OPA trying to hire 40 summer lifeguards

By ROTA L. KNOTT

Contributing Writer

The Ocean Pines Association is slowly filling vacant positions, including hiring a handful of new lifeguards, but needs dozens more new employees to fully staff the Aquatics Department for the upcoming summer season.

General Manager John Viola during his Feb. 18 GM report told the Board of Directors that the OPA needs to be competitive in the marketplace if it is going to attract lifeguards, public works laborers and even police officers to work in the community.

Viola said salary adjustments have been included in the fiscal year 202324 budget to meet the state’s new minimum wage of $13.25 per hour and to compete with other organizations and businesses seeking to hire. As a result, he said the OPA is getting applications from job seekers.

“This is the first I can really say over that last year, year and a half we’re seeing people come in” looking for employment, he said.

He said if the OPA wants to keep its pools open “we’re going to have to raise our wages” and try to hire from “whatever population of life guards are out there.” He acknowledged the OPA is facing a lot of competition in hiring and has to be competitive.

Viola said applications for lifeguard positions are coming in. The OPA has already hired two lifeguards and is in the process of hiring a third. But, that will just meet the need at the pools during the winter months. Currently, the OPA has one full-time and 17 part-time lifeguards.

Come summer, the OPA needs 40 lifeguards to meet demand. “The task is to get those pools open. That’s what it’s goings to take,” he said, adding “We certainly need a lot more at the pools for the summer.” In addition to needing to staff up to 40 lifeguards for the summer, the OPA also needs to have ten front desk employees and four bathroom attendants to keep all five pools open on a full-time schedule.

The OPA is also researching making adjustments to salary and benefits for officers with the Ocean Pines Police Department. “We value safety,” Viola said, including police, fire and emergency medical services. “I know we all do but there is a cost to that.”

He said there have been five inquiries from job seekers for positions with the police department. Currently, there are six openings.

Viola said the municipalities surrounding Ocean Pines are all increasing their pay, pension benefits, and bonuses for law enforcement, so the OPA will need to make adjustments in order to attract and keep qualified officers. “We are looking at that we need to be competitive. We value these individuals.”

Resolutions

From Page 22 originally recommended rescinding in its entirety Resolution M-08 regarding association manuals. The committee acknowledged that there are certain OPA policy and operational manuals but there is no way of determining whether they are kept up to date so it suggested the resolution be eliminated.

While they agreed with the committee recommendation regarding operational manuals, some directors pointed out that there is a financial policy manual over which the Board does have oversight.

That financial management policy manual that establish items such as the general manager’s spending authority that the Board must en- sure are kept up to date.

As a result, the committee revised its recommendation and proposed amendments to the resolution based on the need to distinguish which manuals are operational and should be reviewed and modified by the general manager and which require Board review and modification.

The policy notes that the general manager may change the list of OPA manuals as necessary, except for the financial management policy manual that only the Board may change.

Except for the OPA financial management policy manual, the manuals are required to be reviewed for current adequacy on a bi-annual schedule and documentation of the review is to be maintained. The Board will review the OPA financial management policy manual on an annual basis.

Viola said applications are also starting to come into the OPA for public works laborer positions. Public works currently has three openings for which the department received 32 inquiries. One new hire was recently completed and another is in the process of being brought onto the public works team.

Finally, he said that there have been five inquiries for the open racquet sports manager’s position and the OPA is in the process of conducting interviews.

He said open positions in the police, public works, aquatics and racquet sports are all posted on Indeed.com and a state jobs website. All online inquiries are sent an email from the human resources officer requesting that job seekers complete an online application.

Those applications are then forwarded to the appropriate hiring manager for the review.

New basketball court lights added

The bulbs on four lights on the OPA’s basketball courts in White Horse Park have been replaced with LED bulbs. Viola said the cost was $1,859 for the lights and supporting brackets.

Viola said the OPA had received inquiries about the lights for play at night on the courts. He added that bulbs are continuing to be changed to LEDs throughout Ocean Pines.

Admin building renovations complete

Renovations are complete in the OPA’s administration building in White

Horse Park include new heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, updating restrooms, plumbing, ceiling, walls, and painting.

Viola said much of the work was done by the OPA’s “preferred” outside vendors. But he added that Public Works crews completed maintenance and repair work in-house, including replacing ceiling tiles and painting.

He said the cost of the long-deferred maintenance alone is more than $40,000. “Before this, I’ve never seen a building where you could just not regulate the air conditioning or heating,” he said regarding the poor condition of the HVAC system.

Yacht Club painting

At the Yacht Club, the exterior overhang has been spruced up and the interior ballroom ceiling was repaired by outside contractors at a cost of $3,100. The contractors sanded, primed, and painted the entrance way overhang.

The celling in the second floor ballroom has been repaired and repainted. Crews cut out loose plaster cut, patched and sanded those repairs and then repainted the whole ceiling.

“It needed a lot of work, not just painting,” Viola said.

Golf academy

Starting March 7 the Ocean Pines Golf Club will be offering private and group golf instruction with Matt Ruggiere.

“I’m very excited about this,” Viola said, adding that the clinic time is filling up quickly with both Ocean Pines members and outside golfers signing up.

He called Ruggiere “homegrown talent” who will lead the new golf academy at Ocean Pines.

More information and sign up are available at Ruggieregolf.com.

Fire station

At Viola’s invitation, Dave Van Gasbeck, president of the Ocean Pines Volunteer Fire Department, gave a brief update on funding for the proposed new Southside Fire Station. He said he has been working with Senator Mary Beth Carozza and Delegate Wayne Hartman to try to secure additional state funding for the multi-million project.

Previously, Carozza and Hartman helped secure $1.35 million for the new fire station. This year after talking with Hartman, Van Gasbeck submitted a request for a bond issue of $1.5 million. “We all know that’s not going to happen,” he said, but added the OPVFD may get another $100,000 or $200,000 from the request.

In response to a question about the timing of the bond bill, he said it will be a few weeks before he knows whether or not it will be moving forward. He said the process includes several steps such as a review by the bond committee.

If the committee approves of the request, the OPVFD will be asked to provide a justification for the funding. Then the request will go on to the legislature for consideration.

Dashboard activity

The Compliance, Permits, and Inspections office started January 2023 with 128 outstanding violations and processed and additional

27 violations during the month. CPI was able to close out 26 violations, leaving 129 outstanding at the end of the month. Of those cases 62 are being addressed by legal counsel, and no new cases were send to counsel during the month. Seven cases are pending hearing in the courts in March and another 20 are likely to be scheduled in April.

Public Works started January u