November early december 2013 ocean pines progress by Ocean Pines Progress

November - Early December 2013

Vol. 9, No. 8

410-641-6029

www.issuu.com/oceanpinesprogress Thompson, board dodgy on Yacht Club interior materials

N THE OCEAN PINES JOURNAL OF NEWS & COMMENTARY

obody is anxious to pick the interior materials and colors for the Ocean Pines Association’s new Yacht Club - not the project consultants, not the general manager and apparently not the board of directors. General Manager Bob Thompson presented three proposed interior material and color selections to the board for consideration during a Nov. 5 work session. All very similar in color palette, the materials included options for tile and wood flooring, countertops, paint and carpet. Thompson said he needs a decision on the interior colors and materials by next month. ~ Page 9

Board tables motion to give committee earlier involvement in budget prep The exterior of the new Ocean Pines Yacht Club as it appeared under construction in late October. The latest projections have the building open for business in April. The first wedding banquet has been booked for May.

COVER STORY

Cost overruns hit OPA capital projects Board authorizes final phase of Hingham Lane drainage project with $75,000 in unbudgeted costs. General Manager indicates that the Yacht Club project will exceed the authorized $4.3 million cost by almost $400,000, attributable to new kitchen equipment. It’s up to the board to approve the increase By TOM STAUSS Publisher

s anyone dealing with a household remodeling budget can attest, sometimes best guess estimates on certain planned expenditures turn out to be wildly optimistic. In governmental or quasi-governmental circles, it’s all too typical when real time costs exceed original estimates, and the result is what’s called a cost overrun. When it happens in Ocean Pines, it occasionally generates angst among elected officials, although any evidence of extreme distress is rare. The exception is Ocean Pines Association Director Marty Clarke, who seldom misses an opportunity to object whenever an instance occurs, such as the recently disclosed overrun for the Hingham Lane drainage improvement project. If he doesn’t make it explicit, then he implies with regularity that the overrun is the fault of OPA General Manager Bob Thompson. Clarke will usually vote against the overrun, but not always. His constant criticism is the proximate cause of ongoing friction between the general manager and Clarke, who

shared the role of Thompson’s irritant-in-chief with former Director Dave Stevens, said to be biding his time for a reelection bid next summer after six years of service on the board. With almost clocklike consistency in these matters, other directors will defend Thompson, absolving him of any personal responsibility for the overrun or the failure to anticipate it. Thompson’s most reliable defenders are Directors Sharyn O’Hare and Terri Mohr, but often OPA President Tom Terry and sometimes Director Dan Stachurski will defend him as well. Newly elected Director Bill Cordwell is tending toward the pro-Thompson camp, while Jack Collins tends to agree with Clarke without, as he has said more than once, Clarke’s “nastiness.” The two most recent examples of costs exceeding estimates for a major capital improvement are hardly dealing with chump change. At his town meeting in late October, Thompson disclosed for the first time publicly that the new kitchens at the Yacht Club designed with the help of a professional will To Page 10

Fond memories of Ocean Pines’ pioneering days

alking about the early days in Ocean Pines with Gloria Richards is like sharing stories from the old days with family. And that’s how it happened, around the kitchen table with Gloria and her husband, Jerry, as she tried to remember details about being the original writer for the first newsletter that informed residents of the tiny new community more than 40 years ago, and later, as a columnist for a local weekly newspaper, where she “took on” developer Boise Cascade. ~ Page 34

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November-Early December 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Tom Terry considering bid for county commissioner

Rack-in-stack proposal release delayed two weeks

Ocean Pines Association General Manager Bob Thompson recently announced that the proposed release of the so-called “rack and stack” of proposed

OCEAN PINES BRIEFS capital expenditures that will comprise phase two of his draft capital improvement plan for Ocean Pines won’t occur during the board of directors’ Nov. 6 work session. The adopted board schedule for the current term set Wednesday, Nov. 6, as the day when the board would discuss the CIP, and Director Dan Stachurski was under the impression that Thompson would have the rack-and-stack available for release and discussion in time for the work session. But during the board’s Oct. 26 monthly meeting, Thompson said he was not planning to have it ready by the work session. Instead, he said it would be released during the board’s regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 20, at the Ocean Pines Community Center, beginning at 3 p.m.

Yacht Club restaurant name contest under way

Ocean Pines residents have the opportunity to help select a moniker for the casual waterfront grill and bar area that will be part of the new Yacht Club. The Ocean Pines Association is conducting a contest for the naming of the downstairs restaurant. During the first phase of the contest this summer, residents and visitors submitted 466 suggested names. The board of directors narrowed the field to three final candidates from which residents can now select their favorite. They are Bayside Grille, submitted by Lynda Mintz; Mariner’s Cove, submitted by Doug Slingerland and Ocean Pines Dockside Grille, submitted by Jim Yates and Bert and Anna Oster. Voting will take place from Nov. 1 to Dec. 16 and is open to the public. Only one vote per ballot is permitted. Ballots can be downloaded from www.oceanpines.org. Ballots can be

dropped off 24 hours a day in the lobby of the Ocean Pines Administration office; at the Country Club; mailed to OPA, c/o Name Contest, 239 Ocean Parkway, Ocean Pines, MD 21811; emailed to info@Oceanpines.org or faxed to 410641-5581. Completed ballots must be submitted by Monday, Dec. 16. The winning restaurant name will be announced at a later date.

GM says bookings up to 18 events at Yacht Club

With the new Yacht Club now targeted for an April opening, Ocean Pines Association General Manager Bob Thompson says he continues to be encouraged by early evidence that the new venue will be able to attract a significant amount of banquet business, recapturing a lot of business lost to personnel changes and a facility that had lost much of its cache. During his Oct. 29 town meeting at the Ocean Pines Community Center, Thompson said 18 banquet events had been booked to date. Of the 18 bookings,

most of them are weddings. Thompson said interviews for an events coordinator or banquet manager are continuing and that the next focus of Food and Beverage Manager David McLaughlin will be to hire a new chef for the Yacht Club.

OPA board approves vehicle replacements

With the combined bid package coming in under budget, the Ocean Pines Association board of directors voted on Oct. 26 to purchase one new vehicle for each of the public works and recreation departments from Pittsville Motors. The OPA had budgeted $30,000 for a new public works truck and $25,000 for a new recreation and parks vehicle. The public works vehicle bid came in slightly over budget $31,212, but the recreation and parks vehicle bid was just $21,344, for an overall savings of $3,656 OPA General Manager Bob Thompson said the savings was realized after the recreation and parks vehicle was downsized. “Based on how they use it, it didn’t

t didn’t take long after the recent announcement by one of Ocean Pines’ two county commissioners, Judy Boggs, that she would not be seeking reelection to the District 5 seat in Snow Hill next year for candidates to entertain the idea of competing for the seat. The most prominent individual to confirm he is giving the matter some serious thought is current Ocean Pines Association President Tom Terry. He said he has an informal group of advisors who are urging him to run, and some sources are circulating the idea that he’s already decided to do so, merely waiting for the right time to announce. Terry was reelected to the OPA board of directors this past summer, having served as president for the previous three years. He was reelected as president for the fourth consecutive year this fall. Former OPA Director Ray Unger has previously announced his intentions to run. Unger unsuccessfully sought reelection to the board this summer. Both Terry and Unger are Republicans who would face off in the party primary in April. Another Republican who has been considering a run for the District 5 seat is local business owner Dennis Hudson, currently the chairman of the OPA’s Budget and Finance Advisory Committee. He recently told the Progress that he had previously ruled out a bid but is reconsidering that decision. So far, no Democrats have emerged as declared candidates, but that is likely to change with Boggs’ pending retirement. Boggs was a Western Shore Democrat before switching parties prior to making her first run for county office almost 12 years ago.

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OCEAN PINES

November-Early December 2013

Directors consider proposal to go with new equipment in Yacht Club kitchens Cost overrun of $385,000 presents board of directors with funding dilemma By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer he cost of reconstructing the Ocean Pines Yacht Club could swell by $385,000 if the board of directors agrees to follow the recommendation of a professional kitchen designer to install mostly new equipment and ventilation hoods in the new facility’s two kitchens. Apparently little of the equipment from the old building is salvageable. Ocean Pines Association General Manager Bob Thompson said during a Nov. 6 board of directors work session that the cost of adding the professionally designed kitchens is well above original cost estimates that were included in referendum materials sent to OPA members prior to the vote. That cost, which depended heavily on repurposing equipment from the old

Yacht Club, was $151,000. Now, Thompson said he needs a decision from the board regarding proceeding with purchasing the new equipment versus trying to retrofit the old. Before they will even consider approving the over-expenditure, board members say they want to talk with Rob Brown of the consulting firm Savoy Brown as well as members of the OPA Yacht Club implementation team that has been reviewing the new kitchen designs. The discussion will take place at an upcoming work session or special meeting. Thompson said after the referendum was approved, the board directed staff to engage the services of a professional kitchen designer for the Yacht Club. The OPA retained the firm of Savoy Brown and “they redesigned the kitchen. They did exactly what we asked them to, a professional kitchen,” Thompson said. Based on the Savoy Brown design, the OPA submitted a request for proposals (RFP) from kitchen equipment vendors, but received only one response. Several other vendors declined to sub-

mit a bid because the RFP stated that the association could pick and choose which parts of the bids to accept. So, the OPA and its consultants re-bid the project without that caveat and received a total of six proposals. Since then, Savoy Brown has been sorting page-by-page and item-by-item through 362 pages of bid specifications to ensure that each bidder met the requirements for the kitchen equipment. In doing so, the design consultant has discovered some inconsistencies where bidders have substituted equipment that then throws off the overall kitchen design. “This didn’t happen in a few weeks. This has been quite a while in the works,” Thompson said of the bid review process. The firm will complete one final review to level the bid prices and then will approach bidders for their lowest and best prices on all of the equipment. “We would not have had this level of look at this equipment if we had not done that,” Thompson said of retaining To Page 6

OCEAN PINES BRIEFS From Page 5 make sense to go with a bigger truck,” he said.

Festival of boats to return next summer

The Ocean Pines Boat Club has announced that, after an absence of several years, a committee has been formed to revive the annual boat parade. Now named “The Festival of Boats,” the boat parade was a signature summer event for many years in Ocean Pines and is tentatively scheduled for July 26, next year. The activities, which will include both water and shore festivities, will be centered in the South Ocean Pines waters with the thought of alternating north and south in future years. The event is open to all Ocean Pines businesses, all members of the Ocean Pines Chamber of Commerce, all Ocean Pines organizations and individual Ocean Pines boat owners. Any individual or business interested in entering a boat or helping with this event should contact Steven Stein at 410-641-8930, spikerex@aol.com, or Fred Heinlen at 410-208-3165, fheinlen5@msn.com).

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Yacht Club kitchens From page 6 Yacht Club implementation team member Ted Moroney, who participated in the discussion via speakerphone, said the bids seem to be in line, with the split between the cost proposals submitted by three low bidders at less than 5 percent. However, he said consultant Rob Brown believes he can negotiate an even better price once the board approves moving forward with purchasing the new equipment. “Obviously we didn’t want to be

above budget,” Moroney said. But he added that much of the old equipment is in such bad shape that it can’t be reused. “Really quite frankly most of its junk,” he said. The OPA intended to remove the existing kitchen hood system from the Yacht Club and install it at the new facility. However, because of the complete kitchen redesign that is no longer possible, adding another $67,000 to the cost of the project, the general manager said. Thompson said all of the equipment that was removed from the old Yacht Club was evaluated for its age and con-

dition. Much of it is 30 years old and some of the equipment, such as a walkin refrigerator and freezer, literally fell apart when it was moved from where it has sat for decades. In some cases insulation had rotted away. “These things were just starting to fall apart,” Thompson said, adding “I was really surprised some of them had been in the building since its inception.” Over the years, the OPA repaired old equipment and did piece-meal upgrades but never a wholesale kitchen renovation. Some equipment, like stainless steel

work tables, sinks and hand sinks as well as some shelving, can be incorporated into the proposed new kitchens, Thompson said. The old dishwasher will be installed upstairs at the new Yacht Club, but leased equipment will be used downstairs, Thompson said. That was the first time the directors had heard that the OPA was leasing rather than purchasing new kitchen equipment. Thompson said that leased equipment is considered an operating expense rather than a capital expense.

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8 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

November-Early December 2013

Yacht Club kitchens From Page 7 expense rather than a capital expense. Additionally a few pieces of equipment, including glass door coolers and a large mixer, have also been moved to the Country Club for use. “They are older but they’re still functioning,” Thompson said. Director Dan Stachurski asked about the design parameters for the new kitchen and what model the proposal was based on. “You don’t design a kitchen to do everything,” he said, adding that he wants to hear what that model is before voting to -- he started to say “blow” but quickly changed it to “spend” -- that kind of money on kitchen equipment. OPA President Tom Terry agreed. “We need the answers how we got from A to B,” he said. Director Marty Clarke queried Thompson regarding the need for two separate full kitchens at the new amenity. He said that was one of the functional problems at the old building and suggested the OPA could make do with one full kitchen and another smaller warming kitchen with a dumbwaiter to ferry items between floors. Thompson said part of the operational challenge in the past was running two kitchens because the downstairs kitchen at the old Yacht Club was small and only designed to process food like subs

and burgers. That led to complaints about the quality of and inconsistencies in the food served there. He said the plan is to completely close down one floor of the Yacht Club during the winter months. But when needed during the busy summer season, it will have two fully functional kitchens “that can operate independently to serve different needs.” Clarke took issue with the board not having seen the kitchen plans until the Nov.5 meeting, even though they were dated July 22. ‘We should have had this a month ago when everybody including my sister knew we were going to be over budget,” he said. Clarke asked about the timing for the board’s approval. “At what point does indecision by the board on this half million dollar thing start slowing down the project?” Moroney responded that a decision needs to be made by early December to ensure the best prices on the equipment and to avoid price increases in the new year. In the meantime, the OPA is seeking county permits for the kitchen areas as designed by Savoy Brown and if the board opts to take another path then those plans will be revised, he said. Director Sharyn O’Hare asked if there are elements of the kitchens that could be added or phased in later. “What we don’t add or put in this year we’re going to pay more for” at a later date, Stachurski responded.

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OCEAN PINES

November-Early December 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Thompson, board dodgy on Yacht Club interior materials By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer obody is anxious to pick the interior materials and colors for the Ocean Pines Association’s new Yacht Club - not the project consultants, not the general manager and apparently not the board of directors. General Manager Bob Thompson presented three proposed interior material and color selections to the board for consideration during a Nov. 5 work session. All very similar in color palette, the materials included options for tile and wood flooring, countertops, paint and carpet. Thompson said he needs a decision on the interior colors and materials by next month. “Here’s your choices. If you don’t like them we’ll go after some others,” he told the board. OPA President Tom Terry asked Thompson, “what are we supposed to make decision on?” Thompson responded that someone needs to select the interior materials so the project can move forward, but said he isn’t willing to make a recommendation, citing the recent flurry of negativity that descended down upon over his selection of split block as an exterior siding accent material. Although Thompson asked for board input on the materials, several directors said they want someone else to recommend a specific color and material scheme before they weigh in. Director Dan Stachurski asked Thompson to request renderings or a presentation like a 3D digital display of the materials from the project’s architect. Stachurski said he isn’t willing to try to select materials and colors for the Yacht Club interior until he sees some kind of 3D rendering showing where they will go in a particular room setting. “I’m not going to pick anything up there until I know where it’s going,” he said. “We’re gonna get stuck with this.” Thompson said all of the proposed materials are within budget for the Yacht Club project and are durable. “We’re doing quality with this project.” On the first level of the new Yacht Club, the flooring will be a grooved ceramic tile, while the second level flooring will be wood. Under consideration are both light and dark oak and bamboo flooring options. Thompson said the oak flooring is more forgiving when finishing it than bamboo, which can’t be stained. Instead, bamboo is darkened by steaming it, he said. He added that either of the darker colored wood flooring options would require less maintenance because they will not show scuffs marks as easily.

He said the ceramic tile options for the first floor have heavy grooves so it will not be slippery. The only portions of the building that will be carpeted are the offices and the bridal suite, he said. Thompson presented different patterned carpets for each of those locations in three different color variations. The countertops and bar tops throughout the Yacht Club will be Silestone.

Color palette

Samples of the wood flooring, carpet, tile, counter tops and paint colors that are under consideration for the interior of the Yacht Club.

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The exterior of the new Yacht Club under constuction as seen from the harbor.

Cost overruns From Page 1 exceed the amount allotted for it, though by how much he didn’t say, because at the time he didn’t know. That detail emerged during the board of directors’ Nov. 6 work session, when the general manager disclosed that new kitchen equipment will cost the OPA $384,000 more than the $4.3 million Yacht Club cost approved in referendum. That figure includes the services of Savoy Brown, the kitchen consultant hired by the OPA to assist in drafting details of the two kitchens planned for the new facility, Thompson said. [See article elsewhere in this edition of the Progress for details.] The board can spend up to about $1.6 million in spending without needing additional referendum approval. The $384,000 was not approved by the board during the work session, although the directors were told that they have about a month to consider options and make a decision without affecting the project’s construction timeline. Thompson explained that the kitchen cost overrun is the result of discovering that much of the equipment in the old Yacht Club won’t fit in the new kitchen

design or is in such a state of disrepair that trying to move it into the new Yacht Club would be foolish. About all that is salvageable are some stainless steel stove hoods, he said during his town meeting, but by the Nov. 6 work session he indicated that the old hoods don’t fit the new stoves in the Savoy Brown design. Whether the kitchen overrun could have been anticipated much sooner than recent board meetings is a topic of some speculation. That it comes as much of a surprise to anyone knowledgeable about the Yacht Club project strains credulity. The only real mystery of late has been the amount of the likely overrun, and that mystery was cleared during the Nov. 6 work session. There is some evidence to suggest that Thompson recently had some intention to relocate some of the Yacht Club kitchen equipment to the Country Club, as part of his board endorsed proposal to keep the upstairs of the Country Club open over the winter for limited dining on a Friday through Monday reduced schedule. Much of the kitchen equipment at the Country Club is old or malfunctioning or both, with replacement parts hard to come by.

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OCEAN PINES From Page 10 This past summer, Thompson told the Progress that the $4.3 million was sufficient to cover the new Yacht Club kitchen, but that was before the OPA’s professional kitchen designers came in with recommendations and before the old equipment was moved into storage when the old building was razed shortly after Labor Day. Much of that equipment was in worse shape than had heretofore been realized. During an Aug. 28 special meeting of the board, Thompson seemed to be asking the board for a quick decision on keeping the Country Club open, in the hopes of avoiding a second move of the Yacht Club’s kitchen equipment. If the board had accommodated the general manager during the Aug. 28 special meeting, he said he would have been prepared to move the kitchen equipment directly to the Country Club. If a decision was delayed, it would have been necessary to park the equipment in storage, then move it again to the Country Club if the November reopening was approved, Thompson said at the time. Indeed, the decision to keep the Country Club open over the winter was not made until the board’s Sept. 18 monthly meeting. So by late August, at least, the general manager probably had a good idea what equipment would be moved to the Country Club and what might remain in storage for use in the new building. At that juncture, he also would have had to have some idea what new kitchen equipment would be needed for the new Yacht Club, and that it would have budgetary implications. If he knew then that cost overruns were inevitable, he didn’t let on, at least publicly. There was no public acknowledgment of cost overruns related to kitchen equipment until his town meeting in late October, two months after the Aug. 28 special meeting. Ted Moroney, a member of the implementation team recently reinstated to help Thompson with the project, told the Progress in a Nov. 2 telephone interview that it became evident as the old kitchen equipment was being pulled out of the old building that it really couldn’t be moved to the new building. “In some cases, the legs of stoves were so rusted out they broke as they were moved,” he said. But it was not until Nov. 3rd or 4th that Savoy Brown had provided the implementation team a revised list of new equipment needed for the new Yacht Club kitchen, Moroney added. “Our original $159,000 estimate for kitchen equipment was based on an earlier list of what was good and what wasn’t,” he said of the old building’s equipment. Without the updated list of new equipment provided by Savoy Brown, Moroney said the extent of the cost overrun was simply not known.

“In retrospect, we probably should have included all new kitchen equipment in the design,” he said, acknowledging that doing so could easily have added $200,000 or more to the $4.3 million cost that went out to referendum. As it turns, the additional cost was closer to $400,000. The other recent notable cost overrun, the Hingham Lane drainage project, also materialized rather suddenly with no advance warning. As late as the September board meeting, there was no indication that an overrun was pending, other than the $90,000 cost increase approved earlier in the year by the board, when it added Hingham Road improvements to what heretofore had been drainage improvements planned for holes 11 and 12 on Ocean Pines’ golf course. Including Hingham Lane boosted the original project estimate from $450,000 to $540,000. The earlier overrun arguably was not a higher cost associated with already approved project components, but rather were higher costs associated with expanding the original parameters of the project. To the average OPA member, that might seem a distinction without a difference. With no reference at all to cost overruns, Thompson told OPA directors at their Sept. 18 monthly meeting that the OPA had received permits for the Hingham Lane phase from the state on Sept. 17, and that work to install the underground drainage pipes along the street would begin Sept. 20, with roughly two weeks needed to complete the job. Late in September, Thompson responded when asked by the Progress to explain why there was no evidence of activity on Hingham Lane. He alluded to

some behind the scenes activity needed to coordinate the contractor’s return to the job site, adding that he thought the work would commence in early October. The project did not come up for any discussion at the board’s Oct. 2 work session, nor had it started by early October or even by the board’s regular meeting on Oct. 24. There was no public explanation given in the interim, but the absence of any activity on the job site was notable. Thompson’s earlier comments on when the project would start were simply incorrect, probably based on an assumption that the contractor, McDonald and Sons, could be back on site almost on a moment’s notice. Not quite. Sources have told the Progress that the reason the project had been delayed is that McDonald and Sons, the contractor that did the work on the 11th and 12 holes, was working out of state and could not return to Ocean Pines just because the state had finally issued a permit and that new Hingham Lane engineering was in place. Thompson told the board during its Oct. 24 regular meeting that the Hingham Lane component could begin shortly, but that McDonald and Sons would not be doing the work. During his Oct. 29 town meeting, Thompson said that “McDonald and Sons rebid” the Hingham Lane work and he later told the Progress that the contractor would be on site to oversee the work. The contractor hired for the job, Goody Hill, is a local company that razed the old Yacht Club and did much of the excavation work for the new facility. The contract with Goody Hill did not involve an OPA bidding process, a situation that normally enrages Clarke, who called it another example of a sole

source contract. Though clearly irked by that, in discussion during the Oct. 24 meeting he said he thought the board had “no choice” but to approve the $75,000 cost overrun needed to complete the job. According to Thompson, the original project costs including Hingham Lane totaled $520,000, based on a $332,000 McDonald and Sons contract, $116,000 in OPA Public Works expenses, and $72,000 for three separate engineering studies related to the project. After permitting issues with the state necessitated the drafting of two additional engineering schematics, Thompson said that all but $19,373 had been spent of the $520,000. That amount, he informed the board, would be insufficient to “get pipes in the ground.” The additional cost of doing that, he said, would be $94,750. That’s equivalent to a $75,000 overrun when the $19,373 in remaining funds is factored in. No doubt well aware that he probably had the votes on the board to complete the project, Thompson nonetheless gave the directors a choice: Either they could approve the $75,000 overrun in this fiscal year to complete the work or they could delay it, including it as part of the 2015 fiscal year budget that begins May 1 of next year. Clarke said he thought the board had little choice but to approve another sole source contract, telling his colleagues that a delay could result in a higher cost and another year of continued flooding on the golf course properties in the vicinity of Hingham Lane. Terry, the OPA president, wondered whether some entity other than the OPA could be tapped to pay for the overruns, but Thompson offered little hope of that. He said that drain pipes in

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OCEAN PINES

November-Early December 2013

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By TOM STAUSS Publisher sleek, far more user-friendly Ocean Pines Association Web site launched on Nov, 7, a few days later than OPA General Manager Bob Thompson said it would but worth the wait. Thompson told the board of directors in late October that the site would rollout the first weekend of November, but he also told them he didn’t want vistors to experience the malfunctions that have plagued the federal Obomacare site. To avoid that, he said he would probably ask for additional testing before approving a launch, just to be sure everything worked as it was supposed to. An initial contact with the site using a conventional browser and a Mediacom high speed Internet connection had no problems. If anything, the site’s home page seemed to load faster than the old site did, perhaps because there’s not as much content crammed into its confines. The site seems to carry the same content as before, however, presented in a way that seems much less clunky. The home page reached at www,oceanpines.org includes a rotation of scenic and representative Ocean Pines photographs. Three large clickable boxes invite the viewer to Live Here, Play Here and Dine Here. There’s a section where a PDF of the Fall Activities Guide can be accessed, and another section includes recent photos of the Yacht Club construction project that is under way. News releases and an events calendar areclickable from the home page. At the very bottom of the home page, there are links to familiar topics of interest, from OPA admininistration to OPA recreation and amenities. The site was built by D3 Corporation of Ocean City.

Cost overruns From Page 11 the nearby Innerlinks development had been laid higher than they should have been relative to design specifications, contributing to the need for the OPA to redesign Hingham Lane. But the developer that did that work reportedly is no longer in business. He also said that the project had to be redesigned because of difficulties endured by the OPA’s interactions with the Maryland Department of the Environment, which he said had declared the affected drainage ditches wetlands, requiring a state permit. During his Oct. 29 town meeting, he was even more candid in his assessment of MDE, telling his audience that as far as he knows this is the first time ever that drainage ditches were declared to be wetlands and staked out by an MDE

inspector. Clarke asked how many of his colleagues “knew it was going to be a $75,000” overrun to complete the project in this fiscal year. No one responded affirmatively, but Mohr, a steadfast Thompson defender when he’s under criticism from Clarke, responded that “neither did Bob.” Cordwell said he supported the additional $75,000 overrun because the project, once completed, “will help my neighbors” deal with their flooding issues, which some trace back to the early 2000s when the Innerlinks were initially developed. The motion to spend the unbudgeted $75,000 passed unanimously, 7-0. Assuming the board approves the kitchen overruns, these two overruns alone will be costing the OPA almost $500,000. in unbudgeted funds.

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14 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

November-Early December 2013

Change in Yacht Club exterior materials gets a rocky reception

By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer t was a rocky decision, that didn’t sit well with some members of the Ocean Pines Association’s board of directors when they came to realize that General Manager Bob Thompson had opted to alter the exterior siding of the Ocean Pines Association’s new Yacht Club from river stone to split block last fall. That it took about a year for the change to be fully realized by the directors has been blamed for the most part on the general manager’s failure to make the fact explicit that some accents on the exterior had been altered from the original specs. He had mentioned the change in passing on a couple of occasions this year, but it was not until the board’s September meeting that the change made an impression on the board as a whole. During the board’s regular monthly meeting on Oct. 2, the directors voted, with one abstention, to endorse that decision, saying that’s what Worcester County guidelines require and, since the materials have already been purchased, there is no alternative but to move forward with the split block. During his update on the Yacht Club construction, Thompson said he was still

waiting on a decision from the board about the change in exterior materials, which seems to have been mandated as part of the county planning and permitting process. “At this point we’ve got to make a decision so we don’t hold the project up,” he told the board. Some directors said they assumed, based on Oct. 12 memo from the Yacht Club implementation team to Thompson and the fact that the general manager had already ordered the replacement materials, that the decision was made and that no action was needed on their part. Thompson said there would be additional costs if the OPA decided to change the exterior material again because the split block has been ordered but added that the decision is up to the board. Possibly afraid he would be stoned in the public square for not seeking the board’s endorsement, Thompson said “I’m making no decisions on the exterior of that building.” He said he had been waiting for feedback from board members but had not yet received any. Thompson’s recently reinstated project implementation team supported using the split-face block instead of river stone, but in its memo said Thompson should have sought board input more than a year ago. One of the implementation committee members, Ted Moroney, told the Progress recently that any change of similar scope will be shared

with the board explicitly. The implementation panel issued three “opinions” on the matter: That after review of the renderings with the split-block and actual materials the team unanimously agreed that the appearance of the new trim is acceptable and presents a favorable appearance; that had the new trim been presented initially that there would have been no objections to its use by the board or the membership; and that in August 2012 the trim issue should have been formally and specifically brought to the attention of the Board as a separate issue. The committee recommended that the split block facing for the Yacht Club be retained as is and that no further effort be taken to request an exception to the county guidelines for commercial buildings. Director Marty Clarke said he was not aware there was anything left to discuss on the issue. “The block has been ordered and it’s sitting in the yard. It’s special order and it’s really not returnable,” he said. OPA President Tom Terry said when he read the Oct. 12 memo, he too assumed that the OPA would just move on with what was already done, unless someone wanted to “argue with the county.” He said his understanding that the chances of “getting back to stone were slim-- not none -- but slim.” He said the memo from the implementation team “was pretty clear where

OCEAN PINES

we were” and he did not think it was necessary for a board motion to approve the change. Director Teri Mohr said “I guess I should have responded” that she doesn’t have an issue with using split block. Director Jack Collins, who participated in the meeting via a conference call, made the motion to officially approve the change. The motion was approved 6-0-1 with Clarke abstaining. Clarke said he would not vote on the issue because he had not been prepared to discuss it at that meeting. Still, he said, “What’s the alternative? None.” Terry suggested putting the implementation team’s memo with the history of the change from stone facing to split block on the Yacht Club on the OPA’s Web site “so people can understand” why the revision was necessary. The memo explains that Worcester County’s guidelines and standards require “exterior wall and trim materials shall not include stone.” The initial design prepared for the OPA by AWB included river stone as the major trim material. The committee said that was a design error because the architect should have followed recently approved guidelines. However, the OPA’s referendum materials submitted to property owners in August 2012 showed river stone as the trim material.

Board endorses countypreferred change from river stone to split block

OCEAN PINES

November-Early December 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS 15

OPA FINANCES

OPA records another positive operating variance

Yacht Club exterior From Page 14 In August of 2012, the design was changed to include split-faced CMU as the major trim material. That was done in the process of negotiating with the county on expanded parking allocations along with several other changes required as part of its initial plan review. The CMU change ultimately resulted in a credit of approximately $29,000 for the trim change. On Aug. 8, 2012, at the county’s Technical Review Committee meeting OPA and contractors Harkins/AWB ad-

Cumulative deficit for the year is now less than $40,000 – actual performance compared to budget – was a positive $11,894. Revenues were under budget by a $53,578, total expenditures were under budget by $73,656, and new capital expenditures (those funded from the current year’s lot assessments rather than reserves), exceeded budget by $8,094. Excluding new capital, the OPA’s departmental operating surplus for the month was $20,078.

According to a financial report prepared by OPA Controller Art Carmine, the variance to budget through Sept. 30 is a negative $29,171, or a negative $37,248 including new capital. For the year so far, revenues are under budget by $359,250, expenditures are under budget by $330,079 and new capital is over budget by $8,077. The numbers indicates that so far

dressed the stone issue, discussed a change back to stone, and was informed that “stone shall not be utilized.” That wording is included in the meeting records. County officials indicated verbally that a waiver of that prohibition by the planning commission would not be approved. In light of that discussion, no request for a waiver was submitted by OPA or the contractors on its behalf. At this point, Harkins has already ordered the trim material and it cannot be credited for its return. To change back to stone trim would cost the OPA an additional $40,000 to $60,000 for materials.

Even if a change was approved by the county, there would also be a delay in the completion of the Yacht Club project depending on when the new material could be reviewed by the planning commission. It would not have been able to review an OPA request for an exception until its November meeting at the earliest, more likely until its December meeting. That would mean that the stone could not be ordered until the change was approved. “There is no way to predict if the planning commission will consider and then approve an exception,” the implementation committee said in its memo.

in the current fiscal year, OPA management has been able to deal with revenues falling short of budgeted expectations by reducing expenditures by a corresponding amount. The September $37,248 negative operating variance compares to the $52,401 negative variance through the end of August. Major amenity operations all lost money for the month, but several of them all performed better than budget forecasts. The amenity losses were $6,826 for tennis, $7,667 for marina operations, $4,607 for Beach Club parking, $37,379 for aquatics, $17,142 for golf, $3,632 for Beach Club food and beverage, and $20,814 for the Yacht Club. Major amenities with positive performance relative to budget were tennis ($516), marinas ($3,102), aquatics ($1,631) and the Yacht Club ($15,122). Those with negative results compared to budget were Beach Club parking (-$3,055), golf (-$26,300), and the Beach Club (-$892). The financial summary also details cumulative totals for the amenity and assessment departments through September. Amenity departments with

By TOM STAUSS Publisher he Ocean Pines Association’s financial report for September, the fifth month of the 2014 fiscal year, contained some good news. The OPA generated a positive operating variance to budget for September, the third consecutive month it did so, reversing negative variances for the first two months of the fiscal year. September’s operating fund variance

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16 Ocean Pines PROGRESS By TOM STAUSS Publisher

OCEAN PINES

November-Early December 2013

t appears that the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors may try to finesse a request by its Budget and Finance Advisory Committee to engage early in the 2014-15 OPA budget development process. After an Oct. 2 board work session, Director Jack Collins confirmed he is working on a proposal that won’t require General Manager Bob Thompson to accept the committee’s offer to help but will encourage it. “Call it a sense of the board” that the general manager should accept the offer, Collins told the Progress. The advisory committee in particular has requested that it be involved in coming up with revenue estimates for the OPA key amenity operations, such as the Yacht Club, golf operations and aquatics. Committee members in their monthly meetings have often remarked how unrealistic these revenue estimates have been in recent years, as measured by actual results relative to budget, despite explicit board policy that has called for

Board tables Collins motion to direct general manager to involve advisory committee earlier in budget development Directors urge rewrite to make it less prescriptive and more of an option for Thompson to consider more realistic amenity budgeting. Their preferred solution, forwarded to the board for consideration as the directors deliberate on proposed budget guidance to the general manager and staff, would have directed the general manager to include the committee as the staff works on those amenity revenue projections. Committee chairman Dennis Hudson told the board, during an Oct. 2 work session, that the committee’s major concern with the OPA budget is the calcu-

OPA Net Financial Operations through September 30, 2013

lation of revenues, as well as the lack of detailed business plans for each of the amenity operations. Citing authority from Board Resolution F-02, Hudson said that the committee wanted to participate in budget preparation, especially in projecting revenues, rather than simply review what the staff has prepared. That level of hands-on involvement in drafting what traditionally has been a staff-prepared document would be a departure from traditional practice in

Ocean Pines, in which the budget committee reviews the staff-prepared budget draft once it’s complete and offers comments and recommendations to the board of directors. At the board’s Oct. 24 meeting, Collins offered a motion that essentially endorsed the committee’s request for early involvement in budget preparation. Although the language was somewhat open to interpretation, most of the directors seemed to believe that the motion as written directed OPA General Manager Bob Thompson to include the committee in the budget drafting phase. At one point during the discussion, Collins seemed to resist that interpretation, telling his colleagues that the intent of his motion was to offer the help of the committee to Thompson “as a positive step forward” that would result in a more accurate budget process. He suggested that his intent was not to be coercive. But language in the motion that “charged” the committee with assisting the general manager and department To Page 18

OPA finances From Page 15 operating surpluses through Aug. 30 included tennis ($5,103), marinas ($138,097), Beach Club parking ($377,484), aquatics ($15,507), and the Beach Club ($103,110). Those in deficit for the year are golf (-$37,735) and the Yacht Club (-$27,725). Compared to budget, all the amenity departments with the exception of Beach Club parking have negative variances through August. The Beach Club parking’s positive variance is $18,883. Status of reserves – The reserve summary released as part of the September financials shows that the OPA’s reserve balance stood at $6,721,113, a minimal decline from August’s $6,746,364 balance. Lot assessment dollars flow into the reserves at the beginning of the new fiscal year in May. The balance in the roads reserve through Aug. 31 was $66,824, virtually unchanged from July and August. The bulkhead and waterways reserve through September stood at $1,035,732, also virtually unchanged from July and August. The golf drainage reserve carries a $577,831 deficit, the future projects reserve is $59,864 in the red, and the operating recovery reserve stands at zero. The major maintenance and replacement reserve remains as the OPA reserve most flush with earmarked assessment dollars. Its Sept. 30 balance was $6,256,252, comprised of $5,340,280 in funded depreciation and $915,972 attributable to the five-year funding plan. This reserve will be substantially reduced by the end of the year, reflecting the cost of the new Yacht Club and swimming pool. Each year, the OPA collects between $3 million and $4 million in assessment dollars that are allocated to various reserves.

OP Progress 9.75x11.5_Layout 1 10/15/13 4:00 PM Page 1

November-Early December 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

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18 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

November-Early December 2013

Thompson signals he’ll recommend extending Casper contract By TOM STAUSS Publisher utside play hasn’t materialized to the extent hoped for during the prime fall season in September and October, operating deficits continue to pile up, albeit at a pace much slower than last year, but none of those factors seem to be leading to a decision that will produce a termination of Billy Casper Golf’s contract to manage the Ocean Pines golf course. At a town meeting that he hosted Oct. 29 in the Ocean Pines Community Center, Ocean Pines Association General Manager Bob Thompson hinted that he is leaning toward recommending that BCG be given a contract extension of one or two years. He said he would be consulting further with his own informal group of golf advisors that meets privately and the more official Golf Members Council, a group of golfers that functions much like an OPA advisory committee, before making up his mind what to recommend to the board of directors. “That’s where I’m leaning,” he said of a one- or two-year extension, which presupposes that BCG would be willing to remain in Ocean Pines under either of those options. Sure to be an issue in negotiations would be the management fee that BCG would require, currently about $5,500 per month, in order to remain in Ocean Pines. Ultimately, what Thompson recommends isn’t necessarily what the OPA board of directors will decide to do. With the clock ticking on Billy Casper Golf’s three-year contract – it officially expires in spring of 2014 – it is generally thought that the board will decide whether it wants to keep the management company in place soon after the fall package play season is complete. That’s typically sometime shortly after September or October. With October financials due for release in mid-November, OPA officials have said by then it should be clear whether BCG is on a path to meet its budgeted deficit target for the fiscal year. That budgeted loss is $150,000, a substantial improvement over last year’s $500,000 in red ink. Recently, OPA Controller Art Carmine issued a preliminary end of year forecast predicting a loss slightly in excess of $200,000. That will no doubt be revised upward in an amended year end forecast to be issued midway through the fiscal year. The end of October is that half-way point. The November regular meeting of the board of directors will be the earliest opportunity for those end of year forecasts to be made public. September’s operating results for golf did not meet the hyped expectations for non-member or outside, package play. Greens fees revenue underperformed relative to budget by $12,250, as did cart fees by $3,668. In fact, every category of revenue underperformed relative to budget. But compared to last year, this year’s

General Manager says he’s leaning toward giving the Ocean Pines golf course management firm another year or two to see whether it can take advantage of recent improvements to the course results year to date are positively rosy. Through September of last year, golf operations were in the red by $121,700, but this year the cumulative deficit is only $37,735, less than one third as much. That’s still substantially off budget – by almost $100,000 – but there’s every indication that this year’s results will be a substantial improvement over last year. It’s the improvement that may weigh more heavily on OPA policy makers than the actual deficit number. Conceding that September’s results fell short of expectations, Thompson said that October’s are “slightly up.” Golf operations, including food and beverage service in the Terns Grill, lost $17,142 in September, a $26,300 negative variance to the budgeted $9,158 surplus. He said the OPA will “have a better feel” in November for how golf will do for the remainder of the year. Thompson suggested that he is of the view that BCG needs more time to exploit better conditions on the Ocean Pines golf course, which weathered the July-August period without much adversity – only a slight brown-out on a portion of the 11th hole. He said it takes time for a course’s reputation to change, especially after years of bad publicity caused by poor course conditions and constant renovation projects. With new greens and half of the course with rebuilt fairways and better drainage, he said the course has never played better. He spoke optimistically about outside play bookings for April, which is the final month of the current fiscal year. Newly elected OPA Director Bill Cordwell, an OPA golf member, picked up on the theme of a changing perception of the Ocean Pines golf course. “Outsiders say it’s the nicest course in the area,” Cordwell said. Pete Gomsak, a former OPA board member and currently the OPA’s assistant treasurer, with a continued role in OPA financial matters, recalled what he said were the reasons that the OPA outsourced golf management to Billy Casper three years ago. Better management was one such reason, “but it was also because Casper had marketing ability and a network” of golf courses in the Mid-Atlantic it manages whose members could be enticed to play the Ocean Pines golf course, Gomsak said. One OPA director, Marty Clarke, remains unconvinced that BCG will be able to make good on its marketing prowess to the benefit of Ocean Pines. He told the Progress after the town meeting that Thompson had said that once golf course improvements were in place, that outside play would substantially increase this September and October, and indeed the current year’s bud-

get was constructed with that in mind. “Hasn’t happened,” Clarke said, adding that he remains convinced that the OPA’s best option is to lease the course out to a private operation or to consider selling it, perhaps to private equity investors. He said his only reluctance in pushing for a referendum for the OPA to get out of the golf business is that he fears it could result in a decision by property owners to convert the course into a park. “I’d hate to see that happen,” he said. At the same time, he said he believes it’s only a matter of time before a petition effort is launched for a referendum on the golf course’s status. “Deficits continue out for as far as the eye can see,” he added. “I don’t think property owners will stand for it much longer.” The OPA Budget and Finance Advisory Committee has recommended such a course of action for the past two years, so far with no action by the board in response. With the current board makeup, it is highly unlikely that the current directors, absent a successful petition drive, would ever vote to conduct a referendum on whether to continue to operate the golf course. Odds are, especially if Thompson rec-

Collins motion From Page 16 heads in drafting the budget struck most of the directors as a mandate or direction to the general manager, and that concerned most of them, with the exception of Marty Clarke. The directors made several unsuccessful attempts to amend the language to make it less prescriptive, but Director Dan Stachurski finally said he thought rewriting the motion was Collins’ responsibility. He suggested tabling the motion to allow Collins to rewrite it. OPA President Tom Terry and directors Sharyn O’Hare and Bill Cordwell agreed. With little chance that the motion would pass as written, Collins, who was participating in the discussion via speakerphone, agreed to do so. If the motion comes back to the board with a mandate as opposed to a suggestion, OPA President Tom Terry told the Progress after the meeting that he didn’t think it would pass muster with a board majority, given what he had heard from his colleagues. He said that if it is less prescriptive, offering Thompson a choice in whether to involve the committee earlier in the process, then Terry said he thought a revised motion would stand a better chance of passage. The less prescriptive approach is what Collins hopes to include in A re-

ommends it, the board will decide to negotiate a contract extension with BCG, although that’s by no means guaranteed, and it’s always possible the parties won’t be able to agree on terms. OPA President Tom Terry is on record as opposing an extension with BCG if the management firm fails to meets its budget projections for the year, and there’s no way, given current performance relative to budget and end-ofyear projections, that the company will be able to achieve its budgeted $150,000 loss. Another OPA director, Dan Stachurski, has said even if BCG fails to meet the budgeted target, there is a scenario under which he personally could support a contract renewal. That scenario would be for BCG to dramatically increase “its skin in the game,” Stachurski said, alluding to the fact that the management company is guaranteed a fee of about $5,500 per month regardless of how it performs relative to budget. Stachurski said he would be willing to consider writing a new contract that would increase the incentives for Casper to reduce or even eliminate operating deficits, at the same time that the guaranteed management fee is eliminated or reduced very close to zero. “I’d be willing to give them 100 percent of the profits,” he said, “Because that would mean our deficit and subsidy would be zero.” written motion that he hopes to present for board consideration at its regular meeting in November. He said include language that it was “the sense of the board” that the general manager accept the committee’s offer of early help. During discussion at the Oct. 2 work session, the general manager’s general demeanor indicated that he was not particularly swayed by the arguments made by Hudson on behalf of the committee. He indicated that he did not necessarily agree with the committee’s interpretation of the board resolution supporting early committee involvement in budget preparation. In a related matter, Terry told the Progress that he believes inviting department heads to meet with the budget committee as part of the budget review process is a good idea and ought to be continued in January, when the annual budget review kicks into high gear. Hudson has said privately that he’s concerned about the current state of relations between the committee and Thompson, and that the general manager might decide not to allow department heads to meet with the budget panel. Terry said he didn’t think that would happen. “That process works just fine,” he said. In fact, several board members routinely sit in during those committee meetings, apparently finding them useful.

OCEAN PINES By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer llowing waterfront property owners to install temporary storm bulkheads when a major weather event is expected to slam Ocean Pines could help prevent major damage to their lots and homes, according to a recommendation from the Ocean Pines Association’s Marine Activities Advisory Committee. MAAC Chairman Frank Watkins during an Oct. 26 board of directors’ meeting said that committee recommends developing a policy that will allow property owners to install the temporary storm bulkheads behind the permanent bulkhead structures owned and maintained by the OPA when a hurricane or nor’easter is approaching the area. Recognizing that a more detailed legal and operational analysis of the proposal is required, Watkins told the board of directors that some property owners are already using storm bulkheads when a big blow is expected, but there are no standards for construction or erection of them. Currently, storm bulkheads are illegal in Ocean Pines, particularly because they need to be attached to the primary bulkhead; OPA regulations prohibit any such attachments. Watkins said MAAC found that storm bulkheads can provide properties that have them with a significant additional layer of protection from storm damage, including from storm surge and floating debris. There would be virtually no cost to the OPA, but yet it is an opportunity to provide better protection to properties in the Pines, he said. Elaborating on the reasons for the committee’s recommendation, Watkins showed the board photos of storm damage on a property protected -- illegally -- by storm bulkheads versus that on an unprotected property. There was no damage on the protected property, but debris littered the unprotected one. As for concerns about the storm bulkheads causing more damage to neighboring properties, Watkins said it may just force additional debris onto those properties because it can’t wash up onto the protected lot. “Debris is debris,” he said, “it’s going to find the path of least resistance.” He referenced the story of the three little pigs. “Just because you’re not smart enough to build the brick house and you get damaged, doesn’t mean you should penalize the guy who built the brick house,” he said. MAAC suggests that the OPA implement a permitting and inspection process for storm bulkheads through the maintenance department of public works. It recommends that an official OPA-approved design for them be developed. As long as the storm bulkhead meets the OPA’s standards, property owners would be allowed to build and install them. “Ideally, that should not be two days before a major storm,” Watkins said. The storm bulkheads would be supported by 2 x 4s angled and anchored into the ground behind the bulkhead

November-Early December 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

MAAC recommends allowing temporary storm bulkheads during major weather events wall. They would be secured to the main property bulkhead using U-shaped brackets and lag bolts to hold them in place. When not in use, the structures would simply fold up and lay flat on the ground behind the bulkhead. If a storm rises, “the only thing the home owners would have to do is push them up and put supports behind them,” he said. Property owners would pay for the construction, which Watkins estimated at about $100 for materials only per eight-foot bulkhead section.

Under MAAC’s proposal, the maintenance department would also be in charge of determining when a storm is significant enough and close enough to Ocean Pines to warrant allowing residents to erect their storm bulkheads. The department would post notifications that a storm has reached a point that qualifies it for storm bulkheads and the dates during which the structures can be put in place. They would need to be removed and secured on the ground after the storm passes. Watkins said the maintenance

department patrols the community regularly anyway and would notice if a storm bulkhead was left up too long. Directors expressed concerns about the legal implications of setting standards and putting a policy in place for use of storm bulkheads in the community. “We need to make sure legally we’re protected having authorized that to be done,” OPA President Tom Terry said of permitting installation of the temporary structures. Carrying the three little pigs theme further, Director Marty Clarke said in this case “the pigs don’t own the house. The bulkhead is owned by the association.” Director Dan Stachurski questioned the impact of storm bulkheads on neighboring properties and said MAAC’s assessment is strictly observational based on a few places where they have already been put in place.

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November-Early December 2013

November-Early December 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

22 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

November-Early December 2013

MAAC recommends boat ramp reconstruction by next season Board noncommittal on proposal that could cost about $200,000 By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer t’s time for the Ocean Pines Association to decide whether or not to proceed with reconstruction of the White Horse Park boat ramp and reconfiguration of the parking lot, according to the Marine Activities Advisory Committee. Earlier cost estimates for the project were in the range of $200,000. After years of discussion -- and development of numerous plans that have gone nowhere -- MAAC Committee Chairman Frank Watkins told the board of directors during an Oct. 26 meeting that a firm decision should be made about the proposed boat ramp project. He said it is one of many projects per-

petually on MAAC’s table. He said the “committee has a lot on its plate” that it has been discussing for years, and the members would “like to put some of these things to bed.” OPA board members were noncommittal, not even saying if they would take up the project for consideration in the future. But they did ask Watkins to make sure he included information and a recommendation on the boat ramp project in the MAAC annual report to the board. Watkins said the committee believes the project should be completed as soon as possible, but he also pointed out that there is no allotment in the OPA’s fiscal year 2013-2014 budget, and the committee recognizes the lack of current funding. Hopefully, he said, the board will include funding for the project in the 2014-15 budget. “If we want to have a boat ramp com-

pleted for next summer...then the construction of this boat ramp would have to start somewhere around the first of March,” Watkins told directors. He recognized that moving forward with the project is a decision that requires board support and approval but added that MAAC is “trying to get it going” and thinks “it should be done for next season.” Director Dan Stachurski said that since the board approves the annual OPA budget in February, by March 1 MAAC will know whether or not money has been included for the revamped White Horse Park boat ramp. The fiscal year, however, begins on May 1, and no money could be spent before that date. If the board funds the project, Watkins said construction could get under way in the current fiscal year with actual payments for the work not occurring until after May 1.

As proposed by MAAC, the reconstructed boat ramp itself is modeled after Worcester County’s public ramp located on the harbor in West Ocean City. There would be a floating dock, with an 80-foot dock off to the side in front of the existing sandy cove. The committee recommended cleaning up and fencing around that small beach area and adding more sand to provide a launching area for kayaks, canoes, and paddle boards. The committee suggested expanding the parking lot to include the entry area to accommodate cars only. Watkins said that can be accomplished by simply moving back an existing split rail fence and leaving the current boat trailer parking as designated for trailers only. He said expanding the parking area could be done at a low cost but acknowledged that it may involve removing some trees.

OPA agrees to another six-month Sandpiper contract extension Board hires Salisbury lawyer Steve Smethurst to represent association in negotiations By TOM STAUSS Publisher he Ocean Pines Association will be using another six-month extension of contract discussions with Sandpiper Energy in the hopes of getting the best possible deal for ratepayers as Sandpiper rolls out conversion to natural gas in Ocean Pines and elsewhere in Worcester County. The directors recently hired a Salisbury-based attorney, Steven Smethurst, to represent the OPA in talks to extend the company’s existing contract to provide propane and natural gas services in Ocean Pines. In addition, the board has agreed to issue a temporary extension of the contract to April 1 of next year in order to give the parties more time to arrive at a contract that both can live with. This is the second six-month extension this year. During discussion of the Sandpiper contract at General Manager Bob Thompson’s town meeting Oct. 29, a number of details of what the OPA hopes to obtain in negotiations emerged, while other possible objectives are still under study. Thompson told property owners who assembled for the town meeting that one objective the OPA hopes to achieve is a commitment by Sandpiper to have a full-time company employee on staff in Ocean Pines to handle issues with the natural gas conversion, once it begins in earnest. There is still no indication when natural gas roll-out will begin in Ocean Pines, Thompson said. “We don’t know their conversion plans,” he said, alluding to speculation that nearby Berlin might be target-

ed before Ocean Pines for natural gas. Because of the blended rate structure approved for Worcester County by the Maryland Public Service Commission, neither community would benefit in lower rates from being first in the rollout. That, at least, is the common understanding that may be tested in negotiations. In response to a question from property owner Joe Reynolds, Thompson said that the OPA may ask that Sandpiper provide free natural gas to the Sports Core swimming pool. That idea, and others, have been suggested in emails or other communications to OPA officials in recent weeks, Thompson said, and he encouraged residents to continue to come up with ideas that the OPA could present to Sandpiper executives during contract talks. Thompson and OPA President Tom Terry confirmed that Smethurst has been asked to research whether, despite the PSC’s approval of a rate structure for Worcester County earlier this year, it might be possible for the OPA to negotiate a rate structure for its residents that is lower than that approved by the PSC. OPA director Marty Clarke has said that he believes that the PSC-approved rates represent a ceiling and that Sandpiper could be persuaded to offer Ocean Pines residents lower rates. In response to a question about Sandpiper billing policies, Thompson said the perception that Sandpiper is employing a very short billing cycle may not be correct. Although many vendors routinely say that payment for services are due immediately on receipt of an invoice, the general manager said that in Sandpiper’s case, he’s been led to understand that the company will give customers 11 to 14 days to pay a bill once it arrives. After that, customers could face a service shut-off. The company, like its

predecessor, Eastern Shore Gas, has a cost-averaging option available to lessen the impact of peak winter usage. Chesapeake acquired assets of the former Eastern Shore Gas Co., in late May. The board of directors in late June voted to reaffirm the extension of ESG’s contract that governs the delivery of propane and natural gas in Ocean Pines by six months. That extended contract expires Nov. 13. The new contract extension adds another five and a half months to that. Clarke, a critic of the process that led to the earlier six-month extension, told the Progress in early October that the board has not yet devised a strategy or list of objectives it hopes to obtain in exchange for granting Sandpiper the right to continue to deliver propane, and eventually natural gas, in a pipeline system built by ESG beginning about 20 years ago covering most, but not all, sections of Ocean Pines. That situation appears to have evolved, with indications that Thompson and the board are beginning to focus on how best to approach the coming talks with Sandpiper. “We’re in the catbird seat,” Clarke said of the pending negotiations. He said that just because the Maryland Public Service Commission has approved a socalled “blended” rate structure for its Worcester County propane gas customers as natural gas conversion is rolled out in the coming years, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the OPA simply has to accept that rate structure on behalf of Ocean Pines residents in all of its particulars. The director also said if the Nov. 13 date passed without a new contract in place, he believes there would be an issue over who then actually would own the Ocean Pines pipeline system. He raised the question over whether the

OPA, absent a contract extension with Sandpiper, could then contract with another propane company to deliver gas to Ocean Pines customers using the existing pipeline, a prospect that Sandpiper and its parent company, Chesapeake Utilities, would no doubt mightily resist. With the new extension to April 1, the issue of pipeline ownership has been avoided, and it’s not at all clear that it would have been raised in any case. Terry subsequently told the Progress that there is a clear distinction between owning rights-of-way through which pipelines pass and the pipelines themselves.

Foundation awards grants to nonprofits

The Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore awarded a number of Community Needs grants totaling $74,532 to 17 nonprofit organizations including several in Worcester County. “Nonprofits on the Lower Eastern Shore have unique and complex needs,” Doug Wilson, Foundation’s President and CEO, said. “The Community Foundation is delighted to provide resources that help enhance the valuable programs and services these organizations provide.” Grants were awarded to Delmarva Education Foundation, Inc. to fund a complete overhaul of the ten year old scholarship database to make it more functional for students, counselors and schools; Wor-Wic Community College to fund a collaborative partnership titled SWEET, as it provides training education and employment readiness for students with cognitive disabilities. Another local grantee was the Assateague Coastal Trust, Inc. to purchase bacterial testing and analysis supplies for in house water quality testing.

November-Early December 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

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24 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

November-Early December 2013

Bank donates early Pines property records to OPA By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer f not for the diligence of Reese F. Cropper, Sr., Ocean Pines might not exist today. Cropper, a former president of Calvin B. Taylor Banking Company in Berlin, personally handled the financial transactions for almost every property that would eventually become part of the Ocean Pines development. During an Oct. 26 meeting, Reese F. Cropper, Jr. presented the Ocean Pines Association’s board of directors with the donation of a series of historical documents that illustrate the early compilation of properties that now comprise Ocean Pines. Cropper Jr. succeeded his father as president of Taylor Bank. “Our bank has always had a lot of interest in the history of this area,” Cropper told board members. He added that documents are the contracts for the sale of various homes, farms, and even marshlands that make up almost the entire property of Ocean Pines. He said the documents, which are sales contracts not land maps, have been waiting for 45 years to be returned to Ocean Pines. Cropper said these documents were

given to Taylor Bank about 30 years ago by Raymond D. Coates, Sr., settlement attorney for U.S. Land Corporation and its successors, who held onto them for the first three decades and then turned them over to the bank. U.S. Land Corporation created the initial concept for the Ocean Pines development and then sold it to Maryland Properties Inc., which then sold the project in the late 1960s to Boise Cascade. Local property owners were not particularly comfortable dealing with a big developer and resisted selling to Boise Cascade. As a result, Coates asked Cropper Sr. and Taylor Bank to work with the local sellers to ensure that they were comfortable with the transactions and compensated for their property. “They were very, very concerned about signing a deed to these people from Chicago and were concerned that the checks wouldn’t clear,” Cropper Jr. said of the local property owners. His father volunteered to act as an escrow agent for them. The local owners gave their signed deeds to Cropper Sr., who held onto them until the checks for payment had cleared at the bank. Once the checks cleared at the bank, he delivered

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11073 Cathell Road, Ocean Pines, MD 21811

the signed deeds to Coates Sr., who represented Boise Cascade. “That’s what my father did on each and every one of these,” Cropper Jr. said. The total sale value of all of the properties represented in the documents presented to the OPA by Cropper Jr. was just shy of $4 million, with $1.5 million going for the largest property and $2,500 for the smallest piece of the puzzle. “We’re proud to be able to return these documents and bring them home

after 45 years,” Cropper told the board. He encouraged the board to display the papers in a way that allows residents to look through them easily and learn about the early days of Ocean Pines. The historical documents include a summary sheet on each property for which Cropper Sr. processed the sale, including information such as the number of acres sold, whether the property was just land or included a home, and the price per acre that the buyers paid for the property.

Board considers changes to community sign regs Effort to ‘clean up’ rules alarm organizations that rely on signs to promote special events By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer hile recognizing that a series of proposed changes to the Ocean Pines Association’s sign regulations could have a negative impact on several community organizations and still not serve to modernize the rules, the board of directors still approved them on first reading during the board’s regular monthly meeting Oct. 26. At a Nov. 5 work session, OPA President Tom Terry said that he and Director Sharyn O’Hare are working with the Architectural Review Committee, which proposed the revised sign regulations, to address concerns about the changes. “Their intent was to simply clean up some conflicts,” Terry said of the ARC members. But a more thorough review of the existing sign regulations revealed that more extensive changes are needed. Representatives from several community organizations turned up at the Oct. 26 meeting to protest language that would restrict the size of temporary signs that they use for the purpose of promoting special activities and events. Walt Boge from the Ocean Pines Anglers Club said his organization uses sandwich board signs to promote special events like the annual youth fishing contests. He took issue with the limitation on such signs as proposed in the revised regulations, which would restrict them to four square feet. “That would be disastrous,” Boge said, adding that the Angler’s Club relies on those signs to promote its activities. He said the signs have to be big enough for people to read them as they are driving by. He argued that the club created “nice signs” that are unobtrusive and removes them as soon as its events are over. Another area of concern is a new prohibition against placing signs in the median on Ocean Parkway. Boge said his

group regularly places its sign in the parkway median at the North Gate. Richard Neiman, also an Angler’s Club member, said the group has been working with the OPA for years on its events. He said he doesn’t feel the club “should have to go through the bureaucratic process to put up a sign” and added that a four square foot sign is too small to be of any value. He said the OPA should look at the proposed changes to the sign regulations very carefully. Neiman pointed out that since Manklin Creek Road is a public road any type of signs can be posted along it and the OPA has no control over it. Carolyn Dryzga, president elect for the Kiwanis Club of Greater Ocean Pines-Ocean City, said that organization wants to “mirror what Anglers Club is doing” with signage to promote its events. She said the Kiwanis Club would use sandwich signs six or seven times per year to advertise activities like dinners and its signature pancake breakfast. Dryzga asked the board to consider that “everything we do goes back into the community, less our expenses...” in weighing the alternatives for sign regulations that could hinder the group’s ability to generate revenue. Director Marty Clarke asked why the changes to the existing sign regulations have even been proposed. Terry also responded then that it is the ARCs attempt to clear up what it thought was conflicting language in the association’s governing documents. However, in trying to “clean this up” other issues surfaced. “That of course has opened the door for a discussion about a lot of this,” Terry said. Clarke agreed that there are other sign related issues in the community and took particular issue with the proliferation of yard sale signs. “There isn’t a low rent trailer park in the United States that allows the signs that you’ll see today” along Ocean Parkway, he said, adding, “I’m embarrassed by those signs.” Terry suggested that the OPA consider providing residents with a certain standard yard sale sign.

OCEAN PINES By TOM STAUSS Publisher t may not have been what some customers of Mediacom wanted to hear, but Ocean Pines Association General Manager Bob Thompson has put customers of Ocean Pines’ leading provider of cable television and Internet services on notice that the company likely will be given another five-year contract extension at the end of this year. During his Oct. 29 town hall meeting in the Ocean Pines Community Center, Thompson said that the contract is written in such a way that it’s automatically extended for five years absent circumstances that are extremely unlikely to occur. He said there would have to be clear and convincing evidence that the company was not performing in accordance with language in the contract that specifies that its role is to provide cable television service in Ocean Pines. “Unless you can show significant difference” in what is delivered versus that function, the contract that is due for expiration at the end of the year is automatically renewed, he said. Even if the OPA or its customers came to believe that Mediacom is not performing consistent with the contract, Thompson said the remedy for non-performance is limited if not practically non-existent. “We would have to offer to buy them out, or some other company would have to” make a buy-out offer, he said. If the company was unwilling to ac-

November-Early December 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Mediacom contract extension called virtually an ‘automatic renewal’ General Manager offers no hope for an alternative to Ocean Pines’ leading cable and Internet provider cept the buy-out terms, then no buy-out would occur and the company would remain in Ocean Pines as it has since the 1990s. OPA President Tom Terry agreed with Thompson that the Mediacom contract as written is very much in favor of the video programming, Internet and telephone provider. As someone who used to write such contracts in his career with Verizon, Terry said the Ocean Pines contract was clearly drafted by someone very cognizant of Mediacom’s interests. He in effect said there’s nothing that the Ocean Pines Association could do about it even if it wanted to. In defense of the company, Thompson said that Mediacom has spent millions of dollars upgrading the Ocean Pines cable system and that services are better than they were when the company first arrived in Ocean Pines, having bought out the previous operator. Thompson fielded a question from one Mediacom customer about whether

it would be possible for the OPA to negotiate a single bulk rate for all Ocean Pines covering bundled cable television, Internet and telephone services. The general manager was skeptical. “Ocean Pines is an eclectic place,” he said, implying that it would be never be possible for every household in Ocean Pines to agree on a bulk package of services. Thompson said that such a scenario would require everyone in Ocean Pines to have upgraded high definition television sets and converter boxes to be effective. The general manager also alluded to the company’s recent announcement that it will be going to all-digital transmission of its entire channel line-up. That policy, a long time in coming, will eliminate the lower quality analog signals on the lower local channel tier, once and for all. High definition local channels have been offered in the 800 tier for some time and most of Mediacom’s channel

offerings are already digital, so in many cases Mediacom’s cable customers won’t even notice the passing of the analog offerings, not having watched those channels for some time. In a related development, Ocean Pines will host a town hall meeting with Mediacom representatives on Thursday, Nov. 21, at 6 p.m. at the Ocean Pines Community Center. Traditionally, the annual meeting with Mediacom is an opportunity for customers to vent and to seek redress of their grievances. The occasional compliment is also sometimes voiced by its customers. Mediacom representatives expected to attend include Glenn Bisogno, Mid-Atlantic system director of operations; Katie Brinsfield, administrative assistant; as well as the local technical manager, service supervisor, installation supervisor and plant supervisor. Representatives will respond to questions and concerns from Ocean Pines cable subscribers. Homeowners are encouraged to submit questions in advance in order for Mediacom to provide more detailed responses. Questions will also be taken from the floor at the event. Questions and comments may be submitted by email to info@oceanpines.org, in person at the Ocean Pines Administration building or mailed to Ocean Pines Administration, Public Relations, 239 Ocean Parkway, Ocean Pines, MD 21811.

ANNUAL RITUAL BEGINS

Pines provides residents with fall leaf collection, drop-off OPA urges residents to use paper bags rather than plastic and to avoid raking yard leaves into the ditches By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer espite the name Ocean “Pines,” the community is filled with not just evergreens but also deciduous trees that shed their foliage and wreak havoc on yards and drainage swales and ditches every autumn. To help keep the community looking good and stormwater flowing freely through the swales and ditches, both the Ocean Pines Association and Waste Management, the community’s trash collection franchisee, are providing bagged leaf collections through December. The OPA will also vacuum leaves from the ditches throughout the community. “If we all work together we can get them out of here quickly,” Bob Thompson, OPA general manager, said of the leaves. He reminded residents that the association maintains the stormwater system including the ditches, and if they rake yard leaves into the ditches they are simply slowing down the OPA’s leaf removal process. “Please don’t rake leaves from your yard to the ditch or through to the ditch

bank,” he said recently. Bagged leaves will be collected at the roadside from all properties by the OPA public works department beginning on Monday, Nov. 18. The OPA will collect any amount of bagged leaves in sections on the opposite days of Waste Management pick-ups. Public Works will also pick up tree branches tied in bundles of a maximum of 4 feet long. During an Oct. 26 board meeting, OPA Director Sharyn O’Hare stressed the importance of having residents use paper bags instead of plastic ones to contain their leaves. “Those plastic bags are just awful for the environment,” she said. Director Marty Clarke asked if the OPA will have paper bags available for residents to purchase again this year. Thompson responded that the association will sell the paper bags to residents at its cost. They can be purchased at the Public Works and administration offices for $1 each, or residents can buy them at Home Depot or similar stores. Waste Management will collect a

maximum of four bags of leaves for its customers at each pick-up in addition to the regular trash pickup. The OPA is encouraging Waste Management customers to use that service twice per week to remove up to a total of eight bags of leaves per week. The leaves can be bagged in either paper or plastic bags, but the OPA and Waste Management are both pushing for the paper bag option. Waste Management collections will be on Tuesdays and Fridays south of the Route 90 bridge and on Mondays and Thursdays north of the bridge. The OPA’s vacuum leaf collection of loose leaves from the ditches will begin on Monday, Nov. 25. To expedite the leaf collection process, Ocean Pines residents are being asked to rake just the leaves from their ditches out to the street side. If the OPA determines that residents have raked yard leaves to the ditch, Public Works will not collect them; the only option then will be to use bags for later pick-up. The vacuum truck is for leaves only; residents are asked to avoid placing sticks and other yard debris in the

leaves collected from the ditches. Additionally the Ocean Pines Public Works Yard, located next to the south fire station and behind the recycling containers, will be open from Nov. 18 to Dec. 21 for residents to drop off bagged or bulk leaves and yard debris. Leaves in plastic bags will have to be dumped out on site; those in paper bags can stay bagged. The public works yard will be open Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thompson said last year the OPA had problems with residents dropping off bulk trash items at the site after hours. So, this year the yard will be monitored by a camera, and if it catches the vehicle tag number of someone leaving trash behind, the association will pursue the matter, he said. He did not specify what the consequences would be. Residents can contact the OPA with any questions regarding any part of the community leaf collection abd removal program. Call 410-641-7425 or email lmartin@oceanpines.org for more information.

26 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

November-Early December

King Richard Road work under way Some waterline replacements will also be made during month long project By TOM STAUSS Publisher orcester County Public Works officials are advising residents to expect traffic delays on King Richard Road in South Ocean Pines through late November, as construction crews replace water service lines to eliminate leaks that have caused excessive maintenance in other areas of the Ocean Pines system. The service line replacements, sections of piping that extend from water mains that run along Ocean Pines streets to the water meters on every Ocean Pines homesite, do not include water lines that run from the water meters into homes, which remain the responsibility of homeowners should leak problems develop. The main purpose of the King Richard Road project is to install a six-inch diameter wastewater force main under the center of the street. This will eventually allow the connection of the wastewater collection system at Ocean Downs racetrack and casino on Route 589 to the Ocean Pines wastewater collection system. The contractor hired to do the project for the county has promised to keep one lane open at all times during the day as work ensues, and at night the promise is to fill in any trenching to allow two-way traffic. Complete road closures are supposed to be avoided during construction unless absolutely necessary. The project will conclude with a complete repaving of King Richard Road, which perhaps will attenuate the short term inconvenience to residents who live along the street.

County officials arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hiring the contractor or coordinating the project, which will be under the direct supervision of Ocean Downs, the racetrack and casino complex located about two miles south of Ocean Pines on Route 589. The projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s initial phase is to run a sewer main down the center of King Richard Road from the end of the street that adjoins property owned by Steen Associates to a connection on a county-owned and maintained sewer main that runs along Ocean Parkway. Once the King Richard main is installed and tested, the contractor hired by Ocean Downs will resurface the street. To connect the two service areas, a force main will run under Turville Creek from Ocean Downs and exit at the county boat ramp at Gum Point Road. It will continue in the county right of way on Gum Point Road to property owned by Steen Associates, which has provided an easement that will facilitate the connection to the OPSA. A wastewater pump station will be located on the Ocean Downs property and will send effluent through the force main to the OPSA for treatment. Last year the county commissioners created the Ocean Downs Service Area and approved allowing it to connect to the OPSA for wastewater disposal. The Ocean Downs Service Area includes the racetrack, casino and owner William Rickmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s residual property. Last year the commissioners unanimously granted Ocean Downs an initial allocation of 63 equivalent dwelling units of capacity and an ultimate allocation of 333 EDUs of wastewater treatment capacity from the OPSA to serve

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OPA plans landscape buffer at North Gate, med center Exit lane to be closed Nov. 12 for cleaning By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer he North Gate is getting a facelift in time for the holiday season. The Ocean Pines Association has already installed a new monument style entry sign, cleaned out overgrown vegetation in and around the pond and is in the process of cleaning the bridge itself. The OPA is also evaluating its options for installing a landscape screen between the pond and adjacent commercial development. Bob Thompson, OPA general manager, during the Oct. 26 monthly meeting of the board of directors said that the association is developing a plan for providing landscaping on the south side of the North Gate pond â&#x20AC;&#x153;to help offset the construction that is trying to happen.â&#x20AC;? With permits now in hand, construction is expected to resume on the 22 acre site of the planned 20,000 square foot medical office complex adjacent to the North Gate entrance into Ocean Pines

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later this month. As part of Worcester County site plan approval for the project, developer Palmer Gillis received a waiver to the forest conservation regulations to allow for the clearing of about four acres of what was characterized as an overgrown farm field. It was an active farm field about a decade ago but had been fallow ever since, allowing small trees and brush to grow up in the field. Six acres of forest on the rear of the site are being retained as a buffer between the medical center and homes in Ocean Pines. Prior to acquisition of detailed topography for the site, initial medical center concept plans called for locating it adjacent to Route 589, retaining forest and wetlands to the rear of the property. However, the topography revealed that the wetlands are actually the highest point on the property. As a result, the building was shifted away from Route 589 to the highest point on the site exclusive of the wetlands. Gillis received state approval to clear the entire forested area of the front of the property but will retain a forested area on the west side of the site. That area was cleared to ensure visibility of the medical center from Route 589. To mitigate the impact of the facility on the North Gate, the OPAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Environment and Natural Assets Advisory Committee is developing a plan for tree plantings on the associationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s property. Thompson said the OPA has already cleaned up debris and ineffective or overgrown vegetation around the North Gate pond. He said he did receive â&#x20AC;&#x153;a little negative feedbackâ&#x20AC;? from residents who were concerned about the impact on wildlife, but he assured the board that the plants removed were of little value. The OPA has also been cleaning up the North Gate bridge itself. The inbound side has been powerwashed and the effect has been â&#x20AC;&#x153;even stronger than we anticipated,â&#x20AC;? Thompson said. Because the outbound side of the bridge is so heavily used, powerwashing of it has been delayed until Tuesday, Nov. 12. The outbound bridge will be closed to traffic from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. to allow public works to complete the bridge cleaning. Meanwhile, a new North Gate entry sign is also in place. Thompson said â&#x20AC;&#x153;people seem to be pleased with that.â&#x20AC;?

November-Early December 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

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OCEAN PINES

November-Early December 2013

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Terry decides not to restrict public comments at meetings

By TOM STAUSS Publisher he “public comments” segment during regular monthly meetings of the Ocean Pines Association board of directors occasionally veer into what some directors, and especially OPA General Manager Bob Thompson, regard as personal attacks. Since becoming OPA president more than three years ago, Tom Terry generally has allowed free-wheeling and pungent commentary from property owners who are vexed about one thing or another, often about some perceived sin allegedly committed by the general manager. Terry has been of the opinion that property owners have the right to express themselves, even if they do it in ways that ruffle feathers. And ruffle feathers they do. The latest example was frequent Thompson critic Ernie Ardis who, during the board’s Oct. 24 monthly meeting, criticized the general manager for receiving a $5,000 bonus earlier this year when some OPA employees received much less in the form of raises or bonuses. That prompted the general manager to react negatively, calling Ardis’ remarks unacceptable and ugly. Terry seemed to agree, vowing to curb what he acknowledged has been his own complicity in allowing for unfettered commentary from property owners. After the meeting, he seemed to suggest that from then on, the public commentary segment of regular board meetings would be restricted to opinion expressed on listed agenda items. Such a restriction has been imposed for the newly reconstituted board work sessions scheduled early each month. In these work sessions, OPA members are invited to speak throughout the meetings but only on the subject matter that the directors are discussing at the time. At regular board meetings, in contrast, the practice for quite a few years has been to allow comments on any subject but only during the “public comment” segment of the meeting. The only exception has been when a director offers a motion to deviate from regular order to allow comments from the membership on a particular subject. A few days after the regular board meeting it appeared that Terry had changed his mind about attempting to curb the subject matter of comments from OPA members offered during regular board meetings. “I won’t be going that far,” Terry told the Progress after Thompson’s Oct. 29 town meeting, which coincidentally was devoid of any commentary that could have been construed as personal attacks against any OPA employee, particularly Thompson. But the OPA president nonetheless said he would do a better job of gaveling down remarks from OPA members who, in his view, abuse the privilege of participating in board meetings by engaging in personal attacks against Thompson or others.

28 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

WORCESTER COUNTY

November-Early December 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

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The Pine’eer Craft Club of Ocean Pines has honored Jane Wolnick as crafter for the month of November. Jane is the current treasurer of the club and is a skilled quilter. Her handcrafted table runners, bracelets and wreaths are on display every Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., in the Ocean Pines Pine’eer Craft and Gift Shop, White Horse Park.

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Showell Elementary next on county school system’s capital improvement list Boggs urges new school rather than renovation

study. He said “all of those things,” like the physical characteristics of the site and the school system’s desire to move fourth grade students back into that facility, will be evaluated by the engineers. Following completion of the feasibility study, the CIP includes a planning study for SES in fiscal year 2016. The project is estimated to cost $45.2 million for renovation and expansion of the school. A preliminary site survey for proposed renovation and expansion or construction of a new SES was completed in 2008. That study determined that the existing property is sufficient to accommodate a renovation and addition to the existing school or the construction of a replacement school. The study included an extension evaluation of the existing site features, including topographic surveys, wetlands delineation, evaluation of parking and circulation patterns and investigation of utility options. The existing 53,610 square foot facility was constructed in 1976 and augmented with a 12-classroom addition in 1990. Over the years as northern Worcester County has grown, SES, which is located on Route 589 north of Ocean Pines, experienced increased enrollment to the point where nine portable classrooms are currently used to accommodate all of the instructional programs. Those portable classrooms provide 25 percent of

By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer feasibility study for renovations and expansion or replacement of Showell Elementary School will begin early next year. During his Nov. 5 annual presentation of the capital improvement plan for Worcester County Public Schools, Superintendent Jerry Wilson told the Worcester County Commissioners that SES is high on the list. He said improvements at that school remain a future priority. “We will begin a feasibility study for Showell in January and anticipate sharing the results with you in May,” Wilson told the commissioners. Selection of an architect/engineer to complete the feasibility study will be completed later this month. Commissioner Judy Boggs noticed that the CIP states that the feasibility study is for the renovation and additions to SES but did not mention complete replacement. “I would like to see a new school there,” she said, adding that there is plenty of property on which to construct a completely new school prior to tearing down the existing one and without disrupting classes. “Since we have the property I think that should be considered,” she said. Commissioner Louise Gulyas agreed, saying “absolutely.” Wilson responded that option will be explored as part of the feasibility

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30 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

WORCESTER COUNTY

November-Early December 2013

Legislative town hall meeting offers little but platitudes from legislators Mathias, McDermott, Otto emphasize the importance of good communication with local officials By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer

tate legislators characterized their working relationship with Worcester County officials as positive and friendly during an Oct. 22 legislative town hall meeting sponsored by the Ocean Pines Area Chamber of Commerce. When asked by a member of the audience what their relationship is with local elected officials and how they work with them to benefit residents, Delegates Charles Otto and Mike McDermott and Senator Jim Mathias all said they try very hard to stay in touch with the Worcester County officials as well as representatives of the Ocean Pines Association. McDermott, District 38B, said one of his jobs as a representative of Worcester County in Annapolis is to keep in contact

with local officials. “That’s where government is best, when it’s closest to the people,” he said. With that in mind, he said he is constantly on the phone with county government representatives garnering feedback on issues in the House of Delegates. Mathias, District 38, said there are some structured meetings with local officials, like an annual pre-session dinner with the Worcester County Commissioners to discuss issues that are likely to come up once the General Assembly convenes each January. But he also said he has more casual regular contact with county officials via “phone contact and the like” as bills, topics, or issues that may have a local impact arise. Otto, who currently represents Somerset and Wicomico counties as part of District 38A and will pick up the south-

Exp. 11/30/13

OCEAN PINES PINES OCEAN

Exp. 11/30/13

Legislative update

Delegate Charles Otto addresses the crowd at the Ocean Pines Area Chamber of Commerce’s legislative update meeting, while Senator Jim Mathias and Delegate Michael McDermott look on. ern part of Worcester following the next election, has already been in frequent contact with area officials since winning his first term in the House of Delegates. He said he works closely with them “and I listen closely to what the county commissioners tell me will affect them.” Meetings of the Eastern Shore delegation in the General Assembly present important opportunities for legislators representing the shore counties to learn about the impact of issues on not only their district but neighboring jurisdictions as well, Otto said. During those meetings, legislators “discuss issues we see coming up that affect local government.” Throughout the session, Otto said communications like telephone conversations and emails from local government officials are valuable. “We need that perspective to know how to argue an issue,” he said.

Mathias added that he takes initiative to organize meetings with local officials when issues surface that could have an impact on the county. He cited individual meetings that he arranged between county commissioners and councils for Worcester, Wicomico and Somerset and the Senate president in 2012 after the legislature adjourned without passing a budget. He said he likes helping people and “when that’s at risk it really gives me sense of worry.” He said he tries to resolve issues of concern by “building dialog and building trust.” McDermott, who has announced his intent to run for Mathias’ Senate seat in 2014, said if he finds a bill has been introduced that could have an impact locally, the first thing he does is “get on the phone” to county officials to inform them of the issue and get their feedback. “That is critical,” he said.

Showell School

portable classrooms and to accommodate additional growth in the student population. Wilson said the fiscal year 2015 CIP was approved by the Board of Education last month and has been forwarded to the state Inter Agency on School Construction. The document includes no requests for either planning or funding requests for 2015. When it comes to current projects, Wilson said the bid process had been completed for Snow Hill High School and construction is expected to begin in January and a lighting project has been finished at Snow Hill Middle School. Thirty-seven security improvements were also made this year at all 14 county schools. The commissioners unanimously approved the schools CIP as a planning document, with Commissioners Virgil Shockley and Merrill Lockfaw absent. The county’s approval is required by the state.

From Page 29 the classroom spaces that are available at the school. The 2008 study said renovating and expanding the existing school has many drawbacks, including limitations on expanding support areas like the media center and cafeteria, significant upgrades to bathrooms and mechanical systems, interior classrooms would not have sufficient windows. Another concern was construction coordination with the school operations. The study also evaluated the site to determine if sufficient space was available for construction of a replacement school. The study found that the 22.07 acres available at the Showell site meet the state requirement for such a project. After improvements to SES are completed, next in line is Stephen Decatur Middle School. Wilson said an addition to SDMS is necessary to eliminate nine

November-Early December 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

32 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

WORCESTER COUNTY

November-Early December 2013

County adds two businesses to Pines Plaza Service Area Adkins, Hileman want their properties to be served by new utility infrastructure By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer he addition of two more properties will increase the cost of extending water and wastewater service from Ocean Pines to the Pines Plaza commercial sanitary service area but that cost will be spread across all of the customers in the newly approved district. Following a Nov. 5 public hearing, the Worcester County Commissioners unanimously agreed to create the service area and to add to it the Hileman Real Estate and Adkins Company properties. Debbie Hileman, owner of Hileman Real Estate, spoke up during the public hearing and asked to have her property on Cathell Road be placed in the service area and designated for eight equivalent dwelling units (EDUs) of capacity. “I’m asking to be included. I definitely want water and sewer,” she said. Richard G. Holland Jr., of the Adkins Company, spoke up and the hearing and said that business also “would like to be included in the service area for the purpose of two EDUs.” Attorney Mark Cropper, representing the owner of Auto Plus, and a number of other property owners with the service area, said there is some concern about the ultimate cost of connecting to the system for property owners. However, he said county staff has been “more than helpful” in describing the possible cost and the potential for acquisition of grant funds to mitigate the expenses for property owners to tap into the system. Cropper said his client and the other property owners in the area are looking forward to completion of the system and the elimination of septic tanks in that area. He said doing so is of benefit to the property owners, the environment and the community at large. “Anything you can do to expedite the process we would greatly appreciate it,” Cropper told the commissioners. A total of 100 EDUs was originally allocated to serve businesses in the area that is currently served by failing septic systems. With the inclusion of the Hileman and Adkins Company properties, the service area not includes a total of 15 properties with about two dozen septic systems scattered across them. Commissioner Jim Bunting supported including the Hileman and Adkins Company properties in the service area, saying the “pipe stopped short of these properties” so adding them shouldn’t be a problem. “I think it’s the way to go.” Last month the commissioners approved a nearly half-million dollar contract for the installation of water and

wastewater lines that will link the properties to the OPSA. The winning low bidder was A.P. Croll and Sons Inc. of Georgetown, Del. at just $451,569. Construction costs of $510,000 plus an equity contribution of $1.44 million to the Ocean Pines Service Area bring the total project cost to $1.95 million. The construction funding will be borrowed from the county’s general fund and will be repaid with an upfront onetime payment of $5,100 per EDU in the service area. The equity contribution of $1.44 million will be financed by the OPSA with a term of 15 years and interest rate of 3.25 percent resulting in a quarterly charge of about $305 per EDU. It will be paid off through a quarterly EDU charge of $305 on properties located in the service area. John Ross, county public works deputy director, said extending the water and wastewater lines to serve Hileman Real Estate and Adkins Company will increase that cost slightly. He said the project was bid on a per linear foot basis so it will be easy to determine that additional cost based on the length of pipe run to those two sites. He said the extended prices to serve the two additional properties will be about $70,000, for a total of about $580,000 spread across the 110 EDUs. Financing for the project was originally based on inclusion of 100 equivalent dwelling units of capacity. That will increase to 110 edus with the addition of the two other properties at a total of 10 EDUs. “Right now those EDUs are there not being used,” Ross said of the capacity in the Ocean Pines treatment plant that is being allocated to the Pines Plaza service area. Commissioner Judy Boggs said it is important to move forward with creation of the service area so that the properties can be connected to the public water and wastewater system. “This area was supposed to be a great town center and it will be. That’s what we want it to be,” she said. Commissioner Jim Bunting made a motion to add the Hileman Real Estate and Adkins Company properties to the proposed services area and then also made a separate motion to approve the service area’s creation. Both motions passed 5-0 with Commissioners Merril Lockfaw and Virgil Shockley absent. Completing the water and wastewater work also requires acquisition of utility easements. The county has contacted all of the property owners whose signatures are needed to secure those easements and the proper documents have been provided to them. Most have signed and returned the documents to the county.

Star Charities’ fundraiser

Star Charities held their latest fundraiser October 12th at Carrabba’s Italian Grill in West Ocean City with proceeds to benefit Chesapeake Bay Council Girl Scouts. Carrabba’s owner Bryan Otto provided a terrific lunch at the bargain price of $10.00 to benefit the Girl Scouts. Pictured from left are Hannah Hardman, Michael Hertzog, Girl Scout Service Unit 7 for Worcester County representative Debbie Dotson, Star Charties President Anna Foultz, Irtna Bliss, Carrabba’s owner Bryan Otto, and Libby Nichols.

Economic agency has new Web site

Worcester County Economic Development has enhanced and expanded its online presence with the launch of a newly designed website at www.chooseworcester.org and social media networks. In partnership with D3Corp and Re:Fresh Media, the new WCED website and social media outlets act as resources for organizations and individuals interested in learning more about business development in Worcester County. “We are pleased to partner with two outstanding Worcester County based companies that will position our organization on the forefront of communications in the social media arena,” WCED Director Bill Badger said. “We encourage everyone to follow us on social media outlets to stay up to date on valuable business news and data.” The new website features up-to date economic indicators and business news, making it a comprehensive, one-stop source for information on the economic health of Worcester County. The site also includes in-demand statistics and information on business financing. Re:Fresh Media will spearhead the creation and management of the WCED Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts and YouTube Channel. These outlets allow individuals and businesses to interact and stay current with WCED initiatives.

VOLT business loan awarded in county

Worcester County Economic Development have awarded its third Video Lottery Terminal VOLT small business loan to Joe Mowbray, owner of Blue Flame. Blue Flame, located in Berlin and on the web at www.oc-blueflame.com, sells, installs, and maintains gas fireplaces.

The $75,000 VOLT loan will be used to construct a new 1,200-square-foot gas fireplace showroom. “Blue Flame has been installing and repairing gas fireplaces since 2006,” WCED Director Bill Badger said. “The business has been built from the ground up by Mr. Mowbray, and the showroom expansion exemplifies his desire to take customer service to the next level.” The check to Blue Flame represents the third VOLT Small Business Loan awarded by WCED in partnership with the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corporation, the State of Maryland’s designated fund manager. “The reality in Worcester County is most of the businesses may qualify based on the Maryland definition of a small business,” Badger said. To qualify for VOLT Small Business Loan funds, companies must employ fewer than 500 employees, and their annual revenues must average $35 million or less over three years.

Police say not to leave vehicles unattended

As cold weather approaches, Maryland State Police reminds drivers not to let vehicles unoccupied with the engine running because car thieves prowl neighborhoods, convenience stores, and gas stations, looking for the easy steal. Troopers are working to educate drivers that leaving a vehicle running, or with the keys in it, are the quickest ways to have it stolen. Leaving a vehicle unoccupied with the engine running is also illegal. Violators could receive a citation that carries a fine of $70 and one point. Maryland motor vehicle law states that before a person driving a motor vehicle may leave it unattended, he or she must stop the engine, lock the ignition, remove the key, and set the parking brake.

LIFESTYLES Friday, Nov. 8 Family Fun Night, bingo, Ocean Pines Community Center, 6 p.m. First game begins at 6:15 p.m., last game begins at 7:45 p.m. All ages. No cash prizes. Free admission. Saturday, Nov. 9 Ocean Pines Anglers Club, monthly meeting, 9:30 a.m., Ocean Pines Library. Updates will be given on Coastal Bay issues and members will demonstrate the proper method to tie a Tautog terminal tackle rig. Monday, Nov, 11 Friends of the Ocean Pines Library, monthly meeting, 10 a.m., Ocean Pines Library. Featuring Ron Walsh, the project manager of the Range and Mission Management Office at the Goddard Flight Facility at Wallops Island, Va, speaking on the use of the Global Hawk drones for weather surveillance and hurricane exploration. These drones are launched from Wallops Island and travel as far as the coast of Africa, exploring wind velocity, circulation, and speed to predict hurricane formation. Refreshments 9:30 a.m.. All welcome. 410-208-4014. Tuesday, Nov. 12 North Gate Bridge exit lane closed 10 p.m. through 6 a.m. Wednesday for maintenance. Sunday, Nov. 17 Worcester Chorale, fall concert, 3 p.m., Atlantic United Methodist Church, 4th Street, Ocean City. Admission $10 and includes refreshments following the performance. The doors open at 2 p.m. for Chorale-sponsored arts sale featuring original works by local artists and crafters. 410-208-4707. Tuesday, Nov. 19 Worcester County Commission for Women, monthly meeting, 5-6:30 p.m., Ocean Pines library, large room. Open to the public and women of all ages. Volunteers needed for grant writing, fundraising, and event planning. Donna Main, 410-632-5040. Wednesday, Nov. 20 Ocean Pines Association, board of directors, regular monthly meeting, 3 p.m., Ocean Pines Community Center. Thursday, Nov. 21 Mediacom town meeting, 6

November-Early December 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

HAPPENINGS p.m., Ocean Pines Community Center, representatives will be on hand to discuss Mediacom updates and answer questions from subscribers or those considering service in Ocean Pines. Send questions in advance to info@oceanpines.org. Saturday, Nov. 30 Ocean Pines Christmas Tree lighting ceremony, 6:30 p.m., White Horse Park. Thursday, Dec. 5 Women’s Club holiday luncheon, 11:30 a.m., Captain’s Table Restaurant, Courtyard by Marriott hotel, 15th Street, Ocean City. Choice of one of three entrées with a dessert of chocolate brownie a la mode. $25 for members or $30 for non-members. For reservations, checks payable to WCOP should be mailed to 20 Dockside Court, Ocean Pines MD, no later than Nov. 28. Candy Marceron at 410-208-3944 or 443-497-0336, for information. 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. The Kiwanis Club of Ocean Pines - Ocean City, fruit sale. Orders taken through Nov. 30 for oranges or grapefruit, $18 per 20 pound box and combination box $20, pecan halves are one pound cello bag $12. To order call Roy Foreman, 410-641-6082. Benefits scholarships to local graduating high school seniors. 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. The Kiwanis Club of Greater Ocean Pines - Ocean City meets weekly at 8 a.m. on Wednesdays in the Ocean Pines Community Center. Doors open 7 a.m. October through April. 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, 410-208-1272; Pat Kanz, 410641-8071

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, 410-208-4147. 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. No December meeting. 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 410208-0890. January through June, and

Taylor Banking Company earns prestigious award Calvin B. Taylor Banking Company, Berlin, Maryland is proud to be recognized as one of the strongest banks in the nation by Bauer Financial, Coral Gables, Florida, the nation’s leading bank rating and research firm. The company has been analyzing and rating the nation’s financial institutions since 1983 and Calvin B. Taylor Banking Company has earned its highest rating of 5-Stars for the most recent 93 quarters. The latest rating is based on June 30, 2013 financial data and indicates that Calvin B. Taylor Banking Company significantly exceeds all federal capital requirements and maintains a low level of delinquent loans, among other benchmarks. Karen L. Dorway, president of the research firm, had this to say, “A recent Gallup poll indicates that customer confidence in the banking industry is beginning to come back. That confidence, no doubt, can be attributed to community banks like Calvin B. Taylor Banking Company, that hold to the principles of sound banking. These are

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 410641-9734 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. Bereavement Support Group, Atlantic General Hospital, Conference Room 1, 7-8 p.m. Fourth Wednesday of every month. Pre-registration is not necessary. For further information, please call Pastoral Care Services, 410-641-9725. 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.

the shining stars of the industry. Calvin B. Taylor Banking Company has been able to thrive without compromising its standards, and that’s commendable.” Having continuously earned a 5-Star rating for this length of time merits an even more elite distinction of being a “Sustained Superiority Bank”. Only 5 percent of the nation’s banks have earned Bauer’s top rating for so long and

Davis files for delegate seat

On Saturday, Nov. 16, at 6 p.m. an announcement event will be held to celebrate the kick-off of Judy Davis’ campaign for the District 38C seat. The venue is St. Paul’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, Dewees Hall, 302 N. Baltimore Ave., Ocean City. Interested persons can call 410-213-1956 for additional information. Invitations have been issued. The candidate earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Salisbury State College in 1977 and her Masters in Special Education from University of Maryland Eastern Shore. She taught for 22 years on the Lower Shore as an early childhood and special education Teacher. She is a board certified teacher/ exceptional needs specialist. She is a resident of West Ocean City.

34 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

LIFESTYLES

November-Early December 2013

For Gloria and Jerry Richards, the fondest memories of Ocean Pines’ early days

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giarism,” her husband teased, talking behind his hand and winking. “’Just because Harry Truman said it, doesn’t mean I can’t use it, too.’” True to its promise, Boise did have a boat, a paddleboat, but only prospective property owners and those handpicked by the Boise staff were welcomed aboard. Later, the captain was killed when a truck hit him on Manklin Creek Road, Jerry said. The paddleboat was retired not long after. Gloria Richards also tackled early Pines’ problems like school buses not coming to pick up children in the Pines. School officials said it was because the roads were not paved, but residents kept insisting. She openly disagreed with Delegate Russell Hickman, now deceased, who didn’t want Showell Elementary School built and warned about drugs and rape on school buses carrying children from Whaleyville and Bishopville to the Showell site, which is located on Route 589 just north of Ocean Pines. Some 40 years later, Showell is a Blue Ribbon school that serves much of Ocean Pines, well regarded by parents and one reason why families continue to want to live nearby. Hickman’s real reason for opposing the school, Jerry said, was his constituents didn’t want their neighborhood

schools closed so their children could go to a new school with Ocean Pines children. Showell was delayed two years, but eventually built and the other, smaller schools were closed. Gloria remembers going door to door with Paula Jones, collecting signatures for a petition to build Showell. The two women got 500 signatures and the school was constructed around 1976. Jones taught at Buckingham Ele- Jerry and Gloria Richards mentary in Berlin and later retired as principal of Showell. “Writing a column, you got your dan- mapped out a bike trail in Section 10 der up. You tried to do something. You of Ocean Pines, weaving in and out of wanted to say, ‘Hey. This really is a good Ocean Parkway and streets that interidea,’” Gloria said. sect with it. But the newspaper’s owner, the late Gloria was selected to be the first Richard Lohmeyer, who later founded the writer of the Ocean Pines commuMaryland Coast Dispatch, got angry with nity newsletter after a discussion at her now and then, putting her in the good a board of directors meeting. Board company of other renowned trailblazers. members wanted to see a few thousand “Who is this woman?” Lohmeyer copies mailed, to update property ownboomed, but she has no regrets. In fact, ers about progress and events in the she was awarded for her efforts when Pines. “We came up with ideas about Pines residents presented her with a gold what would be good for a community,” pine cone pendant. She still has it. Jerry said. “As an early home owner, you got in“Because I lived here, they felt I volved in everything,” she said. Her hus- could probably do it,” Gloria said. band agreed and recalled starting a Boy During the years, she has forgotten t Scout troop for their sons. The scouts

By SUSAN CANFORA Contributing Writer alking about the early days in Ocean Pines with Gloria Richards is like sharing stories from the old days with family. And that’s how it happened, around the kitchen table with her and her husband Jerry, as she tried to remember details about being the original writer for the first newsletter that informed residents of the tiny new community more than 40 years ago, and later, as a columnist for a local weekly newspaper. “There was a time when I took on Boise Cascade, later, when I wrote ‘Pine Cones’ for the old Maryland Times Press in the early 1970s. I took them on because they promised we’d have a boat to take the Ocean Pines residents to Ocean City and back. I remember one of my lines was, ‘The buck stops here,’” she said. “You notice she wasn’t above pla-

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CAPTAIN’S COVE

November-Early December 2013

Cove ends fiscal year with almost $1 million in the bank By TOM STAUSS Publisher he Captain’s Cove property owners association recorded a $126,940 operating surplus for the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30 but also ended the year with $954,982 in cash, almost $300,000 better than a year ago, recently released financial reports show. The reports, released just prior to the Cove association’s annual meeting Nov. 2, indicate even better bottom line results for the POA if certain non-cash items are included. Cove President Tim Hearn told the Progress that a more accurate picture of the Cove’s performance reflects the net income number along with $122,264 in a set-aside allowance for doubtful accounts, which would bring the total to a $249,203 surplus for the year. The cash position has increased yearover-year from $662,777 to $954,982, a $292,205 improvement. Property owners interested in a detailed analysis of the Cove’s financial performance can do so by downloading schedules posted on the members’ area of the Cove Web site. Hearn said he believes that the annual audit to be conducted by PGM of Salisbury won’t restate the results from the September statement to any great extent. Hearn attributed the turn-around to effective collections on delinquent accounts and better amenity performance related to the efforts of Billy Casper Golf to control costs relative to revenue. Also at the meeting, results for the board of directors’ election were announced. Dave Kieffer and Pat Pelino were elected with 1,551 votes cast, and Buz Williams was elected alternate with 1,520 votes. Williams had served as a director for a part of this past year, filling a vacancy caused by the resignation of former director John Ward. Later in the day, at the regular meeting of the board, the directors elected officers for the year. Hearn was reelected president, Tom Nagel vice-president, Michael Glick as treasurer and Pelino as secretary. The board also took action to restructure the roads committee as a subcommittee of the Cove finance committee. For the coming year, the board intends to meet on an every-other-month schedule, with most but all meetings scheduled for the Marina Club and perhaps one to be held somewhere along the Route 95 corridor in the Baltimore-Washington area. Utility Co. meeting – Prior to the annual meeting, Hearn presided over a an informational meeting related to developments at the Captain’s Cove Utility Company, of which he serves as managing partner and chief executive officer. He told residents that the company continues to be optimistic that Virginia authorities will be releasing grant and

loan moneys for water quality improvements and water meter installation in the Cove totaling roughly $3 million. The sequester policy in effect in Washington, D.C., has affected pass-through funding to the state, but Hearn said that one way or the other he believes the state is committed to the improvement program. He also said that as a result of the recently completed cost of service study for the utility company, the company will be able to submit a new rate case to Virginia’s State Corporation Commission by the end of the calendar year. The agenda for the meeting indicated that current operating costs for the company are trending higher than the cost structure for the current rates by about 20 percent. Depending how the SCC massages the numbers, Hearn told residents that he expects rate increases to be approved in the 10 to 30 percent range, “depending on the rate formulas approved by the SCC. Pool repairs – Users of the indoor swimming pool at the Marina Club re-

ceived some good news during the annual meeting and later at the regular meeting of the board with respect to repairs at the pool, which is currently empty. The board unanimously approved a motion to spend up to $30,000 on pool repairs, which previously had been confined to pump repairs. But after talking with pool contractors, Hearn said that it now will be possible to resurface the pool with a better finish and also to add tile lines for lap lanes. “We don’t want the dingy, gray look” of the existing concrete, Hearn said. Communications coordinator Justin Wilder said that the intent will be to provide a real aquatics program for Cove members, including water aerobics and similar classes and perhaps a swim team for young people. Pending foreclosures – The Cove POA has no intention of easing off on its aggressive policy of collections on delinquent accounts. Hearn announced that the fourth round of foreclosure auctions will be scheduled for the December-January

period, with an emphasis on delinquent accounts located in the undevelopable sections of 14-18. The foreclosures will be designed to bring more of these sections into the Cove inventory. The previously announced aim of the Cove board is to accumulate as many lots as possible in these sections with the Cove developer, CCG Note, LLC, for the purpose of selling off the acreage to farming or developer interests. In the previous three rounds of foreclosure, most of the lots sold were acquired by the Cove POA. Amenity memberships – In an answer to a question posed by a Cove resident, Hearn threw cold water on the idea that the POA would be able to start marketing amenity memberships to Cove residents, citing articles of incorporation and Cove bylaws that guarantee access to Cove amenities by those who are current on their annual assessments. Hearn said the only exception to that rules is the requirement of additional fees for riding carts on the Cove golf course.

Fond memories

homes. Gloria was in the Pines all week with the children while Jerry worked in Baltimore, selling lots. On weekends, he traveled home. “You came from the city, and all of a sudden you were living in the woods. I got involved with the PTA and with the school at Buckingham. In some ways, I wish Ocean Pines hadn’t changed so much,” she said. “You used to hear bobwhites all the time, but now they’re gone,” her husband said. “You remove the brush and you remove their protection.” Gloria recalled the call of owls and whippoorwill and seeing deer walking around the side of the house, but neither of them ever regretted moving to the Pines, even when the Richards were one of three families living in the community. Around that time, and earlier, property owners were allowed to camp at what is now White Horse Park. The Pine’eer Crafts building was a bathhouse. Jerry and Gloria Richards lived in a waterfront house that still stands, on Ocean Parkway near Seabreeze. They had come to the Pines in 1968. They now live in the Parke section of Ocean Pines. Jerry remains active in real estate, at one time operating his own agency. He is currently licensed with Re/Max Crossroads and works out of the company’s office on Route 589. In the late 1960s, they were living in their native Chicago and Jerry was teaching social studies. The family was approached to look at lots at a nearby resort, Lakes of the Four Seasons in nearby Crown Point, Ind. Jerry was asked if he knew anybody who might like to earn extra money selling lots. Payment was $100 for every one sold.

“I said, ‘I might,’” he recalled, thinking of himself. “I went out for a few weeks, and I made some pretty nice money. I said, ‘Where else can I make $1,000?’” Boise Cascade was developing Ocean Pines, and Richards heard that salesmen were needed. “He said, ‘I’ve been selling ideas all these years, and I think I can sell property,’” Gloria remembered him saying. “I had to convince her somehow,” he said. “We liked the idea of living near the ocean.” At first, they lived in Baltimore, but the family enjoyed the Pines so much, they decided that Gloria and the children would stay there during the week, and he would work in Baltimore and sell Pines’ lots on weekends. Jerry remembered the first time he and Gloria saw Ocean Pines. They had flown to Baltimore, and then headed east. “As we were driving here, we were getting an education. We kept seeing ads for cold beer and hot crabs. In Chicago, that’s a disease,” Jerry said, laughing. Neither they nor their children ever regretted making the move. In fact, the children embraced the primitive community. “That’s all they knew,” their mother said. “We never thought about leaving,” Jerry added. “It’s still kind of country. There’s a sense of country. I like the seasons. I like that we have a little bit of snow,” Gloria said. “The kids didn’t know any different. They were raised with canals and nature and animals. We like it here. It’s a good place to be.”

From Page 34 details, but recalls the newsletter was named the Ocean Pines News. “It was little paragraphs, really. I had no writing experience. It was very sophomoric. I had to take it into the Boise office so somebody could look at it. They wanted to tell people what Boise said was happening and what they were doing. It was like, ‘Here’s what property owners are getting.’ There was information about what clubs were formed and progress on the roads. “It was a report on the progress of things. I think the fire department was forming. I don’t have any copies of the newsletter left. When you have three kids and papers everywhere, those things disappear,” she said. Eventually Alta Weiss, another early Pines resident and English teacher, took over newsletter duties. “Mine was homespun. There were no pictures. I just typed it and turned it in to Boise. Atlantic Printing in Rehoboth came and picked it up and printed it. Alta’s was kind of informational and professional. Alta had it a couple years. Later on they upgraded the newsletter and hired a writer,” Gloria said. Today, an informational magazine is mailed to residents quarterly by the OPA’s marketing and public relations department. Just like Gloria’s newsletter from the early days, this modern-era publication emphasizes the positive. By 1971, about 2,500 lots had been sold in the Pines, but it was still a quiet place to live and most of the property owners were not full-time residents. Nor were many of those lots improved with

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$79,900 3/1443 Cleared Canal, $79,999 1/1195 Cleared Canal, $85,000 1/1196 Cleared W & S (477567) W & S (487087) Canal, W & S (487234)

WATERVIEW LOTS

$59,900 1/1238 Cleared, W & S (464021) $20,000 2/427 Cleared, W & S (484213)

GOLF COURSE LOTS

$10,000 2/172 Cleared (471489) $10,500 2/173 Cleared (486725) NEW $11,000 2/377 Cleared, Alt. Septic (481223) $13,500 2/107 Wooded, Septic Approved (484793) $13,888 2/453 Mostly Cleared, W & S (472279) $13,900 2/340 Cleared, Septic Approved (484451) $14,000 2/136 Wooded (468729) $18,500 2/267 Cleared, Septic Approved (476341) $28,500 2/125 Wooded, Septic Approved (463848) $28,500 2/150 Wooded, Septic Approved (463847)

INTERIOR LOTS

$2,000 1/1060 Wooded (478966) $2,500 3/1804 Wooded (482476) $2,500 3/1807 Wooded (482477) $3,000 5/2455 Wooded, Septic Approved (483219) $3,500 7/231 Wooded (486735) $3,500 3/1800 Wooded (482405) $3,500 3/1837 Wooded (482446)

New Listing

2BR/2.BA • 2-car Garage • Loft • Sitting Area

$85,000 1/943 Cleared Canal, W & S (472439)

3BR/2.5BA •2420 sq. ft. • Great room • 2-car garage

$99,900 1/940 Cleared Canal W & S (482548)

$3,500 3/1840 Wooded (482447) $3,500 3/1841 Wooded (482448) $3,500 7/200 Cleared (482473) $3,500 7/203 Cleared (482445) $3,500 1/841 Wooded (482485) $3,500 4/1886 Wooded (482489) $3,500 4/1900 Wooded (482490) $3,500 4/1902 Wooded (482492) $3,500 1/624 Wooded (482495) $3,500 1/1077 Wooded (483044) $3,500 5/2383 Wooded (486810) $3,500 4/2095 Wooded (486811) $3,500 4/2266 Wooded (486812) $4,900 5/2442 Wooded, Septic Approved (482063) $5,000 9/20 Cleared (477718) $5,000 7/275 Cleared (482630) 5,000 11/85 Wooded (482330) $5,000 11/7 Wooded (482334) $5,000 4/2092 Wooded (482488) $5,000 3/1713 Wooded (486468) $5,000 1/1111 Wooded (486541) $5,000 5/2500 Wooded, Septic Approved (486799) $5,000 2/240 Cleared (486801) $5,000 2/2506 Wooded, Septic Approved (486802)

$99,900 1/1191 Cleared Canal W & S (482992)

$5,000 11/17 Wooded (486803) $5,000 10/74 Wooded, Septic Approved (486805) $5,000 4/2165 Wooded (486806) $5,000 11/58 Wooded (486807) $6,000 8/39 Cleared (483299) $7,000 14/83 Cleared, Septic Approved (482888) $7,000 5/41 Wooded, Septic Approved (486399) $7,900 4/2177 Wooded, Septic Approved (483968) $8,000 6/7 Wooded, Septic Approved (486726) $8,000 5/2438 Wooded, Septic Approved (478432) $8,000 2/89 Wooded (484423) $8,000 9/38 Cleared, Septic Approved (486725) $8,500 11/2 Wooded (479198) $8,500 11/3 Wooded (479197) $8,500 9/101 Wooded (479207) $8,500 6/45 Wooded, Septic Approved (481154) $8,900 3/1723 Wooded, Septic Approved (478995) $8,900 11/10 Wooded, Septic Approved (478998) $10,000 5/74 Wooded, Septic Approved (486850) $11,500 1/ 1252 Wooded, W & S (481587) $12,000 1/1250 Wooded, W & S (483681) $15,000 3/1640 Cleared, Septic Approved (482892)

2013 BRER Affiliates, Inc. An independently owned and operated broker member of BRER Affiliates Inc. Prudential, the Prudential logo and the Rock symbol are registered service marks of Prudential Financial, Inc., and its related entities, registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Used under license with no other other affiliation with Prudential. Equal Housing Opportunity. Prudential PenFed is an independently owned and operated member of BRER Affiliates, Inc. PenFed membership is not required to conduct business with Prudential PenFed Realty

38 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

November-Early December

COMMENTARY

OPINION

Machiavelli alive and well in Ocean Pines

ow to handle bad or “challenging” news is more art than science. It can be especially vexing for those, like Ocean Pines Association General Manager Bob Thompson, who prefer to traffic in rosy scenarios. How to deliver not-to-so pleasant tidings to one’s nominal bosses, and the community at large, requires a keen appreciation for timing and much verbal dexterity. If the problematical information happens to involve cost overruns, as seems to happen a lot in Ocean Pines, then the skill set of the executive who navigates that treacherous minefield must include advanced communication and manipulation skills of the highest order. In the recent instance of a $75,000 cost overrun related to the Hingham Lane component of golf drainage improvements on the 11th and 12th holes of the Ocean Pines golf course, Thompson delivered the bad news with characteristic aplomb. First he more or less blamed the need for the overrun on permitting issues with the state’s Department of the Environment, including the historic, first-time-ever designation of drainage ditches in Ocean Pines as wetlands by a regulator filled with a zeal for protecting water quality in the back bays and probably with too much time on his hands. Then the general manager cited the belated discovery of improperly laid drainage pipes in the adjoining Innerlinks as the proximate cause for multiple revisions of project engineering specifications for Hingham Lane. All of that seems more or less plausible. It was masterfully spun for maximum narrative benefit during the board of directors’ regular monthly meeting in October. At some point after these issues first manifested last April it must have been evident that the cost of dealing with them would not fit into that neatly packaged $90,000 add-on approved by the board with Thompson’s prodding . Engineering firms do not work for free as a rule and the solution to design flaws are almost guaranteed to cost extra dollars. In various board gatherings in the months leading up the fateful October board meeting, there was nary a hint that the $450,000 budgeted for the entire project was insufficient. Instead, the news was disclosed in such a way and within such a small window of opportunity that that the board of directors had little choice but to approve the additional $75,000 needed to complete the job. To have done otherwise would have left neighborhood homeowners drowning in stormwater that improvements on the golf course had done little to mitigate. Recall those soothing words from yesteryear in which golf course drainage improvements were sold under the pretext of improving drainage in the adjoining properties.

Not always, apparently, as a drive through the Hingham Lane neighborhood readily attests after a torrential downpours of Biblical proportions. Those flood-prone conditions could have lasted for many more months, maybe into the fall of 2014, and affected homeowners would have been vexed to the point of apoplexy. Hingham Lane improvements are absolutely critical in removing that stormwater from the neighborhood. Or so we’ve been told. How effective they will be will await the next torrential downpour. Thompson gave the directors the choice of delaying the Hingham Lane component until the

next budget year, but of course he knew the directors were boxed in with only one sensible option. This is skillful manipulation, and there’s no particular indication that a board majority is terribly exercised by it. Indeed, some directors actively embrace it and, in so doing, invite more of it. The beauty of the Thompson playbook is that the same effective play can work more than once. It has, and it will. Rinse, Repeat. Then do it again. -- Tom Stauss

Reconsidering the five-year funding plan

uring a recent meeting of the board of directors, Ocean Pines’ elected brain trust debated particulars of budget guidance to the general manager. The draft the board was working from bore a striking resemblance to the budget guidance that the board has adopted for the past five years or so, with little variation. One feature of the draft “guidance” calls for the general manager to include, for the sixth consecutive year, all $130 or so cumulatively embedded in the lot assessment attributable to the so-called five-year funding plan. That’s the funding mechanism that, whatever the original impetus for it, has been a de facto special assessment levied in increasing $26 increments over five years to pay most of, but not all, the cost of the new Yacht Club. Next year will be Year Six of the five-year funding plan, and it will be a real shocker if the board directs the general manager not to extend the five-year funding plan in the budget for next year. Early indications are that there will be lots of demands for capital spending from various interest groups throughout Ocean Pines, and not all of that spending will be taken out of the OPA’s major maintenance and replacement reserve. Some of it will be in the form of so-called “new” capital funded out of that year’s lot assessments and some of it will be funded out of reserves. When Director Marty Clarke questioned the need and morality of collecting money from property owners for future projects that have not yet been identified, and questioned in particular the need to keep funding the five-year funding plan in Year Six, OPA President Tom Terry’s rejoinder was quick and to the point. “Where else are you going to get it?” he said, referring to the five-year funding plan’s revenue stream. Well, there’s always borrowing, of course, but hardly anyone is keen on borrowing at commercial rates of about six percent when the OPA is sitting on mounds of cash in CDRs and money market funds. What the OPA should be pursuing is state leg-

islative fixes that would enable it to borrow at the same low interest rates as municipal corporations and counties, perhaps by being permitted to enter the bond market or through other means. Columbia, Md., the state’s largest homeowner association by population, has that ability. The OPA needs to work with local state legislators to make this happen. As it happens, 2014 is an election year, with the District 38 Senate race shaping up as a good one between the incumbent senator, Jim Mathias, and a challenger, 38B Delegate Mike McDermott who’s been gerrymandered out of his seat. In the meantime, Terry also seems to be ignoring was a more significant revenue stream that dwarfs the five-year plan’s funding stream. Funded depreciation brings in about $1.50 for every $1 raised by the five-year funding plan. These are the two components of the OPA’s major maintenance and replacement reserve, and combined they’re raising roughly $2.5 million to replenish this reserve each and every year. Funded depreciation is no accounting gimmick. It represents real dollars taken from every property owner. In the case of the new Yacht Club, we’ve taxed ourselves these past five years to pay for it. Once it’s built, we will tax ourselves again in the form of funded depreciation on the new building. Truly brilliant. It’s also the way Ocean Pines’ capital spending has been funded for decades. Over ten years, this $2.5 million collected each year translates into $25 million, which ought to be sufficient to handle Ocean Pines’ capital spending needs over the next ten years, with plenty left over. Very soon, it will be possible to determine that with more precision. Actual capital expenditure needs will be defined in a so-called “rack-andstack” of projects to be released by the general manager at the board of directors’ November meeting. At least, that’s the latest announced schedule, always subject to change. The release of the rack-and-stack will be when the real fun begins. – Tom Stauss

OPINION

November-Early December 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OPINION

Kitchen cost overruns should be funded by the board

hile none of the OPA directors seem particularly pleased with almost $400,000 in proposed cost overruns associated with equipping the two kitchens at the new Yacht Club, there is no reason to suppose that, in the end, the directors will vote to move much if any of the heavy equipment from the old kitchen into the new facility. In the words of Ted Moroney, a member of the implementation team that is assisting the general manager with overseeing the new Yacht Club construction, most of the old equipment is junk, in such poor condition that legs were falling off when some of it was moved out of the old building prior to demolition. The OPA’s general manager, Bob Thompson, concurs, but he is considerately leaving the final decision to the board of directors. Despite the overrun, and the feigned dismay and pretense of trying to trim the overrun to more “acceptable” levels, the directors will spend the money needed to produce two first class, stateof-the-art kitchens. Whether they will do so in a timely enough fashion to avoid holding up the construction remains to be seen. By early December, the decision – more accurately the Ratification – will need to be made or construction delays are likely to ensue. This new equipment needs to be ordered and such orders aren’t filled overnight. There’s plenty of money gathering moss and miniscule interest in the OPA’s reserve accounts to handle the overrun. Better to spend it than let it lose value to inflation over time. Better to produce a first class kitchen that will increase the odds that the OPA will be able to produce a first class dining and banquet experience for its customers and clients. Notice the wordsmithing, here. There’s quite a distance between improving odds and the desired outcome. Not that there will be any official inquiry or even much interest in the question, but it’s a mystery how the condition of the old equipment was not better known before now. About $150,000 was contained in the construction budget for new kitchen equipment, with some of the old equipment supposedly destined for transfer to the new facility. Oh, well. That, at least, was the narrative in the run-up to the referendum for a new $4.3 million Yacht Club. As narratives go, it was effective. Kind of like the one about how, under Obamacare, you can keep your insurance policy and your doctor, period. Anyone with a lick of sense knew that $4.3 million wasn’t going to cover the cost of the new Yacht Club.

LIFE IN THE LIFE INPINES THE PINES

Then again, boards have adopted budgets that have rubber-stamped these An excursion through the curious cul-de-sacs An excursion through theby-ways curious and by-ways and cul-de-sacs unrealistic projections, so who’s to say the same won’t occur even with earlier of Worcester County’s County’s most densely community. of Worcester mostpopulated densely populated community. committee involvement? Publisher By TOM STAUSS/ By TOM STAUSS/Publisher But that’s less likely to happen if the administration’s draft budget contains It hasn’t. Anyone care to wager how of directors, one of whom, Jack Collins, committee-endorsed revenue projecthe landscaping budget will fare against offered a motion at the board’s regular tions. Thompson also is less likely to enmeeting in October that seemed to most the cost of imported palm trees? directors to be a mandate on General dure the usual incoming fire from the that scenario. Manager Bob Thompson to accept the committee under OPINION A more assertive budget He should welcome the help because help whether he wanted it or not. and finance committee Early indications from the general it creates a scenario in which the blame he internal workings of Ocean manager suggested that he was not par- can be spread around if once again revPines’ advisory committees might ticularly keen on the proffer, apparently enue projections turn out to be rose-colbe of little interest to many OPA regarding it as interference in manage- ored. And he bask in the glory if the promembers, and whether one committee ment prerogatives. jections turn out to be accurate reflecdecides to assert itself or another toils tions of budgetary reality. When some An directors opined that the excursion through the curious cul-de-sacs An excursion through theby-ways curious and by-ways and cul-d away in relative obscurity probably motion Committee chair Dennis Hudson and as written was a abit of anofoverThe Ocean Pines Progress, journal of Worcester County’s most densely populated community. of Worcester County’s most densely populated comm won’t mean all that much for the future reach, motion was tabled for a Collins both seem hopeful that directors news Collins’ and commentary, is published of Ocean Pines. Publisher By TOM STAUSS/ other than Collins and colleague Marty Publisher By TOM STAUSS/ rewrite. monthly throughout the year. It is Still, advisory committees can serve He’s planning a new that pre- Clarke will see the wisdom of this procirculated in Ocean Pines,motion Berlin, West an important role as idea incubators and serves at least a pretense of face-saving posed “compromise.” Ocean City, Snow Hill, Ocean City and windows into various segments of the autonomy for the general manager. There have been some private beCapain’s Cove,Va. Ocean Pines community. Historically, The early involvement of the budget hind-the-scenes meetings to try to move Letters and other editorial submissions: they’ve been the stepchildren of Ocean and finance committee won’t be mandat- the ball in the direction of the commitPlease submit via email only. We do not Pines governance, with some recent ef- ed by the motion but instead there will tee’s objective. We’ll see. There’s more to accept faxes or submissions that require forts to make more effective use of them. be come on this later in November, just in “a sense of the board” to encourage retyping. Letters should be original and One in particular, budget and finance, Thompson time for the holidays. to accept the proffer, Collins exclusive to the Progress. Include phone perhaps is the first among equals be- informed the Progress, emphasizing cause, by board resolution, it’s supposed that Thompson’s participatiion is volunto have a hands-on role in helping to for- tary. mulate budgetary policy for the OPA. Nottingham Lane, reminisThis127 manuever is somewhat The board of directors, of course, is cent of the means by which Ocean Pines, MD the board, the final arbiter of all things budgetary; through the reported auspices of Tom The Ocean Pines Progress, a journal of no advisory committee can make policy, Terry, “encouraged” Thompson to resurThe Ocean Pines Progress, a journal of PUBLISHER/EDITOR PUBLISHER/EDITOR news and commentary, is published only recommend it. rect the so-called Yacht Club implemennews and commentary, is published Stauss Tom Stauss How effectively any particular com- tation teamTom monthly throughoutthethe is to assist him in overseeing monthly throughout year.year. It is Itcircutstauss1@mchsi.com mittee is has a lot to do with how as- the construction circulated in Ocean tstauss1@mchsi.com of the new building. lated in Ocean Pines,Pines, Berlin,Berlin, OceanWest City, 410-641-6029 sertive its members are in making their Ocean City, Snow and Captain’s Cove,Hill, Va.Ocean City and The general manager himself an410-641-6029 views known to the board of directors, nounced theAdvertising Capain’s Cove, Va. Letters and other submissions should be reinvigoration of a team Advertising even when what they recommend runs that had been Letters other editorial sent viaand email only. We dosubmissions: not accept allowed to wither on the counter to what the OPA administration vine, in ART Please submit email only.that We do not DIRECTOR faxes or othervia submissions require part because of some creative favors. ARTRota DIRECTOR accept faxes or submissions require retyping. Letters should be that original and differences between KnottThompson and Clashes of opinion are inevitable, and team member exclusive Letters to the Progress. retyping. should beInclude originalphone and HughMoroney. Dougherty sometimes these differences are mannumber for exclusive toverification. the Progress. Include phone History might repeat itself in the inCONTRIBUTING aged effectively by the powers that be stance of the budget committee. WRITERSWRITER CONTRIBUTING and sometimes they’re not. 127 Nottingham Lane, Assuming the rewritten motion passKnott So it is by any measure a significant es, it would Rota Ocean Pines, MD. 21811 then Knott be Thompson’s choice 127 Nottingham Lane, Ginny Reister undertaking when the budget and fi- whether Inkwellmedia@comcast.net to ignore the board’s clear prefOcean Pines, MD nance committee decides it wants to en- erence that443-880-1348 PUBLISHER/EDITOR he accept the committee’s Tom Stauss ter the budget fray earlier than it has involvement. Will he? Probably, if he tstauss1@mchsi.com done historically. PUBLISHER/EDITOR hopes to remain in the good graces of his PUBLISHER/EDITOR 410-641-6029 Specifically, it wants to assist the gen- board overseers. Tom TomStauss Stauss eral manager and his staff in developing His calculation may rest on his aststauss1@mchsi.com tstauss1@mchsi.com ADVERTISING a key component of the budget every sessment of just how serious a board 410-641-6029 Tom Stauss year, projections for amenity revenues majority is in “encouraging” committee 410-641-6029 Advertising in such departments as the Yacht Club, involvement. Advertising ART DIRECTOR golf and aquatics, the big three in budYes, such involvement will add more Knott ART Rota DIRECTOR geted Rosy Scenarios in recent years. time to the process of drafting a budget, ART DIRECTOR Rota Knott These flawed projections, and what and there might even be differences of CONTRIBUTING Hugh Dougherty committee members insist is the lack of opinion that emerge. Some lively differWRITERS detailed business plans for each of the ences, perhaps. CONTRIBUTING Rota Knott amenities, vex these volunteers to disWRITERS But those outcomes may be the price CONTRIBUTING Ginny ReisterWRITER traction. needed to arrive at more accurate budKnott Rota Knott Susan Canfora Rather than issue impotent recom- get projections. Ginny Reister Inkwellmedia@comcast.net mendations to the board after the fact, The committee has been particularly PROOFREADING committee members hope to influence focused on amenity revenue projections 443-880-1348 Joanne Williams budget development in its seminal stage in recent years that haven’t been realisin the next cycle. tic, despite board policy that says they It has at least two allies on the board should be.

LIFE IN THE LIFE INPINES THE PINES

40 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

November-Early December 2013

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