Country Club work delayed until fall, completion next year As if there was any doubt that the Country Club’s second floor renovation project would not be done by a 50th Anniversary golf touranment in June, the Board of Directors during its April 28 monthly meeting made it official by voting to delay the project until the fall in the hopes of securing better bids for it over the summer. Directors voted unanimously to direct General Manager John Bailey to reissue a request for proposals for the renovation no later than June 1.
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It’s an old name restored at Ocean Pines Yacht Club One of the very first changes implemented at the Ocean Pines Yacht Club by the Matt Ortt Companies was to change its name back to “Ocean Pines Yacht Club” from Mumford’s at Ocean Pines or the Cove at Mumford’s, the two names the bar and restaurant has been called in recent years. The name changes were part of rebranding of the food and beverage venue early in 2017. Now the Ortt Companies has gone back to the traditional name as part of another rebranding.
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Technology group pitches management software upgrades After nearly two years of evaluating the Ocean Pines Association’s outdated technology and reviewing current needs, the Technology Working Group has recommended the purchase of an integrated software package that its members have concluded will improve business operations, enhance staff efficiency, and achieve better services for members.
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Abi’s DINER
May 2018
www.issuu.com/oceanpinesprogress
443-359-7527
THE OCEAN PINES JOURNAL OF NEWS & COMMENTARY COVER STORY
STOP emerges as key player in Ocean Pines political affairs Brett Hill, Esther Diller file as a team for OPA board By TOM STAUSS Publisher n Ocean Pines advocacy group recently resurrected by a former Ocean Pines director with the help of an energetic property owner has taken aim at two political issues that the group says indicate Ocean Pines Association dysfunction and a lack of transparency in conducting its affairs. The advocacy group known as STOP (Stop Taxing Ocean Pines) was recently resurrected by Marty Clarke, a former OPA director who currently serves as a member of the OPA’s Budget and Finance Advisory Committee and as chair of the OPA’s Bylaws and Resolutions Advisory Committee. A founding member of STOP, he appointed Esther Diller, an Ocean Pines homeowner with an active interest in Ocean Pines Association affairs, as the group’s new chairperson last month. She coordinated the group’s participation in the OPA’s recent town hall meeting -- a list of questions to the board prepared by STOP circulated during the meeting -- and she has been giving active consideration to running for the board this summer. She has been assisted all along in her efforts by Brett Hill, a former OPA director and acting general manager who since resigning from the board last Sep-
A
tember has recently emerged as a critic of the way the OPA has been run, especially in the area of financial management. That Hill is a controversial figure in Ocean Pines is an understatement, but his recent claims of widespread fraud and embezzlement in OPA back office operations contributed to a recent board decision to hire a company to conduct a forensic Esther Diller, STOP fraud of all departments where chairperson misconduct has been alleged. According to a May 10 statement issued by Diller and Hiller, the two will be candidates in this summer’s Board of Directors election, running as a team. They will also be looking to endorse one of the other candidates, in the hopes that one will emerge who is compatible with them on major issues. “We would like to have a To Page 45
Brett Hill, former OPA Director
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