Bailey kills off 20% discounts at OPA restaurants
November 2017
As part of a measured approach to “stop the bleeding” at Ocean Pines Association restaurant venues for the remainder of the fiscal year, Ocean Pines General Manager John Bailey has eliminated the 20 percent discount that’s been available to OPA members since March of this year. Bailey announced the discount’s elimination effective Nov. 1 during the Board of Directors’ Oct. 27 regular monthly meeting.
Director Slobodan Trendic had intended to offer a motion at the Oct. 27 meeting of the Board of Directors that would have directed the new general manager, John Bailey, to prepare a request for proposals from experienced restaurateurs that could have led to leasing out the Ocean Pines Yacht Club. Rebuffed by his colleagues on that particular approach, Trendic came up with a motion short of a call for leasing but which still could lead to that outcome. The motion, passed unanimously by the board, directs the GM to consult with industry experts in developing a recommendation on how best to manage the Yacht Club with a goal “break-even” operations.
~ Page 14
Comp plan group wants GM to finalize survey questions
Left in limbo by the previous Board of Directors, a community survey that the Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee has been working on for more than a year may finally make it to the finish line.
~ Page 18
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Board directs GM to study leasing out Yacht Club
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Bailey offers new ideas for first and second floors of Ocean Pines Country Club Proposes new ‘lowered’ entrance into building on same level as pro shop and Tern Grille, elevator instead of outside ramps, fewer meeting rooms, buffet kitchen on upper level BY TOM STAUSS Publisher eneral Manager John Manager offered some new ideas on how to renovate the second floor of the Ocean Pines Country Club during the Oct. 27 monthly meeting of the Board of Directors. He also introduced a proposed “lowering” of the main entrance into the building so that it’s level with the golf pro shop and Tern Grille on the first floor. Instead of what he called impractical and unsightly exterior handicap ramps, he is proposing that the renovation include an interior elevator to replace the lift that there’s now. Instead of five meeting rooms proposed in a previous version of a second floor floor plan, he is proposing three, one large one and two smaller ones 20 by 40 feet in size “that could be combined into one.” Bailey said the meeting rooms would be provided to accommodate golf-related banquets and the more than 50 organizations that “are clamoring for space” in Ocean Pines. A meeting room specifically earmarked for the Board of Directors, a component of previous plans for the second floor, is absent from the latest iteration.
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The existing non-functional second floor kitchen would be renovated, with the antiquated equipment removed and replaced with equipment that could accommodate buffet-style functions for golfers or organizations. “Plated dinners” would be shifted entirely to the Yacht Club, Bailey said. The proposed lowering of the front entrance of the building would involve elimination of the half floor that currently bisects the first and General Manager second floors, Bailey told the Prog- John Bailey ress in a recent telephone intervew. In addition, the half floor office space that exists above this “half floor” entrance area would be eliminated, opening up the new entrance area all the way to the building’s ceiling. “It would have a much more spacious, vaulted ceiling feel,” Bailey said, while eliminating the “confusion” that golfers and others experience when they enter the building from the front entrance. To Page 41
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The Ocean Pines Farmers Market has a fresh new name: The Ocean Pines Farmers and Artisans Market. In addition to growers, the Saturday market has been open to artisans, crafters and direct sales merchants to the marketplace for years. The new name recognizes that fact. The market will be moving across the White Horse Park campus to the Ocean Pines Community Center on Dec. 9. Merchants will set up in the Assateague Room on Saturday mornings from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. The market will operate indoors through Feb. 17, returning to White Horse Park on Feb. 24, just in time for the arrival of the spring market season on March 3.
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‘Acoustic changes’ to second
floor of Yacht Club rumored
Ocean Pines Association Director Colette Horn recently asked General Manager John Bailey whether rumors she’s heard about “acoustic changes” to the second floor of the Ocean Pines Yacht Club are true. Such changes could make live entertainment on the second floor easier on the ears, but Bailey’s response during the Oct. 27 board meeting suggests that such changes are not imminent. Instead, he indicated that acoustical challenges remain and will be a factor in the decision whether to schedule Friday night live entertainment at the Yacht Club over the coming months on the lower level where acoustics are better. The implication: The action will most likely take place on the lower level. Meanwhile, Bailey seems to be inching closer and closer to restoring the name “Yacht Club” to the OPA’s premier restaurant and bar venue. So far the OPA Web site and OPA advertising still is calling the Yacht Club the Cove at Mumford’s.
Technology Work Group policy proposals imminent
Ocean Pines Association President Doug Parks, who has been chairing a technology work group for a year or more, recently disclosed that the panel will be delivering recommendations “in the next couple of weeks” in the technology arena, without actually specifying what IT areas would be included. He made the disclosure in an Oct. 25 special meeting. Former OPA Director of Finance John Viola said during the meeting that a point of sale system for the OPA’s restaurant and bar venues needs to be addressed immediately. General Manager John Bailey wondered whether he had to wait for the IT group to complete its work before deciding on a new POS system, telling the board he didn’t want to wait “til the next (budget) cycle” to act. Director Cheryl Jocobs noted that a decision on a new POS system had been awaiting some on-site testing.
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Director Slobodan Trendic said he hoped that Bailey would come to the board with “a Cloud-based back office application” in the coming weeks.
OPA still wrestling with ‘human resources’ position
The Board of Directors in September voted to fund a human resources or HR position, and directed General Manager John Bailey to hire the individual or firm during the current fiscal year. The issue that remains is whether the HR specialist will be an Ocean Pines Association employee and perhaps even a department head with the usual package of benefits or an outside firm that specializes in HR matters. Bailey told the board during its Oct. 27 monthly meeting that he had worked up a job description for the position but had not yet decided whether it should be in-house or out-sourced. The OPA’s law firm, Lerch, Early, has been handling HR chores for the OPA for much of this year, and Bailey would have the option of continuing that arrangement. Some directors reportedly want him to outsource, others want to establish an in-house position, perhaps even as a department head. During a special meeting of the board of and the Budget and Finance Advisory Committee Oct. 25, Director Ted Moroney seemed to suggest that he favored an outsourcing model in more than just HR.
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He said that OPA functions historically done in-house could be outsourced, citing HVAC repairs now done by the Public Works Department as an area that could be outsourced to private companies or individuals.
Board, committee members offer budgetary insights
The Oct. 25 special meeting between the Board of Directors and Budget and Finance Committee offered insights into what board or committee members think about when they descend deep into the budgetary weeds. In no particular order: OPA Director Ted Moroney said it’s important to know not only what it’s the budget but what’s left out. “If you’re not putting something in, remember that when someone screams bloody murder six months later,” he advised. Former OPA Director of Finance John Viola, restored recently as a B&F Committee member, said every OPA department head should understand and “sign off” on details of his or her departmental budget, adding that if they don’t agree with a particular budgetary item or omission, it should be “noted” -- where precisely he didn’t say but presumably somewhere in the budget. Another observation from Viola: More part-time hirings will mean fewer benefits and budgetary savings. Assistant OPA Treasurer Gene Ringsdorf suggested cutting food and beverage labor costs in the budget to 30 percent of revenue instead q
OCEAN PINES
on ‘rolling capital funding’
From Page 5
of the 40 to 50 percent range that’s traditional in Ocean Pines. The 30 percent target for labor is consistent with industry standards and has proven to be an elusive goal in Ocean Pines. B&F Committee Chairman John O’Connor voiced skepticism about the centralized purchasing model employed by former Acting General Manager Brett Hill this past year for food and beverage operations. O’Connor said if the OPA continues with a single vendor for food and beverage purchases, better care needs to be taken that product is delivered in a timely fashion to the OPA’s various restaurant venues. Did the OPA receive better pricing by employing centralized purchasing from a single vendor? No one really knows. What is known is that patrons noticed food and beverage shortages this summer, at the Tern Grille and Beach Club especially.
Budget watchdogs know that there has been a rolling, inconclusive debate over several budget cycles over whether the OPA should adopt what’s called a “rolling, multiyear capital budget,” in which capital expenditures included in one year’s capital budget but not spent are more or less automatically rolled over to the next year. Projects started but not completed in a particular fiscal year aren’t at issue. More contentious are projects that are budgeted but not even started, let alone funded in a year in which they appear in a capital budget. The concept of a rolling, multiyear capital budget has been promoted for a number of years by the Budget and Finance Advisory Committee, and is particularly beloved by OPA Director and Treasurer Pat Supik, who has had some difficulty in selling the idea to her colleagues on the Board of Directors. Director Cheryl Jacobs has been equally persistent on the other side, arguing that it’s a bad idea if it
OCEAN PINES means a capital expenditure doesn’t require board approval each and every year it appears in the budget. She’s been against a multi-year capital capital if it means automatic roll-over of unspent allocated dollars from one year to the next. While Supik has argued that a multi-year capital doesn’t necessarily mean automatic roll-overs, she nonetheless has signaled her intention to retire the term “rolling” from her vocabulary with respect to capital funding. During the Oct. 25 special meeting of the Board of Directors and B&F Committee, she said she won’t use the term “roll-over” any more. “What we need is a five-year capital plan,” she said. No one argued with that, which doesn’t necessarily mean a five-year plan will arrive on the scene anytime soon.
nance Advisory Committee, the panel’s chairman, John O’Connor, is urging the Board of Directors not to rely on local casino impact funding as the sole source of revenue for the OPA’s roads reserve. He called the casino funding source “unreliable.” He made his remarks during the Oct. 25 meeting with his committee and the Board of Directors. Past boards of directors and previous general managers essentially have concluded that casino funding is adequate to pay for road repairs and resurfacing, on a pay-as-you-go basis. New General Manager John Bailey will have to make his own judgment on that issue in preparing the 2018-19 budget. Roughly a half million dollars is collected and spent on road resurfacing every other year, working off a priority list of streets said to be in the worst shape.
Committee chair urges boost to roads reserve
Bailey says budget may be ready before Christmas
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John Bailey says he may have the draft 2018-19 budget available for distribution to the Board of Directors and B&F committee a week before Christmas. The draft wasn’t delivered until well into January during the 201718 budget cycle, so Bailey’s target of the week before Christmas would be a godsend to those who like to spend the holidays pouring over budget numbers.
Ocean Pines leaf collection set
The Ocean Pines Association has announced leaf collection procedures for its residents this fall. Ocean Pines Public Works and Republic Services jointly aid in the collection. Leaves and other yard debris bagged in paper bags will be collected by Ocean Pines Public Works from Nov. 20 through Dec. 21. Bags will be picked up on days opposite from Republic Services’ collection days. Only paper bags will be accepted, and there is no limit to the num-
November 2017 Ocean Pines PROGRESS ber of bags that residents may place curbside. Thirty-gallon paper bags may be purchased at Public Works in bundles of five for $5. Additionally, Public Works will vacuum ditch leaves that have been raked to the street beginning Nov. 20 until completed. Yard leaves that have been raked to the street will not be picked up. These leaves must be placed in paper bags for collection. Ocean Pines residents may also bring leaves and yard debris in bulk or paper bags to the Public Works yard, located at 1 Firehouse Lane near the South Side firehouse. The yard will be open Monday through Friday 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. No contractor dumping or plastic bags will be permitted. There will be no collection or drop-off on Thursday, Nov. 23, or Friday, Nov. 24. Current Republic Services customers may place up to four bags of leaves curbside for each scheduled pickup. This is in addition to regular trash pickup. Republic Services will also pick up branches if they are tied in bundles four feet or less.
Tree lighting
7
Ocean Pines will hold its annual Holiday Tree Lighting at the “Hometown Christmas” event on Saturday, Nov. 25, at 6:30 p.m. at White Horse Park. The event will feature Santa and his helpers from the North Pole and entertainment by Delmarva Chorus, a 23-member a capella ensemble that is led by choral director Carol Ludwig. Trees, which range in size from 8-10 feet, are sponsored and decorated by area businesses, clubs, families and individuals. The sponsored holiday trees will be on display from November to January and illuminated at the Nov. 25 event. Those interested in sponsoring a holiday tree can now do so by visiting the Ocean Pines Community Center to pay $50. The sponsors’ names will be on prominent display at the frequently visited park. Trees will be in place and ready for decorating by Nov. 20.
OCEAN PINES
November 2017
OPA approves new emergency bulkhead repair contract Document says project is a repair, but scope of work and cost suggests it’s more than that By TOM STAUSS Publisher he Board of Directors at its Oct. 27 monthly approved a new emergency bulkhead “repair” contract with Hi-Tide Marine Construction, shortly after a contract with the same company executed last October by Acting General Manager Brett Hill was cancelled. The unanimous approval of the new emergency repair contract was contingent on receipt and review of the final version of the contract by the directors. That occurred within a week of the Oct. 27 meeting. The cancellation of the October 2016 contract resulted from negotiations between OPA Counsel Jeremy Tucker of the Lerch, Early and Brewer law firm and Hi-Tide attorney Steve Rakow. Actively monitoring the negotiations that resulted in the drafting of the replacement contract was newly appointed OPA Director Ted Moroney, who offered the approval motion at the Oct. 27 meeting. In background comments supporting his motion, Moroney said the October 2016 contract was “cancelled by the OPA,” which would suggest a unilateral action, but OPA General Manager John Bailey later
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clarified that it had been cancelled by the mutual agreement of the OPA and Hi-Tide. According to a copy of the new contract obtained by the Progress, it mostly concerns what the first page of the contract refers to as bulkhead replacement at a single waterfront property in Ocean Pines, 24 Mallard Drive West, in Ocean Pines. The property is owned by the Maffetts, whose attorney also is Steve Rakow. Total cost of emergency repairs at the property is listed at $39,050, based on a proposal submitted to the OPA by Hi-Tide on Oct. 10. The Oct. 10 proposal, incoporated into the contract as Exhibit A, does not use the term “emergency repair” and in fact the project would appear to be more accurately described as bulkhead replacement. Bailey more or less agreed. “Emergency repairs, as is the case here, are repairs done that are not within the scheduled window of a normal replacement cycle,” he wrote in an e-mail to the Progress. The Maffett bulkheading “normally would not have been replaced based on its status in the aging cycle; rather its replacement is required to be done off schedule (or “out of
turn”) because site-specific conditions require it. Thus, it is deemed an unplanned, or emergency, repair,” he said. Bailey said that emergency repairs of a failing wall could also be simply fixing a tieback bar, changing a board, conducting environmental treatment, or even backfilling. “In this case, the emergency repair is the complete replacement of a failing wall. Such repairs are very much outside the concept of a planned replacement program,” Bailey added. In proposing his motion to approve the emergency work, Moroney said plans for a multi-year, scheduled bulkhead replacement program could be offered by staff as early as November. Bailey in his e-mail said this replacement program “should be a long-term replacement plan that schedules out the entire community based on installation date, life expectancy, needed funding, and a scheduled inspection process. This allows the association to better manage the program, including its financial aspects.” Work to be performed under the emergency contract includes the labor, materials and equipment to in-
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stall 152 feet of vinyl bulkhead at a base price of $220 per (linear) feet. Materials include the vinyl sheeting, treated 2.5cca (chromated copper arsenate) pilings, double whalers, liner boards, a tie-back anchor system, galvanized tie rods, treated cap boards, assorted bolts and washers, and backfill between the old and new bulkhead with sandy fill. The price does not include the cost of obtaining permits, responsibility for which remains with the OPA. The contractor has five days to begin the project after permits are in hand. Completion date is supposed to be 15 days after the start date, with “automatic extensions” given for adverse weather, tides or stop work orders not caused by the contractor. The $39,050 cost incorporates a materials upgrade costing $5,610 for 16-foot C-Loc vinyl sheeting and 20-foot pilings, rather than 12-foot sheeting and 16-foot pilings. Without the upgrade, the project would have cost the OPA $33,440. Bailey said “the exposed height of the (existing) wall, as measured and confirmed by Public Works, is higher than the standard wall. It required a thicker vinyl sheet because of the additional height; and that necessarily generates a greater quantity of materials overall.” The materials upgrade and the cost of permitting, not specified in the contract, essentially means the OPA is paying more than $220 per linear foot for this emergency replacement project. The new contract also includes an Exhibit B price list for additional work outside the Maffett project. It seems to be similar to the price list included in the October, 2016, contract but without a five-year commitment by the OPA to hire HiTide for repairs or replacement. Indeed, the new contract has no language in it that requires the OPA to hire Hi-Tide for any additional emerency repair or replacement projects in the future. The seven-page document appears to be a standard performance contract that protects OPA interests. The October, 2016, contract was not much more than a price list for services, without the typical protections. It was signed by the former acting general manager, without the approval of the board of directors. “The project will be in accord with Exhibit A, which includes all labor, material and equipment for a turnq
8 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
OCEAN PINES Bulkhead contract From Page 8
key project,” according to the new contract. “Any work outside the project must be approved by the Association and shall be performed on a time and material basis as set forth in Exhibit B.” The new contract includes a termination clause that says the OPA can revoke the agreement “without cause” upon 30 days notice to the contractor and “with cause” upon one day’s notice to the contractor, who would be given a “reasonable opportunity” to cure prior to termination. “Upon termination, Contractor shall be entitled to be paid for the full cost of all work properly done by Contractor to the date of termination and not previously paid for,” according to the contract. Any materials fabricated off-site prior to the termination and delivered to the OPA would also be subject to payment. The contractor would be responsible for damage to OPA property or that owned by OPA members, not including landscaping disturbed by the contractor in order to complete the project. It is not clear who would be responsible for restoring the landscaping unavoidably damaged, but it probably would be the OPA. The new contract eliminates components of the October 2016 contract that could have been construed as awarding a contract to Hi-Tide for major bulkhead replacement in addition to emergency repairs over a five-year period. In background remarks offered before the vote on the emergency repair contract, Moroney said “the issue of long-term replacement will be addressed after the Board receives a presentation from the GM/Public Works (Department) at the November board meeting.” Assuming that timeline is kept, Bailey and the Public Works Department will be disclosing at the November board meeting details of the long-promised but long-delayed bulkhead replacement program. The previous multi-year replacement program expired two or three years ago, with so-called emergency repairs occurring on a piecemeal basis since then. In the meantime, the OPA has been accumulating substantial funds in its bulkheads and waterways reserve for a replacement program that has not even been
November 2017 Ocean Pines PROGRESS proposed, let alone approved by the board. These collections from owners of bulkheaded property in Ocean Pines has far exceeded what was spent on bulkheads in recent years. Assistant OPA Treasurer Gene Ringsdorf has been telling the board for a year or even longer that it’s improper to be collecting a substantial “waterfront differential” from owners of bulkheaded property without a replacement program in place.
It would appear that Bailey has gotten the message and is working diligently to come up with a replacement program that the board can consider and approve. The contingent approval of the new emergency repair contract on Oct. 27 followed roughly a month after the board voted in open session Sept. 29 to “indefinitely delay” acting on a motion that would have authorized Hi-Tide Marine Construction to continue with emergen-
cy bulkhead repairs. The author of the earlier motion, Moroney, said the delay would be relatively short and that Hi-Tide was still the odds-on favorite to be the Ocean Pines Association’s contractor for bulkhead repair and, eventually, replacement. The delay was intended to allow Tucker to review the three-page contract from October of last year pertaining to emergency repairs, Moroney said.
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Bailey kills off 20 percent discount at OPA restaurants General manager says move is designed to ‘stop the bleeding’ By TOM STAUSS Publisher s part of a measured approach to “stop the bleeding” at Ocean Pines Association restaurant venues for the remainder of the fiscal year, Ocean Pines General Manager John Bailey has eliminated the 20 percent discount that’s been available to OPA members since March of this year. Bailey announced the discount’s elimination effective Nov. 1 during the Board of Director’s Oct. 27 regular monthly meeting. At the same time, he disclosed that as of the same date, the Yacht Club’s food and beverage operation will be cut back to two days, Fridays and Saturdays, a schedule he said would remain in place through March. Live entertainment will be featured Friday evenings and trivia
A
nights will be featured Saturday evenings. Because of “acoustic concerns” with the Yacht Club’s upper level, Bailey said he was leaning toward allowing the live bands to set up downstairs on Friday evenings. He said that the Yacht Club would not continue Sunday brunches because, with the exception of the recent Sunfest weekend in September, the number of patrons needed to at least break even has not materialized since he assumed the chief executive officer position the second week of September. Bailey acknowledged that the decision to keep the Yacht Club open during the winter months will not be popular with all residents but that eliminating the 20 percent discounts and cutting back to two days a week at the Yacht Club should help “to stop the bleeding.”
In an telephone interview with the Progress on Oct. 30, Bailey stopped short of predicting that the Yacht Club food and beverage operation would stop losing money with the discontinued discounts and scheduling changes. But the Yacht Club only lost $7,910 in September, its best monthly perfomance this year. That provides at least a glimmer of hope that the additional belt-tightening that Bailey has announced will bring expenses closer in line with revenues. Through September, the amenity has a net operating loss of $244,368 and is under budget by $357,133. Year-over-year, the negative swing in net performance is about $344,000. The 20 percent discount has been a source of contention and political wrangling among directors since it was introduced in March by former
Acting General Manager Brett Hill. It’s been cited as a major factor in both the Yacht Club and Beach Club losing subsantial amounts of money for the OPA this summer. Even in the teeth of substantial losses at both amenities during peak summer months, when both amenities historically have performed well financially, Hill was steadfact in his refusal to abandon the 20 percent discount. His refusal was tied to political differences among the directors over the hiring of a consultant to advise the board on the best way to manage the Yacht Club. Hill had wanted to hire a consultant based in California, while a board majority, led by directors Slobodan Trendic and Cheryl Jacobs, insisted that the consultant hired should be local or at least live in the mid-Atlantic region. Hill told the Progress in an early August telephone interview that the 20 percent discount was an operational matter that a food and beverage consultant could have looked at had the board been willing to accept his recommended vendor at the
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November 2017 Ocean Pines PROGRESS 11
Discount policy From Page 10
board’s July 29 monthly meeting. His recommendation fell by the wayside when three directors – Trendic, Jacobs and Pat Supik – indicated that they weren’t inclined to hire a West Coast-based consultant recommended by Hill. The recommendation was officially tabled by Hill after the directors debated whether his motion should be included on the approved agenda for the meeting. The motion to rescind the agenda item failed, but Hill removed it himself later in the meeting by saying that it had been tabled. Hill told the Progress that since the board, with Director Doug Parks absent, had rejected his proposal for a food and beverage consultant, a decision on whether to defer the 20 percent discount policy would have to be pushed off to the new board that organizes in August or to the new general manager, whose first day on the job was scheduled for Sept. 11. Hill declined to comment on
whether he thought the 20 percent discounts contributed to losses at the Ocean Pines Yacht Club and Beach Club, when both amenities traditionally make money for the OPA. “Let a consultant with expertise in food and beverage weigh in,” Hill said, noting that neither he nor anyone else on the board has experience running restaurants. When he announced the 20 percent discount policy without formal board approval in March, Hill said that it was in lieu of a happy hour discount at the Yacht Club and would be in effect until further notice. It was in effect at the Yacht Club, the Country Club’s Tern Grill, the Beach Club and the Swim and Racquet Club. Critics said it was an unnecessary and counter-productive give-back to OPA members during the prime summer months when demand for the amenities is at its peak. The decision by Bailey to eliminate the discount, without the assistance of any consultant, was a vindication for its two outspoken
MARLENE OTT
critics, Directors Slobodan Trendic and Cheryl Jacobs. At the board’s April 24 work session, Trendic said any decision with a potentially huge impact on OPA finances and budget should have been cleared first by the board. He said the discount if it remained in effect throughout the summer could produce a potential revenue loss of more than $300,000 that could only be “made up by a 25 percent increase” in volume at the various Ocean Pines restaurant venues.
He said he doubted those volume increases were even possible. Trendic said that given the history of the Yacht Club’s financial performance, he said he was concerned about any policy change that further contracts the margins of revenue over cost that govern the success of any restaurant business. Trendic said the board was not informed of “the process the GM used” to arrive at the 20 percent figure and said he was “not comfortable” with it.
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OCEAN PINES
November 2017
Task force begins work drafting ethics policy Three current, two former directors named to board-established panel By TOM STAUSS Publisher task force that includes three sitting Ocean Pines Association directors and two former directors met in late October to begin a process that could lead to a drafting of an ethics policy for the Board of Directors. A follow-up meeting is set for Dec. 1. The panel includes directors Colette Horn, Tom Herrick and Ted Moroney, former directors Tom Terry and Jeff Knepper, and attorney Donna McElroy. The naming of Terry to the committee represents a re-emergence of the former OPA director and OPA president into Ocean Pines public life after a hiatus of a couple of years. The appointment of three sitting directors to the task force would appear to be significant, because if all three can agree on a new ethics policy, assuming it’s drafted, it would make it far more likely that additional votes could be found to adopt it. Knepper, a former practicing attorney, said that the task force would be successful if its objectives are supported by the board, but its activities would be “a waste of time” if the support isn’t there. Herrick, who has been feuding with another director, Slobodan Trendic, this past year, self-identified as a supporter of an ethics policy during the panel’s first meeting. He said that while he hoped it wouldn’t have to be
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12 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
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OCEAN PINES Ethics panel From Page 12
used, it needed to be in place. In the recent board vote establishing an ethics panel, Trendic said he hoped its scope could be expanded to include not only the board of directors, but the OPA administration and OPA employees. In an e-mail to the Progress, Horn said that while some committee members agree that “may be desirable,” the initial focus will be on drafting a resolution applicable to the board. Horn, whose motion to create the ethics panel was passed by the board in September, was quoted in a local weekly as saying the panel’s “next step” was to use “existing policies” as a blueprint to draft an OPA policy. In her e-mail, Horn clarified that the “next steps” will be to “decide on the content elements to be included in a draft resolution” based on discussion at the initial meeting, review of sample policies from other HOAs, “and to begin to create the structure that will best present the content.”
November 2017 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
OPA announces hiring of finance director
T
he Ocean Pines Association has named its new director of finance. The appointment was announced in a press release issued Nov. 6 Steve Phillips, a 19-year finance and accounting veteran, will be responsible for OPA budgeting, forecasting and accounting practices, maintenance of its fiscal records and the preparation and interpretation of financial reports. His first official day on the job is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 8. Phillips most recently has served as senior associate vice president for Finance and Operations for Harford Community College in Churchville, Md. For the previous eight years, he served as controller for Harford Community College, which operates a $50 million budget. He also has had the responsibility for operations, procurement and public safety at the community college. Campus operations include capital projects, facilities maintenance, grounds maintenance, events management and housekeeping. While with the community college, he helped with the development of Screech (a financial web-based portal), the implementation of control/performance audits, oversaw the annual financial audit, and cre-
ated a new cancellation process for non-payment. He is a member of the Maryland Association of Community College Business Officers and “his involvement in the aforementioned projects speaks to his abilities as a thinker and tactician,” according to the OPA press release. His previous work experience inSteve Phillips cluded managing and improving headquarters and staff financial planning and analysis processes for a chief administrative officer’s group, including monthly updates, quarterly operation reviews, five-year business plans, quarterly forecasts and ad-hoc requests. He also brings with him knowledge of preparing financial statements in accordance with the Government Accounting Standards Board, developing models and performing analytics on pricing and marketing programs, and making investment decisions in an effort to maximize profits. Phillips had held his licensure as a certified public accountant and received his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Loyola University and master’s degree in finance from Johns Hopkins University.
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OCEAN PINES
November 2017
Board directs general manager to study out-sourcing/leasing for Yacht Club, other OPA venues Trendic motion calls for Bailey to consult with professional food and beverage companies and individuals before making recommendation By TOM STAUSS Publisher irector Slobodan Trendic had intended to offer a motion at the Oct. 27 meeting of the
D
Board of Directors that would have directed the new general manager, John Bailey, to prepare a request for proposals from experienced restaurateurs that could have led to leas-
ing out the Ocean Pines Yacht Club. Rebuffed by his colleagues on that particular approach -- he said he wasn’t sure a leasing RFP would even have received a second for dis-
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cussion purposes -- Trendic came up with a motion short of a call for leasing but which still could lead to that outcome. His revised motion, passed 7-0 by the board, directed the general manager to conduct an assessment of all Ocean Pines food and beverage operations -- a focus on the Yacht Club was implied, given its high profile losses this past summer -- for the purpose of developing “a specific recommendation for improvements that are based on consultation with professional food and beverage companies and individuals.” The motion called for Bailey to present an assessment and recommendation to the board by a Dec. 31 deadline “with specific solutions including outsourcing/leasing options that will successfully eliminate future food and beverage operating losses.” Bailey has been working on such an assessment and recommendation and had intended to issue it to the board prior to the Oct. 27 meeting. But the Trendic motion specifically called for consultations with food and beverage experts, an added dimension to his study that Bailey later told the Progress will require more time at the same time it adds more depth to his assessment. Consultation with professional companies and inviduals with expertise in running restaurants was an important element of Trendic’s motion. He said his motion was consistent with the intent of the board during July meetings in which “the board conceptually agreed that an operational assessment was necessary ... and that local professionals be consulted.” Actually, the board took no action on hiring a consultant this summer because of a split among the directors on whether the consultants should be locally or regionally based. Former Acting General Manager Brett Hill had recommended a West Coast-based firm for the job, but three directors -- Trendic, Cheryl Jacobs and Pat Supik -- objected to bringing in experts from the other coast when there were plenty of local and regional options. Directors Tom Herrick and Dave Stevens backed Hill’s recommendation. Director Doug Parks, now OPA president, was agnostic on the issue, and Hill’s proposal failed to muster a majority of directors. Trendic’s latest effort is an ambitious one, as he is calling for solutions from Bailey that will generate q
14 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
OCEAN PINES Leasing/out-sourcing From Page 14
a net operating profit in the future for OPA’s restaurant amemities. Bailey’s assessment “will allow the Board and the General Manager to gain valuable information from professional companies and individuals” and will provide a “recommendation on a best overall business structure for our food and beverae operations,” Trendic said. “The intent ... is to provide a level of guarantee and performance measures to ensure that our food and beverage operations will generate a net operating profit in the future.” In a follow-up interview with the Progress, Trendic said that while he has not deviated from his personal conviction that the OPA “should not be in the food and beverage business,” his motion does not mandate that Bailey must arrive at that solution. Trendic said another option would be a management structure heavily incentivized with bonuses so that top management has “skin in the game” in operating the amenity for the OPA. But Trendic said he doubts that in the end any in-house operation, no matter how much skin in the
November 2017 Ocean Pines PROGRESS game top management might have, will ever be able to break even let alone produce the profit that his motion calls for. He said that the OPA has proven its inability to successfully run a restaurant at the Yacht Club over many years and decades. Many general managers think they have solutions to make it happen but then fall short in the execution. “We just have been unable to produce consistent quality and service, no matter who’s general manager or who’s been hired to run the place in-house,” Trendic said of the Yacht Club in particular. “What we’ve tried hasn’t worked, and there’s no reason to think that giving bonuses to top managers is going to change the culture.” So he said that he believes and hopes that Bailey will conclude that leasing is the best option. If the board acts quickly on such a recommendation, Trendic said at that point a request for proposals (RFP) can be drafted and a lessee chosen in time for a grand reopening of the Yacht Club this summer. Trendic said if the board opts for a leasing, he suspects that the Yacht Club, now on a two-day-aweek schedule, will close for sever-
al months to give a tenant operator time to revamp the downstairs and upstairs venues. “They probably wouldn’t want the place to be open while they make changes,” Trendic said. If Bailey and the board opt for in-house management, then Trendic said he suspected that the Yacht Club will remain open through March on the announced schedule of Friday and Saturday operation only. Last month, in announcing his intentions to offer a motion at the October board meeting for leasing, Trendic said that issuing an RFP for tenants wouldn’t necessarily commit the board to leasing. He has not wavered in his belief that leasing is the best option for the OPA. He said he ran for election in the summer of 2016 on that idea, and that he attempted to move in that direction last fall, only to run into resistance from board members. The result was that the Yacht Club, under the defacto control of acting manager Brett Hill this past year, is almost $250,000 in the red through August and about $325,000 behind budget, Trendic said. September numbers, due out the third week of October, will dig the hole even deeper, he said.
15
“We needed to lease it out last fall, but we didn’t do it,” he said. “Now the situation has only gotten much worse.” Trendic said that while much of the blame can be placed on Hill for the amenity’s poor financial performance, last year’s board – five of whom, including himself, remain directors – also bears some responsibility for tolerating one poor management decision after another. “We didn’t cut our losses, and we still haven’t,” Trendic said, adding that he doesn’t agree that waiting for Bailey to assess the situation in the hopes that he will have a solution is fair to him as a “newcomer” to Ocean Pines. “It’s a policy decision that needs to be made at the board level,” he said. “And we need to make the decision as soon as possible.” He said not making that decision and continuing to tolerate operating deficits while continuing to operate in-house means the board itself is complicit in the looming financial disaster. Since 2010, Trendic said that the Yacht Club has lost $1.4 million, before depreciation. The director said he fears that the $800,000 negative variance to budget through September will be used to justify higher assessments next year.
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16 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
OCEAN PINES
November 2017
OPA soliciting bids for trash collection Another three-year contract is up for grabs; new contract to take effect Jan. 1
By TOM STAUSS Publisher
I
t seems just like yesterday that the Ocean Pines Association awarded a three-year exclusive contract to Republic Services of Salisbury to collect trash in Ocean Pines on a twice-a-week pick-up schedule, including once-a-week collection of unsorted recyclables. The service currently costs residents a little more than $48 per quarter, or $16 per month. As if to prove the adage that time speeds up as we age, the OPA last month quietly issued a request for proposals for a new three-year trash collection contract. The RFP was not announced in a press release, but notice was given to the companies most likely to submit a bid for a new three-year contract. Republic Services will presumably want to keep its Ocean Pines customers, and Waste Management, the company that had the contract before Republic wrested it away in November of 2014, probably will want to have another go at Ocean Pines. Bids will be accepted by the OPA until 4 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 13, at which time bids will be publicly opened. Bids must be mailed or delivered to the General Manager’s office and received prior to the 4 p.m. deadline. In awarding the franchise for refuse and recycling collection, the Board of Directors will be considering fees to be charged to the customers, the demonstrated ability of the company to perform the required services over a three-year period based upon satisfactory performance in other similar communities, proof of ability to employ sufficient manpower and the ownership of adequate equipment to properly perform the required services, proof of insurability of the company, and willingness and ability to provide other services to customers on a fixed or no cost basis. The new contract will go into effect on Jan. 1. If the contract is awarded to a company other than Republic Services, there won’t be much time for the successful bidder to gear up. Three years ago, the decision to
award the contract to Republic over Waste Management generated considerable angst throughout Ocean Pines, especially among residents who had been unaware of the pending change in collection companies. One issue was how and when and at what cost new trash containers were to be supplied to customers, and on what schedule containers owned by the previous contractor were to be returned. The decision to award the contract to Republic three years ago was based on cost; it was the low bid. The Waste Management contract proposal called for roughly $50 more per customer per year over the old
rate. The OPA Board of Directors, in a 6-1 vote with Director Marty Clarke abstaining, awarded the trash collection contract to Republic Services during a Nov. 22, 2014, meeting. The motion for approval by Director Tom Terry made the selection contingent upon receiving an “acceptable contract” with the company, and authorized General Manager Bob Thompson to finalize that contract. Clarke said at the time that he abstained on the vote because he didn’t have enough information on the details of the contract prior to its vote on the matter.
The OPA received four bids for the new trash and recycling contract. The contract was structured so that residents would pay a total of $15.57 per month, $12.07 of trash collection and another $3.50 for recycling collection, billed on a quarterly schedule. The contract called for trash to be picked up twice a week and recycling once per week, the latter on the second day of regular weekly collection. The current contract, like the new one, does not require Ocean Pines residents to use the service; they’re free to take their trash to landfills in the county.
Bailey likely to recommend improving OPA message board General manager says he and the public relations director are working on a plan of action By TOM STAUSS Publisher hile not quite ready to show his hand on the status of the Ocean Pines Association’s realoceanpinesforum message board, it seems apparent that General Manager John Bailey is not preparing to eliminate it. He told the Progress in late October that he and the director of marketing and public relations, Denise Sawyer, are working on plans to improve the site. He said he expected to present a plan to the Board of Directors for action in November, within a 60-day deadline given to him by the board in September. At the Sept. 22 board meeting, during which one director was prepared to eliminate the site while another was gung-ho in preserving and improving it, OPA President Doug Parks struck a compromise. Parks and the board gave Bailey 60 days to come up with a recommendation on what to do with it. Unveiled during the previous presidency of Director Tom Herrick and by former Acting General Manager Brett Hill, realoceanpinesforum was designed as a site where OPA members could go to get official answers to their questions. During a board orientation meeting Sept. 22, Herrick was the director who seemed most favorably disposed to preserving the site. He suggested that the OPA do “a bit better” in promoting it so more members would use it for its intended purpose.
W
When Parks opened a discussion about the OPA’s official message board, Director Slobodan Trendic told his colleagues that they should “do away with it.” He said there’s little indication that members are visiting the site and the privately owned oceanpinesforum.com fulfills the function intended by the OPA’s message board. After Herrick reminded the board of the message board’s original purpose, he asked Bailey his impression so far of how well it fulfills that purpose. Bailey’s take was that “regular communication” such as press releases, e-mail blasts, or personal e-mail is the way that most OPA members get answers to their questions. “It rarely gets used,” he said of realoceanpinesforum. “We should either promote it or let it go by the wayside.” He said he and his staff could “do some data digging” to determine the actual number of posts by those seeking answers to questions compared to the number of posts uploaded to the site by OPA staff. He said staff posts are generally disseminated to the membership by other means. Herrick said the advantage of the message board is that information that might be disseminated only to someone asking a question gets posted online and thereby is available to more people. “It’s an answer that other people might see,” he said. At that point in the discussion, Parks suggested To Page 19
November 2017 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
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OCEAN PINES
November 2017
Comprehensive Plan committee wants new GM to finalize survey questions Left in limbo by previous board, questionnaire could be resurrected and sent to property owners By TOM STAUSS Publisher eft in limbo by the previous Board of Directors, a community survey that the Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee has been working on for more than a year may finally make it to the finish line. At a meeting of the board Nov. 27, committee chair Frank Daly said the committee believes that it should be the new general manager, John Bailey, who breaks a logjam between the board and the committee on arriving at a final draft for the community survey. While it seems that a board majority agreed with that recommendation, some directors expressed interest in remaining in the loop before a finalized survey is sent out to property owners (and possibly renters). Director Colette Horn requested a copy of the latest draft after Daly made a presentation to the board about a new direction that the committee wants to take [see separate article in this edition of the Progress for details] and mentioned the survey. Horn repeated her request for a copy, and OPA President Doug Parks said he was sure a copy would be provided to Horn and any other director who wanted one. Presumably, any director with suggestions on amending, adding to, or eliminating questions could forward them to Bailey.
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The possible resurrection of the community survey was encouraged by Director Slobodan Trendic, the committee’s new board liaison, who recently replaced former Director Dave Stevens in that role. By all accounts, Trendic seems to have kindled an effective working relationship with Daly and his committee that had foundered under Stevens. Stevens was not an enthusiastic supporter of the survey, and Daly and his committee made no secret of the fact that they were frustrated by the lack of progress on the survey this past year. There continues to be some debate about whose court -- the board’s or the committee’s -- the latest draft of the survey resides. Daly said he and his committee had been awaiting final board action on the survey for months, to no avail. Several opportunities for mailing the survey out to OPA members passed with no board action. Committee members had discussed the possibility of mailing it out with assessments in February or March and then with the OPA election materials in July. When neither occurred, it became increasingly obvious that the questionnaire wouldn’t be sent out during the term of of Stevens, who retired from the board in early August. He was the only director who seemed to indicate interest in send-
ing out the survey this past year. And even his enthusiasm had worn very thin as the end of his term approached. He informed the Progress that aside from a steady drumbeat of questions hurled his way by one reporter, no one had asked him about the status of the survey. He declined to refute the idea that the questionnaire wass dead from lack of interest, because no board action had been taken. He acknowledged that it wouldn’t be him who would decide. Perhaps some future board liaison to the committee would be more successful in making his colleagues interested in the survey, he said. In the meantime, the committee didn’t seem very motivated to encourage the board to take action on the survey, which is part of a process the committee began some time ago to update the OPA’s outdated comprehensive plan. Survey results were to be incorporated into an updated plan’s final text, but that, too, was on hold. “The committee hasn’t met in some time,” Stevens noted this past July, adding that he didn’t know when it will meet again. One of the hang-ups with the endeavor involves what to do with the data once it’s collected. Stevens said he’s put that question to Daly who Stevens said had not really come up with an answer. Back in June, Stevens said he was close to concluding that the best way
to compile the results, including ancillary comments offered by some of the respondents, was to hire a professional outfit like the Zogby Group to handle it. Frank Daly “The question is how to you interpret the answers,” Stevens said, adding that unless the board is willing to go the Zogby route, he didn’t see how the issue of interpretation would be addressed. But Stevens said that he was reluctant to implement the Zogby option because there hadn’t been a lot of interest among the directors to proceed with the survey. “People (board members) don’t really understand what the survey results with be used for,” Stevens said, adding that he was well aware that the results would assist the committee in drafting a new long-range comprehensive plan for Ocean Pines. As for educating the board on the need for a survey, Stevens said he thought it was in the “committee’s court” to persuade the board of the need for the survey and come up with a way to compile and interpret the results in a meaningful way. Stevens said the previous board was not convinced that the survey questions as drafted would yield meaningful results and he himself said that “I’m not crazy” about the draft. “But it’s good enough.” Whether it’s good enough for Bailey and new board members remains to be seen.
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Steen project earns final county approval mendation on projects it deems significant. The Triple Crown Estates development, located at the southern terminus of King Richard Road in Ocean Pines’ Sherwood Forest sec-
tion (Section 10) and north of Gum Point Road, has been on the drawing boards in various iterations for more than ten years. Literally years were consumed in obtaining state Critical Area Com-
mission approvals. Less than robust market conditions have also contributed to delays in rolling out development of the new Ocean Pines residential section. The development consists of 30 two-family lots that, at full buildout, will translate into 60 housing units. Steen intends to build 30 duplexes on each of the lots. Each duplex unit will be roughly 2500 square
TRIPLE CROWN TOWNHOMES
Message board From Page 16
that Bailey get back to the board in 60 to 90 days with a formal recommendation. Bailey, whose management experience before coming to Ocean Pines was concentrated in Virginia, said the commonwealth’s homeowner association law requires “member to member” communication on HOA Web sites. He said he wanted to check into whether there is a similar requirement in Maryland. The OPA message board does not currently allow for direct member-to-member communication unfiltered through the OPA. Parks suggested that Bailey, in developing his recommendation to the board on the fate of realoceanpinesforum, should consult with the OPA’s Communications Advisory Committee. The committee was not asked to comment on the message board before Hill introduced it earlier this year, having previously expressed reservations about the idea when former General Manager Bob Thompson had considered the idea. When Herrick suggested that better promotion might generate more interest in it, Parks again urged Bailey to have a recommendation to the board in about 60 days.
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By TOM STAUSS Publisher eveloper Marvin Steen’s 60unit residential planned community that eventually will become a new section of Ocean Pines has received its final county approval. The Worcester County Planning Commission voted to approve the final site plan and plat for Triple Crown Estates during its monthly meeting Nov. 2 in Snow Hill. The vote was unanimous. The Worcester County Technical Review Committee, made up of county permitting and regulatory staff, conducted a final plat and construction plan review on Wednesday, Oct. 11, during its regular monthly meeting. Construction plans in Worcester County are approved at the Technical Review Committee level and generally do not need to go to the county’s planning commission when the final plat is in conformance with the approved preliminary plat. But the TRC reserves the right to send final approval to the planning commission with a favorable recom-
November 2017 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
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OCEAN PINES
November 2017
Steen project From Page 19
feet, plus a garage, attached to another unit of the same size. Steen plans to build duplexes as they are sold to homeowners, as opposed to building them all at one time. The approval by the county planning commission means he can begin marketing units to the general public. Some of the infrastructure is already in place. Several years ago, a wastewater force main was extended from the Ocean Downs Racetrack and casino complex on Route 589 under Turville Creek and through the Steen property, where it then ran under King Richard Road to an existing wastewater force main on Ocean Parkway in Ocean Pines. King Richard Road residents, enduring several months of difficult driving conditions, were rewarded with a new resurfaced road that was an upgrade from the original tar and chip street. King Richard Road will be the only regular access road into Triple Crown Estates. An existing dirt road that runs to the property from Route
589 will be accessible for emergencies only. With final plat approval, Steen is now free to begin installing an extension of King Richard Road to serve his subdivision. Work on that and installation of utilities is expected to begin next spring, according to Steen. Water, electric, and fiber optic Internet, purportedly through an agreement with ThinkBig Networks, will be installed as part of the project. In an agreement that dates back to the early 2000s, Steen has agreed to have his property effectively annexed into Ocean Pines. Buyers of the duplex units would be full-fledged members of the Ocean Pines Association, with access to all of Ocean Pines’ amenities. The Ocean Pines Association will receive $6500 per unit at closing as part of that agreement. It essentially is a cost passed on to future property owners allowing Triple Crown Estates to become part of the Ocean Pines community, enabling property owners to access the full complement of OPA amenities and services.
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Lenny Price celebrated his 90th birthday in September and was honored by the Pinesteppers Square Dance Club of Ocean Pines. He has been square dancing for many years and is a valued member of the Pinesteppers. He was presented with a proclamation by Dennis O’Neal, club caller, and received a special t-shirt displaying a square dance emblem and the words “Friendship Set to Music.”
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axe fell as soon as it did. The new board reorganized itself with an election of ofNovember OceanAug. Pines22.PROGRESS 21 fices 2017 in a meeting H three options. tors who voted for it, Jack Collins, was ill’s motion to go into closed session He said the extended season -Newly elected director Brett Hill, who defeated in his election bid this summer, on Aug. 26 after the open session made offered the motion to go into closed ses- with his contract extension vote a possi- opening earlier and staying open no mention of possible termination. into October -- along with night sion, in prepared remarks explaining his ble contributing factor. Trendic told the Progress several motion said that five board members reAlso voting for the extension was dining hours produced losses at the days after the decision to terminate was cently had discovered “many disturbing Dave Stevens, who wasn’t on the ballot oceanfront amenity that historically made that “absolutely” there was no infactors surrounding the handling of the this year but isn’t known as a Thompson has been an OPA cash cow. tention or expectation by the board maGM bonus (for the 2015-15 fiscal year),” fan. Both Collins and Stevens explained Director TedTrendic, Moroney said and that jority of Herrick, Stevens as well as “adjustments already made to their votes as the best deal possible for Bailey, in developing his revenue Hill that Thompson’s contract would be this year’s budget related to the bonus the OPA given that, at the time, there projections for amenities such as the terminated in the closed session Aug. 26. clauses” that would have made it much was a solid majority of pro-Thompson di- Beach Club and Yacht Club, should He and other directors declined an Board, panel discuss ways to restore realism to OPA budget easier for Thompson to earn a bonus re- rectors who could have renegotiated the average them out over three years, email invitation by the Progress to dislated to amenity performance this year. contract operations. to make it even more lucrative budget now in its initial develop- normal cuss and why the decisionremoved to terwithhow anomalous results Hill in his explanation said that the for Thompson. the contract occurred, citing the ment phase. “We had a 20 percent unbudgeted minate from the equation. board “has an obligation to discuss a Stevens was participating in the dentiality of closed meetings. “No wild guesses,” he said. discount (in place since last winter),” confiOPA Director and Treasurer Pat more objective measure of bonus calcu- meeting via telephone, and said later OPA Director Slobodan Trendic she said, implicitly suggesting that Supik said that amenities are someThe press release announcing the lation, so a notification of a (reopened) he might have voted differently had he agreed, thatwould the be B&F Comshould be part of next year’s times budgeted unrealistically “to said only that the contract was contractnoting negotiation in the best it been at thenot person to hash out the de- decision mittee much against fact, Bailey at the board’s made throw revenues”meaning to helpthat balance foroff convenience, the interestwas of all“very parties to avoid furtheragis- budget. tails of aIn renegotiation. gressive revenue projections” incor- regular monthly meeting Oct.and 27 board a budget with no alleging lot assessment majority was not any sort sues in future years.” Elections have consequences, porated in the current fiscal year’s announced that the 20 percent dis“rather than what the wrong-doing on Thompson’s part that A decision to revisit the contract by with the election of Hill and Slobodan ofincreases, budget approved last February. to the mem- would community needs.” impression have justifi ed a The termination for the Aug. 31 deadline would have opened counts Trendic available it was apparent thatOPA Thompson said that such for aggressive of Nov. given by that remark is that Supik a He two-month window the boardrevand bership no longerwere had ending a solid as majority of 1.sup- cause. The be termination forsupport convenience Suffice it to say they won’t be res- won’t enue projections should be avoided reluctant to an asThompson to renegotiate, something porters on the board. that Thompson will reap a generprobably have urrected Indeed,next there was an expectation means year. inthat nextThompson year’s budget andwould that “solsessment increase next year if Baiincluding salary in April, he amenity offered to in After the community that,OPA at some point, ous Assistant Treasuridwelcomed. businessBack plans” for each leyseverance proposespackage, one. benefits for nine months, drop amenity-based incentives in er Thompson’s contract probably would be andDirector Gene Ringsdorf inquired about should be includedbonus in the budget, Cheryl Jacobs although said she he no longerthat will the be eligible exchange traditional for a more predictable incen- the terminated the new board. In from pub- apparently actual by dollar amount lost another recommendahad “real concerns” budget bonuses. tiveof package, butcommittee. the board at the time the lished accounts, himself discount -- Thompson the number wassaid not for tion the B&F forany next year will rely heavily on the Nine months salary works out to voted 6-1 toColette extend Horn, the contract for an- immediately he was expecting the board--to O’Connor move in a current Director in addition available year’s of anomalous results. for work that need not be three the yearscall without change. new direction. toother echoing to avoid “overly jumped in to blame some of the cu- $123,750 Trendic added that he hopedperthe formed. New anointed OPA President Tom Thompson served six years as generoptimistic” revenue projections, said mulative operating fund deficit so board and Bailey would learn from The veil over deliberations in closed Herrick was the only director to vote al manager, and that’s well within the the OPA should also avoid reducing far this year on projected revenues the current year’s budget, noting against the extension. One of the direc- average time of service for managers of revenues unnecessarily from what at the Beach Club that didn’t mate- that some budgetary initiatives To Page 22 might otherwise be generated by rialize.
Stevens motion passes 4-3, over Jacobs’ ‘emotional’ objections; Brett Hill named acting GM
By TOM STAUSS ByPublisher TOM STAUSS Publisherclosed meeting that began with somewhat surprising the intended purpose of consenreviewing sus seems to be emerging on General Manager Bob Thomphow to curtail or even elimson’s employment contract, including inate Association’s whatthe oneOcean directorPines described as “disturbburgeoning budget deficit. ing factors” involving a $30,900 bonus The target: unrealistic, overly for better-than-budgeted amenity financial performance, ended up with aforehighoptimistic amenity revenue ly contentious 4-3 plagued vote to terminate the casts, which have OPA polcontract and employment icy-makers for Thompson’s decades, some years withthan the Ocean Pines Association. more others. Over the years, Director Brett was declared chosen by policy-makers haveHilloften the aversion board majority to scenarios serve as interim their to rosy only acting general manager pending to or adopt budgets that included them. a search for a replacement. OPA General Manager John BaiAt a special meeting of the Board ley in a conversation with the Progof Directors Aug. 26, the directors votress shortly after arriving on the ed 5-2, with directors Pat Renaud and job in September said unrealistic Cheryl Jacobs dissenting, to go into revenue stood out in his closed projections session to discuss Thompson’s mind as a primary reason the curcontract, which had been extended for rent fiscal year’s financial perforthree years on April 28. mance is so outatofthe whack from the Undisclosed time the contract approved budget. extension was made public was a proAt a special meeting of the Board vision that allows the “new board” – in of this Directors and the Budget and case, the board that had three Finew nance Advisory Committee 25, members as a result of this Oct. summer’s OPA clear election – toothers revisithave the contract exit was that come to tension, to renegotiate it or terthe same whether conclusion. minate it, or keep it in forceO’Connor as written. Committee chair John contract specified an recent Aug. 31 said The actual revenues from deadline for be making on of the years should used aasdecision the basis revenue projections in the 2018-19
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B&F committee suggests less aggressive amenity revenue projections
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November 2017
Aquatics Committee reaffirms recommendation in support of Sports Core training/party room Urges board to proceed with addition during current fiscal year By TOM STAUSS Publisher t doesn’t happen very often, but the Aquatics Advisory Committee during its Oct. 9 monthly meeting actually took a position seemingly at odds with Aquatics Director Colby Phillips on a proposed project near and dear to her heart. Committee members were told that Phillips, who was not at the meeting, was reluctantly “putting on hold” her recommendation to proceed with a party/training room addition to the indoor Sports Core pool . The room addition is funded in the current 2017-18 budget in an amount not to exceed $225,000. Taken aback by the apparent retreat, committee members of the committee said they continued to support construction of the training/ party room because they, like Phillips, believe it would be a financial boon to the aquatics department. They said they continue to believe it should be funded and built in the current fiscal year, noting that
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Aquatics appears to be on a path of generating a substantial operating surplus this year. In a follow-up e-mail to the Progress, Phillips said she continues to believe the room should be built during the current fiscal year. But she said she also understands that the Public Works Department, which would be involved in the room’s construction, has many demands on its time. She said that if Public Works can’t get to the project this year, she would be inclined to support including the training/party room in the 2018-19 budget currently being drafted by the administration. Phillips said she is awaiting word from General Manager John Bailey on whether there’s time in the schedule to do the project during the current fiscal year. Although the proposed party/training room is budgeted at $225,000, Phillips has said it could be built for roughly $80,000, with the outer shell built by a contractor and the interior built out by the
Public Works Department. The room would be added to a small area of the concrete decking nearest to Veterans Memorial Park. The original plan was to build a roughly 1,000 square room to the side of the existing Sports Pool enclosure this past summer, at less than $100,000, but Acting General Manager Brett Hill proposed the expansion of the existing enclosure out towards the Ocean Pines library at a cost of roughly $225,000. That $225,000 was included in the OPA capital budget for the current fiscal year approved last February. When Phillips and the Public Works staff later checked out pricing with Structures Unlimited, the New England-based company that built the pool enclosure about ten years ago, the cost of the expansion had ballooned to more than $400,000 from the original estimate. Phillips and Hill no longer were supportive of the more expensive enclosure, and Phillips then reverted to support of the smaller, far less expensive room as a more prudent
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alternative. The delay and indecision, however, had effectively killed off any chance that the smaller room could be built this past summer. It probably would take action by Bailey to jumpstart the project. Because it’s budgeted, selling it to the Board of Directors might not be all that difficult. The original rationale for the party/training remains, according to committee members, who said that Phillips had made a compelling case that prviate parties and an after-school program that her staff has wanted to implement would more than pay for the modest construction cost of the proposed room. The room would also be used for classes that train lifeguards. By consensus, the committee reaffirmed its support for the party/ training room. It appears that Phillips is retreatTo Page 26
Revenue projections From Page 21 “produced good results, some did not.” He said he hoped that Bailey would recognize what changes were effective and which were not, “so we don’t make the same mistakes” in the 2018-19 budget. OPA President Doug Parks seemed receptive to Moroney’s three-year-average and no-anomalies approach, and Moroney summed the consensus by adding that the OPA shouldn’t “get too out front of revenues on a hope and a wink.” O’Connor expressed the hope that management take steps to reduce “staffing expense that continues to go up and up,” acknowledging the difficulties caused by the higher minimum wages and benefit costs that keep increasing. O’Connor said salary increases should be awarded on the basis of merit, not to exceed three percent for any employee. Trendic offered an alternative to the three percent recommendation, suggesting that salaried positions be given year-end bonuses rather than a more or less guaranteed three percent raise that then built into the salary and benefits structure. He said that hourly positions could continue to earn merit raises. “I’m not in favor of senior staff getting three percent raises,” Trendic said. “Bonuses are one-time, while salaries and benefits keep going up by a percentage.”
November 2017 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
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November 2017
November 2017 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
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OCEAN PINES
November 2017
Aquatics Committee From Page 22
Junior golf campers
Participants in this past summer’s camp for junior golfers are pictured on the practice putting green at the Ocean Pines golf course, with the ninth hole in the background.
and the Hammerheads competing for space, scheduling has become a challenge. Phillips, emphasizing that she was not in a position to advocate or recommend a new indoor pool, said a dedicated lap pool adjacent to the existing amenity has long been a dream of hers. During the Oct. 9 meeting, members were generally supportive of the idea of an additional pool but suggested that a removable bubble over the Swim and Racquet Club pool be considered as a lower cost alternative. A bubble would require winterization of the clubhouse to make it usable year-round.
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Junior golf gaining ground at Ocean Pines Golf Club ‘Family’ tees introduced to accommodate those new to the sport
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ecord-breaking participation and support from local organizations this past year has meant that more young golfers are enjoying the sport in Ocean Pines than ever before. The cornerstone of the junior golf program – summer golf camp – has continued to grow over the past five years. The camp’s blend of instruction, food and fun has paid off. This past summer, 131 golfers participated in four sessions of the four-day camps, the most ever. In fact, all four sessions sold out. Ocean Pines Golf Club also offers junior clinics in the fall and spring. The clinics have also proven popular, necessitating additional sessions to accommodate the demand. Ocean Pines PGA Director of Golf John Malinowski said he’s seen a change in the people participating in junior golf programs. “I’ve noticed that more parents are signing kids up for clinics and camps because they’re excited about seeing them involved in golf itself, not just because they’re looking for a summer activity,” he said. The rise in junior participation at the course has created a need for
more equipment, something that local golf groups have been eager to support. “This past year, Ocean Pines Golf Club received nine sets of junior golf clubs for use with our programs. The Ocean Pines Ladies’ Golf Association, the Ocean Pines Golf Members’ Council and individual golf members donated sets as well as money to purchase additional sets,” Malinowski said. “Our golf members have seen the growing interest in junior golf at Ocean Pines and have truly been instrumental in helping our programs grow.” Malinowski also received a $2,500 grant this year from the Professional Golfers’ Association Middle Atlantic Joint Player Development and Junior Golf committees to enable Ocean Pines to continue to grow the game of golf and introduce it to new players. The grant was awarded specifically to purchase SNAG (“Starting New at Golf”) equipment, which features oversized clubs and balls and other teaching aids designed to simplify golf for those who haven’t played before as well as introduce a q
ing from other capital projects that the committee has supported in recent months. Because of concerns about finding sufficient guard staff, she said will not be including a new baby pool at the Swim and Racquet Club in her capital request for next year. She remains unsure about including heaters for the Swim and Racquet Club pool in next year’s budget. Pool heaters would allow use of the pool earlier and later in the season, but Phillips is concerned about having enough guard staff to handle the additional hours pool heaters would enable. The department was caught short this past summer when illness and early departures to colleges left it short-staffed. The committee also briefly discussed a recommendation by Ocean Pines Swim Team Coach Brooks Ensor at the committee’s meeting in September that the OPA look into the possibility of building a new eight- to ten-lane indoor swimming pool adjacent to the Sports Core pool. The purpose of the new facility, Ensor said, would be to better accommodate year-round swim team activity and to address increased “prime time” congestion at the Sports Core pool, which he defined as the hours from 3:30 to 8 p.m. He said a 25 yard by 25 yard enclosed pool would be large enough for a ten-lap pool. In addition to the Ocean Pines swim team, the Stephen Decatur High School swim team practices most afternoons from November until February from about 3:45 to 5 p.m. With other swim programs
OCEAN PINES
November 2017 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
New platform tennis courts to open for play Nov. 28 Ribbon-cutting ceremony, free use offered on opening day
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he Ocean Pines Association will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its newest addition to the Manklin Meadows Racquet Sports Complex on Tuesday, Nov. 28, at 11 a.m., marking the grand opening of two new platform tennis courts, long awaited by the Ocean Pines racquet sports community. “This project will have an extraordinary and permanent impact on Worcester County and our community by promoting and enhancing the quality of area athletic programming,” Aquatics and Recreation Director Colby Phillips said in an OPA press release. “Our residents and guests deserve to have top-notch sports facilities and that is what Ocean Pines will continue to deliver.” Ocean Pines will offer free platform tennis play from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the day of the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Instructors will offer beginner courses starting at 9 a.m. Free registration for the beginner courses will be available at the welcome table at the entrance of the recreation complex located just off Manklin Creek Road in South Ocean
Junior golf From Page 26
fun element for those already familiar with the game. The course’s junior golf offerings, however, go beyond clinics and camps. For the first time ever, the Ocean Pines Golf Club has added two sets of “family” tees, which offer a shorter playing alternative for juniors, for those just learning to play the sport, or for those whose is more suited to an “executive golf course” experience. According to Malinowski, regular tees can present too much of a challenge for developing players. “You wouldn’t, for example, put a little kid in the batter’s box against a major league pitcher. The reduced yardage of the family tees makes our championship course accessible to and fun for players of all abilities,” he said. The new tees, identified with orange and green golf ball tee markers, range in distance from 65 yards to 250 yards per hole for the shorter set and 85 yards to 300 yards for the slightly longer set.
Pines. The event will include a live radio broadcast, food and remarks from several community leaders, including Ocean Pines Association General Manager John Bailey, Phillips, Ocean Pines Director of Marketing and Public Relations Denise Sawyer and members of the Ocean Pines Platform Tennis Association. The $93,800 project was approved by the Ocean Pines Board of Directors at a July 28
regular board meeting. Director Doug Parks, now OPA president, moved to accept the bid submitted by Total Platform Tennis, an Ohio-based platform tennis court construction company. The project had the support of all seven directors. Platform tennis is an American racquet sport enjoyed by thousands of people of all ages and is said to be the only racquet sport that players can enjoy outdoors in cold weather. The game, which combines elements of tennis and racquetball, is played on a court about one-third the size of a tennis court surrounded by 12-foot fencing that allows play off the screens. Another benefit of a platform tennis membership in Ocean Pines is the option of playing timeless tennis. Those who are no longer comfortable playing on a regular-size tennis court are invited to try the sport, which has attracted a number of players. The game is played on the racquet complex’s platform tennis courts using tennis racquets and low-compression balls. The screens surrounding each of the courts help keep the balls within reach. “It is exciting to think of the potential of programs to come to the new courts as well as more opportunity for member and resident-use,” Phillips said.
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OCEAN PINES
November 2017
Annual Ocean Pines golf event combines fun and fundraising match” to its many enthusiastic supporters – was the brainchild of Ocean Pines golf member and resident Ernie Stiles, who wanted to introduce a fun event at the course similar to some he had experienced up north. “The whole intention was just to have fun with it,” Stiles said. He
said he wanted players to enjoy some beer, play some golf and “bust and heckle” each other. The nine-hole tournament, held in early September, is played as a “skins” game with 36 two-person teams competing against each other. The lowest score on each hole wins a “skin,” or a small amount of prize
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Ocean Pines golfer Ernie Stiles poses with the coveted Bavarian Hops Match hat.
money. If there’s a tie, then no skin is won on that hole and the money stays in the pot for subsequent skins. The field the first year was 18 players, but word spread and demand quickly grew, so much so that by the event’s third year the number of participants was capped out at 72 players and a waiting list became necessary. Stiles emphasized, though, that the purpose of the tournament is less about winning money and more about having a good time. He commented that over the years skins winners have even foregone their prize money and given it to the tournament’s designated charities instead. Although the Bavarian Hops match wasn’t originally conceived as a fundraiser, in the event’s third year Stiles decided to donate the proceeds to his young neighbor, who was battling cancer at the time. The money raised helped the family with travelling and other expenses. In subsequent years, money has been donated to local organizations Diakonia and the Worcester County Humane Society, chosen, Stiles said, because he wanted to ensure that 100 percent of the money donated would be used for charitable purposes. This year, two national charities – the ALS Association and the Cancer Research Institute – were chosen as recipients of the monies raised in honor of Ocean Pines Golf Club members Chuck Shelton, who q
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hat started out 12 years ago as a fun afternoon of golf for local players has evolved into an annual event that has raised over $20,000 for charitable organizations. A much-anticipated tournament at Ocean Pines Golf Club, the Bavarian Hops Match – or the “beer
OCEAN PINES Golf event From Page 28
is battling ALS, and Stiles himself, who is battling cancer. Stiles’ cancer fight left him with little energy to organize this year’s match, so fellow golf club members Don McMullen, Bob Long and Walt Lischak took over the reins, including selecting the charities. Donations to the two organizations totaled $3,793 this year, bringing the total amount of money donated to charity over the years to $21,869. The money comes from tournament entry fees as well as from player and non-player donations. For example, Berlin Interventional Pain Management physician Dr. Christopher Galuardi and his wife, Judi, donate $1000 annually to the event. Although they don’t play in the tournament, their love of animals and the Worcester County Humane Society initially led them to support its fundraising efforts, which they learned about from Stiles’ wife, Debbie, who worked in their office. Other fun elements – which also help to raise money for charity –
November 2017Ocean Pines PROGRESS have been added to the Bavarian Hops Match, such as a chipping contest, a 50/50 raffle and a closest-tothe-pin contest on one of the holes. That’s where tournament participants, spouses and friends also gather for snacks, drinks and socializing. An after-party, this year held at Ocean Pines Golf Club’s newly renovated Tern Grille with over 100 attendees, follows the tournament with dinner and awards. For the first time ever, there was no skins winner this year on any of the nine holes. Ocean Pines golf member Connie Phipps won the closest-to-the pin contest and the right to wear the coveted hat that Stiles and his wife picked up at a store on the Ocean City boardwalk. Although Stiles had to bow out of the planning of the 2017 match, he’s already thinking ahead to next year . He was a fixture at this year’s 16th hole closest-to-the-pin party, where he got to greet all of the players and join in what the tournament does best – offer an afternoon of good-natured competition and fun among friends.
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Crafter of the month
Nancy Jarvis was the Pine’eer Craft Club’s crafter of the month in October. She’s a self taught artisan whose love of crafting began as a small child making and decorating mud pies. Much later she enjoyed making decorative items of dried & silk flowers. Then 13 years ago, she & her husband moved to Ocean Pines. A new media presented itself -- seashells. She created wreaths, mirrors, and jewelry out of shells and several years ago began making 2-3 D collage pictures from jewelry.
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Mattress Firm - Ulta Beauty - Pam’s Hallmark
30 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
November 2017
Environmental committee encourages OPA to oppose wind farm off coast of Ocean City13 Panel wants to push “turning turbines” to at least 26 miles off-shore so they won’t be visible from the beach Wood Duck Isle properties mittee expressed their opposition of the shoreline, will be an eyesore By ROTA L. KNOTT the construction of a wind energy and could negatively affect the Contributing Writer identified forto emergency he winds of change are blow- farm proposed by U.S. Wind offshore OPA’s Beach Club and, therefore, its ing off the coast of Ocean City, from Ocean City, and encouraged the property owners. Neither Wolf nor bulkhead Janasek argued against the wind but not everyone is willing replacement to Board of Directors to do the same. January 2017 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
The board took no action give up the pristine water view from immediate Worm infestation requires action, Hill sayson the the Ocean Pines Association’s Beach issue at that meeting. a holiday in the waterfront differential, tial outlays required in the future, Hill Kenneth Wolf, Environment and Club in favor of a vista dotted with an idea advocated by Director Slobodan seemed to be saying that any waterfront Natural Commitdozens of turning turbines. During Trendic in the absence of a new multi- differentialAssets holidayAdvisory would potentially be and Tom Janasek, the comments segment of an atee yearpublic bulkhead replacement program. big chairman, mistake. The program is now committee Indeed, hemember, has not backed of that both off said the Oct. 27original Board 35-year of Directors meeting, approaching lightwhich of thecould recently completwind in farm, have up to members of year the 40. OPA’s Environment view With evidence of a worm infesta- ed survey of bulkheading throughout 140 turbines located 13will miles and Assets Advisory Com- Ocean tion, Natural and with the potential of substanPines. But otherwithin directors be
mental merits, only on its potential we don’t have a bulkhead plan, to “If create visual and financial imhow do we justifying taking the money?” pacts for the members He of the he asked his colleagues. saidOPA. that if Janasek wasbulkheads first to the microWood Duck Isle are in such poor condition becausecomments, of worms, “let’s phone during public saydocument it” beforeiscollecting money ing the committee “wholeheartedthat may not be needed. ly” opposed to the wind farm as it is
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weighing in on the matter once the written report on the condition of the bulkheads is provided to them After Hill made his comments about the “scary proposition” facing the OPA with respect to bulkheads, Trendic continued to insist that Hill needed to present clear, convincing evidence of need before the OPA continued to collect monfarm based on any specific environey from waterfront owners.
currently designed. “If you’re laying on the beach at Ocean Pines Beach Club, which is our number one asset, all you’re going to see are those windmills. I mean you’re gonna see them. It’s gonna be an eyesore,” he said. Wolf, who is also president of the Assateague Coastal Trust, expounded on the committee’s opposition to the proposed project, which is touted as a clean energy initiative. “Our committee has become concerned that the planned wind farm development off the coast of Ocean City as currently conceived could have a serious negative impact on Ocean Pines Association property owners as well the majority of county residents and businesses,” he told the board. He cited a North Carolina University study that found wind farms have a negative impact on coastal tourism. In that study, 54 percent of tourists surveyed said they would not rent a vacation home in an area if turbines were in view no matter how large of discount was offered on the rental price. Another 26 percent of respondents said they would need discounts in order to agree to rent a vacation property if windfarms were located offshore but within sight. However, if turbines were located closer than 12 miles from the shoreline, the discounts required for vacationers to rent a home were so high as to be completely unrealistic, Wolf said. By applying these findings to the local situation, Ocean Pines property owners could be negatively affected in several ways, including having their view from the Beach Club impeded by turbines and a reduction in property value for the oceanfront facility. If the Beach Club property is less desirable, it will accordingly be less valuable to property owners, Wolf argued. “A material decrease in occupancy in Ocean City could have a direct and cascading economic effects on the economic health of Ocean City, Ocean Pines, and the county as a whole,” he said. A downturn in tourism because the of presence of the offshore wind farm could result n job losses and tax base reductions due to failing and stressed businesses. That impact would ripple through the OPA and beyond, Wolf said. That could also result in reduction in property values in Ocean City, Ocean Pines, and elsewhere in the county. Wolf said the turbines proposed To Page 32
November Ocean Pines November2017 2016Ocean Pines PROGRESS PROGRESS
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31 29
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
November 2017
Board approves committee refocus on St. Martin River Panel to host May event highlighting ways residents can improve water quality By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer ith water quality in the St. Martin River in dire need of improvement, the Ocean Pines Association is shifting the focus of one of its standing advisory committees to cleaning up waterway a priority. The Board of Directors during its Oct. 27 monthly meeting unanimously approved on second reading revisions to the charge of the Environment and atural Assets Advisory Committee as included in OPA resolution C-10. The new language calls on the committee to lead the effort to improve the health of waterways surrounding Ocean Pines, particularly the St. Martin River. Director Pat Supik offered a motion to accept on second reading amendments to resolution C-10 to include as the committee’s principal ongoing focus the health of water surrounding Ocean Pines, with primary concentration on the St. Martin’s River. It also makes the first function of the committee helping maintain the health of the waterways. The motion to amend Resolution C-10 had a first reading without change at the regular board meeting on Sept. 29. In arguing for approval of the motion, Supik said the St. Martin’s River has the worst rating of any body of water in the coastal bays, at a D+, and is continuing to decline. “Declining to an F would have financial, quality of life, and even
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Wind farm From Page 30 off the coast of Ocean City by U.S. Wind will be as close as nine miles off shore. The structures are 570 feet above sea level and would be visible from the beach when any closer than 26 miles. “Therefore, they will be clearly visible both day and night due to the myriad of warning lights that are required,” he said. Unfortunately, Wolf said, the wind farm seems to be headed toward realization in 2020. “We can see no ongoing benefit to Ocean Pines or the county to justify such
health consequences for the residents of Ocean Pines. The river has no current champion; it is in the best interest of Ocean Pines residents that the Environment Committee make its primary focus the health of the St. Martin’s River,” she said. Director Ted Moroney gave a second to the motion. The board voted unanimously to pass the motion amending resolution C-10 with no further discussion. Under its new charge the purpose of the Environment and Natural Assets Advisory Committee is to provide suggestions and recommendations for improving the health and vitality of natural resources. “Given the significant implications for our community of a deterioration in the quality of the bodies of water surrounding Ocean Pines, the committee’s principal ongoing focus is on the health of the waters that surround us, with primary concentration on The St. Martin’s River. The committee is responsible as well for keeping the board informed on environmental issues impacting Ocean Pines,” the updated resolution states. In fulfilling its tasks, the committee is directed to perform functions that include helping maintain the health of the waterways, promoting improved growing conditions for indigenous flora and fauna, and fostering increased awareness of environmental hazards that affect the community. It will be focused on helping ed-
ucate residents on ways to enhance the value and appearance of their properties and neighborhoods and the aesthetics of the association’s common areas. In addition, the committee will help educate residents and OPA management about the environment and will help improve the natural beauty of Ocean Pines and other environmental and natural assets functions as may be assigned by the board. During the public comments section of the meeting prior to the board vote, Tom Janasek, a member of the committee, argued in favor of the change in charge for that entity. “We’ve decided to go in a direction of saving the St. Martin’s. To get the St. Martin’s River back clean and healthy for all the people in Ocean Pines,” he said of the committee. Janasek called the river the OPA’s second biggest asset after its Beach Club in Ocean City. He said the committee doesn’t want “anything happening in Ocean Pines to make us look bad” regarding the condition of the river. “Right now up in the St. Martin, the grade is a D-, a D- and it’s getting worse. It’s not getting better.” According to Supik the rating is a D+, but neither a D+ or a D- is positive. Janasek said the committee is working closely with the Maryland Coastal Bays Program to “make sure the river is clean and make sure do whatever we have to do.”
a very substantial risk.” He encouraged the board to publicly indicate its opposition to proceeding with the wind farm as currently planned. He said U.S. Wind should be asked to locate its turbines at least 26 miles offshore where they will not be visible. Additionally, he said the board should recommend conducting an independent, comprehensive study of the impact of the wind farm on Ocean City and county. “We feel that the voice of our community, due to its considerable size, is crucial in giving cause to those involved to stop and seriously evaluate the issue before proceeding
further,” Wolf said. He said the OPA should take the lead in opposing the project as planned. “Wind energy and unspoiled ocean views are not mutually exclusive. We can have our cake and eat it too. We just need to have these moved out of the viewshed,” he said, advising the board members “it is their fiduciary responsibility” to members of the association to take action to defend their rights and property values. During his presentation to the board, Wolf read into the record a letter from Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan, who also encouraged the
That, he said, it the reason why the committee asked the board to revise its charge and to adopt the new resolution C-10 allowing it to focus its efforts on saving the river. Still, that does not mean the committee will not take on other projects related to the community’s environmental and natural assets. For example, Janasek cited a project with which the committee is currently involved that will cover and clean up the cluster boxes used for mail delivery in Ocean Pines. He said the committee hopes to present that proposal to the board of directors next month so they can consider including it in their budget plans for fiscal year 2018-2019. Another project with which the committee has been involved is installation of plantings to screen residences in Ocean Pines from the new medical complex being constructed adjacent to the North Gate. Meanwhile, the committee is working closely with the Maryland Coastal Bays Program to provide information to community members regarding keeping the water clean and improving the health of the canals, including use of Peruvian flutes, oyster beds, and plantings in yards. “We’re going to put together all kinds of recommendations for homeowners that are on our canals and on our riverways. That’s our project for this year,” Janasek said. The committee is also partnering with the Maryland Coastal Bays Program to hold Ocean Pines Bay Day on May 20 of next year in White Horse Park, according to Janasek. “It’s going to be a huge event” that will include boat tours of the river to show and explain to participants the conditions of the waterway, about 30 exhibits of about the q
32 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
OPA’s governing body to take a position on the issue of erecting turbines off the coast and offered to meet with the directors to further discuss the proposed project. Wolf recommended the board take up the offer made by the mayor so directors can have a full understanding of the potential effects on Ocean City, Ocean Pines, and the surrounding area. “You have more than enough probable cause to at least take this next step. Failure to proceed would seem to be a breach of your responsibility to present property owners as well as property owners for generations yet to come,” Wolf said.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
November 2017 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
Comp plan committee proposes new role in ‘strategic planning’ By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer he Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee is recommending a structural overhaul that will drastically change its function within the Ocean Pines Association. The committee is calling on the Board of Directors to do away with the OPA’s long-standing comprehensive planning model in favor of strategic planning, and to turn over the pending comprehensive plan survey to the general manager for completion. It also suggested officially modifying the committee’s charge to reflect its new role in supporting the general manager with strategic planning instead of acting as the lead entity for that process. Frank Daly, committee chairman, during the Oct. 27 monthly meeting of the board presented the three-part recommendation for reducing the committee’s role in long-term planning for the OPA. The first recommendation is that the board endorse the elimination of the current comprehensive planning model traditionally used for forward-looking by the association and instead follow a strategic plan format to be developed by General Manager John Bailey and his staff with community input. The strategic plan would be pre-
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St. Martin River From Page 32 river and bays and the animals the live in them, as well as steps residents can take to help protect and improve water quality. Local fishermen will be on hand to discuss what they see happening in the waterways where they fish, and there may be a speaker from Worcester County to discuss the impact of the wastewater treatment plant. “It’s going to be extremely interactive for kids and adults both,” he said.
ATTENTION
WORCESTER COUNTY RESIDENTS ONLY!!!
sented for review and approved for implementation by the board of directors. Daly urged the board to move for on the recommended approach so that the planning process can be implemented immediately by Bailey. Daly said the plan should address at least three years, preferably five years in the future. He said it should contain measurable goals and objectives for the OPA and relevant departments, as well as head count needs, major programs, operational, maintenance and capital spending by department. The committee recommended against using the State of Maryland’s Template for City Planning, saying it doesn’t fit the needs of the association. “We think that following the state of Maryland’s template for city planning is inherently a flawed, bad idea. It just won’t work,” Daly said, adding, the OPA’s plan should be a “look ahead document.” He said strategic planning under the new approach can begin immediately. The second recommendation was that a series of comprehensive planning survey questions that have been in the works for years and were last sent to the board on Feb. 20, 2017 be released to the general manager and his staff for their review and finalization. The questions that are ultimately posed to community members should be determined by the general manager with board input, Daly said. The committee recommended release of the survey to the public as soon as possible. [See article in this edition of the Progress for details.] The third recommendation was for the modification of the committee’s existing charter to reflect the first two recommendations. Future committee activities should focus on it functioning as a resource and research group that supports the staff’s planning and planning review process, Daly said. “As far as the committee’s concerned, this whole new planning process completely eliminates this committee charter. What the committee would do in the future should q
Asks directors to approve shift from old model of drafting comprehensive plan
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Household Hazardous Waste Collection Saturday, December 2, 2017 10 AM-2 PM Collections to be held at
SHOWELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL RACETRACK RD., BERLIN
Household Hazardous Waste Collection WHAT WILL BE ACCEPTED: Computers & Laptops (No Other Electronics) Gasoline • Gas/Oil Mixtures • Fuels • Acids Cleaners • Solvents • Automotive Fluids • Bleach Ammonia • Pool Chemicals • Pesticides Dark Room Supplies • CFL Light Bulbs • Batteries Insecticides • Herbicides • Oil-Based Paints Thinners • Turpentine • Wood Preservatives Wood Strippers • Etc. All of these materials will go to a HAZ MAT disposal site. Dispose of solidified water based paint in trash. (to solidify – add dirt, sand, kitty litter, mulch, etc.) THESE ITEMS WILL BE ACCEPTED AT SHOWELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL RACETRACK RD., BERLIN DECEMBER 2, 2017, 10 AM - 2 PM
WHAT WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED: Explosives • Ammunition • Medical Waste Radioactive Materials • Picric Acid • Asbestos Televisions • TV Remotes • CPU’s • Keyboards Mouse • Printers • Modems • Scanners • Cables Misc. Computer Parts • VCR’s • CD Player’s Calculators • Cell Phones • Radios • Stereos CB Radios • Fax Machines • Misc. items ELECTRONICS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED
For more information on this event, Please call Mike McClung, Recycling Coordinator 410-632-3177 Ext. 2405 or email at mmcclung@co.worcester.md.us No Materials will be accepted from Business, Industrial or Commercial Sources.
OPA FINANCES
November 2017
By TOM STAUSS Publisher t didn’t even seem like an argument. But as civil and policy-based as the discussion seemed on the surface, it exposed divisions on the board that may surface as the Board of Directors grapples with the budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year in coming months. The discussion involved how and whether to acknowledge last year’s $350,000 operating deficit and a deficit that is approaching $1 million this year in the budget yet to be drafted and debated for 2018-19. Evidence of potential divisions occurred during an “in the weeds” session of the board and the Budget and Finance Advisory Committee on Oct. 25, convened to discuss “budget guidance” for the coming year.
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The meeting almost didn’t happen, despite clear direction in a board resolution that mandates it
Comp plan committee From Page 33
really be determined in what happens in these discussions on the planning process between the board and the general manager,” Daly said. “We could be a resource group, we could be a research group. We could be non-existent in that planning process.” Slobodan Trendic, board liaison to the committee, said the group has been in the process of developing a new comprehensive plan for the association for about five years, but for a variety of reasons has not produced the document yet. When he was appointed as liaison to the committee, Trendic said he met with the chairman to discuss the issues and challenges with developing the
Board debates how to deal with last year’s, current year’s deficits Trendic proposes multi-year cuts in spending to offset operating losses as part of the OPA’s budget process. It’s supposed to happen in September, according to the resolution, and when it didn’t it seemed possible it might not happen at all. But Director Slobodan Trendic, a budget hawk and stickler when it comes to board process, prevailed upon OPA President Doug Parks to schedule a special meeting to comply with the board resolution mandating a meeting between the board and B&F committee to discuss the
budget. During the session, Trendic was perhaps the most up-front in promoting the view that deficits last year and this year need to be acknowledged in next year’s budget. He specifically mentioned last year’s $350,00 deficit but in a subsubsequent conversation with the Progress, he said the same is true for this year’s deficit, whatever it is estimated to be during the 2018-19 budget process that normally con-
document and asked that the committee present an approach that “might help the committee overcome these hurdles and really jump start the effort.” The results of the process are the specific recommendations now before the board, he said, presenting a different approach and charter for the committee. Following Daly’s presentation, OPA President Doug Parks queried his fellow directors for input on the committee’s recommendations. “Do we see any barriers to doing that, any concerns?” he asked. “Conceptually, do we agree that its ok to move forward?” As a next step, Trendic suggested that as the board’s liaison to the committee he should reconnect with chair and work on language for re-
vising the resolution that outlines the duties of the comprehensive plan committee, with input from the Bylaws and Resolutions Advisory Committee. He said he hopes to have a draft ready for review by the board at its November meeting. Meanwhile, Trendic suggested the board five the committee the “green light” to proceed with implementation of its first two recommendations. That will allow the general manager and his staff to establish a timeline for a strategic plan and to determine what practical role the committee can play. Director Cheryl Jacobs agreed it is the committee’s responsibility to draft any new language related to its duties that it is recommending for consideration by the board.
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Jacobs asked about the status of the survey questions that were presented to the board by the committee several months ago. “The survey questions were sort of left in limbo at one point. They were supposed to come back to the board for sort of a final, final if you will,” she said, adding, “That never happened.” While the committee is recommending giving those questions to the general manager to distribute, Jacobs said that may be skipping the step of board input. Daly responded that the committee has been working for a long time on developing survey questions related to the comprehensive plan. The questions were presented to
cludes in February. He was joined in that idea by appointed Director Ted Moroney. “You need to identify the deficit in (next year’s budget),” Moroney said, without defining what form that “identification” might take. He stopped short of advocating an assessment increase to cover it, but that would be one way to offset an “identified” shortfall. Trendic made it clear he was adamantly opposed to a assessment increase to cover last year’s and this year’s anticipated deficit. In remarks to the Progress, he advocated making cuts in the OPA’s operating budget next year in the amount of roughly $500,000, with a cut of roughly the same amount the following year, to offset these losses. He said cuts could be made in salaries, suggesting bonuses for meeting or exceeding budget by top manq
34 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
the previous board but the committee never received any feedback, he said, adding the board was asked to accept, reject, or modify the questions. “We’ve not received an accept, reject or modify from that past board. So from the committee’s standpoint, we’re done. The ball’s in your court. The ball has never been passed back,” he said. Under the new planning model, whether and how to conduct a survey is the responsibility of Bailey and his staff, Daly said. They need to get the input for their plan way they feel is best, he added. “It becomes an interaction between the general manager as the head of operations and the board responsible for oversight and strategic direction to get the things in the plan that have to be in the plan,” he said. Parks agreed and asked Daly to send the survey questions to both the board and general manager. Once all parties have had time to review the questions, they will develop a final set for distribution to community members. Jacobs asked why, if the project becomes the general manager’s, the questions would even come back to the board. “You’re correct,” Daly responded. “The questions would really reside 100 percent with the GM.” But he suggested that there “should be an interaction between you and the GM on the questions.”
OPA FINANCIALS
November 2017 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
Yacht Club loss in September is less than $8,000; Beach Club in the red after summer season By TOM STAUSS Publisher he Ocean Pines Association generated a $60,820 operating fund variance for September and has a cumulative negative variance to budget of $806,729 five months into the 2017-18 fiscal year.
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OPA Treasurer Pat Supik, an OPA director and the organization’s chief financial officer, recently said the actual operating loss for the year could be in the $900,000 to $950,000 by the end of the fiscal year in April of next year. She made the tentative prediction during a special meeting
of the board Oct. 25 with members of the Budget and Finance Advisory Committee. For that prediction to be accurate, the OPA would have to operate close to budget for the remaining months of the fiscal year. By the final month of the fiscal year, any negative vari-
Net operations for September and year-to-date for the Ocean Pines Association, not including new capital purchases. Spurce: OPA Finance Department
Operating deficits From Page 34 agement as opposed to raises. He previously has suggested that the OPA offers far too generous health and retirement benefits to employees. He has advocated leasing out the Yacht Club restaurant as a way of eliminating traditional losses at that amenity. Whether all that could add up to a cut in current year spending totaling a half million dollars is unknown, but Trendic said that management and the board need to be aggressive in cutting spending. “We shouldn’t pass the effects of bad management decisions this
past year onto the backs of property owners in the form of higher assessments,” he said. The B&F committee, in its detailed budget guidance to the board, didn’t make a specific recommendation on how and whether to acknowledge last year’s and this year’s operating deficits. Committee chair John O’Connor, as well as John Viola, former OPA Director of Finance and newly appointed committee member, said the losses could be noted on the OPA balance sheet, which is part of the OPA budget every year. O’Connor said other options include offsetting operating losses with higher asses-
sessments or taking the losses out of reserves. The issue of how and what to do with losses “needs to be discussed,” Viola said. But he, like Moroney, didn’t tee up a solution. OPA Assistant Treasurer Gene Ringsdorf has said, in language similar to Trendic’s, that the OPA needs to do a better of controlling and reducing spending as an alternative to raising assessments or raiding reserve funds. This past summer, OPA Director and Treasurer Pat Supik explicitly said that last year’s loss of $350,000 should be offset by an increase in lot assessments, but more recently she
ance to budget translates into an actual operating loss for the year. That happens because the OPA operates on a modified accrual accounting system that books assessment revenues in May, the first month of the fiscal year, which means the OPA carries actual, but somewhat meaningless, operating surpluses for much of the fiscal year. Supik’s tentative prediction flies in the face of historical precedent in Ocean Pines. Some Ocean Pines departments, particularly the Yacht Club food and beverage and golf course operations, struggle with their budgets in the cooler months of the year. Because of recent operational changes at the Yacht Club, including the elimination of the controversial 20 percent discount policy and an announced decision to open only Fridays and Saturdays from November through March, there is at least some possibility that negative variances to budget will be curtailed. The Yacht Club’s loss in September before these changes were made was only $7,910. According to the September financial report submitted to the Board of Directors by finance department staffer Gina Grigoreva, the OPA’s $60,820 negative operating fund variance for September resulted from revenues under budget by $82,395, expenses under budget by $26,556, and new capital expenditures over budget by $4,981. The cumulative negative variance to budget through September of $806,729 is the result of revenues under budget by $673,810, expenses over budget by $78,476 and new capital over budget by $54,443. Excluding new capital expenditures, which are funded directly from curq
OPA behind budget by $807,000 five months into 2017-18 fiscal year
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has refrained from doing so. Whether this reflects a change in viewpoint or an aversion to saying something unpopular in public is yet to be determined. The option of acknowleding the losses on the balance sheet would probably be the path of least resistance, as it implies that no further action -- higher assessments or raiding the reserves -- would be necessary. It would show up in a decrease in cash and assets held in short term investments, which is already evident in this year’s balance sheet in which year-over-year comparisons are shown.
OPA FINANCIALS
36 Ocean Pines PROGRESS November 2017 September financials From Page 35 rent year lot assessments, the cumulative variance to budget is a negative $752,286. The September results are a significant improvement over August, when the OPA generated a whopping negative variance to budget of $211,701. Yacht Club food and beverage operation’s $7,910 loss for September was the amenity’s best monthly performance so far this fiscal year, while still missing its budget target by $32,710. For the year, the Yacht Club is in the red in the amount of $244,368 and has a negative variance to budget of $357,133. Through September of last year, the Yacht Club had generated a $99,792 surplus. The year-over-year swing is a negative $344,160, perhaps the most significant factor in the OPA’s negative operating fund variance so far this year. Another significant factor in the OPA’s financial struggles this year so far are operations at the Beach Club, traditionally a cash cow but not this year. The Beach Club lost $10,812 in September and missed budget by $29,635. Through September, traditionally its closing month, the Beach Club was in the red by $49,755, with a variance to budget of a negative $319,769. Through September last year, the Beach Club had generated a $169,835 surplus. That’s a $219,590 negative swing year-over-year for Ocean Pines’ beach front amenity in Ocean City. Clearly some operational changes at the Beach Club this summer did not fare well. The nightly dining experiment and inflated entertainment expense, along with the now discontinued 20 percent discount policy, combined to turn what has been a profitable summer amenity into a net drag on finances. Centralized purchasing based at the Yacht Club also resulted in supply chain problems at all the food and beverage venues this summer. It was the result predicted by former Beach Club manager Lynda Huettner in her resignation letter to the board last winter. She said the operational changes advocated by former acting General Manager Brett Hill would not work as designed. Golf operations performed well in September, aided by much improved weather conditions, with a $35,666
surplus for the month and ahead of budget by $4,665. For the year, golf operations are in the black in the amount of $123,373, only $8,845 under budget. The Tern Grille also netted a surplus in September. The $2,419 surplus missed its budget by a scant $757. For the year through September, the Tern Grille is $10,146 in the red and behind budget by $24,621. Last year, with the Tern Grille operations included as part of golf, golf operations were in surplus by $26,866 through September. Year-over-year, the positive swing in golf and Tern Grille operations is a robust $113,227, The major contributing factor for the turn-around in operations appears to be the decision early this year to cancel the contract with an outside management company and to bring operations back in-house. This eliminated a major expense of roughly $7,000 per month in management fees, even as the OPA incurred a buy-out expense that to this date has never been fully accounted for by the OPA. The bottom line improvement could have been even more pronounced, except for the fact the Tern Grille through September did not do as well as it has done in previous years. Some of that has been attributed to supply chain shortages caused by Yacht Club-based central purchasing. New General Manager John Bailey has already indicated that he will be making changes in that prac-
tice in the coming year. There are other positives in the September financials. While Aquatics lost $35,004 for the month and missed budget by $8,233, it remains in excellent shape in net operations and relative to budget for the year through September. The cumulative surplus is $373,853 through September, ahead of budget by $6,645. The year-over-year swing is $190,152. Two other departments, Beach Club parking and marina operations, are both performing close to budget for the year so far. Beach Club parking with $271,699 in net revenues is $1,518 ahead of budget for the year, while marina net operations of $221,836 is $5,456 ahead of budget. All three racquet sports have generated cumulative surpluses through September and tennis is ahead of budget by $1,261. Platform tennis and pickleball are behind budget by $2,919 and $7,171, respectively, through September. Parks and Recreation also had a good month in September, ahead of budget by $9,262 for the month. Through September, Parks and Rec is $23,697 ahead of budget. Year-over-year, the positive swing is $31,797. Reserve Summary -- the OPA through Sept. 30 had $8.23 million in reserves, a modest reduction from the August total of $8.277 million. The replacement reserve carried a balance of $5,155,390, also a
modest reduction from the previous month. As the result of board action last February, the replacement reserve balance no longer includes a historical and legacy reserve. Those two reserves have been merged. Roughly $1.6 million of the $2,328,360 contribution from new assessments is attributable to funded depreciation, with another $700,000 or so in supplemental funding. The bulkhead reserve has grown from $1,815,219 at the end of April to $2,605,027 as of Sept. 30, reflecting $822,367 in waterfront differential revenues. That was little changed from the August balance. The roads reserve remained virtually unchanged in September with a balance of $509,954. Capital summary – A new schedule in the financial report, included at the request of the Board of Directors, indicates that capital spending through Sept. 30 of $765,080 is substantially more than the budgeted $328,345. The positive variance is $436,735. Balance sheet – The Sept. 30 balance sheet shows total OPA assets of $36,678,168, up from $35,965,332 a year ago. Operating cash on hand of $1,992,827 is less than last year’s at this time of $2,108,552. Short term investments, easily converted into cash, are valued at $9,092,995. That compares to last year’s total through September of $9,563,709.
November 2017 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
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OCEAN PINES
Ocean Pines PROGRESS November 2017
DNR recertifies Ocean Pines Marina
Ocean Pines Yacht Club marina has been officially re-certified as a Maryland Clean Marina. “It is very rewarding to exercise environmentally conscious practices at our recreational marina in Ocean Pines,” said Denise Sawyer, director of marketing and public relations for the Ocean Pines Association. “Marina Manager Ron Fisher and his team work tirelessly to demonstrate a willingness to meet the rigorous pollution prevention standards established by the Maryland Clean Marina Committee and the Department of Natural Resources.” The Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ exciting Clean Marina Initiative recognizes and promotes marinas, boatyards and yacht clubs of any size that meet legal requirements and voluntarily adopt pollution prevention practices. Ocean Pines Marina implements an oil recycling and oil spill response plan; participates in oyster gardening; executes proper staff training for fire, hurricane, oil and fuel
OCEAN PINES ASSOCIATION BRIEFS emergencies; maintains a pump-out station and manages waste containment and proper disposal. DNR has certified nearly 25 percent of Maryland’s estimated 600 marinas as clean or partly clean.
“SantaCon” race set for Dec. 16
The Ocean Pines Recreation and Parks Department invites area residents and visitors for a jolly holiday run through the community at its 1st annual “SantaCon” 5K fun run on Saturday, Dec. 16, at noon at Veterans Memorial Park in Ocean Pines. The family-friendly race benefits Achilles International, an organization that works to enable people with all types of disabilities to participate in running events. The course will loop around the Veterans Memorial, cross over into The Parke community, funnel back out onto Ocean Parkway and finish at the memorial. Participants are encouraged to
dress up as Santa or another Christmas character; the best best-dressed runner will receive an award. The pre-registration fee is $25. Registration may be completed online at raceentry.com/races/oceanpines-santa-con-5k-fun-run/2017/ register or at the Ocean Pines Community Center at 235 Ocean Parkway. In-person registration on the day of the event is $35. The first 100 registered runners are guaranteed an event t-shirt. Additional information about this event is available by contacting the Ocean Pines Recreation and Parks Department at 410-641-7052.
OP venues named best banquet facility
The Venues at Ocean Pines was recently named “Best Wedding/Banquet Facility from Berlin to Ocean City” for the third year in a row by he Metropolitan magazine. The Venues is featured in the magazine’s September 2017 issue, which recognizes other “Best Of” award winners from across
Delmarva in a variety of categories. Ocean Pines also won in the same category in 2015 and 2016. “I congratulate the hard-working staff of the Venues at Ocean Pines on this well-deserved honor,” said Brian Townsend, director of the Venues at Ocean Pines. “Our bridal venues are the best in the area and that’s evident when brides come from near and far to have their weddings in Ocean Pines.” The Venues at Ocean Pines offers beachfront, bayside and ballroom weddings and special events at three facilities, including Mumford’s Landing in Ocean Pines, the Ocean Pines Beach Club and Ocean Pines Golf Club. The locations regularly host ceremonies, receptions, dinners, parties, showers and more. Ocean Pines and other winners were honored at the magazine’s 23rd annual “Best Of” party on Oct. 6 at the Standard in Salisbury.
Rec Department to host Washington bus trips
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WORCESTER COUNTY Planted Pleasures owner fails to clean up site
After being given two additional two months to clean up his property by the Worcester County Commissioners, the owner of the former Planted Pleasures garden center on Route 589 south of Ocean Pines has failed to do so. In September the commissioners agreed to give Kevin Evans two months to clean up the nuisance property or Worcester County would take action to remove accumulate debris and dilapidated structures from the site of the former garden center. Ed Tudor, county director of development review and planning, recently said no action was taken by Evans to rectify the situation at Planted Pleasures. “As of this writing it does not appear that anything at all has been done to correct the nuisance condition.” Evans was required to abate the nuisance on his property by Nov. 5. Evans had requested an extension of time from the commissioners to address the nuisance on his land at 10307 Racetrack Road, telling the commissioners he did not have the funds to hire someone to clean up the property. He said he would do so himself if allotted the additional time. The owner said the property is burdened with a residential zoning classification along Route 589 near Ocean Downs, making it hard for him to sell or redevelop the site. But no one is going to want to live there because of the busy casino and other activity along the commercial highway, he said. Additionally, he shared with the commissioners that he has several mortgages on the property for three times more than it is worth. Evans was issued a nuisance abatement order this summer by the county’s Department of Development Review and Permitting. The notice cited the uncontrolled growth of grass, weeds and other vegetation, the unscreened accumulation of personal property in excess of one hundred square feet in area, and several unattended, dilapidated, ramshackle structures. The compliant has been an ongoing nuisance for several years, starting in April 2015, with neighbors complaining about the mess. Tudor said his department has dealt with this property numerous times over the last several years. The county is now planning to hire a contractor to clean up the property. The cost of doing so will be billed to the property owner.
November 2017 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
COUNTY BRIEFS Ocean Pines groups recognized by county
Volunteer organizations at the heart of the Ocean Pines community were recognized by the Worcester County Commissioners during the Volunteer Spirit of Worcester County awards dinner. Those present were nominated by their peers in May in the youth, individual, member of a board, faith-based, group/ team, nonprofit, community of service, veteran spirit, and lifetime achievement categories. Missions at the Community Church of Ocean Pines, 56 members strong, including the Shepherd’s Nook, Sarah’s Pantry, and Flea Market, received the Faith-Based Award for providing financial support for electric bills, rent, medications, and veterans’ needs, and for providing services that meet many other immediate needs, including serving food to 1,200 families and providing bags of clothing. Mary and Mike Evans received the Team Award for their work with Star Charities, where they support events for 4Steps Therapeutic Riding Program, Coastal Hospice Palliative Care, and Girl Scouts of the Chesapeake. The Kiwanis of Greater Ocean Pines and Ocean City received the Nonprofit Award for faithfully improving the world one child and one community at a time for more than 37 years. Their 51 members contribute 3,000 hours each year, raising funds to provide $13,000 in scholarships and to lend a hand to
Worcester GOLD, Diakonia, St. Peter’s Lutheran Church Shelter, and numerous other area nonprofits.
West OC Harbor subject of study
Shallower navigation channels in the Ocean City inlet area are threatening the future viability of Worcester County’s commercial fishing industry. For this reason, in early September 2017, following a meeting with local, state, and federal partners in August, the Worcester County Commissioners directed county staff to develop a request for proposals to identify the inlet’s economic impact on this area. The RFP, currently in the final stages of development, is a first step toward developing a long-term solution and needed federal funding to maintain safe, navigable travel through the inlet. The RFP will be designed to identify economic data that confirms the viability of the commercial fishing industry and the need for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to increase the depth of the inlet channel to accommodate larger vessels and to secure continued federal funding to maintain channel depths. “Securing federal funding, which is now awarded on a tier basis, is paramount to the success of our efforts to assure that commercial
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fishing vessels can safely navigate the channel to bring their catches to market,” Commissioner President Jim Bunting said. “Our commercial fishing fleets are an integral part of our heritage and our economy, and we want them to continue to call Worcester County home for generations to come.” The county’s tier ranking for funding may be improved if the study can identify the dollar value of the commercial fishing industry. The county plans to have USACE staff review the RFP before it releases it to bid to ensure that the successful bidder will provide the information needed to improve the ranking of the Ocean City inlet to keep it at the forefront of federal dredging projects.
Household waste collection day set
Residents can dispose household hazardous waste materials, such as pesticides, paints, and chemicals, during Worcester County Recycling Division’s next household hazardous waste collection day on Saturday, Dec. 2. The event will be held at Showell Elementary School on Route 589 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Computers and laptops will be accepted during the collection event, but no other electronics will be taken. The total cost of the event to Worcester County is estimated at $16,000.
OPA BRIEFS From Page 38 a bus trip to the nation’s capital in January. Hockey fans are invited to watch the Washington Capitals take on the St. Louis Blues on Sunday, Jan. 7 at the Capital One Arena. This all-inclusive package includes a game ticket; a pre-game all-you-can-eat buffet; unlimited beer, wine and soda and a Capitals t-shirt. The bus will depart Ocean Pines at 9:30 a.m. The buffet will begin at 2 p.m. in advance of the 3 p.m. game time. Tickets for this trip are limited and must be purchased no later than Dec. 24. The cost is $130 person, which includes transportation and the all-inclusive package.
Working together
Ocean Pines AARP Chapter 4507 and the Kiwanis Club of Greater Ocean Pines – Ocean City worked together collecting items for Operation “We Care”. Together the two organizations filled a pickup truck with goods to be shipped overseas to U.S. soldiers for Christmas. Pictured are (left to right) Kiwanis Chair Barb Peletier and AARP President Larry Walton shaking hands, while Kiwanis Secretary Pat Winkelmayer observes. AARP members also contributed to the Kiwanis Club’s annual coat drive. The coats will be delivered to St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Ocean City and Joseph’s House in Salisbury. Both facilities take care of the homeless.
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LIFESTYLES
Ocean Pines PROGRESS November 2017
Tuesday, Nov. 14 NASA Wallops flight facility tour, departs from Ocean Pines Community Center, Ocean Pines Parks and Recreation Department, ticket information 410-641-7052. Thursday, Nov. 16 Republican Women of Worcester County, November dinner and installation of officers, doors open 5:30 p.m. Dunes Manor Hotel, Ocean City. Guest speaker Maryland First District Congressman Andy Harris. $40 per person. Pat Addy at 410-208-0171 or gorpataddy@aol for reservations. Saturday, Nov. 18 Flag retirement ceremony and flag burning, Worcester County Veterans Memorial at Ocean Pines, 9 a.m. to noon. Respectful burning of U.S. flags by members of Boy Scout Troop #261, under the leadership of Scout Master Ken Nichols and Cub Scout Pack #261, under the leadership of Cub Master, Nick Busko. Worn flags may be brought to the Ocean Pines Community Center or the American Legion Post 123 in Berlin, American Legion Post 231 in Berlin and American Legion Post 166 in Ocean City. Flags to be burned following U.S. Flag Code. Monday, Nov. 20 Democratic Women’s Club Meeting, Ocean Pines Community Center, Assateague Room, 10 a.m. to noon, 9:30 a.m. coffee. Thursday, Nov. 23 Thanksgiving dinner buffet, Ocean Pines Yacht Club, Cove at Mumford’s, 1, 3 and 5 p.m. seatings or take-out. Reservations, 410-6417501. Aqua Bike Class, “Turkey Burn”, Sports Core pool, 8:30-9:30 a.m., $10, 410-641-5255 or at the pool to register. Saturday, Nov. 25 Hometown Christmas tree lighting ceremony, White Horse Park, Ocean Pines, 6:30 p.m. Sponsored by Ocean Pines Association. Santa, local choirs singing Christmas carols. Free and open to the public. Thursday, Nov. 30 Ocean Pines Association, Board of Directors, regular monthly meeting, 7 p.m., Assateague Room, Ocean Pines Community Center. Agenda posted
HAPPENINGS on OPA Web site several days prior to meeting. Public comments segment. Friday, Saturday and Sunday Dec. 1, 2 and 3 Ocean Pines Players production of “Every Christmas Story Ever Told,” dramatic readings from a comedy, by Michael Carleton, Tim FitzGerald, and John K. Alverez; Christmas carols. St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, 103rd Street and Coastal Highway, Ocean City. Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m.; Sunday 3 p.m. Tickets at the door, cash or check, $15 per person. Refreshments during intermission only.
mas” on the big screen. Bring a lawn chair, blanket, and snacks if desired; drinks, popcorn, and candy available for purchase. Free and open to the public. Saturday, Dec. 16 Santa Con 5K Fun Run race, Veterans Memorial Park, Route 50 and Cathell Road, noon, all ages welcome. Runners asked to dress as Santa or other Christmas character, prize for best dressed. $25 pre-registration, $35 day of event. First 100 registrants receive event t-shirt. Registration 410-641-7052, raceentry.com or at Ocean Pines Community Center.
Friday, Dec. 1 Deadine for annual Kiwanis fruit sale. Navel oranges, 20-pound box, $24; red grapefuit, 20-pound box, $24; 50/50 oranges and grapefruit combo, 20-pound box, $30; mandarin oranges, five-pound bag, $9. 410-208-6719 or 410-973-1233 to place an order. Delivery between Dec. 14 -17.
Wednesday, Dec. 27 One-Day junior lifeguard program, Sports Core pool, 10 a.m. Ages 7 and up. Lifeguarding skills, games, visit to the local fire department, pizza lunch. Participants must be strong swimmers. $75 per person and includes a t-shirt, whistle, first-aid kit, lunch, snacks and drinks. Registration, 410-641-5255.
Saturday, Dec. 2 Breakfast and Photos with Santa, Ocean Pines Community Center, 8-11 a.m. Sponsored by Ocean Pines Department of Parks and Recreation. Pancakes, sausages, pastries, coffee, tea, milk and orange juice. 3 and under free, 4 to 10 $5, 11 and up $7. Pictures with Santa and Mrs. Claus $5. Participants are encouraged to bring an unwrapped gift to be donated to local charities. Reindeer Lane gift shop, East Room, Ocean Pines Community Center, 8-11 a.m. Children 12 and under can purchase gifts for loved on. All items are $5 or less.
Ongoing
Friday, Dec. 8 Classic Christmas movie night, Ocean Pines Community Center gymnasium, 7 p.m. “It’s a Wonderful Life” on the big screen. Bring a lawn chair, blanket, and snacks if desired; drinks, popcorn, and candy available for purchase. Free and open to the public. Donations accepted. Friday, Dec. 15 Holiday movie night, double feature, Ocean Pines Community Center gymnasium, 7 p.m. “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” and “A Charlie Brown Christ-
Free platform tennis clinics, Saturdays at noon, Manklin Meadows
tennis complex. Bring sneakers, the rest is provided. Free pickleball clinics, Manklin Meadows sports complex, 11443 Manklin Creek Road, Ocean Pines 21811. June 10, 8 a.m.; June 22, 4 p.m.; July 8. 8 a.m., July 20, 4 p.m.; Aug. 12, 8 a.m., Aug. 24, 4 p.m. The clinics will be conducted by Pickleball Club members on the eight brand new courts at the facility. Information or to register contact John Hanberry, Jhanberry@comcast.net or by phone at 703-598-6119. Line dance classes, Monday and Wednesday, 9:30 -10:30 a.m., Ocean Pines Community Center. Beginners welcome. Betty Daugherty, 410-7261818, or bettydau@aol.com Pinesteppers. Square Dance Club, Wednesdays, 7-9 p.m., Ocean Pines Community Center with caller Dennis O’Neal. Visitors welcome. The group also hosts a dance the fourth Saturday of the month from 7-9:30 p.m., Ocean Pines Community Center. Arlene Hager, 302-436-4033. Pine Tappers free adult tap dance classes, Tuesdays, 2-3:30 p.m., Ocean Pines Community Center. Exercise and have fun with choreographed tap dancing routines. From 2-2:30 p.m., brush up on basic techniques and a review of the routines, then join the regular class from 2:303:30 p.m. Every week or drop-in as convenient. Lori, 410-251-2162.
White Marlin Mall hosting Santa on Friday after Thanksgiving
T
he Spirit of Christmas is alive and well at White Marlin Mall for the 2017 holiday season," said Matt Mittenthal, vice-president and assistant director of asset management at Greenberg Gibbons Commercial, the mall’s leasing and property management firm. "Santa Claus will make his annual visit to greet all the children and their parents who visit White Marlin Mall to kick off the holiday season." Santa Claus will visit White Marlin Mall the Friday after Thanksgiving on Nov. 24 at about 2 p.m. and on Saturday Nov. 25 at about 11:00 a.m. to celebrate the beginning of holiday shopping season. For the past 16 years the White Marlin Mall’s Saint Nick has been known as Ocean City’s Strolling Santa. White Marlin Mall is located at 12641 Ocean Gateway, 1/2 mile west of Ocean City on Route 50 at Route 611 next to the Ocean City Tanger Outlets. In addition to Santa's appearances, holiday shoppers will also find savings on a broad range of holiday merchandise along with dependable shopping suggestions from the mall's knowledgeable shopkeepers. “The eclectic mix of local specialty stores and popular brand-name stores makes White Marlin Mall the perfect place to buy original and thoughtful gifts for even the most discriminating family member and friend,” Mittenthal said. "An original gift chosen from any one of our shops and stores is sure to please. These are gifts that will be appreciated and the recipient will not even consider returning their holiday treasures.” A preview of what’s in store for the holiday season can be seen at the mall’s website at http://www.whitemarlinmall.com.
COVER STORY
November 2017 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
41
Country Club From Page 1 “They don’t know whether to go up or down to get to the pro shop,” he said. “Golfers won’t have to climb downs steps to get to the pro shop or Tern Grille.” Most golfers who visit the Country Club don’t use the front entrance but enter the building from the back for direct access to the pro shop. That might change if the renovation proceeds as Bailey envisions. Bailey said the circular driveway that directs traffic under the porte-cochere canopy that extends out from the building would also have to be lowered and perhaps redesigned. Existing landscaping features would be removed and temporarily stored, to be replanted later. He said the porte-cochere could be upgraded with a more contemporary design. Bailey told the Progress that the lowering of the front entrance might not be possible. Further research needs to be done on the placement of utility lines, he said, after which a decision could be made on whether lowering the front entrance is feasible or prohibitively expensive. The lift positioned to the right of steps leading up to the second floor would be removed, opening up direct access to the corridor that leads back to the pro shop. Bailey said an elevator would be installed roughly in the center of the entrance foyer. To the left of the elevator, steps would rise to the second floor. Placement of these features could still change, he said, and the board will have an opportunity to discuss and approve final designs. Bailey said that it might take up to a year to complete the renovation if it proceeds as he proposes. He said new engineering specs would need to be drafted as part of a request for proposals from contractors, with bids coming back to the OPA within three months. He said that once bids are vetted and a contract awarded, he would expect four to six months of construction time. He said a final design and RFP process might be presented to the board at its November monthly meeting for action. While acknowledging that he understands some OPA members had hoped the renovation would be complete in time for 50th anniversary events next year, anniversary organizers will at least have formal plans and designs available for display at anniversary events, he said.
The latest proposed floor plan for the second floor of the Ocean Pines Country Club, not yet approved by the Board of Directors.
Experience abounds at Seafloor Carpet Hardwood and More
I
t’s not very often that the stars align in perfect harmony, but over at Seafloor Carpet Hardwood and More, that has recently happened. Steve Onley has joined the staff and offers a tremendous amount of knowledge and expertise. Seafloor owner Don Robertson said, “Combining my 30+ years of sales experience with Steve’s 30+ years of installation experience makes us a knowledge force you won’t find in other flooring stores. “Our goal has always been to educate our consumers on the products they are purchasing. With Steve’s expertise, coupled with our product knowledge, customers can feel at ease knowing they will be getting the best advice possible,” he added Steve Olney was born in Tucson, AZ., and was raised in Indio/Palm Springs, CA. As a kid, he spent most of his free time chasing lizards as well as hunting jack rabbits, quail, and any rattlesnake that he came across. When he was 14, he got his first summer job as a carpet helper. He never thought it would become his career, but he never seemed to get away from it. Steve went to a college prep private school for the 7-8th grade so coming back into public school he became bored very quickly and halfway
Seafloor Carpet Hardwood and More owner Don Robertson (left) and new employee Steve Onley. Together, they comprise more than 60 years of experience installing flooring.
through the 10th grade, got his GED and has been working full-time ever since. At 17, Steve went into the U.S. Army and did a 2-year service. After his service, flooring installation was familiar so he returned to it. At the age of 27, Steve married and began living in Virginia, and was blessed with three girls. He is so very proud of all three and now has a granddaughter who is “absolutely amazing.” Relocating to the Denver area in 1996, he was there for 21 years, where he continued in flooring installation. Steve excelled in carpet, sheet vinyl and vinyl composition tile. He also was an exclusive installation contractor for Playtime Industries. Over the years, his personal life has led to nine different mission's teams to different parts of Mexico
and into the Amazon jungle in Peru. “I love to serve others,” he said. “I am a dog person for sure and was so happy to that this shop came with its own dog, Abby,” he added. He and his wife decided to move to the Eastern Shore. “We finally made it after installing for the better part of 40 years,” he said. “I was fortunate enough to find Sea Floor Carpets on the Internet. I quickly found that we had quite a few things in common and truly felt it would be a great fit. I bring a wealth of installation experience to the table. I wanted to find a place that was interested in being the best, and I believe I have found it.” Seafloor Carpets is proud and fortunate to have Steve as part of our family. We would like to invite everyone to stop in and meet Steve, or just say hello.
42 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
OPINION
November 2017
COMMENTARY Debate over deficits affects next year’s lot assessement
V
ery few Ocean Pines Association members attended the free-wheeling and informative joint meeting Oct. 25 of the Board of Directors and Budget and Finance Advisory Committee. No wonder. Participants wander deeply into the budgetary weeds, and often ask rhetorical questions of one another without a lot of answers. This joint session essentially was a run-through of the committee’s cookie-cutter recommendations for the preparation of the 2018-19 OPA budget currently in its early stages of drafting. Cookie-cutter in the sense that the recommendations discussed Oct. 25 were, for the most part, the same recommendations offered a year ago. Although individual committee members and directors offered varying views on a wide range of topics, a consensus on perhaps the most critical question facing budgeteers was no where to be found. That issue involved the extent to which the current year’s operating deficit, which could come close to a $1 million, or last year’s, of roughly $350,000, should be recognized and passed on to property owners in the form of higher lot assessments next year. It wasn’t framed precisely that way by everyone during the discussion, but it didn’t have to be. Meeting participants know what’s at stake. Make no mistake about it. If the policy-makers decide past deficits have to be recognized and addressed in some manner in next year’s budget, that’s budget-wonk code for higher assessments. Committee chair John O’Connor framed the debate as one with options to choose from, with higher assessments as only one of them. This past summer, OPA Director and Treasurer Pat Supik made it clear she thought that last year’s $350,000 deficit should be passed on in higher assessments next year. She’s not made any similar comments about this year’s pending deficit, but she doesn’t really have to. Short of an explicit repudiation of her previous position, she can be assumed to be in the camp in trying to recoup operating losses in the form of higher assessments. No doubt it will be sugar coated in the guise of giving property owners what they want and deserve in services. During the Oct. 25 meeting, appointed Director Ted Moroney offered a variation on that theme, suggesting that passing on $1 million plus in higher assessments in a single year would not be well received in Ocean Pines. So he suggested a less onerous method of recouping the deficit over several years instead, to lessen the impact on the assessment. The scheme recalls a similar approach to the now discredited five-year plan of higher assessments first imposed seven or eight years ago, de-
signed to inflate the reserve funds to pay for a new $5 million Yacht Club. It essentially was a special assessment spread out over a period of years. That approach, too, raised the assessment incrementally in a way that no one was supposed to notice. Maybe it fooled some of the people, some of the time. Next year, let’s hope not. Another option mentioned by O’Connor would reduce the reserve funds by the amount of the cumulative deficit. This idea makes little sense. The operating deficits affect the OPA’s operating fund, which, for accounting purposes, is distinct from the OPA’s reserve funds. The problem of operating deficits is caused not by mismanagement of the reserve funds but by amenity income projections drafted by Rosy Scenario, a long-time and fully credentialed member of the OPA staff, and by the OPA’s inability to reign in expenses at two food and beverage venues relative to revenue. There may be other factors as well -- such as the OPA’s overly generous health insurance benefits for year-round employees -- but amenity mismanagement is the primary driver of the current year’s historic losses. Amenity operating deficits are not intractable. This summer’s Beach Club losses can be reversed next summer by eliminating evening dining, extended season hours and bloated entertainment expense. Rehiring Lynda Huettner would be an excellent move. Yacht Club losses can be reduced or eliminated by hiring an experienced and creditable restaurateur to lease the amenity. Alternatively, the OPA in a continued in-house operation could close down when operations are unprofitable. General Manager John Bailey has already done some of that at the Yacht Club. It’s a start. O’Connor offered another option for dealing with cumulative operating deficits during the Oct. 25 meeting. It essentially does nothing. It would simply allow deficits to be “buried” on the OPA balance sheet, which is happening already in the form of less cash and short-term investments year-overyear. As a long-term strategy, it’s risky, but as a oneor two-year work-through it has its virtues. Its chief virtue is that it doesn’t attempt to offset two years of operating deficits caused by operational mismanagement on the backs of property owners. It essentially takes the position that the OPA needs to find ways to operate more efficiently and effectively. Director Slobodan Trendic offers a fourth option that is the mirror image of Moroney’s incre-
mental approach. Trendic is suggesting that next year’s budget be reduced by an unspecified percentage of this and last year’s cumulative losses. He wouldn’t attempt to cut the budget by a $1 million-plus, but he seems comfortable with the notion that $500,000 or so in savings could be found next year, with perhaps another $500,000 or so the following year. He categorically is rejecting the concept of offsetting cumulative operating losses with higher assessments. It would have been helpful had the Budget and Finance committee led on this debate by recommending one of these options. For whatever reason, it didn’t do so, perhaps because a majority of members couldn’t agree on the best approach. Then again, the Board of Directors is free to offer budget guidance, too, on this important question. It didn’t. No one, save Trendic, deserves a badge of courage in the early stages of crafting a new budget. That leaves an opportunity for others to step up later in the process, when it really matters. -- Tom Stauss
The Ocean Pines Progress, a journal of news and commentary, is published monthly throughout the year. It is circulated in Ocean Pines, Berlin, Ocean City, and Captain’s Cove, Va. Letters and other editorial submissions: Please submit via email only. Letters should be original and exclusive to the Progress. Include phone number for verification. 127 Nottingham Lane Ocean Pines, MD 21811
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OPINION
November 2017 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
43
Country Club proposal needs a little more thought LIFE IN THE LIFE INPINES THE PINES
An excursion through the curious cul-de-sacs An excursion through theby-ways curious and by-ways and cul-de-sacs of Worcester County’s most densely populated community. of Worcester County’s most densely populated community. By TOM STAUSS/ By TOM Publisher STAUSS/Publisher way of modernizing the building, a $100,000 or so additional expenditure in the form of an elevator might not be a bad idea. The more eye-opening proposal, which he later conceded may not be feasible, involves the front entrance to the building. He and his staff are suggesting “lowering” the front entrance to the same level as the pro shop and Tern Grille, essentially eliminating the “half floor” between the lower and upper levels of the building. It would also eliminate the half floor of offices above the second floor, thereby creating a vaulted ceiling, open feel to the building upon entry. Even if the proposed lowering of the front entrance is abandoned, opening up the space above the entry foyer is a good idea. The foyer is a cramped, unwelcoming space now. Bailey regards it as confusing, and perhaps it is to a fresh pair of eyes. The purpose behind the proposing “lowering” is to cut down on the “confusion” faced by golfers and others entering the building from the front, not knowing which flight
of stairs will take them where they want to go. Without a doubt, the front entrance is not the most welcoming, but most golfers who play the Ocean Pines golf course frequently know the pro shop is accessible from the back of the building. Those who don’t, and that might include non-members and non-residents who form the outside play contingent, probably should not be driving decisions on the kinds of renovations that will be paid for by OPA members. Although the latest floor plan shows the elevator in the same space as the lift, Bailey told the Progress recently that it could be moved into the center of the available space, which would place it where the stairs to the second floor are now. New steps to the second floor would have to be built, presumably to the left of the “centered” elevator. If the front entrance is lowered, that would then allow foot traffic to enter the building, veer slightly to the right and move into the corridor that leads directly to the golf pro shop, with no descending a flight of
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stairs necessary. The ”lowering” of the front door access into the building would also necessitate the leveling of the circular driveway that passes under the 70s-era porte-cochere. Landscaping also would have to be removed as the area in front of the building is reconfigured. Would additional parking spaces be created in what is now an attractively landscaped area? Perhaps, although Bailey didn’t mentioned that in his presentation to the board. He also didn’t mention but could have: That ugly porte-cochere needs to be replaced or augmented with something more contemporary. There are several issues that the Board of Directors should consider before signing off on the proposed lowering of the front entrance. As Bailey acknowledges, the location of utility lines may render the entire idea infeasible because of the complexity and expense. Relocating utility lines should be avoided at all costs. Then there also is the additional cost of essentially changing the exterior design of the building and a good part of the interior. Make no mistake: The cost of accomplishing this feat of re-engineering could easily convert this project from the relatively low cost renovation envisioned a year ago into something far more elaborate and expensive. One mustn’t forget that expensive new capital projects are paid for twice by property owners -- the initial cost of construction and then again when the depreciation on the new asset is funded out of the annual lot assessment in anticipation that the asset will have to be replaced in 40 or 50 years, or less. Of the roughly $1.6 million collected in assessments from the funding of asset depreciation, about 25 percent of it is already related to the golf course. Then there is the cost-benefit analysis of “leveling” the front entrance. Would it truly be worth the extra money (and time and complexity) to lower the front entrance as a way of reducing some momentary confusion when golfers enter the building? Let’s stipulate for a moment that the lift is removed and a new elevator is installed in the center (or q
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here is much to commend in General Manager John Bailey’s revision of plans to renovate the second floor of the Ocean Pines Country Club. He has returned to the more open floor plan unveiled last fall by Acting General Manager Brett Hill. There are now three meeting rooms, two of which can be combined into a single room if needed. The bathrooms will be configured to be ADA-compliant. The kitchen will be equipped with new appliances, replacing the antiques that are in there now. The plan is to be able to prepare buffet-style meals for golf outings and organizations who find the larger Yacht Club venue too intimidating (and expensive) for their luncheon or dinner meetings. This is an important consideration. There’s a reason why many Ocean Pines organizations contract with outside restaurants for their banquet events. A thoughtfully designed second floor could at least give these organizations an OPA-operated alternative other than the Yacht Club. Bailey has abandoned plans for unsightly and impractical handicap ramps up the side of the building. He has opted for a new elevator to replace the lift that’s there now. Strictly speaking, a new elevator may not be necessary, but as a
44 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
OPINION
November 2017
Life in the Pines From Page 43
perhaps on the left side) of the entry foyer. With proper signage, golfers who enter the building from the front entrance could be directed to the right where they would descend a short flight of stairs to the corridor leading
to the pro shop. In the early days of Ocean Pines, before the lift was installed, there were two sets of stairs down to the lower level. Surely those who are competent and sane enough to play Ocean Pines’ challenging Robert Trent Jones layout can manage to descend a short flight of stairs to the pro shop?
Moreover, proceeding with the next phase of renovation without the front entrance lowering will greatly simplify the scope of work and will probably expand the universe of contractors willing to bid on the project. Perhaps the Public Works Department could be involved in at least some of the basic frame-out, with sub-contractors
(such as an elevator company) hired for specialty work? If the project does not include the front entrance lowering, the time needed to complete the project would be considerably less. In any event, Bailey himself does not seem particularly invested in this suggested front entrance lowering, and that’s good.
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CAPTAIN’S COVE
November 2017 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
Next up: Road construction in Sections 12 and 13 By TOM STAUSS Publisher aptain’s Cove directors delivered some “good news” to Cove property owners and residents during a Board of Directors meeting Nov. 10. Cove president Tim Hearn summarized unaudited financial results for the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30. The Cove association recorded a $453,091 operating surplus for the year, on total revenue of $5,346,805 and expenses of $4,893,715. The results, subject to change during the annual audit process, were $346,277 ahead of budget. Hearn said that the $453,091 surplus financed the Cove’s aggressive capital spending that continued throughout the year. Board alternate member Dave Kieffer, who monitors capital spending for the Cove, said that over the
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past three years, 44 capital projects have been completed, with 15 projects still on the to-do list. “The community looks really good,” he said. Hearn emphasized that it was the “profitability” of the association that makes it possible for the Cove board to invest back into the community. “You can’t just break even,” he said. Hearn said that golf and food and beverage operations under Billy Casper Golf management underperformed relative to budget on the revenue side by $107,000. “Clearly (former BCG manager) Tim Johnson was more aggressive in his budgeting,” Hearn said, suggesting that the BCG revenue shortfall was the only “negative” he could see in the financial results. But he said at the same time BCG was able to reduce expenses to
adjust for the revenue shortfall. Previously, Hearn has said that BCG manages to keep cost of sales and labor expenses as a percentage of revenue close to industry standards. Working with the Cove’s outsourced financial management firm, L&H Business Consulting of Timonium, TGM (Trice, Geary and Myers), a Salisbury accounting firm, will conduct the annual audit over the coming months. Hearn said he doesn’t expect the audited results to deviate substantially from the unaudited end-ofyear results as of Sept. 30. In another dose of what Cove directors clearly regard as good news, Hearn and Director Jim Silfee said that the Cove’s new road construction is for the most part complete in Section 1 and other sections targeted in recent years. Phase two in Section 1 is waiting for CCG Note, the declarant/ developer, to finish laying sewer force mains on Seaview, Hearn said, adding that “it will be another two weeks before the pipes are buried.” “Then Rob (Giard), the Cove facilities manager, will bring the pavers in,” he said.
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The Cove is awaiting an Army Corps of Engineers permit for road construction, expected shortly. Next up will be new road construction in Sections 12 and 13 and a slice of Section 3. Hearn said that construction bids “are out” in these two sections, with roughly $960,000 in construction anticipated over the next two fiscal years. “Permits are in place for 12 and 13,” Hearn said, meaning that there are no major impediments remaining for road construction in these two sections. The declarant/developer also will be installing utilities in these sections, making them buildable with the assumption that electric lines also will be run to lots newly accessible by streets. Financing for road construction has been accomplished by a private loan costing the Cove six percent interest annually and by revenues generated from Exhibit X properties, lots that were once in arrears but whose owners are now paying assessments to the Cove association. Kieffer lauded efforts by the Cove in recent years to accomplish road q
Cove records $453,091 surplus for FY 2017
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46 Ocean Pines PROGRESS
CAPTAIN’S COVE
November 2017
Road construction From Page 45
construction without the benefit of a conventional bank loan. “The membership can be proud of that,” he said, suggesting that the Cove will be mostly built out with roads within the next two fiscal years.
“For people complaining at annual meetings that they can’t build, that’s good news,” Kieffer said. Foreclosure sales -- An Oct. 6 foreclosure auction of lots in Captain’s Cove with substantial arrearages ended up with 70 lots going through foreclosure, with the Cove association to take title after the usual recordation process.
There were about 150 lots on the initial foreclosure list, meaning that 80 lots had their arrearages cured. Hearn said that these 80 lots will become regular dues-paying members of the Cove association. Hearn said that the process resulted in the Cove collecting $185,000 in past due lot assessments, at a cost of $71,000, for a net gain to the Cove of
$115,000. Annual meeting -- Rosemary Hall with 1,548 votes and Roger Holland with 1,402 votes were reelected to the board of directors in election results announced at the annual meeting of the Cove membership Oct. 11. CCG Note, the declarant/developer, cast votes in this year’s balloting.
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November 2017
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