocean Pines Community Center, kitchen workers and servers were there way before the 8 a.m. start to be sure everything was ready. Some of the kitchen crew, seen working in pretty “warm” kitchen, are Phil Lassiter, Ed Aurand, Ralph Chinn and Bob Fralley. Of the 63 member club, 81 percent participated in some way with the event.

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OCEAN PINES

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Stevens,Thompson spar over unbudgeted expenditures OCEAN PINES BRIEFS tal” project in 2011, an antenna for the Mumford’s Landing pool costing $1,942. In Fiscal 2012, unbudgeted new capital spending included $4,000 for engineering plans for a new dog park and tennis court improvements in Manklin Meadows. The following year, unbudgeted new capital spending totaled $27,764, including $16,949 for the new dog park, $5,003 for a power generator used during Hurricane Sandy, $4,700 for a hand rail and $1,112 for a snow blower. Unbudgeted replacement items in FY 2011 funded out of reserves included range equipment ($22,888), South Gate sign ($468), cash register ($2,996), ballfield dugouts ($12,205), a Country Club power washer ($2,857) and several other items, with the total for the year reaching $83,656. Unbudgeted replacement items in FY 2012 included a $2,317 chain saw, a $1,314 pool vacuum, a $2,459 phone system for the Yacht Club, road work costing $22,400, and tables costing $767, among other items. Total unbudgeted replacement items cost the OPA $35,736 for the year. The road work was authorized by the

board. In FY 2013, total unbudgeted replacement spending hit $106,286, including golf cart batteries ($41,608), tee signs ($46,687), Beach Club kitchen oven ($3,349), entrance signs ($2,674), a Public Works sign ($3,068), and Web site improvements ($8,900). “These are low items for a $10 million budget,” Thompson said in conclusion, calling out what he termed non-factual statements about spending that were made during the summer election season by some candidates. Director Dave Stevens erupted in protest, calling the general manager’s comments “totally inappropriate,” in part because he had not signaled his intent to make them prior to the board meeting. A frequent critic of Thompson over the past year, Stevens seemed especially annoyed with him in what, for Stevens, was his last regular meeting before retiring as a director. Stevens has already signaled that he is likely to be a candidate for the board next summer after a year’s hiatus. Stevens said that Thompson’s list of unbudgeted items omitted some very

significant ones: the Java Café improvements at the Yacht Club, greens replacement on the Ocean Pines golf course, and the new swimming pool at the Yacht Club.

Marine Activities panel has ‘mystery’ agenda

OPA Director Dan Stachurski, liaison to the Marine Activities Advisory Committee, often called MAAC for short, says the panel has an interesting idea that its members “don’t like to talk about.” During the board of directors’ July 24 monthly meeting, he said that anyone curious about the idea should visit the OPA’s Web site and read minutes from recent MAAC meetings, where apparently all is revealed. A check of MAAC minutes posted on the Web site reveals one obvious subject for a mystery agenda that the committee understandably may be reluctant to talk about. The topic is global warming and what the OPA should consider as a way of ameliorating one of its supposed effects, rising sea levels and increased coastal flooding. The committee has been discussing one way to deal with the alleged threat of

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n what seemed to be an attempt to comment on one of the issues in this summer’s board election, and to directly confront criticism by Director Marty Clarke that the Ocean Pines Association’s board of directors has indulged in too much unbudgeted spending, OPA General Manager Bob Thompson recently presented financial data that sought to rebut that contention. Two candidates running for the board this summer, Roland Langevin and Jack Collins, were favorably endorsed by the STOP organization in political advertising as candidates who, if elected, would stop “reckless spending” in Ocean Pines, which Clarke has said includes most if not all unbudgeted spending. Clarke has had links with the STOP group in the past. During the July 24 monthly meeting of the OPA board of directors, Thompson offered data that he said proved that in fact the OPA has not engaged in a lot of unbudgeted spending since he became general manager during Fiscal Year 2011. “New capital” is the term used to describe items that are funded out of the current year’s operating budget and directly from lot assessments. Thompson listed one unbudgeted “new capi-

From page 5 rising sea levels: increasing the height of Ocean Pines’ bulkheading. The feedback from some property owners with bulkheaded property has not been favorable, according to posted minutes. Property owners are concerned about the effects of new bulkhead construction activity on plantings and lawns, which apparently is more worrisome to them than killer storms and flooding and other adverse phenomena sometimes linked with global warming. So far, there has been no survey taken of Ocean Pines waterfront property owners or the entire OPA membership to determine whether global warming believers outnumber global warming deniers in Ocean Pines. Best intuitive guess from years of observing the whys and wherefores of Ocean Pines: Deniers exceed the believers in both numbers and intensity of belief.

Clarke calls out GM on bridge repairs

During the board of directors July 24 monthly meeting, OPA General Manager Bob Thompson advised the directors that the current year’s budget includes money for bridge repairs. The two bridg-

the Ocean Pines Country Club. One is located on Ocean Parkway near Clubhouse Drive, and the other is located on Clubhouse Drive on the way to the golf course. Thompson told the OPA directors that he wants to send out a request for proposals (RFP) for engineering support including specs and drawings and specific descriptions of what needs to be done to repair the bridges. He said he anticipates that a construction contract for the bridge work on at least one of the bridges would be awarded in the spring after another RFP process. Thompson said that drawing up bid specs for both bridges shouldn’t exceed $15,000 in cost, and that repair costs for both have been estimated to cost about $100,000, $60,000 for one and $40,000 for the other. “It is a budgeted item,” Thompson said, probably alluding to the initial engineering support contract. If the cost of it is less than $15,000, he would not need board approval to proceed with the RFP and hire an engineering firm to draw up the specs. Actual repairs, however, would require the directors’ OK. No vote authorizing Thompson to proceed with the engineering support RFP was made during the meeting, and

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OCEAN PINES arguably none was required. One director, at least, is upset that Thompson apparently is proceeding with the RFP. “It’s not in the budget,” Clarke told the Progress recently. “I don’t know where Bob is getting his information. He’s wrong.” He said certain board members in subsequent private conversations have reacted unhappily to Thompson’s claim that preliminary work on bridge repair is budgeted. “I looked, and it isn’t,” Clarke said. During the meeting, Clarke told Thompson that previous engineering studies have already documented what work needs on the bridges to be done consistent with state standards, sufficient to draw up a construction RFP. Thompson said the RFP he envisions would be more detailed than anything that appears in previous engineering reports.

North Gate green lights nixed quietly by directors

On some days, OPA General Manager Bob Thompson can’t win for losing. He gets criticized for doing too much or not seeking board approval for what he wants to do. Or he can be criticized for not being aggressive enough in addressing maintenance issues that afflict Ocean Pines’ aging infrastructure. He recently tried to deal with the festering issue of burned out bulbs on Ocean Pines’ iconic North Gate by replacing one of the bulbs with a light that seemed to glow with a green hue, almost as if designed as a welcome beacon to any hovering UFO craft. Whatever motivated the general manager, the greenish bulb didn’t sit well with certain OPA directors, who let their views be known to Thompson in no uncertain terms. Within a week the new greenish light bulb was removed. Thompson has been informed that the Internet abounds with Web sites and companies that can supply bulbs that closely resemble what has been mounted on poles at the North Gate bridge for decades. “I think the real problem is that Bob

has a more modern taste in lighting than most of the directors,” Director Dan Stachurski told the Progress recently. The clear signal to Thompson if he has ears to hear: He’d best find the rounded bulbs that look like those that have been mounted at the North Gate for decades.

Board votes for faster delivery of financials

There may have been some confusion over whether a motion offered by OPA Director Marty Clarke during the board of directors’ July 24 monthly meeting called for Controller Art Carmine to produce financial documents by the 13th of every month or 13 working days into the month. Taking into account Saturdays and Sundays, the latter could give Carmine a little more time to get the work done in a timely fashion. Clarke’s motion actually referred to the “13th working day of each month” for the financials to be delivered. Clarke’s motion passed by a 4-2 vote, with Directors Dan Stachurski and Sharyn O’Hare in opposition. Casting a vote in favor of the motion was OPA President Tom Terry, somewhat surprisingly, as he noted during discussion that the board had “just had this discussion” at a previous meeting and had already voted to mandate receipt of the monthly financial report by the Friday of the week preceding the board meeting. Thompson looked quizzically at Terry when he cast his vote with Clarke, Dave Stevens and Ray Unger ordering earlier delivery of the financial report. OPA Treasurer Terri Mohr had left the meeting when the vote was cast. With Mohr present and Terry reversing himself, the motion could fail on a 3-4 vote if it is revisited at a future board meeting.

Board approves OPVD agreement

In a 5-0 vote with one abstention, the OPA board of directors approved a previously negotiated memo of understanding with the Ocean Pines Volunteer Fire Department. The remaining

6 Ocean Pines PROGRESS August-Early September 2013 es that will need work sometime in OCEAN PINES BRIEFS the near to mid-term are located near

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OCEAN PINES OCEAN PINES BRIEFS From page 6 issue that needed agreement from both boards of directors of both organizations pertained to handling of capital replacement items. The vote was taken during the board’s July 24 monthly meeting. Director Dave Stevens complained that he had only a couple of days to read the final draft of the memo and that he had insufficient time to do so before being asked to vote on it. Director Dan Stachurski replied that he was comfortable with the draft and was ready to sign it.

August-Early September 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS 7 Stevens abstained from voting. Director Terri Mohr had left the meeting.

OPA tweaked by OC for noise violation

A recent wedding event at the Ocean Pines Beach Club in Ocean City resulted in the OPA receiving a citation issued by the resort for a noise violation after neighbors complained, General Manager Bob Thompson disclosed recently. The result of the citation wasn’t particularly significant or onerous. “We were told not to do it again,” Thompson told OPA directors during the

board’s July 24 monthly meeting.

Board to decide YC restaurant name

A recent contest sponsored by the Clubs Advisory Committee to generate options for naming the restaurant at the new Yacht Club that will open for business sometime next year resulted in 466 names submitted, committee chair Les Purcell told OPA directors during their July 24 monthly meeting. The committee then whittled the list down to eight finalists. The names include the Big Breeze

Bar and Grill, the Bayside Grill, Harborview, Marina Cove bistro and pub, Mariner’s Cove, Seabreeze Bar and Grill, Water’s Edge and the View. The committee’s board liaison, Sharyn O’Hare, said the next step in the naming contest is for the board of directors to decide among the finalists. She said she would ask that the issue be placed on the board’s agenda in September. There is no guarantee that the directors will choose from among the eight finalists or will, in the end, decide to bestow the restaurant with a name other than Ocean Pines Yacht Club.

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OCEAN PINES

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By TOM STAUSS Publisher And VIRGINIA REISTER Contributing Writer s if to defy the skeptics that the new Yacht Club pool could ever be completed and open for use this summer, Parrish Pools of Hunt Valley, Md., the pool contractor, and Harkins Construction of Salisbury, joined forces to complete the project by the end of July, with a few punch list items remaining for the first week of August. The pool reopened for use on Friday, Aug. 9, after state and county inspectors visited the site and approved it for public access on Wednesday, Aug. 7. The OPA scheduled a reopening party for the

New Yacht Club pool opens Users will have about a month to enjoy the OPA’s newest amenity before it closes to accommodate the demolition of the Yacht Club following Friday, and the reopening was also touted by Thompson during the annual meeting of the association Aug. 10, with a hearty invitation to stop by and use it. The pool will close again for the season one or two weeks after Labor Day weekend, so that means that Yacht Club pool aficionados will have roughly a

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‘Hard and fat’ crabs are store’s specialty By Nathan Brunet Staff Writer BERLIN — Country Barn Seafood, co-owned by “Speedy” Voss, sells quality carryout seafood. Maryland Blue Crabs are Voss’ specialty, which he promises will be more “hot ‘n’ heavy” and “hard and fat” than the crabs served at more popular venues around town. The specific blue crab sold at Country Barn Seafood is bigger and sweeter than most crabs served at restaurants in the area, according to Voss, who got his nickname after being born within minutes of reaching the hospital. Not only is the quality of crabs notable, but also the process in sorting crabs for purchase. Voss measures the crabs individually and separates them into baskets by size and weight. Crabs deemed large enough are put in the regular pile to be sold by the bushel or dozen, while the smaller crabs are- sold at a discounted price. “I’m the last person I know of that does that,” said Voss, who claims no one has ever complained about the size or weight of his crabs that were purchased by the dozen. He admits some small crabs may be added to bushels accidentally because of the large quantity of crabs being processed, but it does not happen often. Surrounded by crabs since he was a little kid, Voss has been a major part of local seafood businesses since the early 1970s. He has either owned or managed a number of seafood

month or so to take advantage of it and the adjoining tiki bar. The OPA hopes fans of the Yacht Club pool will come out in droves, because pool memberships and Yacht Club food and beverage revenues have taken a hit during the hiatus. The pool’s closure date is not yet definite, but it probably will be coordinated with the date that Harkins begins demolition of the adjacent Yacht Club. Thompson said during the board of directors’ July 24 meeting that demolition should take place one or two weeks after Labor Day weekend. The reopening of the pool in early August more or less coincided with the contractors’ predictions in June and July as to when it would be ready. That was more than two months later than Thompson’s original target for reopening on Memorial Day weekend. That rosy scenario had Thompson in hot water with one of his immediate bosses, OPA Director Marty Clarke, who said it was never a realistic target, given when the building permit application was sent to the county – late April – and

when construction actually began, in early May. Even so, Clarke, like many others in Ocean Pines, had been pessimistic about the chances that the pool would reopen at all this summer. The new pool, including a deck made of pavers to replace the original wood surface, had an approved price tag of $872,027. The Parrish Pools portion of the contract was for $248,267 and included the new pool and new pumps and filtration equipment in a newly constructed pumphouse, elevated from the lower level that was prone to flooding. The Parrish portion of the contract was approved by the board 6-1 in a Feb. 20 special meeting, with Clarke in dissent, because he said the Parrish bid was about $50,000 more than the lowest bid submitted. The Harkins portion of the project was approved in a special meeting of the board on Jan. 24 in a 5-2 vote, with Clarke and Director Dave Stevens in opposition. Harkins was given the job, including demolition of the old pool and decking, in a sole source contract that cost $623,760. The contract also included construction of the new paver decking, the new pumphouse, new exterior siding on both the new pumphouse and adjoining restroom facilities, and a new shower/bathroom for boaters accessible from the lower level marina deck. A majority approved the sole source, To Page 10

NATHAN BRUNET/BAYSIDE GAZETTE

"Speedy," Voss, owner of Country Barn Seafood, poses with one of his "hard and fat" Maryland Blue Crabs. Voss individually measures each crab and separates them into baskets by size and weight. According to the owner, he is the only seafood place in the area that still does so.

restaurants through his career, including Crab Alley, The Crab Bag, City Fish Co. and Supreme Seafood. After getting tired of the increasing population in Ocean City, Voss settled into the now 80-year-old barn in the late 1980s with Ken Jaworski, who is still a co-owner even though Voss performs all of the labor. In the mid-2000s, Country Barn Seafood was rented out and operated by different families at times, but it is now back to the man who started it all. “I retired five times and I’m still working,” said Voss, who is helped every day by his nephew, Marty, who began working at the restaurant in 1998 when he

was 13. Little neck clams, jumbo shrimp, scallops, fresh Maryland crabmeat, tuna and salmon accompany Voss’ crabs, as well as his crab spice that comes from a recipe that has been in circulation since 1946. Beer and wine is also available to take home. Country Barn Seafood is open daily each summer from noon until dusk. There is no set time of closure, as Voss chooses the closing time depending on how busy the market is that day. For more information, or to place an order, call 410-6415164.

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Yacht Club pool facts and figures • It fills the same footprint as the pre-Hurricane Sandy pool, but with a shallower deep end, six feet, because there hasn’t been a diving board at the pool for years. • There are three lane lines marked instead of five to be used as lap lanes. • Steps are in place for those who love to sit on them, and a bench was added in the shallow end for more seating. • The pool was surfaced with Diamond Brite quartzite plaster coating, which is warrantied and much longer lasting than the former marblelite. It’s white with blue speckles. • New white coping surrounds the pool. • The pool decking consists of gray and black pavers, replacing the former splinter-prone wooden decking. When the new Yacht Club is built, the paver decking will cover the area from the new building to the footprint of the old building, mating with the present pool deck. • The pool’s new LED pool lights are more efficient, brighter, and have a color-changing program in them. There are four small water fountains behind the perimeter coping that can be set to spray at various times, making light and water shows possible during evening hours.. • White pool ladders and railings were made of specially coated stainless steel in order to resist salt, should the pool be converted to a salt-generated

chlorination system in the future. • The pump room has been elevated to the same level as the deck area. It’s attached to the restrooms with the same exterior siding and roofing -- and contains all new equipment. • The fencing is new, identical to the fencing at the Swim and Racquet Club and Sports Core pools: black with good airflow and high visibility. • There are bathrooms for boaters on the marina side of the pool. • New in the pump room: Four new Triton high rate sand filters, for more surface area to clean water; two new Pentair Variable Speed Pumps, allowing selection of four-, six- or eight- hour turnovers of pool water, and a new CAT Controller for sensing and dispensing chlorine and pH chemicals as needed. Electronic control systems mounted on the wall behind the pumps may result in a cost-saving electronic integrated system if operation of all of the above together can be accomplished. All of the new equipment is engineered to be more efficient and will reduce the cost of operating the pool. • Parrish Pools of Timonium and Ocean City built the pool and equipped the pump room. • The new pool reportedly will be winterized and covered while the destruction of the old building and construction of the new is being accomplished. – Virginia Reister

Yacht Club pool

pump system, necessary in case of a pump failure, and a four-filter filtration system that can replace all the water in the pool in six hours, as opposed to the eight hours allowed under state regulations. The new pool, built in the existing pool’s footprint but without a deep end, includes LED lighting, a rounded coping stone perimeter and a Diamond Brite surface, which added about $50,000 to the project cost. Harkins Construction had agreed to accept $3,700 from the OPA as an addon fee to supervise Parrish’s construction of the new Yacht Club pool.

From Page 8 no-bid contract for Harkins on the recommendation of Thompson, buying into the notion that having too many contractors in charge of design and execution of projects in the same construction site was a prescription for disaster. Harkins, under a change order subsequently approved by the board for the Yacht Club project, was the general contractor for the pool reconstruction project, with Parrish considered a sub-contractor under Harkins supervision. Inside the new pumphouse is a two-

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Sports Core pool resurfacing delayed again

By TOM STAUSS Publisher here were strong indications in early August that a budgeted resurfacing of the Sports Core indoor pool and related improvements would occur late in the month, perhaps during the several days when the pool would have been closed anyway for the twice-annual pool purge and acid cleaning. But that didn’t come to pass. Ocean Pines Association General Manager Bob Thompson sent out a request for proposals (RFP) during the last week of July asking pool contractors to bid on the pool resurfacing project, including skimmer repairs and the installation of new perimeter coping. Those came back exceeding the $60,000 that had been budgeted earlier this year for resurfacing, new coping and skimmer repair. One bid came back for pool resurfacing only for less than $60,000 and that option was given some consideration. After a review of the bids and talking to some of the contractors who submitted proposals, OPA facilities manager Jerry Aveda and Aquatics committee chair Virginia Reister concluded that just doing pool resurfacing would not be the best approach in refurbishing the Sports Core pool. Installing coping and repairing skimmers later would only risk damaging the resurfaced pool, Reister told members of the aquatics committee at their Aug. 8 monthly meeting. “It would have been backwards (from the way it should be done),” she said. Her recommendation to the committee was to delay the project until next summer, when repairing the pool decking could be added to the work, with everything done at once. She said the project might require the swimming pool to be closed for a month or more, but with adequate notice she said most aquatics members would accept the closure if a much improved facility was the result. At that time, Ocean Pines’ four outdoor pools are open for use. Thompson told the committee that he supported a comprehensive fix of the Sports Core pool and promised to include funds for resurfacing, new coping, skimmer repair and new decking in his proposed capital budget for next year. The decision ultimately will be made by the board of directors, and there is no guarantee that the board will approve a more comprehensive solution. Reister has said that a comprehensive approach should include installation of ultraviolet filter equipment and

a salt-generated chlorination system at the pool, but whether she and the committee will be able to persuade Thompson to include those items remain to be seen and, if so, whether the board will approve them. After hearing Reister make the case for delay, the committee voted unanimously to recommend to the board of directors that the Sports Core project be pushed off until the summer of 2014, basing the recommendation on input from pool contractors. Components of the project would include a new Diamond Brite surface, perimeter coping, skimmer repair and new decking, perhaps pavers similar to those just installed at the Yacht Club pool. Thompson told the committee that the uneven surfaces of the pool decking could be milled and leveled prior to the installation of pavers. After skimmer repairs and coping installation, the last step would be pool resurfacing, he said. OPA President Tom Terry, the board’s liaison said he would his notify board colleagues of the committee’s recommended delay. Assuming the other directors agree to the delay, that would appear to conclude the matter until the budget review process begins in January. The committee’s unanimous vote concluded about a month of behind-thescenes efforts to jumpstart Sports Core pool improvements. The board of directors at its July 24 monthly meeting voted 6-1 against a motion offered by Director Marty Clarke to direct the general manager to draft a request for proposal (RFP) for Sports Core pool resurfacing. That would seem to have foreclosed the possibility of making the Sports Core improvements this summer, when other pools are open to accommodate swimmers. The defeated motion was not the final word on the subject, however. After the July 24 meeting, OPA President Tom Terry told the Progress that despite the defeat of Clarke’s motion, he and other directors would continue to work behind the scenes to bring the project to fruition in August. The apparent contradiction between the defeat of Clarke’s motion and continuing efforts to make the resurfacing project happen was partly explained by the fact that shortly after Clarke forwarded his motion to board secretary Dan Stachurski for inclusion on the July 24 meeting agenda, Thompson directed Aveda to draft a project RFP and send it out to area pool contractors. “The RFP went out a couple of hours after I sent my motion to Dan,” Clarke said later. The mere presence of the motion seems to have spurred Thompson to

Committee recommends delay in hopes that comprehensive refurbishment of the pool can occur, including new decking

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Pool resurfacing From Page 11 act consistent with the motion’s intent. Even so, Clarke declined Stachurski’s invitation to rescind it prior to the meeting, on the grounds that he (Clarke) wanted to continue to press Thompson to follow through. Stachurski was of the opinion that the motion was not necessary given that the general manager had already acted to create and send out the RFP. Clarke said that while the RFP was an important first step, he favored a board motion to actually mandate that the resurfacing would take place. During the July 24 meeting, however, Thompson raised an issue which seemed to indicate that he wanted to push off the Sports Core pool resurfacing until sometime later than this year’s August-early September window. He said that in addition to pool resurfacing, he wanted to investigate the possibility of redoing the pool decking as part of the project. Thompson told the board that in order to align the height of coping and skimmers to whatever material would be used for the decking – pavers similar to those that have been installed at the Yacht Club pool is one possibility – he would need some unspecified amount of time to study options. “You don’t want to have to redo” the skimmers and coping to accommodate whatever decking surface is chosen, he said. The prospect of combining the new decking with the other elements, however, raised a budgetary issue. The board, in adopting the capital spending budget for the current fiscal year last February, included $60,000 for pool resurfacing, new coping and skimmer realignment. There were no dollars included for deck improvements. Reister, when advised of Thompson’s inclination to consider expanding the proposed resurfacing project to include pool decking improvements, checked with a local pool contractor to determine whether standard heights for skimmers and coping would in any way interfere or complicate the installation of the new

pool decking. “It’s a small issue, at most, and is easily resolved,” she said. “Whether you go with pavers over the existing concrete, or rubber matting, both can easily accommodate the standard height of skimmers and coping.” She said she was told by the contractor that it would take about two weeks to complete the project, excluding decking improvements, which she said would allow it to be done in August, when closing the Sports Core pool would allow swimmers to use the OPA’s other four pools, including the new pool at the Yacht Club. She was told that the contractor’s bid, which does not include the decking, would be about $63,000, slightly more than what the board had budgeted last February, In the end, that particular contractor submitted a proposal costing tens of thousands more. Adding the decking to the project would have added several weeks to the project’s duration, easily extending it well into the month of September, depending on when in August the pool work actually begins. Thompson has said he plans to close the old Yacht Club facility down for demolition about a week after Labor Day – the new swimming pool there would probably close down at the same time -- and the Swim and Racquet Club pool temperature cools down significantly in September. That still could have left the pool at Mumford’s available for use, but it lacks lap lanes, used by an active contingent of pool members. Stachurski told the Progress in a telephone interview in late July that he recalled that the board of directors in 2006 or 2007 had voted to purchase a second pool heater for the Swim and Racquet Club swimming pool and he wondered whether both heaters were still functional. Reister told the Progress that the older heater rusted out and was no longer functional and the second heater “mysteriously disappeared” from the pump room in 2010, when the pool was refurbished.

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Committee recommends spray park

OCEAN PINES

August-Early September 2013

lthough it’s a long way from becoming a reality, the Ocean Pines Association’s aquatics advisory committee at its Aug. 8 monthly meeting voted to send a recommendation to the OPA board of directors in support of adding water park spray features to the Swim and Racquet Club baby pool area. In discussion, committee members addressed the possibility that spray features would replace the baby pool. The committee endorsed obtaining prices for replacing the baby pool with new spray infrastructure and for adding a so-called “zero” entry into it. Either approach would resolve Americans with Disabilities Act requirements that confront the OPA. Some sort of ADA solution will be required before the baby pool could reopen next Memorial Day weekend. The larger pool at Swim and Racquet is unaffected by the ADA issue, as it is already outfitted with a chair lift to allow disabled individuals access to the pool. The committee also supports a zero-entry approach to the baby pool at Mumford’s Landing pool, where there is insufficient space for spray features.

Elections Committee rebuffs challenge to policy of counting board ballots in private By TOM STAUSS Publisher his much is clear with respect to whether vote counting in annual board of directors elections will ever be conducted in public: Not very likely. The Ocean Pines Association’s Elections Committee has rebuffed recent inquiries about the justification for conducting the vote count in private on the day before the annual election of the association. Meanwhile, the OPA board of directors so far has not been interested in forcing the committee to open up the vote count, if not for anyone interested enough to attend the count, then at least for designated representatives of the candidates running for the board. The ballots were opened and counted in closed session by the committee on Aug. 9, the day before this summer’s OPA annual meeting. In recent meetings of the board and in email that has not been responded to, Pines property and Ocean Pines Forum blogmeister Joe Reynolds has been pressing the board to explain what exception under the Maryland Homeowners Act allows the elections committee to count ballots in private. He attended the committee’s meeting in early August to ask for an explanation on the justi-

fication for going into closed session to count ballots. Committee chair Judy Butler, he said later, refused to respond directly to his question. Neither did Dan Stachurski, the board’s committee liaison. Both responded instead by citing an OPA board resolution that appears to authorize the committee, indeed mandates it, to meet in closed session when counting ballots. That isn’t satisfying Reynolds, and it also seems to have energized one of this summer’s board candidates, Jack Collins, who came into the committee meeting in early August to ask the committee why he or his representatives couldn’t witness the ballot count. Collins said that he does not believe the committee has acted improperly in any way, but that his non-resident supporters are questioning the policy of closed sessions to count ballots, regardless. Some of those supporters have volunteered to serve as poll watchers during the vote count, Collins said. He fared no better than Reynolds in getting a straight answer from Butler, Stachurski or any committee members on which exception listed in the HOA Act would permit a closed committee meeting for vote counting. The clear suggestion from the inability or unwillingness to answer the inqui-

ry is that no exception listed in the HOA Act is applicable, and everyone involved in the matter knows it. Even clearer is the fact that the committee as a whole, with Stachurski in agreement, appears to put more stock in following OPA procedures than adhering to the letter of the HOA act. Stachurski said in a recent interview with the Progress that a judge somewhere might rule that the HOA Act requires counting of ballots in open session but that, short of a court order mandating an open count, he’s not prepared to overturn a longstanding OPA practice just to satisfy Reynolds. He said he would pay attention if there was a groundswell of opposition to the current committee practice, but so far he’s seen nothing to suggest that current procedures aren’t working well or that property owners generally want a change. He noted that one benefit of a closed count is that more property owners attend the annual meeting than might otherwise to learn of the election results first hand. Were election results announced the day before the annual meetings immediately after the committee does its work, attendance of the annual meeting on the second Saturday of August might plummet.

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August-Early September 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS 15

OPA FINANCES

Golf misses budget by almost $50,000 in June

Actual loss is a relatively modest $16,008, but even so the results are troubling in a so-called contract year. After two months into the new fiscal year, golf operations are already $43,000 behind budget and $5,262 in the red. Is a turn-around possible before the board of directors considers a contract renewal for Billy Casper Golf? Actual performance was somewhat more positive, with marina operations, Beach Club parking, and Beach Club food and beverage operations all in the black. Golf, the Yacht Club and aquatics op-

OPA Net Financial Operations through June 30, 2013

erations lost money for the month and also produced negative variances to budget. Golf operations led the way with a negative variance to budget of $49,807, followed by the Yacht Club’s nega-

tive variance of $40,593 and aquatics’ $15,661. Actual losses for the month were $16,008 in golf, $10,900 in aquatics and $9,452 at the Yacht Club. While marina operations were $8,412 in the black for the month and $1,431 ahead of budget, for the year so far the results reflect the fact that gasoline sales were not available for May and the construction of a new Yacht Club is under way in the vicinity of the marina, affecting boat slip rentals. That shows up in year-to-date results, in which marina operations are $42,997 behind budget. Operations overall remain profitable, however, with $122,878 in net revenues through June. Beach Club parking was the OPA’s top amenity performer in June, with actual net revenues of $40,321 and a positive variance to budget of $14,826. For the year, net revenues are $276,950 with a positive variance to budget of $6,290. Beach club food and beverage operations are a mixed bag, generating an $11,998 surplus for the month but a $9,476 negative variance to budget. For the first two months of the year, the Beach Club is $6,185 in the black but $16,898 behind budget. For June, the OPA recorded its second consecutive negative operating fund variance of $68,453, on revenues that were under budget by $126,960 partially offset by expenses under budget by $58,507. For the first two months of the 2014 fiscal year, the operating fund’s negative variance is $121,453. Revenues so far in the fiscal year are under budget by $244,833 offset by expenses under budget by $123,380. These numbers are contained in the June controller’s report prepared by OPA Controller Art Carmine. The first two months of operations generated some candid assessments by OPA board members during their July 24 monthly meeting, after OPA General Manager Bob Thompson spent some time attempting to explain the fiscal year 2013 numbers contained in the just released audit report. Directors spent more time dissecting May and June numbers, with Marty Clarke informing Thompson that the retail numbers at the Yacht Club for these two months were “the lowest retail months ever,” which Sharyn O’Hare and OPA President Tom Terry both attributed to the ongoing construction at the Yacht Club during May and June. “Bottom line, this group (Yacht Club manager David McLaughlin and staff) is trying to set the stage for the new building,” Terry said. “Are they succeeding financially? No. They’re trying to keep the building open; they’re doing the best they can.” The June Yacht Club numbers actually contain some good news on the ban-

By TOM STAUSS Publisher he Ocean Pines Association’s financial performance for June, the second month of the 2014 fiscal year, contained little good news of the sort that bring cheers to OPA officials paid to worry about such matters, and some cause for worry. While two months do not a fiscal year make, all major OPA amenity departments underperformed relative to budget for the month, except for Beach Club parking and marina operations.

16 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

August-Early September 2013

OPA financials From Page 15 quet front. Banquet revenues of $30,885 exceeded budget by $6,885, partially offset by $6,600 in banquet beverage revenues that were $4,140 under budget. Still, for the month, banquet revenues beat budget expectations by more than $2,000. When banquet costs are added into the equation, however, that $2,000 is virtually wiped out. Banquet food costs exceeded budget by $2,681 while banquet beverage costs were ahead of budget by $603. Where the Yacht Club financial performance jumped the rails was regular food and beverage sales, as noted by Clarke. Food revenue missed its target by a whopping $56,528, while regular beverage revenues underperformed relative to budget by $37,212. This was partially offset by regular food costs that were under budget by $25,296 and regular beverage costs under budget by $11,097. The same picture emerges when June is added to the May numbers for year-todate results. Cumulative food revenue is $80,836 under budget while cumulative beverage revenue is $54,290 under budget. Costs were controlled to some extent; food costs were $40,860 under budget and beverage costs were $15,585

under budget. Bottom line: Management was able to lower expenses reflecting lower retail revenues, but not to the degree needed to meet the budgetary target. OPA Director and Treasurer Terri Mohr said that the May and June results at the Yacht Club “were bad” but she added that she was not surprised by them. “It’s the pool that drives most of the people to the Yacht Club,” and the Yacht Club pool was closed, affecting revenues, she said. Director Dave Stevens was not willing to blame the amenity’s performance entirely on the pool not being open or the construction site for the new Yacht Club adjacent to the existing building. “I’m not hearing that food and service have turned around,” he said. “We don’t have any way to measure it.” He added that just waiting for the new Yacht Club to open next year is no solution. Director Dan Stachurski said “one thing we can all agree on” is that during May and June costs at the Yacht Club were “under control” – actual numbers indicate that is only partially true, as lower costs offset less than 50 percent of the lower revenues, relative to budget – but that we have “revenue issues across the board.” He said “suddenly” the Beach Club

is not generating as much revenue as it has in the past – year-to-date revenue of $63,184 compares to $97,631 in May and June of last year – and boat slip revenues are down as well because boaters “don’t want to fight a construction site.” Stachurski said that the OPA is investing in its future and should keep that in mind when evaluating the numbers thus far in the new fiscal year. Clarke was less forgiving of the Yacht Club numbers, saying that the amenity has made money in only one month since August of last year. “I’m sick of hearing that it’s turning around,” he said. Director Ray Unger attributed the revenue picture to economic conditions locally. “We’re not the only ones … not doing well,” he said, citing anecdotal evidence from Ocean City business owners that revenue is down this summer even as numbers of people visiting the resort has held up. With respect to golf operations, Thompson told the board that the OPA is still waiting for permits that will allow for the Hingham Lane segment of golf course drainage improvements. Meanwhile, he said that package play is increasing and that “package play in the fall” will be critical to how close Billy Casper Golf will come to meeting its budgetary targets for the year.

It’s well known that BCG is in its final year of a three-year contract and that the OPA’s willingness to extend the contract will depend in large part on how well the company performs relative to the budget that its staff assembled for board approval. Earlier in the meeting, in the context of last year’s financial performance in golf, Terry made comments suggesting that he isn’t particularly inclined to be forgiving of BCG if budget targets aren’t met. He said the company was aware of course conditions when drafting its budgets and was aware that, last year, half the course wasn’t open for play. This year, when the course was reopened for 18-hole play June 1, the course was in pristine condition. Since several recent deluges, there has been some erosion of those conditions. There has been some fairway burn-out on hole number 11, in the area just before the green and around the pond, which was rebuilt with drainage improvements. The fact that the Hingham Lane portion of this project has not been completed means the area still does not drain well. BCG has informed golf members that the company expects the grass to regenerate on the hole by the fall, when package play will be critical. There have been other reports of To Page 18

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August-Early September 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

18 Ocean Pines PROGRESS OPA financials

OCEAN PINES

August-Early September 2013

From Page 16 less than pristine course conditions; the fairway of hole number 8 is mostly crabgrass and has been that way for years, one long-time homeowner who has a house there told the Progress recently. Stevens noted that lifetime golf memberships – 20 have been sold through June 30 of this year – have had the perverse effect of reducing revenues that would ordinarily flow to golf operations. Terry continued with his hard line, responding that BCG was “well aware” that lifetime memberships were being sold to generate revenue for greens replacement. “These numbers are ugly across the board,” Clarke then added, “but let’s not look to crucify but how to fix it.” Clarke has long been a proponent of leasing out both the Yacht Club and the golf course to private operators as a way of eliminating deficits at both amenities. Aquatics is another department off to a slow start financially, with memberships off substantially from budget for June (-$11,104) and cumulatively through the first two months of the fiscal year (-$40,775). Coupons and cash fees didn’t make up the difference in June, behind budget by $6,915 and $3,213 respectively. Thompson told the board that improvements in the swim lesson program have been implemented, and indeed rev-

ASIAN CUISINE

enue from this source is ahead of budget by $3,729 through June. But the bottom line in aquatics is that total aquatics revenue for June of $72,196 was $22,187 under budget and for the year it’s $51,162 under budget. The expense side looks somewhat better, as aquatics operations in June were ahead of budget by $6,526 on total expenses of $83,096. Net operations lost $10,900 for the month and were $15,661 under budget. Through June, the operating surplus is $62,244, but that’s $45,667 less than what the budget had projected through June. Status of reserves – The reserve summary released as part of the June financials shows that the OPA’s reserve balance stood at $8,249,142, a modest decline from the $8,437,653 balance at the end of May but still substantially more than the balance of $4,733,893 at the end of April. Lot assessment dollars flow into the reserves at the beginning of the new fiscal year in May. The balance in the roads reserve through June is $66,703, virtually unchanged from May’s $66,663 balance. The bulkhead and waterways reserve through June stands at $1,058,796, a slight drop from May’s balance of $1,066,221. At the end of the April, the balance was $311,485 positive balance; the April to May increase was attributable to $822,367 in contributions from the waterfront lot assessment differential.

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Directors give Thompson $5,000 performance bonus By TOM STAUSS Publisher n somewhat of a compromise after a recent annual performance review, the Ocean Pines Association’s board of directors decided to give General Manager Bob Thompson a $5,000 bonus, a number reportedly suggested by OPA President Tom Terry when it became clear that the directors were in separate camps with respect to Thompson’s job performance. As should be no surprise to those who have attended meetings of the board this past year, directors Marty Clarke and Dave Stevens were the directors least impressed with Thompson’s job performance, and they were said to be reluctant to increase his already generous salary relative to those common in Worcester County, in the $140,000 to $150,000 range, but more if the value of benefits are included. Most vocal among the directors in support of Thompson was Director Sharyn O’Hare, who reportedly told her colleagues that a decision not to increase the general manager’s compensation would send the message that the directors collectively are not happy with him. Sources say that she became emotional in her defense, tearfully relating what she regarded as the general manager’s major achievements in his threeyear tenure, his response last year to Hurricane Sandy in coordinating staff response as well as his successful effort to sell OPA members on the need for a new Yacht Club. That effort resulted in a two-to-one majority voting in last summer’s referendum for a new $4.3 million replacement facility, currently under construction on a site adjacent to the existing building. O’Hare’s plea on behalf of Thompson proved to be persuasive to a board majority, but even so it constitutes a compromise between a salary freeze and a permanent salary increase.

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August-Early September 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Budget committee members vote to recommend curb on board spending authority Directors would decide whether to take issue to referendum By TOM STAUSS Publisher ith no fanfare and very limited discussion, members of the Ocean Pines Association’s budget and finance advisory committee during their July 26 monthly meeting took action to forward a recommendation to the board of directors that could lead to a curb on the board’s spending authority for major capital projects. By a 6-0 vote with two abstentions, the committee voted to recommend a change in the OPA bylaws that would reduce the board’s spending authority from the current 20 percent of annual assessment revenue to ten percent. The motion to recommend the change was made by committee member John Weltzelberger. New member Pat Supik voted with the majority. Changes in OPA bylaws must be presented to and approved by the full OPA membership in a referendum, so the decision to curb board spending authority does not reside with the directors. However, the board is the body that is authorized to decide whether to take an issue to referendum for a vote, and a majority of directors could decide not to give property owners the option to decide the issue. The proposed change in the bylaws would reduce the board’s spending authority outside the referendum process from about $1.6 million per year to about $800,000. Another avenue to bring the proposed curb to a referendum vote, should the board not act on its own, is by petition. The bylaws require that 20 percent of the OPA membership base, or just less than 900 property owners, can petition the board to conduct a referendum on the topic of the petition. It is generally thought that a petition containing the names of more than 800 property owners would force board action to conduct a referendum, that it’s not a matter of discretion. OPA bylaws seem to give the board some authority over the precise wording of a petition for a referendum, and the language in the bylaws has never been tested. Committee chair Dennis Hudson previously has warned that a petition effort would be possible, if not likely, should the board not act favorably on the committee’s recommendation. The board’s liaison to the committee, Terri Mohr, said she would forward the committee’s recommendation to the board of directors for consideration at

its September meeting. Mohr, the OPA treasurer, has never said publicly during committee meetings whether she favors or opposes

the recommendation to curb spending authority, or whether she would vote to let property owners decide the issue in a referendum.

Hudson has said that he has not received positive feedback from most OPA board members about the proposed curb on their spending authority. But that doesn’t mean a board majority, especially one reorganized after this summer’s election, would not facilitate a referendum to let property owners decide. If that happens, the board is required under the bylaws to recommend whether property owners should vote for or against the referendum question. The two abstentions on the committee on the recommended bylaws change were cast by John Trumpower From To Page 27

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August-Early September 2013

August-Early September 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

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OCEAN PINES

August-Early September 2013

Directors skirmish over capital improvement plan By TOM STAUSS Publisher cean Pines Association directors skirmished over whether the draft capital improvement plan discussed in detail during a July special meeting complied with the intent of a board motion from last September. The consensus – it didn’t – but directors offered up competing interpretations as to the significance of that. One camp – directors Dave Stevens and Marty Clarke – more or less said that General Manager Bob Thompson had ignored the will of the board in devising a document that fell well short of the “rack and stack” of future projects that the September motion by Director Dan Stachurski had called for. The other camp, including Stachurski and Directors Terri Mohr, the OPA treasurer, and Tom Terry, the OPA president, said the draft CIP was a good start, and that Thompson and facilities manager Jerry Aveda should continue their work on a second phase, including a future de-

tailed “rack and stack.” Thompson told the board, in defense of the draft CIP’s exclusion of new rack and stack projects, that the initial plan was more about process and arriving at a community consensus about which projects should be included in a future rack-and-stack. “It’s not important what I think should be included,” he said at one point. Even so, the existence of a tentative “rack and stack” project list has been rumored to exist for some time, and Thompson confirmed that in a brief discussion after a recent board meeting, when he also said he had decided not to release it for discussion at the July 17 special meeting, because he didn’t want specific items to become issues in this summer’s board of directors’ election. During the meeting, he said it would take “two weeks” to finish a rack and stack list for public distribution but that he would probably not release it until as late as November, once he was certain that the directors were on board with a process for evaluating it. Previously, he had said that he would release his project in the September-October period. In the end, it may be the new board that takes office after this year’s sum-

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mer election that determines the timeline for when the CIP’s proposed rack and stack is released. Stachurski later told the Progress that he was not particularly concerned that Thompson had declined to release his proposed future project list at the special meeting, but that at some point he would “have to give it up” and accept whatever reaction, pro and con, that it would likely generate. One project that is rumored to be on Thompson’s proposed rack and stack is a new administration building to replace the one in White Horse Park. There have been unconfirmed reports that it would include new offices for Thompson and the accounting department, along with space for the public relations department and new quarters for the Ocean Pines Police Department. The new building would be located on Cathell Road across from the library and Taylor Bank. Another rumored project for what might be described as the Sports Core/ Cathell Road campus is a new indoor swimming pool, or natatorium as it is sometimes called. Thompson asked the Aquatics Advisory Committee some months ago to research the possibility of a new indoor swimming pool complex,

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and committee chair Virginia Reister complied by assembling a notebook of information. At the same time, however, the committee went on record as opposing the inclusion of a new indoor swimming pool, and the funding of it, in a five-to-ten-year capital improvement plan. As told to the aquatics committee earlier this year, Thompson envisioned removing the cover on the existing Sports Core pool and turning it back into an outdoor venue. During initial discussion at the special meeting, Stevens said that by “almost any criteria” Thompson had failed to comply with the board’s motion from last September, which prompted a response from Mohr who asked rhetorically whether it was “relevant” to talk about the motion when the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the CIP. Clarke said he was disappointed in the initial draft because it failed to produce any information about when there would be “shovels in the ground” starting projects. Stevens told Mohr that discussion of the motion was relevant because the board asked “for one thing, and got”

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August-Early September 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Clarke urges action to repair Parkway bridge

that full replacement of the bridge was suggested in two or three years and that those two or three years have already transpired. “We’ve been led to believe that the county will pay 80 percent of the cost of bridge replacement, so maybe that’s what we should do,” Clarke said, although he said he’s also open to simply making the repairs identified in the earlier engineering study. One of the repairs he says can be done easily and inexpensively is the installation of a guard rail on either side of the Ocean Parkway bridge. “We’ve known about that for three or four years now,” he said. In response to Clarke, Jerry Aveda, the OPA project manager, said he has a

request for proposals (RFP) on his desk but that he is “finding issues” and so has delayed sending out the RFP to contractors. Thompson responded by asking Clarke to what “state standards” he was referring, and Clarke said he was referring to standards that say that bridges in the state have to meet certain state requirements for structural soundness and safety. Aveda said the RFP he is working on has to give “specific guidance” to contractors so they can properly respond to a RFP. Thompson said the engineering study to which Clarke referred provided information insufficient for the preparation of an RFP.

the board that it would only take “two weeks” to finalize a detailed rack and stack, adding “but what I think isn’t important. What’s important is feedback from the board and community.” What he didn’t say is that the feedback needs to react to something, and that “something” probably will be his version of a “rack-and-stack” whenever he decides to make it public. Clarke then interjected that he had a problem with the use of the term “community” in the context of wanting feed-

back. “Let’s use the term ‘membership,’ who may or may not live in the community,” Clarke said. Stachurski said that as the process evolves, it will be necessary for the OPA to have “shovels in the ground” at the same time that planning continues. “We can do both,” he said. Director Ray Unger, who for the most part had little to contribute during the discussion, called the CIP a set of guidelines that have to be “flexible.”

From Page 22 something else from Thompson. cean Pines Association DirecStachurski said that while he had tor Marty Clarke recently urged “really wanted to see where the rackGeneral Manager Bob Thompson and-stack was going to be,” he said he to take immediate steps to either repair now believes his motion was too narrow or replace the bridge over a canal on in scope and that he believes the initial Ocean Parkway near Clubhouse Drive. phase one draft of the CIP is preferable “When do we actually do the bridge,” to what his motion called for because a frustrated Clarke said, during discus“Bob has broadened it.” Stachurski sion at a special meeting held July 17 to said the CIP needs to line up with the discuss the first phase of a draft capital OPA’s master plan and will be a “living improvement plan for the OPA. document” that has the flexibility to be Clarke said there was an extensive changed every year. engineering study on the condition of “I’m happy with the broadening of bridges throughout Ocean Pines done scope,” he said. “Yes, Bob and Jerry (Aveseveral years ago. He said they were da) are late with the rack-and-stack but very detailed on what was needed to even so they’re taking a big bite out of it” bring the bridges up to state standards. in the initial phase of the CIP. In the case of the Ocean Parkway Terry agreed that the plan as submitbridge, Clarke later told the Progress ted had not complied with the letter of the Stachurski motion but said it didn’t bother him. “I didn’t vote for it” and said identified in a five-year plan for aquathe was not disappointed that it failed to ics prepared by the aquatics advisory deliver on the initial objective “because I committee. didn’t expect it to.” Aveda replied that the second phase The conversation then shifted to a of the CIP would be more inclusive, but page-by-page dissection of the draft and that the initial phase was designed prisome philosophical insights. marily as the first stage in a process. Clarke questioned the basis for Thompson said that he and Aveda $600,000 in expenditures related to the had engaged in an extended debate over Beach Club bathhouse, while Sharyn whether the initial phase of the CIP O’Hare wondered why the plan did not should include a detailed rack and stack, include any new items, such as proposed and in the end “we weren’t comfortable Ocean Pines to Progress . 1/2 pg 10.125” xwith 5.67”either 4C iteration.” Then he informed improvements the pools recently

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OCEAN PINES

August-Early September 2013

By TOM STAUSS Publisher uring the July 17 special meeting called to discuss the draft of the first phase of a proposed capital improvement plan for Ocean Pines, Director Dan Stachurski offered what seemed to be a less than rousing defense of golf in Ocean Pines and the degree to which OPA members support the existence of the Ocean Pines golf course. “If you survey 100 people (in his Section 3 neighborhood), only ten would say we need a golf course,” he said. None of his board colleagues seemed to disagree. None, in fact, responded. In a subsequent interview, Stachurski offered some context and a more substantive explanation of his views on golf in Ocean Pines. No one should conclude that because many residents in Ocean Pines don’t see the need for a golf course, Stachurski believes it should be shut down, turned into a park, or sold off to developers. “I probably should have provided more explanation when I said that,” he said. “What I meant to say is that we as

Director expresses interest in a range of options, including rewriting the Billy Casper Golf contract, buy-out or lease proposals from limited partnerships, and operating the course under a low-fee municipal model designed to dramatically increase rounds of golf played an association haven’t done a very good job of making a case for why the golf course is important to the community, to property values, to Ocean Pines’ identity as a community with more amenities and activities than almost anywhere else in Worcester County.” Rather than as a static description of OPA member attitudes toward golf, Stachurski said it should be used as a starting point for a discussion on turning the golf course into an amenity that operates more efficiently and economically and begins to attract the significant number of golfers who, for whatever reason, have dropped their memberships in Ocean Pines and moved on to other local golfing venues. From a peak of more than 800 members back in the 1990s, golf memberships as of June 30 stood at 143, ten

less than at the same time last year. The number of lifetime members now stands at 20, four more than in June of last year, according to the OPA’s official amenity report. Lifetime membership revenue is allocated not to golf operations but instead is helping to pay for a capital program, the greens replacement program completed earlier this year. Stachurski said the board of directors will have a challenging time of it deciding whether to renew Billy Casper Golf ’s contract to manage the Ocean Pines golf course and, if so, under what terms. Like all the directors, Stachurski said he will be very interested to see how well BCG performs relative to budget later in the fiscal year, and that performance will drive the contract renewal negotiations that will begin in the fall or winter. As a general rule, he said he would

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prefer a contract that doesn’t include a base consulting fee, which in the case of Casper is more than $60,000 per year. He said that any new contract with Casper should be more heavily incentivized for performance than it is now. He said he is open to restructuring the course management into what he called the municipal model, in which responsibility to operate the course could be transferred to a foundation separate from the OPA. Fees to play the course would be dramatically reduced, perhaps to as low as $25 for 18 holes and a cart, he said. Revenues would be much less dependent on prepaid annual memberships, reflecting the trend in Ocean Pines. Stachurski also said he would be open to proposals from limited partnerships to take over management and/or ownership of the course. He said he had been approached by two separate individuals purporting to be part of groups interested in running the Ocean Pines course in the last six months or so. In both cases, he invited the individuals to put their proposals in writing and that he promised them he would present them to the board for review. In neither case did he receive a formal proposal, he said. “I didn’t think it appropriate to chase q

Stachurski says neighborhood survey would yield little support for golf course

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OCEAN PINES

August-Early September 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Thompson prodded to purchase off-the-shelf computerized system to better manage OPA assets By TOM STAUSS Publisher erhaps the most concrete of the recommendations in the first phase of a draft capital improvement plan for the Ocean Pines Association is that the OPA should replace its paper-based work order system in the Public Works Department with a commercial, off-the-shelf computerized management system, or COTS CMMS, for short. OPA General Manager Bob Thompson told the board of directors during a July 17 special meeting on the draft capital improvement plan for the OPA, that purchasing the COTS CMMS was the â&#x20AC;&#x153;next stepâ&#x20AC;? on the to-do list as recommended by the draft CIP prepared by OPA facilities manager Jerry Aveda. Thompson said the cost of the computerized system is only $7,000, roughly the same cost as the existing paper-based system that is up for renewal in January. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Do it, buy the damn thing,â&#x20AC;? Director Dan Stachurski told Thompson. No other director differed with Stachurski. Thompson has spending authority without specific board authorization up to $15,000. Thompson said the OPA staff has done extensive field testing of competing systems and found one in particular that it likes. The system manages and tracks capital assets and their maintenance history, at the same time that it schedules regular preventive maintenance. It allows personnel to request service or report breakdowns and provides detailed reports on maintenance activities and its costs. Finally, such a system would generate reports on operational and reg-

Golf course From Page 24 them down to see how interested they really were,â&#x20AC;? he said. OPA Director Marty Clarke has gone even further than Stachurski, explicitly calling for the sale of the course to private groups or leasing it out, in both cases taking the OPA off the hook for operating losses and continuing capital expenditures to maintain the course. He also said that the board shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t simply wait for representatives from limited partnerships interested in leasing or buying the course to come to the board with formal proposals. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We need to be more proactive in telling the world that weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re interesting in leasing or selling,â&#x20AC;? Clarke said. He has noted previously that any such proposal could include a reversion clause, dictating that the course would return to OPA control in the event that the new operator could not operate the course profitably.

ulatory compliance. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Currently, available systems are Internet based, requiring no maintaining and updating of legacy system,â&#x20AC;? Aveda writes in his draft CIP. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Additionally, they employ capabilities to have mobile work order capability via smart phones and other mobile devices, migrate data from existing legacy data systems and contain a highly flexible, customizable and secure maintenance management system.â&#x20AC;? Aveda writes that such a system, not currently an OPA budget item, can be purchased at a cost that is â&#x20AC;&#x153;approximately what Ocean Pines currently spends annually for its legacy work order system,â&#x20AC;? which he criticizes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Currently, work order reports are generated by hard copy and passed on to various Public Works (Department) teams,â&#x20AC;? he writes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Follow up is verbal and inefficient. Any reporting analysis must be copied manually to Excel spreadsheets.â&#x20AC;? Aveda goes on to say that under the current system, work order items might remain on a to-do list for an extended period of time because they require â&#x20AC;&#x153;capabilityâ&#x20AC;? not present in the Public Works Department or lack authorized funding. Requested work â&#x20AC;&#x153;must compete with other budget items, which include replacement of equipment, critical services and other capital improvements,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Consequently, common maintenance tasks, such as replacing plaster in (swimming) pools, concrete decking repairs and fence replacement, lack suf-

Star Charities check presentation

Star Charities, founded by Carl and Anna Foultz, presented a check for $1,500 on July 19th to the Worcester County Developmental Center. The money was raised by Star Chartiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; group of volunteers at their annual Western Night at the Ocean Downs racetrack in Berlin on July 11. From left: Sandy McAbee, Peggy Rumberg, LouAnn Trummel, WCDC Program Director Jack Ferry, Anna Foultz, Phyllis Cherrix, WCDC Exec. Director June Walker, Judy Chuvala, Robin Dannelly and Irmgard Heinecke.

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pieces of hardware that have surpassed their useful lives. His solution: the OPA needs to fund a computer system upgrade. Among other recommendations that Aveda includes in the draft CIP is a proposed expenditure of $15,000 to initiate a master planning effort, including base mapping/modeling and a strategic planning process. He further recommends a formal acquisition process from requirement to completion, a â&#x20AC;&#x153;single point of contactâ&#x20AC;? within the OPA to manage acquisitions, continuation of the CIP planning process, and annual approval by the board of directors of that plan.

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OCEAN PINES

August-Early September 2013

OPA posts RFP for Section 3 mapping and storm drainage study By TOM STAUSS Publisher n an ongoing effort to find a lasting solution to a problem that at least one director believes has already been addressed, albeit imperfectly, Ocean Pines Association General Manager Bob Thompson has been given approval to seek proposals for a mapping and storm drainage study of Section 3 in Ocean Pines. Thompson has been saying for months that recent county-funded improvements to the drainage system that carries water to a retention pond in nearby River Run, while easing flooding conditions in Section 3 after heavy rains, are inadequate long-term solutions. Telling OPA directors for several months that he wanted to conduct an

GM wants proposals for a study to include aerial mapping, supplemental survey services, computer modeling, storm drain analysis and a final report containing recommended solutions engineering study of Section 3 to determine the extent of the drainage problem, he finally acted at the board of directors’ July 24 monthly meeting by telling the board he wanted to send out a request for proposals (RFP) to push the process along. The text of the RFP posted on the OPA Web site on July 31 is very detailed and comprehensive and suggests that Thompson is looking for a detailed proposal to diagnose and suggest cures for drainage issues in what is defined as a 222-acre watershed, bounded by Beauchamp Road, Route 589, Ocean Parkway and Sandyhook Road.

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The OPA “believes that … multiple stormwater issues … can be quantified with a comprehensive study… This RFP requests an analysis be performed within the watershed to locate problem areas and to provide recommendations for future improvements.” The RFP suggests that the study will include aerial mapping, supplemental survey services, computer modeling, storm drain analysis and a final report. The OPA is calling for a pre-proposal meeting and drive-through on Aug. 30 and bid proposals to come back no later than Sept. 12 with a contract award date set for Sept. 30. The RFP cautions that the board of directors can reject any and all proposals submitted, and that indeed is one possible result. Director Marty Clarke indicated during the July 24 meeting that he thought much of what the new RFP asks for is “exactly like” an engineering study conducted by Soule and Associates for the OPA in 2009. Director Dave Stevens said it sounded to him like what Thompson was proposing duplicated studies already done by the county. Thompson begged to differ, calling what he would like to do a “different approach” that includes aerial mapping, computer topology simulations, identification of specific impediments to stormwater flow, and recommendations for a more aggressive remedy to Section 3 drainage issues. The board of directors took no formal action to authorize or oppose the issuance of the RFP but, other than Clarke

and Stevens, other directors seemed to acquiesce in it. OPA President Tom Terry observed that rather than a typical RFP, what Thompson was proposing was more a “request for information,” later saying that Thompson was proposing a “costfree outreach.” That’s true insofar as the RFP itself is concerned, but not true for what Thompson hopes to generate in response to the RFP. The RFP published on the OPA Web site suggests that the general manager is after much more than mere information and that he expects that engineering firms will submit bids that will include professional service fees for any work performed. OPA Director Dan Stachurski signaled that he won’t necessarily embrace a solution that is as comprehensive as the one that the RFP envisions as an optimal outcome. He said any drainage solution should have as its objective keeping the roads clear of water during heavy downpours, as opposed to individual residential properties, and expressed doubt that the OPA “will ever be capable of solving the problem” to the extent some might believe is possible. “We need to set some credible expectations” on what is possible to achieve, Stachurski said, to which Thompson said that the RFP simply is a way to try “to get some credible answers” to the questions posed by a recent site inspection conducted by Public Works Director Eddie Wells. Indeed, the RFP’s description of problems in Section 3 seems to double down on Thompson’s repeated assertions that previous solutions have been inadequate. The RFP says that an existing stormwater pond located between Beaconhill Road and Pinehurst Road “does not appear to have sufficient storage capacity to handle larger or sustained storm events.” It says that “the roadside ditches contain numerous driveway pipes with varying elevations and varying conditions” that interfere with storm water “conveyance.” In addition, the RFP says that the main collector ditches into which roadside ditches flow are not large enough as they leave the Section 3 pond “for the size of the upstream watershed” and that their carrying capacity “appears to be restricted due to a number of factors including the depth and width of some of the ditches, the circuitous route some of them take between and behind residential lots, and the small size and poor condition of many of the road crossing pipes.” Nowhere in the RFP is any acknowledgment of what some residents have said is the most salient problem in the neighborhood, the clogged condition of roadside and collector ditches caused by the OPA’s failure to keep them free of debris.

OCEAN PINES

August-Early September 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

IRONY ON THE GOLF COURSE

US Golf representative says rain, heat played poorly with new sod on 11th hole fairway and tee box By TOM STAUSS Publisher n a candid report on the condition of the Ocean Pines golf course after the construction of new greens on all 18 holes and drainage improvements on holes 11 and 12, a representative of the United States Golf Association has delivered some news with an ironic twist: The condition of the hole number 11 fairway is “one of the worst” as Ocean Pines copes with the typical summer cycle of torrential rains and high temperatures. “This is because with new sod water becomes trapped between the new sod and the underlying soil, setting up the grass for wet wilt decline,” said Darin S. Bevard, director of the green section of the USGA’s mid-Atlantic region in a July report, based on a July 24 visit to Ocean Pines. “Basically, the roots and the crowns of the plant are poached when the sun comes out under high temperature and saturated conditions.” Unfortunately, he wrote, Ocean Pines “received so much rain (in early July) that there was nowhere for the water to go in a timely fashion.” He held out the hope that once the grass matures on the 11th fairway, “it will better tolerate the conditions” experienced, adding “that much water is difficult to deal with.” What Bevard did not say is that the drainage improvements made to the 11th fairway at considerable expense this past spring are not functioning as designed. A key component of the project, along Hingham Lane, has been delayed because of state permitting issues, and it now looks like drainage work along the street won’t begin until the fall, at the earliest. This segment of the project is designed to move water collected from the 11th fairway and adjoining properties from the area and eventually into the bay. The fairway in front of the 11th green in particular has browned out, but is still playable. Aesthetically, it leaves much to be desired. Elsewhere on the course, Bevard says that water accumulation has led to decline of grasses in some areas. In areas where excessive water was not a factor,

Funding authority From Page 19 and Bill Cordwell, the latter of whom successfully ran for the board of directors this summer. Trumpower has said at previous meetings that he would not get in the way of the committee majority’s viewpoint, and the abstention would appear to be consistent with that.

creeping bentgrass and Bermuda grass area “survived fairly well” while ryegrass areas did not. He said that natural recovery from the extremes in weather is possible and may “surprise” golfers in coming weeks, but that overseeding and even resodding will be necessary in some cases, as will application of liquid fertilizers, once

OPA to seeks grant for platform tennis

The chairman of the Ocean Pines Association’s budget and finance committee, Dennis Hudson, recently announced that as part of an effort to attract more grant funding to the OPA, the OPA will be submitting a formal request to the National Platform Tennis Association in the amount of $15,000 for Ocean Pines’ platform tennis program. Hudson said that the OPA’s grant-seeking efforts remain limited because of its status as a 401(c) (4) social welfare organization. As he has said previously, the solution to that is the creation of a 401(c) (3) charitable organization, that he has christened the Ocean Pines Community Foundation. In earlier committee meetings, Hudson said that such a foundation would work closely with the OPA but would have a separate board of directors. the weather breaks. “Be patient. The grass is already weak. Wait until environmental conditions are favorable for growth” before applying fertilizers, he advised.

Bevard’s report was not tilted to the negative; he said the “playability of the course was still good” despite the stresses of extreme weather. To Page 29

Budget committee chair looking favorably on shifting investments to PNC Bank By TOM STAUSS Publisher n the context of recent discussions about improving the rate of return on the Ocean Pines Association investment portfolio, the OPA’s budget and finance advisory committee invited representatives of PNC Bank to attend the July meeting to pitch the kinds of services the bank could provide to the OPA, if asked. PNC previously handled the OPA’s investments, but lost the account years ago as the OPA moved into a more conservative policy of investing in low interest CDARs and money market accounts. “PNC lost the account because they couldn’t provide the instruments that met our objectives,” committee chair Dennis Hudson said by way of introducing bank executives to the committee at its July 26 meeting. That situation may be changing, at least if Hudson is able to bring his committee along and then elevate the issue further in the hopes of persuading General Manager Bob Thompson and the board of directors to adopt a somewhat more liberal and lucrative investment strategy. He’ll face one implacable foe if the committee recommends a switch back to PNC, as Director Marty Clarke is on record as opposing any change in the association’s investment policy of emphasizing protection of principal over rates of return. Hudson and other committee members believe it may be acceptable for the OPA to take on somewhat higher risk in order to generate a better return on invested capital, especially on reserves that the OPA is holding for the longer term. Committee members heard a coordinated presentation from PNC executives on the various financial instruments that would be available to the OPA, carrying rates of return that exceed that of CDARs. The options

include municipal bonds, corporate bonds and even the stock market, although it’s doubtful that the committee or the board of directors would ever authorize investing OPA reserves in equities. Bank executives confirmed what Hudson has been saying for some months: CDARs don’t keep up with the inflation rate and some of the participating banks in CDAR investments are not necessarily as sound as a major national bank such as PNC. “Now I have a new objection to CDARs,” Hudson said, reacting to the possibility that a participating CDAR bank could fail, tying up invested assets for nine months or more, without interest, as the FDIC works through the process of liquidating a failed bank’s assets. While the principal invested in CDARs is federally insured, Hudson said lost interest and lack of access to funds are problematic. Bank officials also said PNC would be in a position to offer better commercial interest rates to the OPA as part of a package of services. The OPA tends not to do very much borrowing, instead paying for maintenance and repair items and most major capital expenditures out of accumulated reserves. But the Sports Core pool enclosure loan is carrying an interest rate of 7 percent, and the bank executives said that PNC could lend money to the OPA at a rate of two or four percent. Other services that the bank could provide include electronic lockboxes that would allow the HOA to collect assessments online from property owners, purchase cards with rebates, prepaid payroll debit cards that can replace payroll checks, individual Web portals, printing and mailing of invoices, and a checking account with an automatic sweep into an interestgenerating money market account. Services the bank can provide to OPA employees include help in setting up

high deductible health savings accounts and employee seminars, bank officials said. Whether to recommend switching OPA investments back to PNC will be a topic of future committee meetings. PNC has an Ocean Pines branch office located on Route 589. The OPA has a checking account with a small balance with the bank, and a modest workplace program for OPA employees is coordinated by branch manager Sarah Walker, according to bank officials. As of June 30, the OPA had a reserve balance of $8,249,142. In a move that could facilitate a switch to PNC or a bank with similar services, the committee informally endorsed a revised draft of an amended board resolution F-01B on investment guidelines pertaining to OPA reserve funds. The draft will be forwarded to the bylaws and resolutions advisory committee for review before the committee opts to send it formally to the board of directors for consideration. The amended resolution would preserve current policy that says the primary goal of the investment policy is capital preservation. The draft adds language that indicates a secondary goal is maintaining the purchasing power of reserve funds “not expected to be expended within the next two fiscal years.” The amended F-01B would establish that these longer term funds would be managed by a third party, professional management firm, approved by the OPA board. Also being forwarded to the bylaws and resolutions committee is a revised draft of Board Resolution F-01A, pertaining to investment guidelines for OPA operating funds. The draft says that the investment goal of these funds is capital preservation and that the OPA treasurer and controller will manage these funds.

28 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

August-Early September 2013

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August-Early September 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Thompson declines to submit plan for universal trash pick-up

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Switch to weekly recyclable collection under consideration ond day per week of recyclables pickup. Currently, regular trash collection occurs twice a week – Monday and Thursday on the North side, Tuesday and Friday on the South side. Pick-up of recyclables occurs every other week, with different pick-up days scheduled depending on the neighborhood. The mantra of “no change” is a departure from the impression left from the board’s June meeting, when Terry said that Thompson should come back to the board with options including universal coverage. At the time, it seemed that Terry, if not other directors, was interested enough to consider a change in the Waste Management contract. Even then, though, given the intensity of opposition to universal coverage in some quarters, there was no indication that a board majority was preparing to pull the trigger on universal coverage. Universal trash pick-up is not a new idea in Ocean Pines, but it’s an idea that past boards of directors have resisted whenever trash haulers have proposed it as part of the bid process for exclusive trash collection privileges in Ocean Pines. Haulers like it for any number of reasons. It reduces administrative costs substantially, as individual customers no longer have to be billed. It eliminates the problem of non-paying customers gaming the system by depositing their trash on the driveways of their paying neighbors. A possible disadvantage is that the wear and tear of trash trucks could increase as universal pick-up probably increases the amount of trash collected from the driveways. Many residents take their trash to a dump station outside Berlin or to the county’s central landfill in Newark rather than subscribing to collection service through Waste Management. They will

Golf course

He was similarly positive about most of the elevated tee boxes, again with one ironic exception – the newly resodded eleventh tee that he said has “suffered significant turfgrass loss.” Both the weather and heavy traffic were cited as reasons for that. Bevard said that course superintendent Rusty McClendon informed him that the 11th tee will be resodded for a quicker recovery, and the USGA representative advised that the tee should be aggressively aerated once the new sod has been established this fall. “This will improve water infiltration and eliminate problems with the sod layer,” he wrote. “As with the eleventh fairway, the fact that this is relatively new sod contributed to the turf loss on this tee.” In contrast, the rebuilt 12th hole fairway and green seem to be holding up well, according to golfers.

From Page 27 “For sure, there are fairway areas where preferred lies are needed, and there is a lot of recovery that needs to occur,” he wrote. He offered praise on the condition of Ocean Pines greens, generally assumed to be the part of the course where golfers are more likely to judge a course’s overall condition. “The renovation of the putting greens appears to be paying off this summer,” Bevard wrote. “While there was some stress on a few areas of the greens, their overall turfgrass populations remain healthy. As the greens mature, they will only get better.” He added that with only a short period of milder weather, “the problems that do exist on your putting greens will recover rapidly.”

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By TOM STAUSS Publisher erhaps it’s because he doesn’t want to generate a whirlwind of controversy or knows there’s no hurry to make any changes in Waste Management’s contract to provide trash collection services in Ocean Pines. For whatever reason, and without a lot of explanation, General Manager Bob Thompson seems to be backing off on the possibility that he might propose universal trash pick-up in Ocean Pines. “We’re just looking at options, (there are) no changes” he’s prepared to propose at the present time, Thompson said during the July 24 monthly meeting of the board of directors. OPA President Tom Terry also said there is “no change recommended” in the level and cost of trash collection services in Ocean Pines. The almost Shermanesque mantra of “no change” is probably a response to the emails received by the OPA in opposition to universal trash collection, in which the OPA, and not individual homeowners, would contract with Waste Management for trash collection. Under the individual option, homeowners can opt in or out of service, while under the OPA option the OPA contracts with the trash company and collection service is provided to every occupied home in Ocean Pines, so-called universal service. The cost of universal service would be included as part of the annual OPA lot assessment, possibly under a separate line item in the invoice. Before saying he was proposing no changes in service at this time, Thompson said the current contract with Waste Management expires in December of 2014, not this year, as has been erroneously reported. Thompson said one option still under consideration is switching to once a week regular trash pick-up and a sec-

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30 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

August-Early September 2013

Points Reach clubhouse scheduled for foreclosure auction Aug. 27 there was no indication that the owner of the building, Bankers Development Corp. LLC, had filed for bankruptcy. A foreclosure auction generally wipes out any other secondary liens filed against a property, depending on the selling price. In the case of the Points Reach clubhouse, many contractors have filed liens against the property that by now are many years old. In an August, 2010, article in the Progress, local Realtor Sandy Galloway said she understood that the bank’s lien on the clubhouse was for about $3.5 million, with secondary liens only adding to the indebtedness. Almost without question it would seem that Bank of Willards is preparing to take a severe haircut if indeed the auction takes place. At one time, the property was listed for sale at $6.5 million and Galloway said back in 2010 that, had the building been completed, it would have appraised at somewhere between $7 million to $8 million. The building contains more than 8,000 square feet of interior space, with unfinished indoor and outdoor pools and outdoor decking. It has a picturesque view of the Ocean City skyline across the bay. The builder/developer, Dave Meinhardt of Bankers Development Corp. LLC, walked away from the project in 2007 or 2008, leaving Points Reach and Point property owners without a major amenity they’d been promised when they purchased condo units or individual building lots earlier in the decade. In early efforts to sell individual resi-

Trash collection

collection, the general manager said Waste Management could convert to a one-and-one weekly schedule of one regular trash collection and one recyclable collection per week.

The Points Reach clubhouse is scheduled for a foreclosure auction Aug. 27

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From Page 29 probably be opposed to paying for trash service through the lot assessment. This might especially be true for non-resident homeowners who visit Ocean Pines on an irregular schedule. Thompson had raised the possibility of universal trash pick-up during the June 26 monthly meeting of the board of directors. He framed it initially as a proposal to finance trash pick-up by including it in the lot assessments. He cited some potential benefits, including a lower per household cost for current Waste Management customers, who would no longer receive a quarterly bill from the trash company. He did not specify whether the annual OPA assessment would include a separate line item for trash collection, but that certainly would have to be considered. Thompson said the proposal could result in an increased number of delinquencies from property owners who can’t or won’t pay their assessments because of higher rates. As part of a conversion to universal

By TOM STAUSS Publisher fter years of languishing in neglect and failed efforts to find a buyer, the unfinished Point clubhouse in far South Ocean Pines may finally be sold, but only if someone emerges to buy a structure that seems difficult to value given its condition and what some might contend are limitations on its potential uses. The Bank of Willards, primary lienholder on the property, has scheduled a trustees sale of the clubhouse on Tuesday, Aug. 27, at 10 a.m. on the county courthouse steps in Snow Hill. The bank is asking for a deposit of $110,000 for the property from a successful bidder on the day of the sale, which is the fourth building in the Points Reach condominium complex located in the Point section of Ocean Pines. As it’s customary for a lender that is embarking on a foreclosure sale to ask a deposit of ten percent of what it might be willing to accept in a sale, the $110,000 deposit requirement might suggest that the bank is willing to let the building go for $1.1 million. For anything less than that, assuming that $1.1 million is the minimum acceptable price, its representatives present at the auction would probably bid to protect its interest as a lienholder. It’s also a fairly common practice prior to a schedule foreclosure auction for the owner of the subject property to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which stops the auction and allows the property owner time to reorganize and work out a deal with creditors. At the end of the first week of August,

That change seems to be the one most likely to be adopted before the current contract expires. Director Sharyn O’Hare said during the meeting that she had asked Thompson to press for the one-and-one schedule as many residents now produce more recyclable trash than regular trash. OPA President Tom Terry suggested that Thompson return to the board with options for universal coverage. “I would anticipate a dramatic cut in rates,” Terry said in June, adding that the trash company could propose anything it liked, but that it would be better if a number of options were presented for board review. The proposal has already generated some early opposition from some members of the OPA’s budget and finance advisory committee, who discussed the idea in negative terms during its June 28 monthly meeting.

OCEAN PINES Points Reach From Page 30 dential units in Point’s Reach, a 75-unit condominium with views of the Ocean City skyline across the bay, as well as the 124 single-family building lots elsewhere in the Point, Meinhardt pointed to the prospect of a first-class clubhouse containing a 90-seat dining room, movie theatre, outdoor decks, fitness center, putting green, and indoor and outdoor swimming pools. Meinhardt’s original plan was to sell equity memberships in the club, first to property owners of Point’s Reach and the Point, starting out at $4,500 and increasing in $500 increments over time after the first 40 memberships were sold. Annual dues to cover operating expenses were also envisioned. His intent was to broaden the base of potential members to all comers if an insufficient number of Pines’ property owners surfaced to buy memberships. While the clubhouse never was finished, in part because membership sales never materialized in the quantities needed, that fact didn’t hinder the successful build-out of the single-family Point section. The three Points Reach condominiums were also completed, but there have been years of contentious relations, including litigation over alleged construction flaws, between the Points Reach Association and the developer. Indeed, contentiousness and litigiousness is not uncommon in what is one of the high-end sections of the eco-

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August-Early September 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS nomically diverse Ocean Pines. For some time, the Points Reach Condominium Association has been engaged in litigation against the Point Association to, in effect, secede from the Point Association, with the hoped-for result being that condo owners would no longer have to pay annual assessments to the Point Association. A lawsuit, which the condo association lost at the lower court, has been appealed to the Maryland Court of Appeals. The decision is pending. Meinhardt reportedly intervened on the side of the Point association when the case went to trial. The status of the Points Reach Clubhouse does not seem to be an issue between the two associations. Both agree that the clubhouse is an eyesore and needs new ownership. Three years ago, there was an effort by a group of Point residents to assist the bank in finding a buyer for the clubhouse. Calling itself the Friends of the Point, the group was attempting to help the bank market club memberships, more on the order of refundable indications of future interest in membership, which the bank could then have used in its efforts to find a buyer. Nothing much came of the Friends group or its efforts, and it disbanded a couple of years later. The activities of the Friends group ensnared a candidate for the Ocean Pines Association board of directors in the summer of 2010, Tom Terry, in some negative publicity. Some critics at the time accused him of supporting an effort that could have, at some point, resulted in a restaurant/ clubhouse operation in competition with those operated by the OPA. Terry insisted that such criticisms were far-fetched and the controversy didn’t seem to affect his candidacy that much, if at all. He was elected to a three-year term on the board and served all three as OPA president. He ran for reelection to the board this summer.

Sandpiper executives clarify natural gas conversion issues By TOM STAUSS Publisher xecutives from Sandpiper Energy, the subsidiary of Chesapeake Utilities that recently acquired certain assets of Eastern Shore Gas. Co. and the right to supply Ocean Pines with propane and, eventually, natural gas, appeared before the July 24 meeting of the Ocean Pines Association’s board of directors to clarify a number of natural gas conversion issues. Much of what the Sandpiper executives relayed during the meeting had been previously reported in the Progress, but they served up some nuanced detail that probably will be of interest to Ocean Pines residents who have been closely following the arrival of natural gas to Worcester County and, perhaps as early as next year, to parts of Ocean Pines. The Sandpiper executives included Jeff Tietbohl, a company vice-president, and Darrell Wilson, director of communications, from Chesapeake’s Dover offices. Tietbohl told homeowners that they “won’t be hit with a separate fee” at the time their homes’ appliances are converted to accommodate natural gas. Natural gas conversion costs will be “rolled into a pool of conversion costs that will be spread to everyone” as part of their monthly bills. Only if an appliance has to be replaced will homeowners face a one-time charge, Tietbohl said, and that will be the cost of buying the appliance. In addition, there will be some sort of conversion credit issued when a homeowner is forced to buy a new appliance because an older appliance can’t be converted. The credit wouldn’t necessarily be the difference between an appliance’s con-

version cost and the new replacement appliance cost, he said. He seemed to suggest that the credit issued will be more substantial than that, which would incentivize homeowners to do a replacement. Details won’t be fleshed out until the end of this year or the beginning of next year, he said. In a disclosure that won’t be too surprising to those who have been following natural gas developments in the county, the Chesapeake/Sandpiper executive said that the Berlin area probably will be the first in the county that will be converted to natural gas from propane. The process of conversion in Ocean Pines, Berlin and West Ocean City is expected to take from four to six years. It is not necessarily the case that the entire county will have natural gas available and in no case will anyone be forced off propane. “We’ll have to do an economic test to determine whether it makes sense to extend service” to a particular area, Tietbohl said. Because of the way rates have been structured, it doesn’t matter which area in the county is served or in what order conversions occur. That’s because of a blended rate that passes the savings realized by Sandpiper in the cost of natural gas to all customers in Sandpiper’s system, regardless of whether and where conversions have taken place. The Sandpiper executive also told residents assembled at the July 24 meeting that designs and the permit application for natural gas converters will be submitted to state regulators for review in the next couple of months. The ESG program was spread out over 12 months while Sandpiper’s is a nine-month program, he said.

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32 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

August-Early September 2013

2013 AUDIT REPORT

OPA loses $441,806 in operations for Fiscal Year 2013

the audit report – it has been posted on the OPA’s Web site – shows that the OPA is in sound financial health, with total assets of $33,396,852, including cash, CDARS, land, land improvements, buildings and building improvements, furniture and equipment, roads, and construction in progress. In April of 2013, total assets were calculated in the amount of $31,808,011. Long term association debt is minimal, in the amount of $201,487 in Sports Core pool enclosure principal. The reserve fund balance as of the end of the year stood at $4,668,537. During the board of directors’ July 24 month meeting, OPA General Manager Bob Thompson attributed 96 percent of the adjusted loss for the year to golf operations, which took a hit when, for much of the year, it was partially closed for renovations. The audit report indicates that the OPA has a growing issue with uncollected lot assessments that are more than 90 days old – about $885,000 as of April 30 of this year compared to $678,000 at the same time in 2012. That’s an increase of $207,000, or 30.5 percent, in past due accounts. The certificate of deposit balance as of April 30 was $6,058,588. Key OPA amenities were big deficit producers in 2013, more so than monthly financial reports released by the controller showed. That’s because the audit report appends depreciation expense to each of the departments, making the bottom line number look much worse.

Depreciation is a funded expense in Ocean Pines, hardly a gossamer accounting concept of little importance. It is collected as part of the annual lot assessment and is the primary means by which the OPA’s reserves are funded every year. In turn, OPA reserve accounts are the primary means by which the OPA funds the maintenance and replacement of the OPA’s capital assets, including its amenities. Of the eight amenity departments, the audit report’s Schedule 1, net revenues and expenses, shows that golf and related food and beverage operations produced the largest deficit -- $957,293 in 2013 compared to a $756,305 loss in 2012. Aquatics had the second largest loss, $341,074 in 2013, which was a slight improvement over the 2012 deficit of $352,550. The Ocean Pines Yacht Club generated $290,184 in losses for 2013, a slight erosion in performance from 2012’s $277,923 deficit. The loss in tennis was relatively modest, $43,053 in 2013 compared to a $35,032 loss in 2012. The club membership department showed a $146,008 deficit in 2013, compared to the 123,281 loss the prior year. The amenities’ departments, however, were not all a sea of red ink. Beach parking produced a net surplus of $367,709, a slight improvement over 2012, when the surplus was $362,234. Marina operations were in the black in the amount of $93,473, down from 2012’s $103,586. Beach Club

food and beverage operations generated a $48,702 surplus, slightly down from the $51,482 surplus in 2012. Amenity departments in the black generated $509,884 in surplus dollars in 2013 compared to $1,777,612 in losses generated by amenity departments that lost money. The difference, $1,267,728, represents the net cost to property owners of running the amenities in 2013, including funded depreciation but not including any related capital expenditures. The net cost of running the amenities in 2012 was $1,027,789. Schedule 1 of the audit report would seem to definitively support the contention by OPA Director Marty Clarke that the amenities in Ocean Pines don’t make money for the association, contrary to occasional assertions to the contrary by Thompson and others. Schedule 2, operating fund revenues, and Schedule 3, operating fund expenses, elaborates further on OPA financial operations, indicating that the OPA generated $10,665,702 in operating revenues in 2013 against $12,270,238 in expenses, a substantial deficit. Reserve fund revenues of $3,782,108 substantially exceeded reserve expenditures of only $757,408. Total revenues for 2013 were $14,447,810 compared to $13,027,646 in expenses, according to Schedules 2 and 3. Schedule 1 combines the two, showing net revenues over expenditures of $1,420,164.

Club memberships down year-to-year Aquatics leads the pack in membership revenue shortfall through June 30 By TOM STAUSS Publisher erhaps it’s because many Ocean Pines Association members are still feeling an economic pinch or are reacting to higher amenity fees imposed in the current year’s budget. Perhaps it’s the effect of the Yacht Club pool closed for much of the summer. Or maybe the math is showing that buying prepaid memberships no longer makes financial sense given the number of times one plays golf or visits an Ocean Pines swimming pool. For those who make their optional membership choices with the aid of a calculator, buying pool passes or paying cash at the door may be becoming the more pragmatic alternatives. Whatever the reason, amenity memberships in Ocean Pines are in decline, showing some sharp drops year-overyear in almost every amenity, particularly aquatics, tennis and golf. As of June 30, the date of the latest membership report, only beach parking

– considered an amenity membership for accounting purposes - and platform tennis are within striking distance of meeting their membership goals for the year. Even these two categories are behind where they were on June 30 of last year, although in the case of platform tennis the difference is so miniscule – one member down from last year – that it’s hardly worth mentioning. Beach parking, with the months of July and August not yet accounted for, was 93 percent toward its goal of 2,475 passes and $309,785 in revenue. With 2,201 passes sold generating $289,640 in revenue, beach parking needs only $20,145 more in revenue to achieve the budgeted revenue target. Platform tennis is the next best performer in percentage terms, 91 percent toward its budgeted goal of 112 memberships and $13,075 in revenue. The 104 memberships sold through June 30, generating $11,894 in revenue, is only $1,181 short of goal. By June 30 of last year, 105 platform tennis memberships had been sold. From there, it would appear that the amenity departments have a significant

By TOM STAUSS Publisher he Ocean Pines Association recorded a slightly larger deficit in the fiscal year that ended April 30, according to the official audit report, than what was shown in the final unaudited financials for the month of April. The annual audit, released during the annual meeting of the OPA membership Aug. 10, was prepared by TGM Group, of Salisbury. The audit report’s Exhibit B showed an excess of expenses over revenues, including operating transfers and other changes in fund balances, of $441,806, about $37,000 more than the unaudited April 30 monthly report had indicated. There’s nothing unusual when the audited numbers differ from the unaudited ones. Adjustments are routine, reflecting changes in inventory or other minutiae that keep certified public accountants occupied. During the annual meeting of the association Aug. 10, OPA President Tom Terry told property owners that over the past four years, the net operating deficit incurred by the OPA, excluding payments to the IRS as part of an adverse outcome in a tax case, has only been a negative $77,384, or 99.8 percent of a break-even result. That’s not a bad outcome for a non-profit organization, Terry said. The audit report contains nuggets of information that may be of some interest to property owners. The 2013 balance sheet included in

OCEAN PINES

August-Early September 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Minor election district changes slip through hearing unnoticed All of Ocean Pines District 5 remains unchanged, District 6 picks up additional residents By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer

redistricting of Worcester County slipped through the public hearing process largely unnoticed by county residents. With less than a dozen members of the public in attendance at the Aug. 1 hearing held at Stephen Decatur Middle School in Berlin and only one or two at similar hearings held in Snow Hill and Pocomoke, there was little public comment on changes to the district boundaries for the 2014 elections. The few people who did attend largely expressed concerns about the location -- or lack -- of polling places in some of the proposed new election districts. Ed Tudor, director of development review and permitting, said the location of polling places is a “very important component” of redistricting but stressed that it was not the subject of the public hearing. He said those determinations are not part of the hearing on the new election district maps; that will be followed up on later through the Board of Elections. That didn’t keep those present from addressing the topic during the public hearing. Even Worcester County Commissioner Judy Boggs raised the issue of having just one polling places for her allOcean Pines District 5. “It is a serious problem,” she said, adding that District 5 contains the largest population block in the county and “at this point we only have one polling place. I’m very concerned about that.” Election board officials in the audience assured Boggs that a second polling site for District 5 will be selected and announced prior to the 2014 elections. Tom Terry, Ocean Pines Association president, said he would like to see the election board reconsider using the fire station or the Country Club as polling places. Much of the finagling of election districts results from the need to retain a minority-majority voting district in the county. That district, District 5 represented by long-time Commissioner James Purnell, currently includes parts of Berlin and Snow Hill. The U.S. Census Bureau’s website shows that the county’s total current population at 51,548. Of the total population 83 percent or 42,226 listed their race as white, alone or in combination with another race, and 9,322 are listed as minorities. Based on those figures the county stills needs to meet the court-mandated requirements for a minority-majority district comprised largely of black voters. If the county has a minority population of about 14 percent of the total population, it is required to have a minority-majority district. That district must also contain a super majority of

minority residents at 60 percent. “If we did nothing at all the minority-majority would cease to exist,” Tudor said of the need to revise the election maps. He added that each of the seven districts violates at least one of the principals of voting and all except the all-Ocean City District 7 require adjustments based on population changes, which resulted in a 29 percent deviation between the highest and lowest total population in the election districts.. In order to retain high population of black residents in the minority-majority district, the county needed to remove parts of Berlin from its new incarnation and instead include portions of Pocomoke City. The other six current election districts were carved out around the minority-majority district. Residents of Berlin will now be divided among three of the seven county election districts. Bud Church, Worcester County Commissioner president, said he anticipates approval of the revised election districts will occur at a Sept. 7 meeting. When it comes to the actual elec-

tion maps, little will change in the all Ocean Pines District 5, but in District 6, which includes the northernmost edge of Ocean Pines and the Bishopville area, voting blocks are being shifted. County Attorney Sonny Bloxom said “from a legal standpoint districts have to be set by population not by registered voters.” He added that for redistricting even children are accounted as part of the population blocks. A total of 8,870 housing units are listed in the census tract that includes Ocean Pines, with occupied housing units said to total 5,471 and 3,399 listed as vacant. The number of housing units listed as vacant may actually be representative of those homes owned by non-resident owners. Census data shows District 5 currently contains a total population of 7,727, with the northern District 6 having a population of 7,115. While no changes need to be made to District 6, in terms of population shifts additional land mass is being added to the district. Tudor said the “we have included the entire census block” in the

district. That includes the currently uninhabited land area south of Ocean Pines. An additional approximately 300 residents from outside of Ocean Pines are being shifted into District 6 as part of the redistricting. Residents of the Friendship area and from Route 113 to the Delaware state line are being moved out of District 6 and into District 4, the largest in terms of coverage area. The rural-based District 4 already contains nearly 46 percent of the land mass in Worcester County. In order to reduce the overall population of District 3, which currently includes all of West Ocean City, 80 percent of Berlin and stretches down Route 611 to South Point and west toward Ocean Pines, from 9,188 to a more comfortable 7,485, residents are being shifted to other districts. District 6 will pick up some of those residents along the southwest side of Ocean Pines down Gum Point Road to Herring Creek. Other areas now part of District 3 will be moved to District 4 as well. The redistricting maps are posted on the county Web site.

Club memberships

during July and August. Swim coupon sales are significantly off from where they were a year ago. The 1,023 coupon passes sold this year contrast with the 1,839 sold by June 30 of last year. The $31,705 in revenue is only 23 percent towards the goal of 4,450 memberships and $136,955 in revenue. That shortfall is $105,250, which also will be reduced throughout the fiscal year, but just how much remains to be

seen given the year-over-year contrast. The compilation of all amenity membership sales tell the story: This year’s 4,201 memberships sold contrasts poorly with the 5,292 memberships sold as of June 30, 2012. Membership revenue collected through June 30 totals $762,497, just 71 percent towards the goal of 8,644 memberships and $1,073,965 in revenue. That represents a shortfall of $311,468.

From Page 32 way to go to achieve membership and revenue goals. The best thing to be said about golf memberships is that the decline in annual memberships is relatively modest, 143 sold through June 30 compared to the 153 sold by the same time last year. The $174,375 in revenue generated thus far is 76 percent toward the goal of $228,480, a shortfall of $54,105. Lifetime memberships sold through June 20, number 20, an increase of four from a year ago. Lifetime members do not contribute to annual membership revenue, because proceeds of those sales have been allocated to the rebuilding of greens on the Ocean Pines golf course. Golf cart package sales are outperforming golf membership, with 47 memberships sold through June of this year compared to 48 a year ago. The $64,200 in revenue generated is 84 percent towards the goal of 58 cart packages and $76,800, a shortfall of $12,600. There have been 136 tennis memberships sold as of June 30, 32 fewer than the 168 sold at the same time last year, generating $39,955 in revenue. That’s 77 percent toward the budgeted goal of 213 memberships and $51,643 in revenue, a shortfall of $11,688. As of June 30, 579 aquatics memberships have been sold, as compared to the 762 sold at the same time last year. The $150,728 in revenue generated is 59 percent toward the budgeted goal of 1,143 memberships and $257,227 in revenue. The shortfall is $106,499. That number no doubt will be reduced over time, as aquatics memberships expire at different times during the year depending on when purchased, and weekly memberships in particular are sold heavily

34 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

CAPTAIN’S COVE

August-Early September 2013

County awaits bids on Pines Plaza utility lines Commissioners may approve construction loan from county’s general fund By TOM STAUSS Publisher lthough the fate of the Pines Plaza Shopping Center west of Ocean Pines remains in limbo following the recent bankruptcy filing by its owner, Berkley Trace LLC of Loxahatchee, Fla., the likelihood of protracted bankruptcy proceedings is not deterring the county from looking at ways to jumpstart redevelopment of the shopping center while addressing water and wastewater collection and treatment issues affecting the neighboring commercial area. The county commissioners in early July approved bid specifications for an extension of county water and sewer lines to a portion of Cathell Road near its intersection with Route 589, in addition to a strip of the highway from the intersection up to and including the McDonald’s restaurant. The project, if approved by the commissioners, would make public utility services available to the Pines Plaza Shopping Center, whenever it emerges from bankruptcy. The more immediate objective would be make county water and wastewater collection and treatment services available to a new Walgreens Pharmacy, planned for the site of an abandoned real estate office at the intersection, the 5-L commercial building, Parts Plus, the 7-Eleven, the Re/Max real estate office, the McDonalds restaurant, and possibly the PNC bank building. Also included in the new service area is the former Groff Building, now known as Sunshine Plaza, where Mama Dellas and Catering by Ali and other businesses are located. The adjacent building occupied by Hileman Realty would also be given the opportunity to connect to the public system. An eventual tie-in to the Pines Plaza once its ownership situation is resolved would be relatively easy as a matter of engineering once those other businesses on Cathell Road and Route 589 are served by a public system, County Deputy Public Works Director John Ross said recently. Bid proposals are due back from contractors by Aug. 12. After a staff review of the bids, county public works officials normally make a recommendation on the preferred contractor to the commissioners, who have the final say on whether to authorize the project to proceed, the contractor and the project cost. As a result of a revised engineering plan for the project, county officials were able to reduce the estimated cost of the project from the earlier $3 million to $500,000, primarily by deciding not to run water and sewer lines as far along Cathell Road as initially envisioned. In its current iteration, the

project includes the installation of approximately 1,600 linear feet of gravity sewer and 2,300 linear feet of an eight-inch water line. The proposed funding mechanism has also changed from earlier plans. As proposed by staff but yet to be formally ratified by the commissioners, funds to build the utility lines initially would come from a loan from the county’s general fund, to be repaid over time as the affected commercial properties connect to the system. Ross told the Progress that this proposed funding mechanism does not mean that the county has given up on the possibility of obtaining federal and state grants and loans to help finance the project. How all that will work out remains to be seen and should become clearer once the construction bids are opened and a contractor is selected and a project cost determined. Early in 2013, county officials received favorable notice from the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the status of funding to provide a permanent source of water and wastewater treatment services for the Pines Plaza, located just west of Ocean Pines and Route 589, and help create a new Greater Ocean Pines Service Area for much of the commercial district on nearby Cathell Road and Route 589. The Maryland Board of Public Works previously signed off on two separate requests before the state, one for about $200,000 for water improvements and another one for about $600,000 for wastewater collection. Ross previously had advised members of the Ocean Pines Water and Wastewater Advisory Committee that he had been notified via e-mail by the U.S. Department of Agriculture office in Dover, Del., that the longestablished rural development program administered by that department would provide $2.1 million in low-interest loans to the county to help create the service area. Total cost of the project at the time was estimated at $3 million. With the project scope and cost now substantially reduced, it would seem likely that the USDA would reduce the amount of funding it would provide for it, even assuming that the money is still available given Pines Plaza’s uncertain status. Ross has said that the federal portion of the funding is available for up to three years, and that therefore delays in beginning the project would not necessarily and immediately threaten that funding source. Much of that $2.1 million loan was supposed to be allocated to the Ocean Pines Service Area in the form of an equity contribution related to the cost

of building and expanding the Ocean Pines wastewater treatment plant years ago. That’s because the area envisioned for the new service area will tie into the Ocean Pines water and wastewater collection system, on the Ocean Pines side of Route 589 in the vicinity of Taylor Bank, Ross has said. As initially envisioned, Pines Plaza and the other commercial properties in the newly created service area were to become customers of the OPSA, similar to the relationship between the OPSA and other nearby subdivisions or shopping centers, such as Pennington Commons, Baypoint Plantation and River Run. The debt service on the loan portion of the USDA package would be a responsibility of the Pines Plaza owners, its tenants, and other commercial property owners in the new service area, Ross has said. The status of the equity contribution was not specifically discussed when the commissioners addressed the proposed new financing mechanism at their July 2 meeting. Presumably, some sort of equity contribution could be included as part of the rate structure that would be devised for the participating businesses. The rationale for federal and state funding of the project is that the new service area would be created to replace failed and failing septic systems in much of the commercial area just west of Ocean Pines and Route 589. Meanwhile, the Pines Plaza bankruptcy filing has definitely complicated the county’s effort to expand water and wastewater services to the area, with no indication that the matter will be resolved anytime soon. Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows Berkley Trace LLC to reorganize itself, protect itself from creditors, buy itself some time, and, county officials hope, negotiate a sale of its assets to a new buyer with the means to redevelop the site. Berkley Trace is represented by Baltimore attorney Ronald Drescher. The mortgage holder on Pines Plaza is Slavie Federal Savings Bank of Bel Air, Md. It had hired the Alex Cooper auction firm of Towson, Md., to conduct a substitute trustees’ sale of the property in June, but the June 17 filing in the U.S. bankruptcy court for Maryland prevented the auction from taking place. Bankruptcy filings under chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code are routine when distressed properties are scheduled for foreclosure sale. One result of such filing is that foreclosure sales and other collection efforts are put on hold, temporarily at least. The bankruptcy court judge oversees the process of asset disposal, which

can include creditors being forced to accept less than that owed them by the organization undergoing bankruptcy. Ultimately, any sale of the Pines Plaza property would require court approval. Pines Plaza, built in the 1980s, includes 63,900 square feet of building area, 18 commercial units, a freestanding, five-bay car wash and more than 11 acres of land that reportedly includes some A-2 agricultural zoning. Only eight businesses remain in the shopping center, with one of those, All Gentle Dental run by Joyce Landsman and Robert Landsman, a practicing dentist, planning to move soon to the Manklin Station shopping center inside the Ocean Pines South Gate, in a space formerly occupied by local attorney Joe Moore and his law firm. The seven businesses that remain in the Pines Plaza include Whiskers Bar and Grill, Family Dollar, Tristate Electrical Supply, Pines Wash and Fold, Hunan Garden Chinese Restaurant, Jimmy’s Barber Shop and Atlantic Health and Fitness Physical Therapy. Worcester County officials installed an emergency wastewater connection from nearby Pennington Commons to Pines Plaza when the shopping center’s treatment plant failed in 2009. Without that emergency connection, which remains in place, the shopping center would have closed and the businesses still there dispersed or also closed. Earlier this year, there were reports that the shopping center was under contract to be sold to a Baltimore-based commercial developer, Vanguard Realty Division, subject to due diligence by the contract purchaser. The company has been active in developing and managing shopping centers in coastal Delaware, and is generally thought to be well capitalized. Company representatives earlier were in contact with Worcester County Public Works department, water and wastewater division, to determine the availability of public water and wastewater treatment services. The answer has been in the affirmative, contingent on the county finalizing plans to create a new service area in the vicinity of Cathell Road and Route 589. Even with that positive feedback, however, the purchase agreement fell through sometime in the May-June period. Negotiations could be revived, however, under supervision of the bankruptcy court. One source close to the earlier negotiations said that bankruptcy status can actually facilitate a sale under certain conditions.

August-Early September 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS Sunday, Aug. 11 Yacht Club pool ribboncutting, 5 p.m., Ocean Pines Yacht Club. Poolside luau buffet, 4-7 p.m., $15 per person; reggae dance party, Kaleb Brown, 5-9 p.m. Monday, Aug. 12 Ocean Pines Camera Club, monthly meeting, 7 p.m., Ocean Pines library. Featured speaker is artist Elaine Bean, who will demonstrate how she applies color to her photographs using pastels and colored pencils. Thursday, Aug. 15 Pine’eer Craft Club of Ocean Pines, monthly meeting, Ocean Pines Community Center, 9:45 a.m. The project of the month will be a gift bag. Picnic lunch, in celebration of the completion of the 36th Annual Arts and Craft Festival. Worcester County Tea Party, monthly meeting, Ocean Pines Community Center, 7 p.m., featuring Blaine Young, candidate for Maryland governor. 443-614-7214. Friday, Aug. 16 45th Anniversary Celebration, Ocean Pines Golf and Country Club. Two golfers can play 18 holes for $45, free range balls all day. Fried chicken Friday dinners for $4.50 starting with take out at noon and community celebration with drink specials, appetizers, and music, 4-7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 17 Family Fun Fly, kite flying event sponsored by the Ocean Pines Recreation Depatment, Veterans Memorial Park, Rt. 589, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Limited number of free kites available, demonstrations from local and regional flying enthusiasts, DJ, snowcones and contests. 410-6417052. Tuesday, Aug. 20 45th Anniversary Celebration, sponsored by the Ocean Pines Aquatics Department, free swim day at all five Ocean Pines pools. Pools open at 10 a.m. Ocean City Power Squadron, senior boaters educational seminar, 7 p.m., two hours, Ocean Pines Community Center’s Marlin Room. Focus on ways to avoid certain health issues, traits and conditions of the aging process that can have an adverse effect on boating safety. $10. The Book for Senior Boaters by James Thomas Eastman is available

HAPPENINGS for $20. Hosted by OCPS Past Commander, Mort Brown, 410-641-8040. Thursday, Aug. 22 45th Birthday Party and Concert, White Horse Park, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Delmarva Chorus performing tunes from the 60’s and the Overtime Band. Kiwanis hotdogs, snacks and beverages for sale, kids’ activities. Bring your own coolers, chairs, and blankets. Friday, Aug. 23 45th Anniversary Jamaican Beach Party, Ocean Pines Beach Club, 3-6 p.m. Kaleb Brown, tropical buffet and drink specials. Sunday, Aug. 25 45th Anniversary Classic Car Show, Veterans Memorial Park, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Hosted by the Ocean Pines Chamber of Commerce. Parade starts at 10 a.m., White Horse Park to Cathell Road towards Veterans Memorial Park. Food, beer and wine, music. Registration at www. oceanpineschamber.org 45th Anniversary Celebration Block Party, Manklin Racquet Complex, South Ocean Pines, 5-7 p.m., with members of the platform, tennis, and pickleball groups. Round robin match, facilities showcase, DJ, hotdogs, refreshments. Friday, Sept. 6 Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, covered pavilion, Sturgis Park, Snow Hill, 7 p.m. Brown Box Theatre Project of Boston. Bring your beach chair or blanket. Monday, Sept. 9 Basket Bingo, Church of the Holy Spirit, 100th Street and Coastal Highway, Ocean City, 7 p.m. Longaberger baskets, Vera Bradley bags, cash, raffles and refreshments. Tickets $20 in advance and $25 at the door, call Martha, 302-436-7866, or the church office at 410-723-1973. Saturday, Oct. 5 The Parke at Ocean Pines’ fall community yard sale, 7 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., driveways in the Parke, South Ocean Pines. Clothes, lamps, artwork, household items, electronics, and furniture.

Ongoing

Pine’eer Craft Club, White Horse Park, Ocean Pines, open 10

a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Handcrafted home decor, jewelry, and fashion accessories, created by members of the Pine’eer Craft Club. Ask a Master Gardener clinic, May to September, offered by the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension Service, Ocean Pines Library, 11107 Cathell Road, Ocean Pines. Free, every Tuesday 1-4 p.m. Master Gardeners will be available to help with gardening questions. Those with damaged plans should place samples in a plastic bag and label the bag with a name and phone number. Questions that can’t be answered at the time of submittal will be researched and someone will get back in touch at a later date. Pancake breakfast every Saturday, 8 a.m. till noon, Ocean City Airport, to support the Ocean City Aviation Association’s Huey Memorial Display restoration and continuous maintenance fund. The display is located near the Terminal and requires no security procedures to view. Contact Tom Oneto, 410-641-6888, or Airport Operations,410-213-2471. Suicide Grievers’ Support Group, 3rd Wednesday every month, 6 p.m., Worcester County Health Department, Healthway Drive, Berlin, adjacent to Atlantic General Hospital. Open to anyone who has lost a friend or loved one to suicide. Free of charge. Quiet listening, caring people, no judgment. 410-629-0164 or www. jessespaddle.org. Kiwanis Club meets every Wednesday at 7:45 a.m. in the Ocean Pines Community Center except Wednesday, Nov. 14, and the third Wednesday of the month when they meet at the Woodlands in Ocean Pines from January through May 2013 for an evening dinner meeting starting 6 p.m., $18 per person. Doors open 5:30 p.m. all 410-6417330. Sanctioned duplicate bridge games, Ocean Pines Community Center, Sundays 1 p.m., Mondays noon, Tuesdays 10 a.m. Partners guaranteed. $5, special games $6. Third Sunday of every month is Swiss teams (no partner guaranteed for teams). Felicia Daly, 410-2081272; Pat Kanz, 410-641-8071 The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, Flotilla 12-05, meets the first Monday of each month at 7:30 p.m. in the U.S.C.G. Station, Ocean

City. Visitors and new members are welcome. Dennis Kalinowski, 410208-4147. Web site http://a0541205. uscgaux.info. Kabbalah class with Saturday services, coffee, juice and bagels, 9:30 a.m., Saturdays, Temple Bat Yam, 410-641-4311. Life after loss support group, second and fourth Tuesday of each month at the Community Church at Ocean Pines, 11227 Race Track Road, Berlin, 11 a.m. Help in coping with any type of loss. 410-641-5433. Worcester County Democratic Club meeting, fourth Thursday of each month, 7 p.m., Marlin Room of Ocean Pines Community Center. Club membership is not required. All those interested in Democratic platforms and agendas are welcome. Beach Singles, every Thursday, 4-6 p.m., Castaways, Coastal Hwy. at 64th Street, Ocean City, 45+ singles for socializing and monthly activities, 302-436-9577. Republican Women of Worcester County, fourth Thursday of each month, 11 a.m. meeting (doors open at 10:30), lunch at noon, local restaurants. For information, call membership chair Barbara Loffler at 410-208-0890. January through June and again September and October. Dinner meeting in November. No meetings July, August and December. YOGA, James G. Barrett Medical Office Building, Berlin, rotunda, Tuesdays 5:30-6 p.m. All levels welcome. Contact Georgette Rhoads at 410-641-9734 or grhoads@ atlanticgeneral.org with any questions. Cost: $72 for 8 sessions, or $10 drop-in fee for first time. T.O.P.S. of Berlin, Group 169, Atlantic General Hospital, Conference Room 1. Mondays 5-6:30 p.m. Take Off Pounds Sensibly is a support and educational group promoting weight loss and healthy life style, meeting weekly. For more information contact Edna Berkey, 410-629-1006. American Legion Post 166 Auxiliary monthly general meeting, Ocean City, third Tuesday of the month at the post, 11:30 a.m. Tai Chi classes, Wednesdays, 4-5 p.m. and 6-7 p.m., Mondays 4-5 p.m., James G. Barrett Medical Office building, corner of Healthway Drive and Old Ocean City Boulevard, Berlin. There are 2 sessions offered on Wednesdays, one 4-5 p.m. and one 6-7 p.m. Instructor Jani Kendy, www.atlanticgeneral.org/visions or 410-641-9268.

36 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

August-Early September 2013

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CAPTAIN’S COVE

August-Early September 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Foreclosure auction to follow Aug. 15 board meeting

Roughly 50 properties are on the initial list to be sold, but that number is likely to decline as the day of the auction nears and some property owners become current on their overdue accounts. Cove public relations director Justin Wilder has posted a draft meeting agenda on the Cove’s Web site, accessible to property owners with a user name and password, and the agenda is a work in progress. As of Aug. 8, the posted agenda lacked most of the attachments that provide needed background and context for the listed agenda items. That situation will be remedied as the date of the meeting nears. One attachment included with the agenda as of Aug. 8 was a segment of the draft budget for the 2014 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, apparently the portion of the budget under the direct supervision of Billy Casper Golf. The agenda says the draft budget will be reviewed and discussed by the board before possible approval during the meeting. In an Aug. 8 telephone interview, Cove President Tim Hearn said the board’s most pressing task in formulating next year’s budget is determining the proper level of funding reserves. “We’ve got to find a way to proper-

ly fund the reserves at the same time we find the money to make some needed capital expenditures,” Hearn said. “Right now we don’t have the cash on hand in reserves to do what we need to do.” Reserves once were adequately funded at about $1.5 million several years ago, he said. But that has been reduced to about $500,000, by what he called board mismanagement prior to last fall’s take-over of the board by Hearn and his business partners, along with allies among Cove homeowners who had been concerned about the Cove POA’s fiscal management. Since the take-over, Hearn said great strides have been made in reducing structural operating deficits of about $300,000, which in turn will make it easier to free up resources to replenish reserves. “That’s a conversation we’ll have on the 15th,” Hearn said. “Raising assessments, adjusting the ratio of revenues collected from waterfront and non-waterfront owners, borrowing money, all will be on the table.” He declined to rule out raising assessments, but nor did he say for certain that an increase would be necessary. Current non-waterfront lot assessments are $790, payable in

twice-annual payments of $395, with waterfront owners billed an additional $200. Also on the meeting agenda will be a discussion of new roads construction by director Jim Silfee. Hearn said plans for building new roads won’t be put on hold as the board tackles reserve funding. That’s because the board has already decided to pay for them out of proceeds from a line of credit that could reach as igh as $1 million, with debt service to be paid by the aggressive program of pursuing delinquent assessment accounts. Hearn said that not too long ago there were 700 Cove properties whose owners were significantly in arrears; of those, 340 are now current, generating revenue that will be earmarked for debt service on the $1 million revolving line of credit for road construction in the Cove. About 12 miles of roads remain to be tarred and chipped in Sections 1 through 13, he said. The Cove CED a perREDisUawaiting mit from Accomack County for the work. “This is the largest road project that the county has ever reviewed,” he said, noting that engineering drawings for the entire project have been submitted

By TOM STAUSS Publisher aptain’s Cove residents who want to attend the August 15 meeting of the Captain’s Cove property owners association are going to have to get up earlier than usual to do so: The meeting is set to begin at 8:30 a.m. in the banquet room of the Marina Club. Cove officials hope it can be wrapped up before a scheduled foreclosure auction of delinquent properties can commence at noon, also at the Marina Club. The auction has been moved from the courthouse steps in Accomack, the venue for the sale several months ago, which attracted a relatively sparse number of bidders. By holding the sale in the Marina Club, the thought is that the number of participants may increase. The scheduled foreclosure is the second batch of properties to be sold by the Cove POA and the Captain’s Cove Utility Co. in an effort to encourage property owners to pay their overdue accounts or forfeit ownership of their lots. Properties acquired by the association in the foreclosure are still non-producing insofar as annual assessments are concerned, but the POA at least can then list them for sale with its local realtor, Cindy Welsh, of Prudential PenFed Realty.

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38 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OPINION

August-Early September 2013

COMMENTARY

Time to change how we pay for key amenities?

iven plummeting amenity memberships and revenues, it may be time for the Ocean Pines Association to take a hard look at the way it finances amenity operations – with particular attention on golf and aquatics. There may, in fact, be a better way, one that helps to cure operating deficits in these two activity groups once and for all while giving recreation-minded members of the association a renewed sense that they are indeed receiving something of tangible value for their annual lot assessments. Golf and aquatics rely substantially on prepaid membership fees for their revenues, supplemented by greens and cart fees in the case of golf and coupon cards and daily user fees in the case of aquatics. Golf is also reliant on outside play by non-members – so-called package rounds – a fact of life that will probably be necessary for some time to come. A quick look at the audited results for the 2013 fiscal year in aquatics and golf shows that membership revenues are falling short of what is needed to make these departments self-sustaining. The just released amenity membership report dated June 30 offers very little indication that memberships in the new fiscal year are doing any better, or that there is realistic hope that these two departments will meet their membership targets by the end of the current fiscal year on April 30 of next year. It may be that the membership model for revenue generation has outlived its usefulness and relevance to a community that is much more diverse than it was when the membership structure was devised some 40 odd years ago. It may be that it’s time to replace it, or at least modify it to a significant degree, in a way that’s fair to Ocean Pines property owners and residents while putting golf and aquatics on a sounder financial footing. The way of accomplishing that would incorporate an idea that’s been kicked around behind the scenes for years, if not decades, but never acted upon – for reasons of politics and probably because there really was no need for it. In earlier years, both golf and aquatics were net revenue generators for the OPA, something not true

CAPTAIN’S COVE From previous page to the county. “They tell us they’re looking at a section of the drawings every day.” He declined to predict when a permit for the project would be issued. The directors during the meeting on the 15th will also consider a proposal from the Waterfront Committee to approve funding for the installation of rip-rap for Section 1 lots 780-785 on Seaview Street to allay the continued erosion of the street and to allow for the continued use of a spoils site on Cockle

It may be that the membership model for revenue generation has outlived its usefulness and relevance to a community that is much more diverse than it was when the membership structure was devised some 40 odd years ago. for quite some time. In fact, the uncomfortable truth is that the OPA probably never will achieve breakeven operations in golf and aquatics under the current membership model, despite the best efforts of OPA and contract managers. To remedy this, the OPA should explore the possibility of diverting a portion of each year’s assessment dollars – a relatively modest amount of money, to be determined -- to these two amenity departments, giving all property owners a tangible benefit in exchange for this. In the case of the Ocean Pines golf course, all property owners would be entitled to play the golf course during certain established hours – also to be determined – for no additional green fees. (Cart fees would be assessed on the day and time of play, or cart packages could be purchased in advance, as is done currently.) In the case of Ocean Pines pools, all property owners would have access to them – certain restrictions may apply – since a portion of their assessment dollars would be assigned to the aquatics department as a revenue stream. It might not be necessary to totally eliminate all membership categories in golf and aquatics, but they could be dramatically streamlined and simplified. Premium memberships in both could remain, entitling those who purchase them certain advantages. Premium golf members, for instance, might have first call on tee times before 11 a.m. Premium

Point. This project, with an estimated cost of $50,000, has been delayed until the POA could obtain ownership of lots 782 through 785 to correct an erosion problem involving the silting in of the canal and the erosion of lots encroaching into Seaview Street, as well as the Cockle Point spoil site. The Waterfront Committee, according to a document on the Cove Web site, determined that it would be more cost effective to do the rip-rap project with a single permit application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Apparently, a single application is possible only if the

aquatics members might have access to the pools before they officially open for the day or after they close, or may be given access to certain pools with no additional fees required. This is in effect the Columbia, Md., model, in which the base lot assessment pays for access to community amenities, with certain restrictions; premium memberships provide added value which carry an extra cost for those willing to pay for them. This defacto hybrid system preserves some degree of membership revenue and would not be quite the shock to the system that a pure assessment-based system would. It might, therefore, be more acceptable to an OPA membership base resistant to change. The amount of lost membership revenue that potentially could result from switching away from a fee-based system to an assessment-based model is measurable. The golf budget this year anticipates $228,480 in revenue attributable to memberships, while aquatics membership revenue is budgeted in the amount of $257,227. Together this adds up to $485,707, or between $57 and $58 per Ocean Pines property. Were access to the pools and golf course included in the base lot assessment, there might be further erosion in revenues produced by daily user fees and coupons cards at the pools and some loss in greens fees. In the case of aquatics, this erosion might be offset by revenue generated by premium memberships. In the case of golf, more rounds played by more people would generate more cart revenue sufficient to offset some lost revenue. An important point is that adopting this hybrid model would not necessarily result in assessment increases. The OPA is in the fifth and final year of programmed annual increases in lot assessments attributable to the five-year funding plan related to capital improvements. More than $100 of every assessment is now linked to this funding stream; a portion of it could easily be diverted for the purpose of funding this

POA holds title to all the affected properties on Seaview Street. The committee indicates that the property owners of lots 782 through 785 have agreed to gift their properties to the Cove POA to facilitate the permit application and that conveyance fees will be paid by the property owners. The document does not say whether, once the rip rap is installed, the POA will return ownership of the lots to the affected property owners or will find some other means to compensate for the gifted lots. All the affected owners are current in their lot assessments.

This project is reportedly the first of its kind in Accomack County by creating a soft breakwater (rip rap and wetlands) to protect the silting in of the canal caused by the erosion, washing out of Seaview Street, and protecting the Cockle Point spoil site from additional eroding of the containment walls. ther items on the Aug. 15 meeting agenda include discussion of a “curfew component” to POA operational guidelines, a report on amenity operations, and discussion of staffing levels at the Town Center grill, pro shop and golf course for fall and winter.

OPINION

August-Early September 2013 OPINION

Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Yacht Club pool is a triumph, albeit a bit late

here may be the isolated, churlish malcontent out there who doesn’t much care for the new pool at the Yacht Club, and of course he is entitled to his point of view. After all, it was his annual tribute paid to the Ocean Pines Association – delivered with a smile, no doubt – that helped make the new pool possible, with an able assist from Hurricane Sandy. If you’ve paid the piper you have every right to complain if you don’t like the tune. But for most of the rest of us, the new pool complex is a triumph and a major improvement over what was there before. The pavers are attractive and not difficult to walk on, and the good news is that they won’t be producing the nasty slivers that were common from the old wooded deck. One can always hope that the stumbles and scrapes that the harder paver surface could exacerbate will be rare and non-litigious. The view of the harbor and Ocean City landscape remains as scenic as ever, but easier to see through the new fencing. The reopening of the new pool Aug. 9 to swimmers is a bit late to be able to salvage much of a summer season at the Yacht Club, but a five- or six-week season is better than no season at all. For those with a bit of an imagination, the new pool will provide a taste of what the area will look like once the new Yacht Club is open for business sometime next year. By now, almost everyone is sick to death of non-productive discussions about why General Manager Bob Thompson was so far off his original projections for a Memorial Day reopening of the pool. Suffice it say filing for a building permit in late April was a bit tardy, given when the board of directors authorized money for the project. Whatever the reason for holding

COMMENTARY From Page 38

new model of financing key amenities. The current year’s budget generates almost $4 million that is allocated to various reserve funds; it’s hard to imagine that the Ocean Pines Association couldn’t get by on, say, $3 million or even $2.5 million per year, given the current healthy state of reserve funding. Even after paying for a new Yacht Club building and pool, the OPA will be relatively flush in its reserves at the end of this fiscal year. Naturally, there will be association members who will object to this suggested change; it wouldn’t be Ocean

LIFE IN THE LIFE INPINES THE PINES

the first week of August,the course is still reasonably playable.

An excursion through the curious cul-de-sacs An excursion through theby-ways curious and by-ways and cul-de-sacs of Worcester County’s County’s most densely community. of Worcester mostpopulated densely populated community. A fond farewell By TOM STAUSS/ By TOM Publisher STAUSS/Publisher to Dave Stevens a permit application longer than necessary, the end result over time will matter much more that an almost lost summer of business. Aquatics members who didn’t feel a need to renew their summer memberships because their favorite pool was not open until early August apparently will be paying at the gate or flashing a coupon card – it’s all good. The paradox is that by not buying the membership, the aquatics deficit will be larger than it would have been otherwise. Who subsidizes the deficit? Everyone, including those who once were members, and now aren’t. Since aquatics memberships can be purchased anytime during the year, perhaps some of those summer-only folks can be persuaded to upgrade to annual. That would could alleviate the aquatics deficit and give Yacht Club pool aficionados other venues for their sunbathing and the occasional excursion into something approaching liquid water.

June golf numbers a bit worrisome

By all means it’s not too early to panic about prospects for golf given June results, released about a week before the board of directors’ July 24 monthly meeting. The $50,000 deficit may very well be a harbinger for the remaining ten months of the fiscal year, although it is within the realm of possibility that Billy Casper Golf executives will pull something out of their collective hats in

Pines if the objections were not strenuous and heart-felt and even well-reasoned. The sad fact is that there are many people who don’t use the amenities and who don’t want to finance them. That their assessment dollars would be diverted for that purpose will not sit well. What is undeniable, however, is that assessment dollars are already being used to subsidize losing amenities, with little direct benefit to those who subsidize but don’t use. At least under this hybrid model, there would be more incentive – or, perhaps more accurately, less disincentive – for at least some of the non-users to partake of the amenities that they are paying for.

Just a word here on the exit from the board scene of outgoing director Dave order to keep their contract to manage Stevens, who’s retiring after six long the Ocean Pines golf. years on the board, including one year The existing contract expires in early as OPA president. 2014, but it won’t take that long to better Stevens is a bit of a process-Nazi – no assess the odds of a renewal. offense, Dave OPINION -- and that in turn invites One OPA director, Dan Stachurski, conflict with those more concerned about has already signaled he will be no patsy for a routine renewal should BCG not the end result. Along with Marty Clarke, Stevens has make its aggressive budget numbers been the one director capable of injecting for this year – a $150,00 deficit and a some honest debate into the pastel $350,000 turn-around from Fiscal 2013’s discussions that often masquerade as dismal results. boad debate. His skirmishes with excursion through the curious and cul-de-sacs excursion through theby-ways curious by-ways andBob cul-d Stachurski won’t be aAn an automatic The Ocean PinesAn Progress, journal of Thompson were on occasion the stuff of “take hike,commentary, BCG” should company County’s of Worcester County’s most densely populated community. news aand isofthe published Worcester most densely populated comm legend, even if, months later, it’s difficult miss theTOM deficit But Ithe issays monthly throughout the Publisher year. By STAUSS/ Publisher By target. TOM STAUSS/ to recall exactly what the fuss was all he would in beOcean inclined toBerlin, negotiate circulated Pines, West the about. $5500 per Snow month management Ocean City, Hill, Ocean City and fee The election results this year presage down to a near zero. That may be the Capain’s Cove,Va. some difficult times ahead for Thompson, functional a get out of Letters and equivalent other editorialofsubmissions: and he may come to conclude that town because it’sonly. hard Pleasecard, submit via email We to doimagine not Stevens, unless provoked, was usually that would want that to require stay in a acceptBCG faxes or submissions quite gentlemanly in making his case. community to manage golf and course retyping. Letters should be its original After a year’s hiatus, he can run when itstoconsulting servicesphone are so exclusive the Progress. Include again for the board. He’ll be back. underappreciated. . In the end the easiest part would be

LIFE IN THE LIFE INPINES THE PINES

to sever relationships with Casper. Far 127 Nottingham Lane, more difficult would be to arrive at an alternative that credibly would promise Ocean Pines, MD to deliver better bottom-line results. MorePUBLISHER/EDITOR difficult still would be to give the PUBLISHER/EDITOR company another year to turn the course Tom Stauss Tommore Stauss around under agreeable course tstauss1@mchsi.com tstauss1@mchsi.com conditions. 410-641-6029 That, of 410-641-6029 course, presumes the course Advertising stays in good shape. Really horrific Advertising weather patterns are already doing a DIRECTOR number ART on certain fairways, especially ARTRota DIRECTOR hole number 11, that association dollars Knott Hughearlier Dougherty partially fixed this year. But into

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSWRITER CONTRIBUTING Rota Knott Knott Ginny Reister Inkwellmedia@comcast.net And maybe, just maybe, there 443-880-1348 would be less infighting over amenity losses and a greater feeling, spread over more OPA members, that they’re getting more for their assessment dollars than they had been previously. For better or for worse, Boise Cascade in originally setting up the membership structure in the late 1960s and early 1970s preferred to keep mandatory lot assessments as low as possible for prospective property owners. So amenity memberships were made discretionary, with a separate fee structure, a system understandable for the times back then but not so much for today. In these times, it doesn’t seem to be working. – Tom Stauss

The Ocean Pines Progress, a journal of news and commentary, is published The Ocean Pines Progress, a journal of monthly throughout the year. It is news and commentary, is published circulated in Ocean Pines, Berlin, West monthly throughout the year. It is circuOcean Snow Hill,Berlin, Ocean City City, and lated inCity, Ocean Pines, Ocean Capain’s Cove, Va. and Captain’s Cove, Va. Letters and other othersubmissions editorial submissions: Letters and should be Please email not sent viasubmit emailviaonly. Weonly. do We not do accept accept or submissions submissions that faxes orfaxes other that require require retyping. Letters Letters should be original and and exclusive to to the the Progress. Progress. Include Include phone phone

number for verification.

127 Nottingham Lane, 127 Nottingham Lane, Ocean Pines, MD. 21811 Ocean Pines, MD

PUBLISHER/EDITOR Tom Stauss PUBLISHER/EDITOR PUBLISHER/EDITOR tstauss1@mchsi.com Tom Stauss Tom Stauss 410-641-6029 tstauss1@mchsi.com tstauss1@mchsi.com 410-641-6029 ADVERTISING 410-641-6029 Advertising Tom Stauss

Advertising

ART DIRECTOR ART DIRECTOR

ARTRota DIRECTOR Rota Knott Knott Hugh Dougherty

CONTRIBUTING CONTRIBUTING WRITERS WRITERSWRITER CONTRIBUTING Rota Knott

Rota Knott Ginny Knott Reister Ginny Susan Reister Canfora Inkwellmedia@comcast.net 443-880-1348

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