October early november 2013 progress by Ocean Pines Progress

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Vol. 9, No. 7

October-Early November 2013

www.issuu.com/oceanpinesprogress Board votes to move food, beverage ops to Country Club As expected, the Ocean Pines Association’s Board of Directors in September formally approved a plan to shift food and beverage operations from the Yacht Club to the Country Club’s upper floor beginning in early November, when Billy Casper Golf will be closing down operations in the lower level Tern Grille for the winter. OPA General Manager Bob Thompson, asked by the directors in August to project budgetary impacts from keeping the Country Club open for the winter, said operating the Country Club during the November through March period will only cost the OPA about $14,000 in additional losses for the year. ~ Page 7

Thompson forecasts modest surplus for current fiscal year A projected year-end forecast for the Ocean Pines Association’s current fiscal year released by OPA General Manager Bob Thompson in September indicates that, in the aggregate, he expects the association to have a reasonably positive operating result, even with a slightly negative variance to budget. In a by-the-numbers chart he displayed during the general manager’s segment of the Sept. 18 board of directors meeting, Thompson indicated that he and OPA Controller Art Carmine expect operations to generate a $5,063 surplus for the year. ~ Page 12

Developer hopes to open medical center building in’15 Work will soon begin on the long-awaited medical office building near the North Gate of Ocean Pines. Commercial general contractor Palmer Gillis, speaking at Worcester County Commissioner Judy Boggs’ town meeting Saturday, Sept. 28, said he would like to see “keys in the door by the fall of 2015.” Planned is a 20,000-square-foot facility first proposed in 1994 on what Gillis called “an ideal site, a perfect transitional site from highway to residential.” Medical offices blend well with neighborhoods, he said. ~ Page 19

THE OCEAN PINES JOURNAL OF NEWS & COMMENTARY COVER STORY

Board acts to tighten tracking of Yacht Club change orders Implementation panel reconstituted after division arises over replacement of original river rock exterior accents with split block By TOM STAUSS Publisher

fter the Ocean Pines Association received a lot of criticism about the way General Manager Bob Thompson has been managing the new Yacht Club project, the OPA has tightened up the system for monitoring change orders during construction of the new Yacht Club and has restored a volunteer implementation task force that will help Thompson oversee the project. Thompson remains as the project manager and has the authority to spend up to $40,000 on the new Yacht Club project without obtaining specific board approval. In an aerial photo taken in early October, the footprint of the new Ocean Pines Yacht Club became That’s an increase over apparent in a way that it hadn’t been just a week or so before. The foundation was poured in late the $15,000 he can spend September, and the exterior framing will be the next visible evidence that the new facility is beon budget expenditures ginning to catch up from earlier delays. OPA General Manager Bob Thompson said recently that without board approval builder Harkins Construction is only two or three weeks behind schedule, meaning that a spring generally, a boost in his opening remains a realistic possibility. spending authority that passed in a 5-2 vote at the board’s Sept. 18 monthly meeting. Directors Marty Clarke and Jack Collins were opposed. Near the conclusion of that meeting, however, Thompson let slip some information about a change order for the By TOM STAUSS troversy over Yacht Club change orders, Yacht Club project that had the poten- Publisher OPA General Manager Bob Thompson tial of changing board opinion on the ny Ocean Pines Association mem- confirmed that the harbor master wing extent to which the general manager ber wondering whether the Java of the new facility will be dual use, with should continue to oversee the project. Bay cafe will be resurrected in a section of it reserved for the sale of cofThere was some sentiment in favor of the new Yacht Club under construction fee, beer, wine, soda and ice and relattaking project oversight out of Thomp- now has an answer: It will and it won’t. ed products for boaters using the Yacht son’s control and perhaps hiring an How’s that for clarity. Club marina. outsider to take over the role. That idea In answer to a question from OPA DiThompson said the OPA previousnever gained traction with a board ma- rector Marty Clarke at a special meeting ly had acquired a liquor license for the jority, however. To Page 18 To Page 17 of the board Sept. 26 to discuss a con-

Thompson confirms beverage shop ‘rumors’ for new Yacht Club

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Aquatics Department donation

The Ocean Pines Aquatics Department held a doggie swim at the Mumford’s Landing Pool Saturday on Sept. 7 before closing the pool for the season. Fifty-seven dogs participated and the entry donations were collected and presented to the Worcester County Humane Society. Pictured left to right are Facility Coordinator Barbara Mazzei, Lifeguard Chris Sterner and Facility Coordinator Lynn Gabeler, who is presenting a $245 check to the Worcester County Humane Society Caregiver Abby Morells. This is the third year OP Aquatics held this event to benefit the local humane society.

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Three-term county commissioner Judy Boggs used the occasion of a town meeting in September to announce her retirement from the commission at the end of the current term, meaning that she won’t be running for reelection to Ocean Pines District 5 next year. She told supporters at the town meeting that she wanted to spend more time with her grandchildren. Her retirement means that the competition for the District 5 seat will be wide open. It was likely to be a contested race in any event. Former OPA Director Ray Unger, a Republican, has already announced his intentions to run, and there have been reports that local Democratic partisans have found at least one candidate to contest the District 5 seat. Dennis Hudson, chairman of the Ocean Pines Association’s budget and finance committee, told the Progress recently that he had decided not to seek the office. Jack Collins, newly elected to the OPA board of directors, lives in District 6, a seat currently held by Ocean Pines property owner, Jim Bunting. District 5 is comprised of the Ocean Pines subdivision, excluding sections that are north and east of Ocean Parkway from the North Gate to and including Wood Duck Isle.

No motions to be allowed at board work sessions

As a way of further defining the monthly board of directors work sessions, reintroduced with the new board term at the suggestion of newly reelected Ocean Pines Association President Tom Terry, the directors have agreed to discuss issues in depth but not to entertain motions or to cast votes. That decision was made via a motion introduced at the board’s Sept. 10 work session by Director Dan Stachurski and adopted by the board on a 4-2 vote with one abstention. The approved motion calls the work sessions a form of special meeting, says they will be subject to Maryland Homeowner Act provisions and the OPA bylaws, will be open to the OPA members

and that members will be able to participate in discussions. The motion also said that Robert’s Rules for conducting meetings will not apply, prompting push-back from Directors Marty Clarke and Jack Collins. Clarke said he didn’t think under Robert’s Rules that regular order could be set aside, and he wondered whether OPA members could be prevented from raising or discussing issues not on the meeting agenda. Stachurski responded that Robert’s Rules allow a group or committee to set aside regular order, and Terry said the purpose of the motion is to allow for a more informal interchange among the board and OPA members. His original proposal for work sessions called for meetings lasting about an hour; the first two have lasted about an hour and a half. OPA Vice-president Sharyn O’Hare presides over the meetings. She has confined OPA member participation to the topic being discussed at the time. There is no separate agenda item for member comments. Regular monthly board meetings, on the other hand, allow OPA members to bring up any subject of their choosing. After Clarke and Collins voted against the motion, and Terri Mohr abstained, Terry asked that the directors give the format a chance to work.

Comp plan motion pushed to December

OPA Director Dan Stachurski had intended to offer up a motion at the board of directors Sept. 18 monthly meeting to authorize the hiring of a Salisbury University-affiliated planning institute member to assist in the drafting of a revised comprehensive plan for Ocean Pines. But after realizing that directors were not ready to consider the proposal, and that there wasn’t time for an adequate airing of details, he decided to pull it for consideration, initially suggesting that it be discussed at the board’s Octo-

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ber work session. He then said that to give everyone more time to consider the proposal from the Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee, the whole issue should be pushed forward to the board’s December work session. That, at least, is the latest plan.

Clarke: Hilton meeting violated OPA bylaws

The OPA board of directors two-day orientation meeting at the Hilton Hotel beachfront in Ocean City in mid-September prompted a fair amount of negative feedback from OPA members who wondered in emails to the OPA why it had to be conducted in Ocean City rather than Ocean Pines. Joining in the criticism was OPA Director Marty Clarke, who let it be known that he regarded the choice of venue as violating the letter of the OPA bylaws, which require board meetings to be held within the subdivision “whenever possible.” He noted that in previous years, the orientation sessions have been held in Ocean Pines. The orientation includes a tour of all OPA facilities, including the Beach Club in Ocean City. OPA General Manager Bob Thomp-

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son reported at the board’s Sept. 18 regular monthly meeting that the twoday orientation cost the OPA $1,326.75 in room rental fees and the self-serve buffet lunch. He previously had defended the Ocean City venue as a way of allowing board members to discuss issues candidly away from the glare and scrutiny of Ocean Pines and initially had suggested that they be held in private. OPA President Tom Terry intervened and made sure the local media was invited. Notice to the OPA membership was nonexistent. The meeting room was small, with a table for directors and barely enough seating along the walls for media. At the Sept. 18 board meeting, Thompson said that the Ocean City venue had been approved by OPA General Counsel Joe Moore, but Clarke disputed that, saying that Moore “fell on his sword” for Thompson and “took the blame” for a decision he knew had violated the bylaws. “The bylaws say ‘whenever possible meetings should be held in Ocean Pines,’ ” Clarke said.

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OCEAN PINES

October-Early November 2013

OCEAN PINES BRIEFS From Page 5 ready booked for next year at the new Yacht Club, scheduled for completion in the spring. He told OPA directors at their Sept. 18 monthly meeting that the dollar volume for the pre-sold weddings and similar events at the new facility has reached $210,000, with more to come as people see construction proceeding. He and Food and Beverage Manager Dave McLaughlin are also advertising for and reviewing applications for a permanent banquet manager, with the temporary holder of the job “maybe having a leg up” on the job, Thompson said.

Hingham Lane drainage project permits received

The remaining phase of Ocean Pines golf course drainage project on holes 11 and 12 should be under way very soon. The Hingham Lane phase had been delayed since late spring because of permitting issues. OPA General Manager Bob Thompson told OPA directors at their Sept. 18 monthly meeting that the OPA had received permits for the Hingham Lane phase from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources on Sept. 17, and that

work to install the underground drainage pipes along the street could begin as early as Sept. 20, with roughly two weeks needed to complete the job.

Some pedestrian usage on golf course cart paths?

Ocean Pines Director of Golf John Malinowski has been giving consideration to the merits of formally easing the OPA policy that forbids walking on the Ocean Pines golf course or riding or walking on the cart paths by non-golfers, one Ocean Pines rule that is often ignored and unenforced, especially in the hours before and after the course opens for golf. There has been the occasional nasty encounter between residents and golf course personnel over the policy, including one recent episode in which the resident told an employee that since his assessment dollars were being used to finance golf deficits, not to mention hundreds of thousands of dollars in golf-related capital improvements, he had no intention of honoring the “no trespass” rule. OPA General Manager Bob Thompson told the OPA directors during their Sept. 18 monthly meeting that Malinowski was suggesting that there could be an easing of policy regarding biking or walking on the cart paths, es-

pecially before and after normal hours of play. “The board is going to have to give guidance” on any change to the existing policy, Thompson said, without offering a recommendation. Director Dan Stachurski noted that there are no trespass signs posted on the course for non-golfers, and he said they should be enforced. OPA President Tom Terry seemed to agree. “Go enforce the rule,” he said. No other board member commented on the proposed change in policy.

GM details estimates of refurbishing pool

When he presents a draft 201415 capital expenditure budget in late December or early January for board review, OPA General Manager Bob Thompson plans to include one project near and dear to the Ocean Pines Aquatics Advisory Committee. He told the OPA directors at their Sept. 18 monthly meeting that he would include the Sports Core pool resurfacing and refurbishment project in his proposed budget for next year, noting that whether it gets approved as proposed will be up to the board. He detailed cost estimates for various project components, taken from requests for proposals submitted earlier this year by pool contractors. These include $13,000-$15,000 for skimmer repairs, $10,000-$12,000 for perimeter coping stone, $10,000-$19,000 for tile and lane markers, and $10,000 to $59,000 to resurface the pool. Decking repair estimates include $85,000 for leveling the deck and pouring new concrete and an additional $45,000 for stone pavers similar to those installed at the new Yacht Club pool. An alternative to pavers would be a rubber matting costing about $38,000, Thompson said. He said these estimates have been incorporated into the capital improvement plan for FY 2015 currently being drafted for board review and approval.

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OPA General Manager Bob Thompson has said for some time that more permanent solutions to drainage issues in Section 3 require professional engineers to diagnose and recommend additional fixes. With board approval, he and Facilities Manager Jerry Aveta advertised RFPs (requests for proposals) from engineering firms capable of conducting another drainage study. Four companies submitted formal proposals by the July 30 deadline, with estimates for studies ranging from $30,000 to $80,000. Thompson told OPA directors during their Sept. 18 monthly meeting that he and Aveta were also reviewing a drainage report from several years ago done by Steve Soule. The general manager said he would have a recommendation on which engineering company he preferred very soon, perhaps by the board’s October work

session. There was no recommendation offered at the board’s Oct. 2 work session.

Pines chamber names citizen, business of year

The Ocean Pines Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and staff are very pleased to announce our 2013 Citizen of the Year and 2013 Business of the Year that will be recognized at our Annual Awards & Installation Banquet which has been a yearly tradition for the Ocean Pines Chamber of Commerce for the past 14 years! We give a loud 2013 “Roar” to these wonderful people: Business of the Year: Atlantic Physical Therapy – Robert Hammond, Citizen of the Year - Kathy Jacobs of Brandywine Senior Living at Fenwick Island and our 2013 Non-Profit of the Year – Atlantic General Hospital Foundation. (Sponsored by the Community Foundation of the Easter Shore) Please join us as we celebrate the accomplishments of these local award recipients on Friday evening, October 18, 2013 from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. The 2013 banquet will be a “Roaring 20’s” theme appropriately at the Ocean City/Ocean Pines Lions Club on Airport Rd. in West Ocean City. The Awards ceremony will be held in conjunction with the Installation of our 2013/2014 Board Members: Officers: Incoming President: Gwen Cordner with Acquest Title Services, Outgoing President: Imad Elali of Long & Foster Realtors, Vice President: Anna Giles of Merrill Lynch, Treasurer: Larry Leese of Larry Leese & Associates, PA, Secretary: Amy Unger of Atlantic General Hospital. Directors: Ted Demetriou of Demetriou Insurance, Lee Ann Gunning of Wor-Wic Community College, Celeste Dove of Farmer’s Bank of Willards, Jennifer Antonelli of Comcast Spotlight and Will Cathell of Williams, Moore, Shockley & Harrison, LLP. Everyone is welcome to join us for a delicious buffet dinner as we honor these wonderful local people. (Members, non-members & the public all are welcome to attend) If you would like to join us, tickets are just $55 per person and can be purchased on-line: www.OceanPinesChamber.org or by calling the Ocean Pines Office at 410-641-5306.

Platform tennis group hosts pro-am event

Ocean Pines Platform Tennis held their first pro-am event on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 14. The platform tennis facility was packed with spectators who enjoyed the games and refreshing fall weather. A total of twenty four matches were completed. All players were guaranteed two sets while each Ocean Pines competitor was paired with a pro. During play the pros gave helpful tips to the players and audience. The seven ranked players were from the Philadelphia area thus calling themselves the Philly Girls. Wal-Mart and Home Depot donated to this event, and Jim Freeman spear-

October-Early November 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS 7

OCEAN PINES

Board votes to move food and beverage ops to Country Club

s expected, the Ocean Pines Association’s Board of Directors in September formally approved a plan to shift food and beverage operations from the Yacht Club to the Country Club’s upper floor beginning in early November, when Billy Casper Golf will be closing down operations in the lower level Tern Grille for the winter. OPA General Manager Bob Thomp-

The board directed the general manager to come up with a business plan to operate the upper level of the Country Club as a restaurant in the run-up to the opening of the new Yacht Club in the spring. An operating loss is predicted, but a board majority seems willing to accept that as a necessary cost of helping the staff prepare for the new Yacht Club’s launch. son, asked by the directors in August to project budgetary impacts from keeping the Country Club open for the winter, said operating the Country Club during the November through March period will only cost the OPA about $14,000 in

additional losses for the year. The directors at their Sept. 18 monthly meeting unanimously voted to authorize the winter Country Club operation, which will probably be a three-orfour day-a-week schedule, with Monday

nights included during the professional football season. Thompson said the club would be open Friday nights, Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 8 or 9 p.m., Sundays from 10 a.m.

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8 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

October-Early November 2013

Food and beverage From Page 7 to whenever football games end, and Monday nights for football. It remains to be seen whether the Yacht Club’s popular Sunday brunches will be revived during the winter. The projected $14,000 additional loss “isn’t as bad as it could have been,” Director Sharyn O’Hare said in reaction to Thompson’s estimates, adding that Ocean Pines residents “want a place to meet their friends” over the winter. Director Bill Cordwell agreed, noting that last winter, when Casper Golf operated a limited schedule at the Country Club, headlined by a popular chicken dinner prepared by Tern Grille chef Charles, attendance grew from about 30 people at the launch to about 175 at its peak. “It became more popular,” he said, adding that OPA residents “need a gathering-place” and that it doesn’t need to be open seven days a week, something Thompson never had any intention of implementing. OPA President Tom Terry also spoke up in favor of a winter schedule at the Country Club, although he suggested that it may not be possible to offer the fried chicken special at the same low price that Casper offered last winter. During the board’s discussion that followed Thompson’s presentation of budgetary impacts, the directors did

not directly cite another reason for why Thompson had initially suggested shifting operations to the Country Club over the winter. Thompson had said that by doing so, Yacht Club Food and Beverage Manager David McLaughlin could keep Yacht Club staff employed and provide training in anticipation of the new Yacht Club in the spring. That rationale met some resistance from property owners during the August meeting and from one or two directors, who said that possible benefit might not in the end materialize. In the end, it was the desire to provide a meeting place that carried the day. As explained by Thompson during the board’s Aug. 28 special meeting, BCG’s decision to close down the Tern Grille and the fact that the Yacht Club will probably be demolished by November means the OPA would be temporarily out of the food and beverage business after the first part of November. “We wouldn’t have any facility open,” Thompson told the board, telling members that he thought it should be a “board decision” whether to operate a limited food and beverage operation at the Country Club in the run-up to the opening of the new Yacht Club in the spring. “It’s up to you all” to decide, Thompson said, candidly telling the directors that there would be a cost to do so – an To Page 9

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From Page 8 unbudgeted operational loss that he was not then prepared to estimate. His approach seemed to be to put the ball in the board’s court as to whether directors were willing to accept an operating loss in order to stay in the food and beverage business over the winter months. Thompson said that if the board authorizes it, the plan would be to move the Yacht Club staff over to the Country Club in November, along with some of the kitchen equipment from the old Yacht Club to replace old or non-functional equipment in the Country Club kitchen. The plan would be to be open for lunch and dinner three or four days a week, on a Thursday through Sunday or Thursday through Monday schedule, he said. He made no mention of moving the Java Bay coffee house over to the Country Club. He also did not specify how much of the Yacht Club staff would be moved over to the Country Club, but presumably at minimum it would include the food and beverage manager, David McLaughlin, the new banquet manager, bartenders and some kitchen and wait staff. Director Dan Stachurski suggested that Thompson consider using some of the Tern Grille staff as well, given the general popularity of that operation under BCG management. He later told the Progress that he believes some of the Tern staff should be considered for employment at the new Yacht Club when it reopens next year. “They’re the old (Pudge) Ruppert staff,” Director Marty Clarke remarked, referring to a former food and beverage manager who operated the Yacht Club during most of the 2000s. During the Aug. 28 special meeting, Thompson seemed to be asking the board for a quick decision on keeping the Country Club open, in the hopes of avoiding a second move of the Yacht Club’s kitchen equipment. If the board had accommodated the general manager during the Aug. 28 special meeting, he said he would have been prepared to move the kitchen equipment directly to the Country Club. If a decision is delayed, it would be necessary to park the equipment in storage and then move it again to the Country Club if the November reopening is approved. Thompson said that one rationale for operating the Country Club as a food and beverage venue over the winter months is that it will allow time for the staff to ramp up and train for the new Yacht Club opening. Initial reaction by a majority of directors seemed positive, with the exception of Clarke and, possibly, Jack Collins, who seemed to side with Clarke when he expressed concerns about the operating losses that would result. Still, both Clarke and Collins voted with the majority on Stachurski’s motion directing Thompson to produce a business plan with cost estimates for keeping the Country Club open after the Tern Grille closes in November. The motion passed on a 5-2 vote, with

October-Early November 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Board rejects sending letter to county on municipality issue Directors yet to decide whether or not to fund professional study By TOM STAUSS Publisher

he Ocean Pines Association’s board of directors has decided against one of the budget and finance committee’s proposals for moving ahead on a study of the idea of creating an Ocean Pines municipal corporation. The proposal called for the board to draft a letter to the Worcester County commissioners asking them whether they wanted the OPA to back off pursuit of further study. The directors decided against the idea of sending a letter of inquiry to the commissioners in a 6-1 vote during their Sept. 18 monthly meeting. Dissenting from the vote was Director Sharyn O’Hare. Her colleagues were of the view that sending a letter at this stage of the municipality discussion was premature and probably would generate a noncommittal letter in return. The budget and finance committee

directors Sharyn O’Hare and Terri Mohr opposed. They seemed prepared to give Thompson the immediate go-ahead to proceed with moving kitchen equipment and didn’t seem particularly concerned that the general manager had not submitted a business plan with projected losses. Also voting for the motion were OPA President Tom Terry and the newly minted OPA treasurer, Bill Cordwell.

had suggested a letter to the commissioners as a way of gauging whether the commissioners would even consider going along with the creation of an Ocean Pines municipal corporation. Committee chair Dennis Hudson has said that if the commissioners are so opposed to the idea that they wouldn’t even be willing to consider it were the idea ever to reach them for consideration, it doesn’t make much sense expending time and energy to study the idea further. In a recent letter to the board, the committee also raised the possibility of the directors authorizing a professional study of the idea’s pros and cons by experts associated with Salisbury University or the University of Maryland. A professional municipality study would involve the expenditure of OPA funds and a decision by the directors that the idea has at least enough merit to warrant spending money to study it in depth. That idea was briefly alluded to during the board’s Sept, 18 meeting, but the directors took no action on it. That led to Hudson expressing his frustration on the subject during the committee’s September meeting, at one point even suggesting that the idea was dead. Other committee members took a more cautious approach, suggesting that the committee should not abandon the idea of studying the municipality idea further unless and until the board decided definitively not to fund it. Among the options that remain is for the committee to ask for a working session with the board to discuss the funding idea in more detail. It’s also possible that the committee will press for

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funding as part of the 2015 fiscal year budget process that will be unfolding in the next several months. The committee has not embraced the idea of creating an Ocean Pines municipality corporation. Its members have been supportive only of studying the idea further, and there is some resistance on the board of directors for even doing that. Director Jack Collins attended the committee’s late September monthly meeting and told its members that he was unfavorably disposed to the municipality idea, but he didn’t say he was opposed to further study of it. Collins expressed concern over federal and state mandates, often unfunded, that he said are imposed on municipalities. But he acknowledged that the board, when it voted not to send a letter to the county commissioners asking for input, had not decided the funding issue one way or the other. That, for the time being at least, seems to keep the idea alive for some time longer, though it’s probably fair to say that there isn’t a great deal of momentum behind it. After a presentation by members of the Maryland Municipal League at the committee’s Aug. 23 monthly meeting, the committee voted to proceed with further study, perhaps with a narrowed focus on a municipal structure that could credibly show OPA members that their OPA assessments would decrease if a parallel municipal government were created. Well aware that any such assertion would face mountains of skepticism from critics who could not possibly imagine that creating a new layer of government could ever reduce costs, committee members heard commentary from Municipal League representatives that showed how it might be possible. MML Director of education Tom

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Municipality From Page 9 Reynolds told the committee that municipalities in Maryland “are all over the board” with respect to the services they offer and the level of taxation needed to support them. In several instances, municipalities based in the Chevy Chase area of the Washington, D.C. suburbs don’t charge its resident property owners any property tax, relying instead on its share of the local income tax collected by the state and returned to the counties and municipalities, Reynolds said. Another source of revenues is highway user revenues. Bruce Wahl, a small town mayor on the Western Shore and president-elect of the MML, told the committee that within his town there are eight separate HOAs that offer various services to its residents, including private swimming pools and roads. He said that 17 percent of local income taxes are distributed to municipalities in his county. The details of just how local income taxation might flow back to an Ocean Pines municipal corporation was not known precisely by the MML officials.

Hudson said that local income taxes are an issue needing more investigation by the committee. Worcester County’s relatively modest local income tax rate is set by the county commissioners, with the taxes collected by the state through employer withholding or directly by taxpayers when they file their annual state tax returns. The local income taxes are then remitted to the county which reportedly then shares a portion of them with the county’s four municipalities. The outlines of how a municipal corporation might be structured unfolded during the meeting, with the MML officials telling the committee that there was no need to eliminate the Ocean Pines Association in order to create a municipality. In fact, as a result of the meeting, the presumption is that the committee, if it decides to promote the establishment of a municipality, would advocate retaining the HOA as a powerful force in local administration, with only a few departments – such as police and fire, roads and perhaps Public Works – transferring over to a municipality. Amenity departments would stay with the OPA under this scenario.

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12 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

October-Early November 2013

Thompson forecasts modest surplus for current fiscal year General manager sees a $212,605 loss for golf this year, which would represent a significant improvement over last year By TOM STAUSS Publisher

projected year-end forecast for the Ocean Pines Association’s current fiscal year released by OPA General Manager Bob Thompson in September indicates that, in the aggregate, he expects the association to have a reasonably positive operating result, even with a slightly negative variance to budget. In a by-the-numbers chart he displayed during the general manager’s segment of the Sept. 18 board of directors meeting, Thompson indicated that he and OPA Controller Art Carmine expect operations to generate a $5,063 surplus for the year. That’s a $74,442 negative variance from the original budget’s projected operating surplus of $79,505, but still, if the numbers hold, a relatively positive outcome, especially when compared to the $400,000 deficit generated by the OPA in the previous fiscal year. High-profile amenity operations re-

main somewhat troubling in the forecast, but they’re offset by rosier projected scenarios in departments funded mostly or entirely through lot assessments. Golf and golf-related food and bever-

2014-15 BUDGET GUIDANCE

Committee seeks deeper involvement in preparation of 2014-15 OPA budget

embers of the Ocean Pines Association’s budget and finance committee met with the board of directors Oct. 2 in a work session to hash out the committee’s recommended guidance for the preparation of the OPA’s 2014-15 draft budget. For the most part, the meeting went smoothly, with only the occasional spat between committee members and OPA General Manager Bob Thompson over committee suggestions for improving the budget process or OPA financial reporting generally. But there was some indication of a more serious rift ahead when Dennis Hudson, the committee chair, said his committee would like to be involved earlier than ever in the preparation of the budget, actually engaging with Thompson and OPA Controller Art Carmine as the budget draft is prepared. Normally, the committee’s initial involvement with the budget takes place immediately after the staff-prepared draft is shared with the board and committee in late December or early January. That involvement includes review of the draft department by department, sometimes line by line, and last year,

after several years of hiatus, the committee also met with department heads to review their requested budgets. That level of involvement was initiated at Hudson’s request as the new committee chair, and acquiesced in by Thompson, who later said that degree of committee involvement had worked well from his perspective. Although the general manager did not debate the request for earlier involvement in budget preparation, his body language suggested push-back to come. Indeed, Hudson later confirmed an exchange of emails on the subject that confirmed some difficulty ahead on that particular recommendation. It also remains to be seen whether Thompson will arrange for his department heads to meet with the committee this budget cycle. In a session dominated by a number of fairly routine suggestions [see sidebar for a complete list], the committee made it clear it was renewing a recommendation from last year that was quietly buried during budget deliberations, never receiving a full public airing. That recommendation, involving golf operations in Ocean Pines, called for a referendum of property owners should

By TOM STAUSS Publisher

age operations at the Country Club appear to be headed for a major year-overyear improvement, and that suggests that Billy Casper Golf, the golf course management company hired three years ago to manage Ocean Pines 18-hole Robert Trent Jones golf course, probably has a reasonable shot at retaining the OPA as a client company after the pending expiration of the current three-year contract next spring. Thompson’s updated year-end forecast predicts that golf and related operations will lose $212,605 this year, compared to last February’s budgeted loss of $150,000, a $62,473 negative variance. Because golf was just shy of $70,000 behind budget through August, Thompson is in effect predicting that BCG will, for the remainder of the fiscal year, more or less hit its budget targets, including positive months in September and October, when outside package play is supposed to be robust. If September and October come in

close to budget, BCG’s chances of continuing to manage the Ocean Pines golf course improve. If not, Thompson’s latest projection of a $212,605 actual loss for golf will probably miss the mark, complicating the company’s prospects for a contract renewal. After golf, the Yacht Club comes in with the next largest projected deficit for the year -- $190,986 – followed by aquatics with a $174,080 projected loss and recreation, including marina operations, tennis and Beach Club parking, with a $22,062 projected loss. Relative to budget, the Yacht Club, golf operations, aquatics and recreation are all projected to underperform. The Beach Club food and beverage operation is projected for a $68,340 surplus for the year, with a $15,180 negative variance to budget. Administration, public works and public safety departments are all projected to produce positive variances to budget for the year.

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October-Early November 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

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OCEAN PINES

October-Early November 2013

Budget guidance

2014-15 Budget Guidance

he Ocean Pines Association’s budget and finance committee has made a number of recommendations to the board of directors as it prepares budget guidance to General Manager Bob Thompson and staff as they draft a 2014-15 OPA budget. The committee recommended that: • it be allowed to participate earlier in the budget cycle than heretofore has occurred, specifically as it relates to developing revenue projections for amenity departments that have fallen short in recent years in reaching revenue goals • staff be asked to draft a detailed plan of employee performance measures as it relates to the budget • staff be directed to develop detailed “sound” business plans for each of the amenities, especially the new Yacht Club. The committee criticized the existing Yacht Club business plan as essentially a marketing plan lacking key ingredients • the board and management “be cognizant” that the local economy is still struggling and that the “disposable income” of many OPA members is “going down” while prices of goods and services are going up.” This

seemed to be a veiled plea not to raise lot assessments next year. • the OPA’s employee health insurance and benefits package be revisited during the budget process to ensure fairness both to property owners and employees • that all OPA restaurant operations use national industry standards as a way of controlling food and beverage costs relative to revenue • that the OPA should consider beefing up the OPA’s marketing and public relations department to expand the promotion of Ocean Pines • that the OPA ensure that amenities and recreational programs adhere to a two-tiered fee structure that takes into account that OPA members have paid for the facilities that make these programs possible • that staff provide a staffing study at the OPA’s five swimming pools • that OPA management complete a road replacement study and provide it to the committee if it’s already completed • the Yacht Club food and beverage and marina operations be combined under a single manager

From Page 12 golf operations fail to achieve breakeven or profitable status after a threeyear trial period. The referendum would allow property owners to decide whether the OPA should continue to be in the golf business. Discussions never evolved to the point that any referendum language was presented. Some directors told the Progress last year that they would never even consider giving property owners the option of closing the golf course or even leasing it out to a private management company, which would assume all operational risk under this scenario. Director Marty Clarke took the opposite approach, saying he would consider a lease option but that waiting three years for a decision was too long. Last year, golf and golf related food and beverage operations lost about $500,000, while in the current fiscal year, the latest projections forecast an operating deficit of slightly more than $200,000, which, if they hold, would represent a significant turn-around but still well short of break-even. To justify its earlier involvement in budget development in the new cycle, Hudson said the committee’s major concern is that the OPA needs to do a better job of forecasting amenity revenues. Those, he said, have consistently fallen short in recent years, with the current year, 2013-14, no exception. “We don’t just want to review the budget (after it’s prepared), but we want

to be there during the preparation of the revenue numbers,” Hudson said. He suggested that rather than hindering or slowing down the budget process, early involvement by the committee could assist Thompson and his staff in coming up with more accurate projections and a better budget overall. In another area where differences between the committee and Thompson emerged during the work session, committee members said the general manager and the controller, in the monthly financial reporting to the board and committee, need to offer more detailed explanations of variances to budget with respect to capital expenditures. Committee members said the reporting is detailed when it comes to operational variances to budget, but that capital spending lacks the same degree of detail. Thompson pushed back against that notion, citing two pages in the monthly financial reports where capital spending is detailed, including the reserve summary page. Member Gene Ringsdorf called Thompson on that assertion, repeating several times that, in fact, the financial reporting is not very specific with respect to capital spending variances. Hudson said a committee recommendation is that staff prepare, in writing, an explanation for any operating or capital spending variances that exceed five percent in either direction. Ringsdorf said the board, in its financial oversight role, should want that degree of specificity from Thompson.

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OPA FINANCES

OPA has positive operating variance in August By TOM STAUSS Publisher he Ocean Pines Association’s financial report for August, the fourth month of the 2014 fiscal year, contained some good news. The OPA generated both a surplus and a positive operating variance to budget for the month, the second month in a row for both, reversing negative variances for the first two months of the fiscal year. August’s operating fund variance – actual performance compared to budget – was $52,401. The actual surplus was $88,864. According to the financial report prepared by OPA Controller Art Carmine, revenues exceeded budget by $20,166 and expenses were under budget by $32,235.

Cumulative deficit for the year is less than $50,000 Year-to-date, helped out by August’s positive numbers, the variance to budget is a negative $49,232. Major amenity operations were either solidly in the black or in the red by relatively small amounts. Those generating surpluses for the month included marinas ($9,644), Beach Club parking ($39,476), and the Beach Club restaurant ($43,149). In the red for the month were tennis ($5,468), aquatics ($19,249), golf ($10,524) and the Yacht Club $3,783). In addition to detailing the actual performance, OPA financial statements also compare actual performance to the annual budget projections, resulting in either positive or

OPA Net Financial Operations through August 31, 2013

negative variances. Major amenities with positive operating variances to budget in August included tennis ($1,518), marinas ($8,838), Beach Club parking ($8,416), aquatics ($4,791) and the Beach Club restaurant ($9,657). Amenity departments that missed budget targets in August were golf ($8,364) and the Yacht Club ($31,185). The financial summary also details cumulative totals for the amenity and assessment departments through August. Amenity departments with operating surpluses through August included tennis ($11,930), marinas ($145,764), Beach Club parking ($382,091), aquatics ($52,885), and

the Beach Club ($106,742). Those in deficit for the year are golf ($20,593) and the Yacht Club (6,911). Compared to budget, all the amenity departments with the exception of Beach Club parking have negative variances through August. Beach Club parking’s positive variance is $21,938. Marina operations, reflecting the unavailability of gasoline for sale in June, had a negative variance of $41,893. Aquatics had a negative variance of $35,397, while golf was $70,838 behind budget and the Yacht Club’s negative variance was $107,422. Status of reserves – The reserve summary released as part of the August financials shows that the OPA’s reserve balance stood at $6,746,364, a substantial decline from July’s balance of $7,585,734. Lot assessment dollars flow into the reserves at the beginning of the new fiscal year in May. The balance in the roads reserve through Aug. 31 was $66,744, virtually unchanged from July. The bulkhead and waterways reserve through August stood at $1,041,629, also virtually unchanged from July. The golf drainage reserve carries a $576,816 negative variance, the future projects reserve is $59,827 in the red, and the operating recovery reserve stands at zero. The major maintenance and replacement reserve fund remains as the OPA reserve that is the most flush with earmarked assessment dollars. Its Aug. 31 balance was $6,274,595, comprised of $5,359,180 in funded depreciation and $915,415 attributable to the five-year funding plan. This reserve will be substantially reduced by the end of the year, reflecting the cost of the new Yacht Club and swimming pool. Each year, the OPA collects between $3 million and $4 million in assessment dollars that are allocated to various reserves. Status of balance sheet -Meanwhile, the OPA has a very healthy balance sheet, reflecting $32.66 million in total assets balanced by the same amount in liabilities and owners’ equity. Current assets include $4,192,133 in operating cash and investments in CDRs and money markets totaling $6,061,841. Accounts receivable in overdue assessments totaled $1,366,358. Operating cash declines over the course of the year as do overdue assessments.

OCEAN PINES From Page 1 The general manager told the board of the change order that actually had reduced the cost of the Yacht Club by a modest amount, offsetting some higher costs related to parking. According to Thompson, the change order resulted from the opposition of county authorities to using faux river rock as an accent material on the exterior of the new building. He said the replacement material was a product called split block that had already been used in the retaining wall that separates the Yacht Club pool from the Yacht Club harbor. During the Sept. 18 meeting, there was little reaction one way or other from board members, but a negative reaction went viral on the oceanpinesforum. com Web site shortly thereafter and in subsequent email to directors from OPA members. Much of the email was vitriolic and targeted at Thompson, in some cases demanding his firing for the alleged sin of withholding and manipulating key information about the Yacht Club project from the directors and OPA membership. In the days that followed, the general manager attempted to combat what he said were inaccuracies in the initial reporting and commentary on his in-

teractions with county government and actions that resulted. Thompson took strong issue with any notion that he misled the directors in any way or withheld important information from them. “I’ve lost respect for anyone who says that,” he said. “They didn’t bother to call me to find out what happened in the county or why we changed from river rock.” He said he was shocked by the reaction to his disclosure late in the meeting of Sept. 18 because “I knew I had mentioned the change to split block in a board meeting earlier this year.” In an interview with the Progress after the Sept. 18 meeting, Thompson said he first learned of the problem with the river rock accents in a meeting with the county’s Technical Review Committee in fall of last year. There is a provision in the county that discourages some but not all faux rock products like the one that was shown on the drawings of the new Yacht Club sent out as part of the referendum materials last summer. “I didn’t feel at the time that the issue was worth fighting for,” Thompson said, “as we had other issues we were working on that we felt were more important.” So he made the decision not to ask the county for a waiver, which the TRC did not have the power to grant in any event. It would have gone to the Board of Zoning Appeals, or perhaps

the planning commission, for review, a time-consuming process that he was reluctant to pursue. After an eruption of negative commentary and reporting after the Sept. 18 meeting, Thompson and his staff pored through videos of board meetings and discovered a board meeting in January when the general manager had in fact referenced the issue over river rock. He used the term “split rock” as the replacement material, technically incorrect, but he said the video proved he was not trying to hide the change in building accent material from the directors. In a press release Terry criticized what he called inaccurate reporting and commentary that he said unfairly put the general manager and the association in a bad light. He also said that in a subsequent board meeting and town hall meeting in May, Thompson had the split block material on display along with other samples of material that will be used on the building’s exterior. It was at that meeting that Thompson conducted a poll of OPA members on the roof color. The small sampling of OPA members voted for the blue roof and the board accepted that recommendation. “No one raised objections” to the split block, which was labeled, very discretely, on the display easel containing all the

materials to be used on the building, Terry said in his press release. In a recent Progress interview, Terry acknowledged he hadn’t been aware of the change from river rock to split block until the Sept. 18 board meeting, despite the earlier disclosures from Thompson. While he said in his opinion the general manager had not tried to hide the change from the board, at the same it was clear that it had not registered with the board or OPA members. “What got our attention is the fact that there was change order involved,” Terry told the Progress. “Until then, none of us realized that river rock was not the product of choice or that Bob had made the decision to change it.” The OPA president said that while Thompson was the decision-maker on replacing the river rock, the general manager had discussed the issue with his project implementation team last year as well as the building architects and contractor, Harkins Construction Co. of Salisbury. “He was not the sole actor that some have suggested,” Terry said. As individual board members, Clarke and Collins especially, pressed for details on how the change in accent material could have slipped through without the board’s awareness, another problem

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18 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

October-Early November 2013

Yacht Club From Page 17 for Thompson arose that complicated matters even more. A posting on oceanpinesforum.com by Ted Moroney, a member of the project’s implementation team, intimated that the group was no longer functioning at worst and that Moroney in any event was no longer a member. The posting apparently was sent to board members for reaction. Moroney’s post said that “at some point” during the fall of last year he was informed by Thompson that river rock was out as a possible useable material. “My conversation with him included expressing my opinion that I didn’t like the river rock depicted on the renderings, and I was glad we could use a different stone like that used on the community center or other commercial buildings in the County,” Moroney wrote. “It was my understanding that we would install a cinder block foundation wall and provide several alternates as a stone covering over the lower wall to the board, just as the roof color, tile and other finishes would be presented to the board with the architect’s recommendations.” Moroney said he didn’t know a decision had been made on the split block until the same time that the board and OPA members learned of it in mid-September. By then, he was off the panel, the result of what Thompson later acknowledged was a “blow-up” between

Beverage shop From Page 1 Yacht Club to allow sale of alcoholic products outside of the primary bar and restaurant area. The license will apply to the duo-use harbor master venue, he said. Thompson did not say the Java Bay name will be resurrected – it probably won’t be, given its less than exemplary reputation -- and he did not use the word “café” to describe the use he had in mind. He seemed to be emphasizing that the space would be used primarily to serve more transient users, specifically boaters on their way in or out of the harbor. The Java Bay café, in contrast, was a general purpose coffee shop targeted at the Ocean Pines population at large. “It’s always been a multi-use purpose,” Thompson said of the Harbormaster wing, later telling the Progress that he’s been talking about a shop that would sell coffee, beer, wine, soda, ice and related products to the boating community for a long time. “Whether people understood what I was focusing on with that concept, I don’t know,” he said. “Sometimes it can take a little while for people to get what I’m saying.” What prompted the question from Clarke was an online posting from OPA member and building contractor Ted Moroney, who had dropped out as a member of Thompson’s Yacht Club implementation team. Moroney, who has since been reinstated as a member in good stand-

him and Moroney over sharing of information. “Had I known that, given that I was trying to hold our costs down, I would have requested a deduct change order amount from Harkins,” Moroney said in his post. “In fact, we would have reduced their contract by some amount and applied the savings to any cost overruns. I certainly wouldn’t have waited since August 2012 to get a number.” Moroney said in regards to a recent change order involving pilings under a portion of the concrete foundation pad, he advised Harkins not to proceed with the work until “pricing was in” even though the work was critical to the project staying on schedule. Moroney also pushed back at Terry’s comment in his press release that “no one raised objections” to the split block at the May board or town hall meetings. “When did you know the stone had been replaced with split face? When did any of you?” he asked of board members. “How did you know where the materials shown as samples were going, what was in a retaining wall, what was a deck material, etc? I didn’t even give them a second glance when they were (displayed) at meetings,” Moroney said of exterior building materials. “Heck, we had five or six colored roofs,” he added. “If I put a board painted orange in a room with other materials and never told you it was the color of the interior walls, could I claim later I had shown you the color and you aping of the group, said that the general manager had “directed the contractor to run lines and a drain to the Harbor Masters office to facilitate a coffee bar, all without ever discussing it with the team or to my knowledge the board.” Moroney said the cost could run up to $5,000 or as high as $10,000. “Who knows, as I understand it no price was obtained before the work was started … Given the scrutiny now we might trade it for eliminating an elevator or something.” Moroney wrote, adding that “it was the principle of the matter” that bothered him. As cost projections were coming in, he said he asked Thompson “time and again to get ahead of the curve and address the funding.” When that didn’t occur in a timely enough fashion to suit Moroney, he dropped off the implementation committee, a state of affairs that remained for about three weeks before OPA President Tom Terry convened a private meeting of the two in the hopes of patching up the relationship. It succeeded. Moroney and former OPA President Bill Rakow are now both back on the job. Any change orders related to the “coffee, beer, wine, soda and ice” shop will be revealed as part of a beefed up change order tracking system that the implementation team is in the process of developing. Thompson told the Progress that he didn’t think the cost of running the lines to the harbormaster’s area would cost $10,000. “More like $5,000,” he said. Details to follow.

proved? How could anyone having attended a meeting or watching a video have known it was a change if no one said it was? Come on.” Moroney’s post also revealed why he had left the implementation team. One reason had to do with a decision by Thompson to approve a change order for colored lights in the new Yacht Club pool – at a cost of $2,750. Moroney also said Thompson “directed the contractor to run lines and a drain to the Harbor Masters office to facilitate a coffee bar, all without ever discussing it with the team or to my knowledge the board.” He estimated the additional cost of these lines as somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000. Moroney went on to say that he was “just being used by Bob” to help him as needed but “any semblance of an ‘OPA team’ was/is a joke. This is Bob’s project, he makes the decisions, communicates just enough to each party to keep things going.” While he said he likes Thompson and believes he’s done “good things” for the OPA, “I have come to understand that he compartmentalizes people, problems and information, and he is the sole holder of the power and total story. This is a one-man team!” The notion that Thompson was operating as a one-man show and that the implementation team no longer had Moroney as a member perhaps more than anything had OPA board members concerned in the days following their Sept. 18 meeting. Clarke and Collins were calling for someone other than Thompson to manage the Yacht Club project going forward, something that other directors were not ready to embrace. But given the volume and intensity of emails received by the OPA as well as the Moroney critique, it didn’t take long for Terry to call a special meeting of the board for Sept. 26 to air out differences, try to find common ground and restore community confidence in Yacht Club construction oversight. Before that meeting convened, the OPA president called in Thompson and Moroney to see if the badly frayed relationship could be patched up and the project implementation team reassembled to provide the oversight that the directors wanted in place. In both cases the answer was yes. Declining to reveal details of what was said during the meeting and by whom, Terry was effusive in his praise of Thompson and Moroney “getting past their differences for the betterment of Ocean Pines.” After brief opening remarks from Terry, Thompson took to the microphone to criticize a lot of “miscommunication and misinformation out there” about change orders and the exterior accent substitution. He went on to acknowledge that he and Moroney had had “a major blow-up” but that, as the result of the three-way meeting, the breach “had healed, we got through it” and the implementation group had been reconstituted. “The project is bigger than both of us,” Thompson said. He also announced that Bill Rakow, a former OPA president and previously on the panel, had rejoined it.

The general manager further announced that the revived implementation team would be tightening the process of monitoring and tracking change orders, a process he conceded had been “looser than what Ted would have liked.” Henceforth Thompson said that group meetings would have formal agendas and minutes as well as individual assignments. Apparently they will not be open to the local media or the OPA membership. The general manager said he would be responsible for reporting to the board, emphasizing the importance of providing detailed information about any change orders. He said the group would be revisiting the issue of using split block on the Yacht Club exterior. One possibility may be to go back to the county to seek a waiver for river rock, he said, adding that the board would be presented with options to consider at its Nov. 6 work session. He said the panel would be developing a list of open issues related to the Yacht Club project, including a detailed list of changes made thus far and expected, as well as the contingency funding expended thus far and the amount of remaining contingency funds. Moroney also addressed the board during the Sept. 26 meeting, confirming that the breach between him and Thompson had been repaired. He also told the directors of plans to develop and disseminate a detailed system of tracking change orders. Clarke, who remains the board’s most pointed critic of Thompson, reiterated earlier criticism of Thompson for taking more than 80 days to provide detailed information about the change order related to the foundation issue. The general manager responded that a change order in writing was not immediately presented to the OPA for signature by the contractor. Moroney clarified that while there was no formal change in order on file, there was a document in writing indicating that the work was to be done. Aware that some OPA members would regard that as far too loose an arrangement for anyone’s comfort, Thompson told the board that from now “you’ll see a list of change orders” every month from him and the implementation group. OPA General Counsel Joe Moore responded to a question from Terry on the procedure for signing change orders, after Thompson said that he would not be signing them and that Terry would be. Moore said that Thompson could sign change orders up to $40,000 and that Terry could sign them for any amount, with the understanding that the board will approve any above $40,000. Later, Terry said that as far as he’s concerned, he won’t sign any change order and he suspects Thompson won’t either unless it’s been approved first by the board. “The reality is, you’ll know about (any pending change orders) well in advance” of needing to sign it, Moroney said. With that, it appears that the latest brouhaha in Ocean Pines may have been addressed and put to bed. Time will tell.

OCEAN PINES

Medical center developer hopes to have first building at North Gate open in 2015 Professional Center in Salisbury, which is 80,000 square feet and houses Girl Scout offices among tenants. It is near a neighborhood. Land was purchased in 1992 and it was just finished, due to opposition, Gillis said, but now neighbors have thanked him for it. Also at the meeting, Boggs: lAnnounced Ocean Landings II “is developing, very slowly, but it is moving right along.” lSaid a new McDonald’s is being

built in front of the Route 50 Wal-Mart. She said McDonald’s executives wanted the restaurant to be inside, but Subway got the space, so McDonald’s opted to be on the property. l Said the county is in the process of providing water and sewer service to the Pines Plaza, surrounding small businesses and Ocean Downs casino. She said the treatment plant has ample capacity and that, in fact, it will be years before it reaches even 80 percent. Replacing failing septic systems will

generate more interest in the Pines Plaza, she said, adding that a developer is interested in the property. lSaid a building addition will take over the parking lot on the north side of Ocean Downs. Additional parking will be added to make up for the 250 parking spots lost. Still planned are the long-talkedabout bowling alley and hotel. lAnnounced the county received about $1.3 million from the casino from 2011 to 2013. Smaller amounts were awarded to Ocean Pines, Berlin and Ocean City. In 2011, the county spent casino money for public safety vehicles, but otherwise the money is being used to pay for bond indebtedness for school renovations, at an expense to the county of more than $50 million, Boggs said. q

By SUSAN CANFORA Contributing Writer ork will soon begin on the long-awaited medical office building near the North Gate of Ocean Pines. Commercial general contractor Palmer Gillis, speaking at Worcester County Commissioner Judy Boggs’ town meeting Saturday, Sept. 28, said he would like to see “keys in the door by the fall of 2015.” Planned is a 20,000-square-foot facility first proposed in 1994 on what Gillis called “an ideal site, a perfect transitional site from highway to residential.” Medical offices blend well with neighborhoods, he said, because they generally close on Fridays, don’t generate weekend noise and are well lit, with no “kids on skateboards,” Gillis said. “Knowing that everybody here has health care needs, I’m assuming the folks in Ocean Pines would like to have regional, first-class health care facilities at their fingertips. We are fully approved for this project but, believe it or not, we just got all the permits … the plan has been approved. We should be in the position to resume construction within the next 30 days,” the developer said. Thirty days from Sept 28 is Oct. 29. Someone in the audience asked about the success of a new development considering some commercial buildings in the area don’t even have 50 percent occupancy. “It’s the product,” Gillis replied, adding that the rents some landlords are seeking are too high for the area. He said that health care is changing quickly, and new buildings must be large enough to offer combined services. He couldn’t say what doctors or services will be in the building, but said he is confident they will be “something we all need.” Space will be available for sale or lease. Another gentleman in the audience asked about egress, and Gillis said he has approval for a right turn in and right turn out from Route 589, which will be widened during the next few months. A lane will be added. “There are probably going to be a few people here who are still opposed to that,” Gillis said, but he has had success with entrances and exits through neighborhoods and would like to have them off Ocean Parkway. He said he believes doctors will rent the building, based on his experience building more than a million square feet of medical facilities all over the Delmarva Peninsula. However, a woman in the audience said it has been her experience that doctors are not coming to the Shore, and other nearby medical buildings are not filled to capacity. Gillis showed pictures of the Delmarva Health Pavilion in Millsboro, a 50,000-square-foot facility at the B.J.’s and Lowe’s shopping center, set to open very soon. Another project under way is a 75,000-square-foot medical office building in Easton. His company has finished East Park

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20 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

October-Early November 2013

Clarke signals tough negotiations over gas contract extension

By TOM STAUSS Publisher

cean Pines Association Director Marty Clarke has been quietly urging his colleagues on the OPA board of directors to take a harder line in pending negotiations with Sandpiper Energy, a subsidiary of Chesapeake Utilities, over extending the company’s existing exclusive contract to provide propane and natural gas services in Ocean Pines. Chesapeake acquired assets of the former Eastern Shore Gas Co., in late May. The board of directors in late June voted to reaffirm the extension of ESG’s contract that governs the delivery of propane and natural gas in Ocean Pines by six months. That extended contract expires Nov. 13. The board has had some discussions of late over hiring an attorney to represent it in negotiations with Sandpiper

on a contract extension. At a work session in early October, it was announced that the board has hired Salisbury attorney Steve Smethurst to represent it in the contract discussions. Clarke, a critic of the process that led to the earlier six-month extension, told the Progress in early October that the board has not yet devised a strategy or list of objectives it hopes to obtain in exchange for granting Sandpiper the right to continue to deliver propane, and eventually natural gas, in a pipeline system built by ESG beginning about 20 years ago covering most, but not all, sections of Ocean Pines. “We’re in the catbird seat,” Clarke said of the pending negotiations. He said that just because the Maryland Public Service Commission has approved a socalled “blended” rate structure for its Worcester County propane gas customers as natural gas conversion is rolled out in the coming years, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the OPA simply has to accept that rate structure on behalf of Ocean Pines residents in all of its particulars. “The approved PSC rate structure is a ceiling,” Clarke said. “There’s no rea-

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son it can’t be lowered for Ocean Pines customers if that’s what we agree to as part of a contract extension.” The director also said if the Nov. 13 date passes without a new contract in place, he believes there is an issue over who then actually would own the Ocean Pines pipeline system. He raised the question over whether the OPA, absent a contract extension with Sandpiper, could then contract with another pro-

pane company to deliver gas to Ocean Pines customers using the existing pipeline, a prospect that Sandpiper and its parent company, Chesapeake Utilities, would no doubt mightily resist. Clarke said he has raised the issue of pipeline ownership with OPA President Tom Terry in an email but had received no response. Clarke said it’s clear that the OPA granted rights-of-way or ease-

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Manklin Meadows Lane. Mathers spoke briefly, saying he came to the Pines from Florida and opened his practice in January. He joked that he hears, “I have never seen somebody so young interested

From Page 19 lDiscussed an economic development tour she took on Friday, Sept. 27. On that tour she learned Farmers Bank of Willards, which formerly received approval to build on the corner of Route 589 and Grays Corner Road, where Hastings fruit stand once was, let permits lapse. However, bank officials are now seeking reapproval to build a new branch bank at that location. lIntroduced Attorney Michael Mathers, who recently opened an office on

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OCEAN PINES As for whether Ocean Pines ratepayers could conceivably pay less than the rates established by the Maryland PSC, From Page 20 ments 20 years ago to enable the laying Terry said that was a question for the of a gas pipeline by ESG, but he said it’s OPA attorney, Smethurst, to research. “We would have to read the PSC deunclear to him, as one director, about the status of those rights-of-way or ease- cision and research the case law to dements if there is no contract extension termine whether we could ask for rates lower than those esstablished for the in place. “I’d certainly like to have a discus- county by the PSC,” Terry said. Should any of these issues require sion of these issues with our attorney,” more time to study and for the board Clarke said. It seems far-fetched to believe that to consider, the OPA president said the Sandpiper would consider abandoning OPA and Sandpiper could agree to a its Ocean Pines pipeline absent a con- short term contract extension beyond tract extension or that a majority of Nov. 13. Clarke said he doesn’t assume anyOcean Pines directors would ever vote to deny the company use of the Ocean thing should no new contract emerge, Pines pipeline absent a new agreement. and that’s why he believes the OPA has OPA President Tom Terry told the a strong negotiating position. “I just don’t think the board as a Progress that he believes a board majority would act in a way that protects the whole knows it or if some do, whether we’re willing to use our leverage to interests of Ocean Pines gas customers. “We wouldn’t want the gas company get a better deal for gas customers in to shut anyone’s gas off,” he said. “While Ocean Pines,” Clarke said. In addition to we (the OPA) control the easements, the rates lower than those included in the ground in which the pipeline lays,” he PSC-approved rate structure, he said said he conlude that the OPA could ever the OPA should be pushing for a conown that pipeline in the event of a contract provision that would allow either party to “get out” of the agreement with tract expiration. At the same time, he said the OPA minimal notice. “None of this long-term, Mediadoes have some leverage, and that a particular interest of the board will be to com-kind of contract,” Clarke said, ensure that all sections of Ocean Pines “where we’re stuck with it without rehasOcean gas availability. Pines Progress . 1/2 pg 10.125” course.” x 5.67” 4C

Gas contract

October-Early November 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS The model he seems to prefer is that of the three-year contract the OPA has with Billy Casper Golf to manage the Ocean Pines golf course, in which the parties could have exited with sufficient notice even before the three years were up. Clarke said that for a brief period of time earlier this year, ESG actually had delivered propane to its Ocean Pines customers via its pipeline system even though the 1993 agreement had technically expired in mid-May without a renewal.

A six-month extension of the 1993 agreement occurred in late May in an e-mail vote of the directors arranged by Terry, in a rancorous process that Clarke and then Director Dave Stevens contended violated OPA bylaws. Association rules say that email votes can only be conducted after the board unanimously agrees to conduct business in this manner. Terry conducted the email poll without having obtained unanimous consent of the directors beforehand. To Page 24

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October-Early November 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

24 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

October-Early November 2013

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Gas contract

From Page 21 The OPA president later conceded his actions in conducting an email vote had violated the bylaws. It was not until the board’s June 26 meeting that the board formally voted unanimously to reaffirm the six-month contract extension, after some heated debate over whether the previous email extension of the contract was legally binding. Clarke was highly critical of both Terry and OPA General Manager Bob Thompson in the way in which the contract extension was handled. He told the Progress that Thompson first learned of the need to extend the contract in April via a letter from ESG but didn’t bring it to the board’s attention until late May, after the contract had expired. When the board discussed the matter at the June 26 meeting, emotions were high, somewhat defused when Terry admitted he had erred in conducting the contract extension poll via email. Terry said he had acted as he did because of what he believed to be a critical timing issue, after being informed of it by Thompson. “If we hadn’t done something, they

Anna Foultz’s Star Charities held its latest fund raiser at the Ocean Pines Community Center on Sept. 20 to raise funds to benefit Wounded Soldiers of Maryland. Guests were treated to a buffet of BBQ pig, chicken and salads. The pig roast included an entire suckling pig provided by Monty Jones, owner of Lazy River Saloon. Shown from left standing in front: Charles and Sharon Sorrentino, Worcester County Commissioner Judy Boggs, Anna Foultz, Candidate for Maryland House of Delegates for District 38C Mary Beth Carozza, Senator Jim Mathias, Co-host Gilly Foultz and Emcee Larry Walton. Members of the Back Bay Strummers can be seen standing in the background with band leader Herb Crowe to the far left. (Eastern Shore Gas) would not have had the legal right to continue to offer gas” to customers in Ocean Pines, Terry said. Prior to the vote on June 26, Stevens read the contract on file in the administration building, satisfying himself that a contract extension was justified. The question that he wanted Moore to answer was a basic overview of the con-

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tract’s main points. “Maybe I’m getting old and fussy, but this isn’t any way to conduct OPA business,” Stevens later told the Progress. Clarke asked his colleagues if any of them had actually read the ESG contract before they voted via email to support its extension. Only one director, Stevens, raised his

hand. Since then, Terry has also read the fine print. Clarke told the Progress in early October that he hopes his colleagues will be more fully engaged in the process of negotiating a new contract. “Deadline’s fast approaching,” he said.

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October-Early November 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Aveta, Reister asked by Thompson to resolve pool winterization issues Committee disturbed by indications that certain policies were not followed at three of Ocean Pines’ outdoor pools By TOM STAUSS Publisher cean Pines Association General Manager Bob Thompson, in brief remarks during the board of directors’ Sept. 18 monthly meeting, informed the board that all of Ocean Pines outdoor pools had been closed and winterized, a statement that turned out to be somewhat premature. It’s fair to say that steps had been taken to do so. But during the OPA aquatics advisory committee meeting on Oct. 2, information emerged that suggested that the winterization was far from complete. Moreover, said committee chair Virginia Reister and Kathy Grimes, a committee member who manages pools in Ocean City, the winterization activity that had taken place at the pools, with the exception of the Yacht Club, had not been done consistent with the committee’s recommended procedures. While the Yacht Club pool, complete with pool cover, antifreeze in the plumbing and water levels above the pool lights, were winterized satisfactorily, according to Reister, the same could not be said for the pools at the Beach Club, Swim and Racquet Club and Mumford’s Landing. “Public Works essentially had closed the pools the way they’ve always done it, or at least the way it’s been done in recent years,” Reister said. The most notable problem from the committee’s perspective was the fact that the three outdoor pools other than the Yacht Club had water levels well below what the committee regards as optimal. “I was told by Public Works that they had done what they’ve always done and would continue to do so unless told otherwise.” The committee has taken the position that the pools should be kept virtually full over the winter, perhaps a couple of feet below the deck level or perimeter coping in order to allow for some rainfall intrusion, as a way of protecting the pools. The committee has said that a filled pool protects it from spalling, the delamination of pool plaster that has been a problem at most OPA pools in recent years. In addition, the weight of a pool filled with water can offset the hydrostatic pressure under in-ground gunite pools, such as those found in Ocean Pines, that can build up during storm events, causing portions of a pool to rise and then subside. Depending on the severity of that pressure and the lifting and subsistence of a pool that results from it, a pool can be severely damaged, requiring expensive repairs, or at worst requires re-

building from the ground up, committee members say. OPA Director Sharyn O’Hare, the committee’s board liaison, conveyed the committee’s concerns about the status of this year’s winterization procedures to Thompson and the board during the board’s work session later on Oct. 2. She distributed copies of the committee’s recommended winterization policy to board members. Thompson indicated that he was aware of the committee’s concerns and that they would be addressed at a staff meeting later in the week. Reister told the Progress in an Oct. 8 telephone interview that she met with Public Works staffers, and OPA Facilities Manager Jerry Aveta as Thompson

had promised. The result of it was that Thompson directed Aveta to work with her to arrive at a winterization policy that still could be implemented by Public Works prior to the arrival of colder weather, she said. “I believe all the pools will be filled with water consistent with what the committee has recommended,” she said, adding that in addition the plumbing will be blown out and antifreeze added where appropriate to keep the pipes from freezing. Some of that may have happened already. Where it may be all right to compromise is the addition of algaecide to the water over the winter, she said, in those pools, such as Swim and Racquet and Mumford’s Landing, that might be

drained in the spring for repairs or resurfacing. The logic there is that it isn’t necessary to purify water that will be dumped anyway before next summer. “Public Works tell us that the algaecide causes the pools to stain,” she said. “I’m not sure how much that is a problem, or whether there isn’t another solution” other than not using it. She said she would be researching that issue in more detail before arriving at an agreement with Aveta, with whom she has developed a good working relationship. The issue of whether to keep the pools filled has been festering for much of the year, with Director Marty Clarke leading the charge for keeping the pools filled over the winter. He essentially To Page 27

26 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

County Health Department assisting in Obamacare roll-out Commissioner Boggs invites program facilitators to her Sept. 28 town meeting By SUSAN CANFORA Contributing Writer onfusion and frustration abounds about how Obamacare, otherwise known as the federal Affordable Health Care Act, affects those older than 64, and Ocean Pines residents have been bold in expressing it. Many in the audience at County Commissioner Judy Boggs’ town meeting Sept. 28 were older than 64 and not

OCEAN PINES

October-Early November

eligible for the new federally-funded health insurance plan. So, when Katherine Gunby of the Worcester County Health Department, one of Boggs’ guests, started to explain it, she was interrupted with questions from retired employees, some of whom lost their company’s health care coverage, asking how they fit in. One resident called out that Obamacare wasn’t explained well

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enough for “people 64 and older,” and there were shouts of “yeah, that’s right.” “We’re the ones who are going to have to pay for it,” somebody else from the audience loudly said. Gunby smiled politely, and Boggs took the microphone. “Our health department is not responsible for what happens in the federal government. That is another issue,” she said. “We are here to talk about your individual questions and your individual situation.” She called the plan “overwhelming for all of us. It is for me, it is even for those of you who shouldn’t even have to worry about it at all if you are over 64. The health department is bending over backward to talk to people, to help you through the process. We are here to

help.” “If someone needs reassurance to be sure they are not eligible, pick up the phone and call. I don’t want anyone getting gray hair over this. I’m not going to,” she said. Gunby explained that the county health department -- headed by Debbie Goeller, who was at Boggs’ meeting in the audience but did not speak -- applied for and received a $1.2 million grant from the state to create an informational assistance program for Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester counties. The grant, from the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, which is implementing Obamacare in Maryland, is paying for 17 employees to staff a hotline every day and explain the program at libraries and public events throughout the Lower Shore. Gunby said anybody can call the hotline number, regardless of age, and will be assisted. “There is no wrong door. We would connect you with who you would have to talk to,” she said. Open enrollment for health care started Tuesday, Oct. 1, and continues until March 31 for individuals and families. The hotline number is 855-4455540. Gunby said the hotline is staffed 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays. About 23,000 people are uninsured in the lower three counties, including 7,000 in Worcester. With her was Brad Fitzsimmons, navigator for the informational assistance program, who will work in the northern end of Worcester County to inform residents. He will be at the libraries in Ocean Pines and Ocean City every week answering questions. “You select what health plan fits with your needs, your family’s needs,” Gunby said. “People can sign up for health insurance for six months until March 31 … if they sign up before mid-December, their health insurance coverage is effective Jan. 1. The idea behind it is simple. It is streamlined. It might only take half an hour to pick a plan and have health insurance. “People get confused because the plan is called Obamacare, but it is not public health insurance. It is offered through private companies,” Gunby said. Gunby said Medicaid will be handled through Maryland Health Connection, for simplification and less paperwork. Medicaid is being expanded, so the number of people who qualify will increase. The state is divided into regions. Worcester County is in the Lower Shore region. Staff will be mobile and disseminating information, answering questions and correcting misinformation about the 45 plans available in the state. They will be at libraries, but also at Atlantic General Hospital, Wal-Marts and community events.

OCEAN PINES

October-Early November 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Board to consider capital plan’s ‘rack-and-stack’ in November A Sept. 10 work session on plan’s Phase I revealed little that was new. The ‘good stuff’ awaits the release of Phase II, which OPA General Manager Bob Thompson now says will occur at a Nov. 6 work session By TOM STAUSS Publisher nyone expecting a lot of new information about the Ocean Pines Association’s capital improvement plan at a scheduled board work session on Sept. 10 came away disappointed. Shortly before adjournment, OPA General Manager Bob Thompson provided an update on the first phase of the CIP, with very little new to report, but he stuck to his guns by declining to reveal anything about phase two, the socalled “rack-and-stack” of proposed major capital expenditures that the board

of directors has been anticipating for about a year. What might be called the “good stuff” of phase two won’t be released for board review and public input until the board’s scheduled work session in November. The published board schedule has that set for Wednesday, Nov. 6, at 4 p.m. in the board room in the administration building, at least currently. Meetings are sometimes changed to the Country Club if the powers that be anticipate a crowd. Phase one mostly involves issues of process and paper shuffling. During the Sept. 10 work session, Thompson told

Winterization

mittee and perhaps would move to appoint a task force, if needed, to research the issue. Later this summer, the committee drafted a recommended one-page winterization policy. At the committee’s Oct. 2 meeting, Reister said she thought she had forward copies to Terry and Thompson. It’s not clear that all of the OPA directors had copies. The committee has also advocated pool safety covers for all Ocean Pines outdoor pools that have been repaired and newly resurfaced. The OPA board agreed and a cover was installed over the Yacht Club pool after it closed for the season in September. That pleased the committee a great deal.

From Page 25 has accused the OPA administration of failing to protect the pools from potential catastrophic damage, and he has produced documentation indicating that gunite pool manufacturers require filling pools over the winter as a condition for keeping warranty protection. The issue of whether the Yacht Club pool was filled prior to the arrival of Hurricane Sandy last year had Clarke and Thompson feuding earlier this year. Photos taken by Reister and published by the Progress this summer indicated that the pool was not close to being filled on the Thursday prior to the weekend storm, with only the deep end showing any water depth at all and the shallow end devoid of water. She has also produced post-storm photos that matched those produced by Thompson during the board’s May 25 meeting, indicating water levels a foot or so below the pool lights. There were no pre-storm photos available that prove Thompson’s earlier claim that the Yacht Club pool was “topped off” just prior to the storm. Wherever the truth lies with respect to the depth of water in the pool when Sandy arrived, the board of directors earlier this year indicated that it wanted clarity going forward on the OPA’s winterization policy, specifically whether the pools would be dumped post season or kept filled. After some debate, the board during its May 25 meeting informally agreed to ask the aquatics advisory committee, or perhaps a task force including some committee members, to recommend a winterization policy for the outdoor pools. OPA President Tom Terry, the committee’s board liaison until this past August, said he would start with the com-

the directors that he had incorporated changes in the phase one planning document as requested at an earlier meeting. As a result, he said phase one of the CIP is now complete, absent any further tweaks offered up by board members. As disclosed previously, Thompson said that implementation of a new “offthe-shelf” computerized work order system is now complete, still working parallel with the paper-centric manual system for a while longer. By January, the old system of tracking jobs will be eliminated, Thompson said. Thompson noted that Facilities Manager Jerry Aveta has incorporated the

Craft fair

aquatics advisory committee’s five-year plan into phase two of the CIP and that he was in the process of doing the same with the tennis advisory committee’s five-year plan contribution. The general manager also told the board that requests for proposals regarding comprehensive stormwater management solutions had generated four proposals and that they will be evaluated for possible inclusion in the CIP, as are several proposals for bridge repairs. After that brief update, Thompson said he would present a proposed rack-and-stack for board consideration in November.

Carol Quinto and Darlene Musitano are co-chairing the Ocean Pines Pine’eer Craft Club’s Holiday Craft Fair on Nov. 2 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Ocean Pines Community Center. The show of all hand-crafted items will feature a Pine’eer Craft Club bake sale and a luncheon provided by the Kiwanis. There is free admission and free parking. All profits of the Pine’eer Craft Club are given back to the Ocean Pines Community at the end of the year. In 2012 the club donated a combined total of $3500 to the Ocean Pines Volunteer Fire Department, the Police Department, Recreation and Parks, Neighborhood Watch, Public Works and the Worcester County Veterans Memorial.

OCEAN PINES

October-Early November 2013

Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Hare updates board of directors on proposal to create an Ocean Pines charitable foundation

By TOM STAUSS Publisher proposal by the chairman of the Ocean Pines Associationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s budget and finance advisory committee to create a charitable foundation that could attract grants and donations for which the OPA is for the most part ineligible has received a mixed reaction from members of the OPA board of directors. Well short of either an endorsement or a statement of opposition to the idea, which has been the topic of discussion during meetings of the budget and finance committee for many months, the boardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reaction thus far can be summed up as curious and interested but also skeptical and maybe even confused. Some directors are wondering why the idea has come to them, since they would not be involved in the foundationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s creation or management and believe funding support would be inappropriate. At a board work session on Sept. 10, Director Sharyn Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Hare brought her colleagues up to speed on the proposal, which involves the creation of a 401(c) (3) charitable trust or foundation that could solicit and receive donations and grants from a myriad of sources. While such a foundation could make donations to the OPA, Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Hare emphasized that it would be an organization separate from the OPA with no overlapping directors. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t control it,â&#x20AC;? she said. The OPA operates as 401(c)(4) social welfare organization. Both types of organization are tax-exempt but operate under different tax laws. Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Hare said the foundation could assist residents who have fallen on hard times or suffered a major illness with few resources to deal with it. Director Jack Collins asked Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Hare why the OPA or any of its committees would be charged with setting up a

charitable foundation, and she responded that the OPA would not be directly involved. She said that Hudson has expressed interest in creating it and that if indeed the idea is to take flight, it probably would be the result of someone like Hudson and a group of like-minded individuals doing the leg work. Director Marty Clarke asked whether any OPA assessments would be used to help create the foundation. Director Terri Mohr said the impetus

behind the proposal is the unfortunate fact that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;almost impossibleâ&#x20AC;? for a 401(c)(4) non-profit to receive grants from government agencies or other foundations. A charitable foundation, in contrast, would qualify in ways that the OPA could not, she said. Director Dan Stachurski suggested that perhaps the OPA could obtain some advice from the OPAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s auditors and legal counsel on the issue. He said if the purpose of the foundation would

be to obtain grant funding, he would find that to be â&#x20AC;&#x153;interesting.â&#x20AC;? Collins suggested that rather than for the board to spend much time on the idea, perhaps a better approach would be to create a task force or a group of OPA members who take charge. Mohr pushed back against that idea, suggesting that â&#x20AC;&#x153;when you get volunteers together, you run the risk of getting people with wants.â&#x20AC;? She also said that if the idea is to gain any traction, it probably needs to be pursued outside the budget and finance committee. That would seem to leave the idea right back with Hudson, who would have to decide whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something he has the time to pursue independently from the OPA. OPA President Tom Terry said he did not think that any revenues from the OPA would be needed. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not paying for accountants and lawyersâ&#x20AC;? to set up the foundation, he said, and that was the final word on the subject during that segment of the work session.

OPA approves use of Country Club for 2014 elections $)3#/6%2 County Board of Elections receives permission to shift the District 5-1 voting place back into Ocean Pines from the community church on Route 589, where voting took place in 2012

WHY MILLION HOMEOWNERS TRUST THEIR HOMES TO By TOM STAUSS Publisher he Ocean Pines Association has agreed to a request from the Worcester County Board of Elections to shift the District 5-1 voting place from the Community Church of Ocean Pines on Route 589 to the Ocean Pines Country Club on Clubhouse Drive, beginning with the June party primaries next year and continuing through the November state and county general election.

OPA General Manager Bob Thompson told OPA directors during their Sept. 18 monthly meeting about the election boardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s preference for the Country Club over the community church. There were no objections raised by the directors. In response to a question, Thompson said the elections committee is aware of the handicap lift that can accommodate voters in wheelchairs, or who otherwise have difficulty in climbing stairs, from the ground lev-

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el to the second floor at the Country Club. The general manager said the elections board foresees no problem with the handicap lift. District 5 is the Ocean Pines voting district and covers all of Ocean Pines, excluding a portion of the subdivision that is included within District 6. District 5 includes two voting precincts, designated as 5-1 and 5-2. In the 2012 elections, District 5-1 voters voted at the community church for the first time, previously having voted at the Southside firehouse. District 5-2 voters cast ballots at the Ocean Pines library and that will not change in 2014. District 6, otherwise known as the Northern District, includes a portion of Ocean Pines north and east of Ocean Parkway, extending down from the North Gate to and including the two Wood Duck sections of Ocean Pines. Ocean Pines voters in District 6 will continue to vote at the Community Center in 2014 as they did in 2012 in the years prior to that. The elections board in 2011 had actually decided to shift the 5-1 voting precinct from the Southside firehouse to the Country Club, to take effect with the 2012 spring primary. But that effort was waylaid by concerns raised by Thompson, who at the time was presenting plans to the Ocean Pines community about possible renovation or reconstruction of the Country Club. He told the elections board after their July 2011, vote approving the Country Club as the 5-1 voting venue that he couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t guarantee that the Country Club would be available for voting in 2012. So the elections board went to an alternative site, the community church, with the understanding that it might only be a temporary solution. The board of elections prefers to have its voting places set up within the districts in which voters reside. The community church is located outside of the boundaries of District 5-1. The 2014 switch to the Country Club q

28 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

October-Early November 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Pines Point Marina seeks dredge spoils to restore peninsula

When Grace builds your home

Jenkins Point, reduced to two small barrier islands, could be recreated as a natural breakwater to protect the marina and some of the homes in the vicinity

Polling place From Page 28 for 5-1 voters is somewhat ironic, because it is occurring in an election year when District 5 county commissioner Judy Boggs won’t be on the ballot running for reelection. Boggs, who recently announced a decision not to seek reelection next year for a fourth four-year term, had battled the board of elections in 2011 for several months over its decision to relocate the District 5 voting place from the firehouse. For months, board members had made no secret of the fact that they wanted to find an alternative to the firehouse as a voting venue. Boggs had been vocal in her opposition to the change. In particular, she opposed the possible switch of the precinct from the firehouse to the community church. Boggs said she didn’t like that option in part because it would have moved the District 5 voting place out of her district to a site located in District 6. Despite Boggs’ protestations to the contrary, Jackson and elections board members in an April 2011 meeting with

tion these islands provide is substantially reduced from the days when they formed part of a connected landmass. The marina owners added a breakwater near the entrance to their boat dock complex not long ago, and that has helped to protect the slips from the worst devastation possible during extreme weather events. But when Marina manager George Maynard earlier this year read an item in a local newspaper that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was looking for sites in the area to dispose of dredge material for various pending projects in Ocean City, he had what might be called an epiphany and an idea for a potential win-win solution. Back in June, Maynard sent a letter to Robert Blama, an executive with the Baltimore Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, formally requesting that the federal agency consider using the islands, and the channels that run between them, as a spoil site for material from their Ocean City area dredging projects. Earlier, he had chatted with Blama on the phone about his idea and found him to be receptive. Army Corps officials subsequently visited the site and remain interested, Maynard said.

By TOM STAUSS Publisher hirty some years ago, even as late as 1989, what are now two barrier islands off the Osprey Point Condominiums and the Pines Point Marina complex south of the Ocean Pines Yacht Club had a name: Jenkins Point, apropos because they were all connected and formed a peninsula that helped protect the mainland from storm surges. Thirty years ago, of course, there were no condominiums or townhouses and no Pines Point marina that needed the protection that the Jenkins Point peninsula afforded. Fast forward 30 years and the situation and the extent of manmade development in the vicinity have changed dramatically. What were once vast areas of undeveloped green space is now a densely packed residential section of Ocean Pines, with the 250-boatslip Pines Point Marina dominating the landscape along the bay. Erosion has reduced the peninsula that extended outward into the Isle of Wight Bay to two barrier islands, which are barely visible at high tide. Two channels cut between them, maybe six feet deep at high tide but only two or three feet at low tide. Any breakwater func-

the county commissioners called the firehouse location less than ideal, primarily because the Ocean Pines Volunteer Fire Department did not allow the elections board to set up the night before an election. Then OPVFD President Steve Rosen said the department did not want to leave fire apparatus outside overnight, and Jackson said that meant elections personnel must come in at 5 a.m. on Election Day to set up. She said that did not allow enough time to properly test voting equipment to ensure that it is in good working order. Boggs said this inconvenience to paid elections personnel did not outweigh the inconvenience to voters who were used to the firehouse as a voting place. She said that relocating the voting place to the church, outside the confines of Ocean Pines and District 5, would suppress voting. Boggs said that the 75 percent turnout rate in Ocean Pines in the 2010 election would be adversely affected if the elections board makes a change. Jackson and elections board members said they doubted that, because the Community Church is only 1.7 miles away from the Southside firehouse.

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OCEAN PINES

October-Early November 2013

Tennis members propose two new paddle, four new pickleball courts for FY 2015 By TOM STAUSS Publisher n the hopes of persuading the Ocean Pines Association board of directors to improve racquet sports programs and facilities in Ocean Pines, the Tennis Advisory Committee has submitted a master plan for board consideration that proposes four new pickleball courts and two new paddle courts, as well as renovation or possible replacement of the 30-year-old tennis clubhouse. In a presentation to the board at its Sept. 18 monthly meeting, former OPA President and board member Bill Rakow, representing the committee, detailed a three-phase plan for Ocean Pines’ Manklin Meadows complex. The first phase was completing a master plan for the tennis program, Rakow said, a task that is largely complete but still subject to change as events unfold and policy decisions are made. The second phase is a proposal for two new platform tennis courts, to supplement the four courts already in place, as well as two new pickleball courts. The committee would like to see the construction of these courts funded in

the 2015 fiscal year budget and hopes that the OPA administration will work with the committee in developing reliable estimates for use in the budgeting purposes. Ocean Pines growing pickleball cohort currently makes do with no dedicated pickleball courts. Rakow told the Progress that temporary pickleball nets are sometimes set up on Ocean Pines regular tennis courts and paddleball courts in Manklin Meadows, and sometimes in the Ocean Pines Community Center gymnasium. None of these temporary solutions meet the demand of this increasingly popular racquet sport, Rakow said. During the winter months, when paddleball is most popular, it really isn’t realistic to use paddleball courts for pickleball, and he said the tennis complex’s Har-tru courts really shouldn’t be “marked out” for pickleball, since the courts were recently resurfaced. Rakow said the committee is not suggesting any immediate need for new tennis courts at Manklin Meadows, adding that the courts at the Swim and Racquet Club are not heavily used and

“maybe we don’t need them in the big picture” going forward. He said the S&R courts may not be worth the expense of maintaining them. The committee has developed a draft site plan for the Manklin Meadows recreational complex, which includes the ball fields, community gardens, dog park and playground. Rakow allowed board members to see the draft site plan, but declined to release it publicly, calling it a work in progress. He said that it has been shared with county officials in Snow Hill to see if there any problems with it, such as the presence of nontidal wetlands in areas slated for new facilities. So far, such concerns have not materialized. Still to be resolved are precisely where previously approved batting cages will go, and he also said there are some possible issues with stormwater management. Phase three of the committee’s effort focuses on the existing tennis clubhouse,

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The Kiwanis Club of Greater Ocean Pines - Ocean City held its annual installation dinner at the Ocean Pines Country Club on Oct 2. President Barbara Peletier is pictured passing the gavel to newly installed president for 2013-3014, Dick Clagett.

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a one-story complex that Rakow said is showing its age. In the three to five-year timeframe, he said the committee would like to see the building renovated or replaced, or at least the process begun for “looking at” options. Under a renovation or reconstruction scenario, Rakow said the committee has been considering a second-floor observation deck, improved bathrooms and air conditioning equipment. He added that there probably isn’t the tennis, paddleball or pickleball membership base available “right now” to justify a new building, but that may change if phase two of the master plan is implemented. But the former OPA president and board member made it clear that he believes a “40-year” solution to deteriorating and aging buildings is to be preferred over rehab projects, a position he advocated while serving on the board. Rakow said he was asked to present the committee’s work product to the board of directors to ensure that it would at least be considered as part of next year’s budget process. OPA directors during the Sept. 18 meeting seemed interested in the committee’s proposals but did not indicate support or opposition.

From Page 29 “Of course, a lot of the dredge material is sand and it will be used for beach replenishment,” Maynard said. “Sand is like gold in Ocean City.” But a lot of dredge material isn’t sand, and that’s just fine for the sort of land restoration that he and the marina owners envision. The idea is to deposit the dredge material on the islands and in the channels between them, eventually protecting the newly restored peninsula with riprap so the same process of gradual erosion doesn’t recur. He knows that the Maryland Department of Natural Resources will be involved in whatever decision is made, and he expects local groups like the Coastal Bays Program will weigh in as well. “We would hope to have everyone’s support,” he said, because the restored peninsula will provide additional natural habitat for wildlife, including wild-

fowl, turtles, and shellfish, at the same time a natural breakwater is recreated to help man-made structures. “If something isn’t done in the next few years, in all likelihood these islands will completely disappear,” Maynard told Blama in his letter. As they await word from federal and state officials on the status of their proposal, Maynard said the marina owners are working with the state DNR to have the area around the islands, and especially the channels between them, made off limits to motorized boat traffic. “It is our belief that boat traffic in the channels is contributing to the erosion,” he said. He called the effort to prohibit motorized boat traffic a stop-gap measure to protect the islands from manmade wave action; kayakers would not be affected by any new regulations that DNR might impose. Pines Point Marina representatives were scheduled to meet with a committee of DNR officials in Cambridge on Oct. 10 to discuss the proposed ban.

A October-Early November 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

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32 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

WORCESTER COUNTY

October-Early November 2013

King Richard Road force main installation on tap for November County hopes Ocean Pines phase of the project can be completed before asphalt plants close down for the winter By TOM STAUSS Publisher he first phase of the long-awaited project that will connect the newly created Ocean Downs Service Area with the Ocean Pines Service Area has been pushed off until November, county sources say, but residents who live on either side of King Richard Road in Ocean Pines’ Section 10 on the Southside will soon have to navigate through a major disruption of traffic patterns and a construction zone. County officials aren’t hiring the contractor or coordinating the project, which will be under the direct supervision of Ocean Downs, the racetrack

and casino complex located about two miles south of Ocean Pines off Route 589. But Deputy Public Works Director John Ross is monitoring the situation closely, advising members of the Ocean Pines Water and Wastewater Advisory Committee in early October that he understands that the project will be under way in November. Much later than that, he said, runs the risk that local asphalt plants will be shutting down for the winter. The project’s initial phase is to run a sewer main down the center of King Richard Road from the end of the street that adjoins property owned by Steen Associates to a connection on county-owned and maintained sewer main that runs along Ocean Parkway. Once the King Richard main is installed and tested, the contractor hired by Ocean Downs will resurface the street. To connect the two service areas, a force main will run under Turville Creek and exit at the county boat ramp at Gum

Point Road. It will continue in the county rightof-way on Gum Point Road to property owned by developer Steen Associates, which has provided an easement that will facilitate the connection to the OPSA. A wastewater pump station will be located on the Ocean Downs property and will send effluent through the force main to the OPSA for treatment. Earlier this year, the Worcester County Commissioners on the recommendation of the county’s planning commission endorsed the rerating of the Ocean Pines Service Area’s wastewater treatment plant in Ocean Pines to increase its capacity from 2.5 million gallons per day to 2.6 mgd. Once state agencies sign off on the rerating, the plant will be even better able to accommodate the flow from the Ocean Downs property, which was included in the most recent expansion of the Ocean Pines sewer planning area.

Pines Plaza, Ocean Downs connections to Ocean Pines Service Area move ahead Commissioners approve $451,569 contract with A.P. Croll and Sons for Pines Plaza project

onnection of Pines Plaza and neighboring properties with failed or failing septic tanks to the Ocean Pines Service Area is finally getting under way. Based on the favorable results of a financial feasibility study, on Oct. 1 the Worcester County Commissioners approved a nearly half-million dollar contract for the installation of water and wastewater lines that will link the properties to the OPSA. The county received four bids for the work, with the low bidder of A.P. Croll and Sons Inc. of Georgetown, Del. submitting a proposal of just $451,569; the bid was more than $120,000 less than each of the other three proposals received by the county. John Tustin, county director of public works, said A.P. Croll and Sons Inc. has not performed any work for the county in the recent past. But other clients of the company said it is qualified to complete the work but does have a history of requesting change orders and must be continually reminded to keep its documentation in order and to monitor the work schedule. Despite those issues, Tustin recommended awarding the contract Croll. Completing the water and wastewater work also requires acquisition of utility easements. Tustin said the county has contacted all of the property owners whose signatures are needed to secure those easements and the proper documents have been provided to them. Most have signed and returned the documents to

the county but a few still need to be acquired. He said work will have to be postponed in those areas until the easements are obtained. Jessica Ramsay, county enterprise fund controller, said she has determined the Pines Plaza project to be financially feasible. Construction costs of $510,000 plus an Ocean Pines equity contribution of $1.44 million bring the total project cost to $1.95 million. Financing for the project is based on 100 equivalent dwelling units (EDUs) of capacity. The construction funding will be borrowed from the county’s general fund and will be repaid with an upfront onetime payment of $5,100 per EDU. The equity contribution of $1.44 million will be financed by the OPSA with a term of 15 years and interest rate of 3.25 percent. It will be paid off through a quarterly EDU charge of $305 on properties located in the service area. A total of 120 EDUs could have been allocated to serve businesses in the area that is currently served by failing septic systems. In September, the commissioners also agreed to move forward with connecting the Ocean Downs Service Area to the OPSA for up to 100,000 gallons per day of capacity. The commissioners signed a memorandum of understanding with Ocean Enterprise 589, LLC, owners of the Casino at Ocean Downs, for initial wastewater treatment allocation of 18,900 gallons per day of capacity in the Ocean Pines wastewater treatment plant to the ODSA, with an option to purchase

an additional 270 EDUs for treatment or 81,000 gallons per day over the next ten years. Harold Higgins, the county’s chief administrative officer, said the county originally intended to increase the rated capacity of the OPSA treatment plant from 2.5 million gallons per day to 2.6 mgd and that the additional capacity of 100,000 gpd would then be allocated to the ODSA. However, rerating of the plant has been delayed and is no longer anticipated to be approved by the Maryland Department of the Environment unless the holding pond is expanded from a onefoot freeboard to a minimum three-foot freeboard. Higgins said the county’s water and sewer committee is currently working with representatives from MDE to try to resolve this aspect of the proposed plant upgrade. However, he said that an engineering feasibility study shows that the proposed service area expansion is feasible even without upgrading the plant from 2.5 million gallons per day of capacity to 2.6 mgd at this time, since the actual flow levels at the Ocean Pines treatment plant are less than 80 percent of capacity at 2 mgd. When the plant reaches 80 percent capacity MDE would require the holding pond to be upgraded. As a worst-case scenario, Higgins said EDUs could be shifted from the Greater Ocean Pines Service Area to the Ocean Downs Service Area. He said the county’s water and sewer committee is discussing options to bring the

By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer

Last year the county commissioners created the Ocean Downs Service Area and approved allowing it to connect to the OPSA for wastewater disposal. The Ocean Downs Service Area includes the racetrack, casino and owner William Rickman’s residual property. The amendment is really simply a housekeeping matter because the treatment plant can already handle the extra 100,000 gallons per day of capacity. No improvements to the treatment plant facilities will be needed. Ross said the plant “may spend a little more time each day handling bio-solids,” 6.5 hours per day instead of six hours. In addition to the county, the Maryland Department of the Environment needs to sign off on the rerating. Ross said that shouldn’t be a problem since MDE had previously sent a letter saying the Ocean Pines treatment plant had an actual capacity of 2.6 mgd. Bob Mitchell, county environmental programs director, has said that the OPSA discharge permit does not specifically limit the capacity based on a specific number of gallons of flow. Instead its discharge is based on nutrient loads, set at 76,000 pounds annually. He said that is “more than adequate” to handle the increase in capacity for Ocean Downs. The amendment to the water and sewerage plan changes the designation of the subject property, located on the east side of Route 589, north of Route 707, from an S-6 private system to an S-1 category, which is planned for service within the next two years. Last year the commissioners unanimously granted Ocean Downs an initial allocation of 63 equivalent dwelling units of capacity and an ultimate allocation of 333 EDUs of wastewater treatment capacity from the OPSA to serve the subject property. The current on-site system at Ocean Downs is a mixture of eight septic systems with a capacity of 35,670 gallons per day. All of those septic tanks are located within the Atlantic coastal bays critical area. Ocean Down’s 166-acre property contains a horse racetrack and video lottery terminal facility with unoccupied commercial-zoned land occupying a portion of the southern part of the property. Portions of it are zoned A-2 agricultural and portions are classified C-2 commercial and are planned for development with a movie theater and bowling alley. The initial 63 EDUs of capacity requested will serve the existing Ocean Downs facilities, and the remaining 270 EDUs would capture those proposed uses as well as any future expansion of the casino and other improvements on the property. The additional flow from Ocean Downs will only represent a four percent increase in total capacity of the OPSA’s treatment plant when the property reaches full build out at 333 EDUs.

WORCESTER COUNTY Pines Plaza From Page 32 wastewater treatment plant figures back in alignment with its rated capacity without compromising the county’s long-standing water and wastewater planning principles. While the total EDU allocation for the treatment plant slightly exceeds the rated capacity of 2.5 mgd, Higgins said the rated capacity of each EDU varies depending on when it was approved and where it is assigned. For example, EDUs in Ocean Pines are calculated at 250 gpd while those in White Horse campground are computed at 100 gpd. Outlying areas, including the ODSA, are computed at 300 gpd. However, he said current flow data indicates actual treatment of just 1.2 mgd at the plant. “While flows will naturally increase over time, it will likely be several years until the plant reaches actual flow at 80 percent of capacity at two mgd, when actual expansion of the storage lagoon would be required by MDE to facilitate formal approval of the required 2.6 mgd rated capacity,” he said. In response to questions from the commissioners, Higgins said the treatment plant operated at 1.2 mgd during this past July 4holiday, which constitutes the peak time of use for the plant. While initial feasibility studies found the expansion of service to the ODSA to be feasible, Higgins said the issue with

ASIAN CUISINE

October-Early November 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Memorial foundation wins award

The Worcester County Veterans Memorial at Ocean Pines in early September received the second annual William Donald Schaefer Helping People Award. The award was presented by State Comptroller Peter Franchot to Foundation President Marie Gilmore, representing the Board of Directors of the Veterans Memorial Foundation. The Veterans Memorial Foundation was singled out for its commitment to remembering and honoring the sacrifices of veterans through its educational outreach program. Pictured from left are State Senator Jim Mathias, Former Foundation President Sharyn O’Hare, Worcester County Sheriff Reggie Mason, Ed Little, Gilmore, Franchot, and State Delegate Mike McDermott. the storage lagoon has raised a new concern with respect to eventual improvements that may be necessitated by the expansion.

County policy dictates that the cost of any necessary improvements be borne by the beneficiary, in this case Ocean Downs. While the expansion may re-

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quire pond improvements in the future, such expansion is not certain and the costs cannot reasonably be estimated at this time, Higgins said.

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34 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

WORCESTER COUNTY

October-Early November 2013

Planners approve new casino building at Ocean Downs

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AROUND THE COUNTY congested feel. The interior design of both buildings will require approval from the State Gaming Commission. The planning commission approved only the exterior shell. After Planning Commissioner Brooks Clayville said he couldn’t vote for the building because of what he regarded as its rather stark exterior design, Cropper convened a quick meeting of his associates outside the meeting room. They returned shortly after with a promise to add a “dormer-style” design feature to the front entrance as a way of making the building more architecturally appealing and consistent with the larger, main building next door. The applicants also agreed to add planting islands throughout the vast open area in front of the building, in addition to some sort of temporary sidewalk/bike path along Route 589. It will be considered temporary because the state might decide to widen Route 589 in front of the casino at some point in the future.

McDermott announces run for District 38 Senate seat

A contest between incumbent District 38 State Senator Jim Mathias and District 38B Delegate Mike McDermott is now more likely with the recent announcement that McDermott will be seeking the Republican nomination for the Senate seat currently occupied by Mathias, a Democrat. The two elected politicians will be facing off on Tuesday, Oct. 22, at

a legislative town hall meeting, sponsored by the legislative committee of the Ocean Pines Chamber of Commerce, from 5-7 p.m. at the Ocean Pines Library.

VIP real estate tour of county a ‘success’

Worcester County Economic Development on Sept. 27 held its 2nd annual VIP Real Estate Tour. About 50 visiting developers, real estate brokers and commercial bankers and others potentially interested in investing in the area took part in the tour. The tour highlights the county’s pro-business atmosphere, job growth potential and the wealth of business opportunities here in our growing communities. “Worcester County is a dynamic, pro-business marketplace abounding with new opportunities,” WCED Director Bill Badger said. “These resources are important components in our approach to attracting new business investment and jobs to Worcester County.” The tour gives WCED and local officials an opportunity to introduce prospective investors to Worcester County’s lifestyle, school system, towns, enterprise zones, Historically Underutilized Business Zone and access to major metropolitan markets, including Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Waterline flushing in Ocean Pines area

sion of Public Works will perform its semi-annual program for flushing waterlines in Ocean Pines, River Run, Pennington Commons and other areas of the county during the months of October and November. The purpose of this program is to remove any accumulated sediment from the lines and to ensure the hydrants are operational. The anticipated dates are: week of Oct. 7 - Sections 2, 3, 7, River Run, and Showell Elementary; week of Oct. 14 - Sections 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, and Harbor Village; week of Oct. 21 - Sections 12, 14a, 14b, 14c, 14d, and Mumfords Landing; week of Oct. 28 - Sections 9, 11, 13, Village Square, Manklin Creek area, Pennington Commons, and Cathell Road Extension; and week of Nov. 4 - Sections 10, 15a, 15b, 16, 17 and Bay Point Plantation. The dates are subject to change. Even on dates the water lines in your section are not being flushed it is still possible to experience discolored water. If you notice that your water becomes cloudy during these times, allow the water to run for a few minutes until it becomes clear. For more information, call the Water and Wastewater Division at 410641-5251.

Ramsay is enterprise fund controller for county

Jessica Ramsay is the new enterprise fund controller within the Worcester County Treasurer’s Office. Ramsay is a certified public accountant with more than six years of public accounting expe-

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fter some impromptu building redesign prompted by some constructive criticism offered by members of the Worcester County Planning Commission, the county planners recently approved a new 150 foot by 240 foot casino building for the Casino at Ocean Downs. The action endorsing a site and architectural plan for the new 35,000 square foot addition to the existing casino complex was unanimous, with a number of conditions and waivers included, after a presentation on the plan at the commission’s Sept. 12 meeting in Snow Hill. Handling the presentation for Ocean Downs was lawyer Hugh Cropper, assisted by land planner John Salm and the project architect. The second casino building will sit immediately north of the existing building, bringing the total complex square footage to 53,000 square feet. It will include additional storage and office space, a new, larger restaurant to serve the entire complex, and will provide an area for table games, approved in the last session of the General Assembly for casinos throughout the state. Some of the video gaming terminals in the main casino building may also be moved to the new building, to give the main building a less

WORCESTER COUNTY

October-Early November 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

After school academies receive federal grant funds By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer orcester County is among the ten area jurisdictions that have been awarded a total of $6.8 million in grants by the Maryland State Department of Education through the federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers Grant Program. The county’s Excel Academies are among 22 programs to receive the grant funding. The school system will receive about $300,000 for the Excel Academies, which are after school programs in the elementary schools. The 21st CCLC grants provide services to children who attend high poverty schools or schools identified for improvement. The grant requires that each proposal offer opportunities for literacy and related educational development to families of participating students. There also is an emphasis on closing the achievement gap between those receiving free and reduced meals and students not receiving such assistance. The purpose of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program is to create centers that provide academic enrichment opportunities that support what is learned in the classroom. The programs are unique because they also provide an array of enrichment activities. Together, the centers show students the real world connection to what they

learn in the classroom and how they can improve their communities. The programs must integrate character education in accordance with the Character Education Objectives and Guidelines from the Report of the State of Maryland Values Education Commission and integrate service-learning in accordance with the principles described by the 7 Best Practices of Service-Learning. The Excel Academies will launch this fall along with the other grant funded programs. This round of awardees joins 22 projects already operating under the 21st CCLC program. In addition to improving the academic achievement and self-confidence of students, these programs keep students safe, and help working families. Participants are less likely to be involved in crime and more likely to have better grades and behavior than peers left with nothing to do after school. Applicants awarded grants in this round were six local school systems, two Charter schools, 12 community-based organizations, one Local Management Board, and one university. . Meanwhile, the Board of Education on Sept. 17 appointed John R. Quinn as chief academic officer for Worcester County Public Schools. Quinn has 35 years of experience as an educator, including 30 years in Howard County. Quinn, a former secondary science teacher, has held positions as associate

superintendent of curriculum and instruction, principal, coordinator of secondary science, and executive director of STEM. “With experiences and successes which complement our strategic direction,” Superintendent of Schools Jerry Wilson said. “John Quinn brings invaluable expertise which will help us reach our new trajectory as a world-class system.” The role of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics is also a key focus in the preparation of students for college and career. “As a nation, we have a shortage of workers with the skill sets required for STEM careers,” Quinn said. Wilson said Quinn’s extensive work involving the implementation of the Common Core and curricula development; the formation of STEM coalitions, initiatives, and pathways; and the conversion to digital environments that promote opportunities for blended, virtual, and online learning, will serve the school system well. “It is incumbent of us, therefore, to inspire and prepare our students – at an early age, from kindergarten to graduation – for multiple STEM pathways. I am passionate about STEM, both from an instructional and community standpoint,” Quinn said. According to Quinn, STEM is about connections. In the classroom, the most

powerful lessons are those which cut across all disciplines, connecting multiple content areas to real-world applications, he said. “From a community standpoint, STEM is about making connections between the K-12 education system and the business community and higher education. In concert with STEM partners, the school system can connect students with the workforce at an early age and throughout their educational experiences.” Quinn said that because of the focus on providing students with classroom environments and experiences that resemble the workplaces of tomorrow, the role of technology in education is paramount. “Most students already use a host of digital tools to instantly access information, so asking students to use these devices as research tools at home or in their classrooms isn’t a significant culture change,” he said. What is a significant shift is that the ‘flipped classroom’ enables teachers to facilitate a richer, deeper caliber of learning, Quinn said. At the same time, the use of technology helps students – who might otherwise struggle with a traditional classroom setting – to make strong connections with the material they are learning. From every angle, the meaningful integration of technology prepares students for success in the 21st century, he said.

AROUND THE COUNTY

City of Pocomoke, Audey LLC, University of Maryland Eastern Shore and the Pocomoke Area Chamber of Commerce, held a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the official opening of the new Worcester County Small Business Incubator in October in the Pocomoke City industrial park. The Worcester County Small Business Incubator is a public-private partnership and the first incubator to open in the county. This venue is designed to accelerate job growth and success of companies in the start up or early stages of development. The incubator provides a common location and an array of business support and services, including coaching and networking opportunities. For more information about the event, contact WCED at 410-6323112.

tennis courts. Volunteer judges and a professional muralist are also needed. Students are asked to submit no more than three original images with each depicting single elements that are representative of the Town of Berlin. Students whose artwork is selected for the mural will be awarded prizes – more detail will be available at a later time. The contest will be open until 5 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 2. Once entries have been narrowed down, plans are to display the finalists during a 2nd Friday Arts Stroll in Berlin for public input. The town will be working to enlist the aid of a professional muralist to develop the final mural design. Once the mural design is complete, volunteers, including students, will be enlisted to paint the mural next year. For official rules and entry forms, call 410-641-4314, email mbohlen@ berlinmd.gov or visit www.berlinmd.gov/parks.

brings diverse technological and visual communication skills to this new position. He has a sound understanding of how the public, both individually and collectively, engages social media and how this interaction can influence the daily decisions they make. “I encourage locals and visitors, businesses and organizations alike to interact with us on the social networks,” Huey said. “People everywhere can let us know when they host an event or make a unique discovery. Maybe it’s as simple as witnessing an early morning beach sunrise or as majestic as spotting an eagle during your kayak paddle along the Pocomoke River.”

From Page 33

rience providing audit and tax services to various industries. In her new role with Worcester County Government, Ramsay will help to develop policies and operating procedures, including the oversight, organization and direction of county enterprise funds, which include the Solid Waste and Water and Wastewater Divisions of Public Works and the Department of Liquor Control. She earned a dual Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and Financial Planning from Salisbury University in 2006. She earned her CPA in 2008. During college she interned and after graduation was hired as an accountant with Ernst & Young, LLP of Baltimore where she worked through 2007. She then joined E. Cohen and Company CPAs in Rockville, where she served as a senior accountant and supervisor through mid 2013. She is a member of the American Institute of CPAs and the Maryland Government Finance Officers Association GFOA.

County holds opening for business incubator

Worcester County Economic Development, in conjunction with the

Student designs needed for new town mural

Area students currently in grades 9-12 are invited to submit original artwork for the Berlin Parks Commission’s Stephen Decatur Park Mural Contest. The winning artwork will be used to compose a mural in Stephen Decatur Park that will replace the existing mural located behind the

Huey hired as tourism’s social media coordinator

Mark Huey has been hired as the new social media coordinator within the Worcester County Tourism office. Huey is a professional photographer and graphic designer who

AGH offers flu shots free at clinics

Atlantic General Hospital/Health System is again providing flu shot clinics free to the community. Individuals must be at least 13 years old to receive the vaccine at one of the free clinics. Flu shot clinics will be held at the hospital Outpatient Services Lobby on Wednesdays, Oct. 16 and 23 from 2 to 6 p.m. Additional free flu shot clinics will be scheduled through AGH as vaccine supplies are received.

36 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

October-Early November 2013

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38 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

BUSINESS

October-Early November

An Ocean Pines rarity, Terns Landing home to be sold at auction, with no reserve For a fortunate buyer, this might be the deal of a lifetime By TOM STAUSS Publisher t’s not often that prime improved real estate in a desirable and expensive residential waterfront section of Ocean Pines comes on the market and is likely to be bought at a price virtually guaranteed to be much less than it would be under ordinary circumstances. Absolute, unreserved auctions in Ocean Pines are equally rare. But because of a confluence of events, both will be occurring on Sunday, Oct. 13, at noon, when the home of the late Mike Capuano at 24 Harlan Trace will be auctioned off on-site to the highest bidder. Pete Richardson of Pete Richardson Auction Sales will serve as auctioneer. Capuano was a long-time, well-liked resident of Ocean Pines who passed away in 2008. In a press release announcing the sale, Richardson described the scheduled sales event as an absolute, unreserved auction. The home is located on a large lagoon with close access to the Isle of Wight Bay. It contains 3,792 square feet of living space, a two-car garage, four bedrooms, three baths, fireplace, built-

in bookshelves, back porch, boat lift and a Japanese garden along the wide bulkheaded canal on the property’s east side. It was offered at auction in August of 2008 but did not bring the minimum asking price. Since that time, the home has been on the market and occasionally rented. The most recent listing price was $599,900. There were no offers. Earlier this year, the Worcester County Orphan’s Court signed an order directing the special administrator to sell the property under such terms and conditions as the administrator determined is “most advantageous.” The administrator hired Pete Richardson Auction Sales to market and auction the property. An absolute, unreserved auction is usually defined as an event in which the property sells to the highest bidder, regardless of price, with no minimum. In this instance, there may be a caveat. At the auctioneer’s Web site, prauctions. com, there is language in the terms section of the pending auction that says that the “seller may reject any and all bids; however, it is the intent of seller” to sell the property. That language could suggest a

predisposition to sell the property at virtually any price, with a small possibility that the highest bid would be rejected if it is considered too low by the seller. Richardson said that language is standard in any auction notice, rarely applied. “The house wouldn’t sell only if the special administrator, local attorney Joe Moore, determines that a bid submission is “unconscionably low,” Richardson said. In the press release announcing the sale, Richardson seemed to be aware that the house probably would be unlikely to sell at the most recent listing price of $599,900, when it was on the market “as is” with conditions not likely to elicit top dollar or even offers. Since then, there’s been a flurry of repairs and improvements both inside and outside the house, but even then Richardson is not overly optimistic about the likely selling price. “Even with all the work that has been done, I don’t think the home will bring that much,” he said. “I hope the home will bring at least $350,000.” If the house sells for that or less, it would still represent an excellent deal, if not a “steal,” for a house in Terns Landing, where, in the height of the real

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estate market before the crash of 200708, homes were selling in the high six figures or, on occasion, even exceeding $1 million. Richardson is hoping that repairs made inside and outside the home will entice prospective buyers. His press release indicated that a home inspection was performed earlier this year by Hamblin and Associates and revealed a number of what he calls “minor issues.” The repair list is available to those who inspect the home. He also said that landscaping, including a Japanese garden that was the talk of the neighborhood when Capuano was alive, was overgrown. Village Greens Landscape and Garden Center performed a major landscape clean-up and enhancement. Billy Hill Construction was hired to address all of the issues listed on the home inspection “to do” list. A few other changes to the home were made to make it more marketable. “We are going to bring the yard and house back to the level it was when Mike Capuano was alive,” Richardson said, including fresh paint in a lot of the rooms. The home has been open on recent Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 1:30 p.m. or by appointment, with the last scheduled open house occurring on Oct. 11, the day before the sale. According to the prauctions.com Web site, the home was built in 1995, with a large first floor master suite, a very large living area with stone fireplace and a panoramic view of the water, wide slate foyer, open dining area with hardwood floors, and modern kitchen. The breakfast area overlooks the water with more than enough room to seat six comfortably. The wide wrap-around deck on the first floor is accessible from both the living room and master suite. Steps down from the deck are a wide Financing Specialists pier and bulkhead and electric boat lift. Also at ground level is the restored Japanese garden with waterfalls and ponds and lush planting. The second floor has a master suite with Jacuzzi shower, private exterior and interior deck. The second floor has two additional bedrooms, one with an adjacent room that is large enough for an office or workout room or large play area. The second floor hallway includes built-in book shelves, and the open balcony offers a view of the lower level living area, stone fireplace chimney and the wide canal. The Web site indicates that there is a required $25,000 down payment from the successful bidder on the day of sale and that there is a three percent buyer’s premium to compensate the auctioneering company for its services. Whoever walks away from the auction as the successful bidder almost without doubt is going to be the proud owner of a home purchased at a price that will be the envy of the neighbors.

CAPTAIN’S COVE

October-Early November 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

New management team pleased with results delivered by Billy Casper Golf By TOM STAUSS Publisher As the Captain’s Cove property owners association opens a new fiscal year and closes the books on the old, at least this much is clear: A lot has happened since the rather dramatic changing of the guard a year ago. For years controlled by resident property owners, what is formally known as the Captain’s Cove Yacht and Golf Club, Inc. has a new face and new management. It’s been almost a year since a group of non-resident property owners with developer interests essentially took over Cove management. They’re led by Tim Hearn, the current Cove association president and de facto Cove general manager, who also happens to be the managing partner of the Captain’s Cove Utility Co., responsible for providing the Cove’s water supply and some of its wastewater treatment services. He has a second home in the Cove and does a lot of commuting back

and forth from his home and business in the Baltimore area. The changing of the guard occurred with some resentment by some, but not all, resident homeowners. While Hearn and his business partners effectively control the seven-member Cove board of directors, resident homeowners are well represented, and there appears to be a degree of comity between the two groups that was not necessarily foreordained. Hearn and his business colleagues – Jim Silfee and Michael Glick, the Cove treasurer – serve together on the board, while resident homeowners actually make up a board majority. Because developer interests own a large number of lots in the Cove, Hearn and his associates can determine the outcome of annual board elections. It took a lawsuit over a year ago to ensure that result, however, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that without legal action that ratified developer rights, all that has followed since would not

have happened. Changes in Cove governance that have occurred these past 11 months include the departure of former general manager Lance Stitcher and his replacement with a triumvirate of department heads – Tim Johnson, in charge of Cove amenities; Justin Wilder, the communications coordinator; and Rob Girard, in charge of general maintenance, roads and security. Hearn, as Cove president, has feet firmly planted in both the management and policy-making arena. The financial results have been notable. The Cove POA will be reporting a net surplus in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 of about $250,000, representing a $300,000 turn-around in the bottom line, Hearn told the Progress in a recent interview. He and his colleagues made a major structural change when they hired Billy Casper Golf to manage the Cove’s rebuilt nine-hole golf course – that was done

years ago by former developer Robert Warfield – and the other Cove amenities, including three swimming pools, tennis courts, restaurant facilities, Marina Club and adjoining marina facilities. Johnson, the Cove’s amenities manager, is a Casper employee. Hearn calls the decision to hire BCG a good one that has been borne out, notably in food and beverage operations, in which the company has been able to manage costs relative to revenue that are consistent with national industry standards. The Cove’s financial reports posted on the POA Web site indicate that the company consistently has produced a gross profit in food and beverage operations, and Hearn said that is exactly what the company promised before it was hired. Unlike Ocean Pines, in which food and beverage operations are reported in discrete departments with a multitude of additional costs (such as utility expenses) charged against gross profit, the Cove financials make no attempt to show, for instance, whether the Marina Club food and beverage operation makes D a net profit and, if so, by CEmuch. DUhow RE In fact, Hearn said that if the Cove’s financial reporting system was the same as the Ocean Pines Association’s, he was sure food and beverage operations at the Marina Club would not be breaking

Cove closes in on first anniversary of major management changes

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40 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

October-Early November 2013

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October-Early November 2013 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

HAPPENINGS

Captain’s Cove From Page 39 even. “We measure them (BCG) against national standards of cost containment,” he said. “That’s what we care about, and food and beverage costs are something they can control.” He said it would be unfair to hold BCG responsible for building costs such as utilities. Similar thinking applies to golf operations, which, as in Ocean Pines, are managed by BCG. Hearn said he and his board colleagues have no expectation that golf will achieve “break-even” status in the Cove. Annual assessments in the Cove include unlimited golf, excluding riding carts. The operational objective is to increase rounds of golf played by both non-members and members. There has been some success in that regard since BCG arrived on the scene about ten months ago. “We belatedly discovered that the number of rounds played previously were not around 18,000, but closer to 7,000 or 8000,” he said. The breakdown this past year included about 6,000 member rounds, several hundred package or tournament rounds, and about 1200 to 1300 non-member rounds. Not surprisingly, revenue fell well short of budgetary targets, something for which Hearn said that BCG is not responsible. “They like the rest of us thought that we could rely on the higher number,” he said. Going forward, he said the company knows its main objective is to continue to increase the number of rounds played, with increased revenue to flow from that. A great deal of time and effort has been spent on trying to professionalize the Cove’s financial management this past year. L&H Consulting was brought in early on to manage the books, handle assessment payments and reorganize the books. One important change: The waterfront reserve no longer is functioning as a significant funding source for unrelated Cove operations. Hearn and his auditors noticed that, in past years, Cove managers permitted the Cove general fund to borrow from the waterfront reserve, with contributions from the waterfront lot assessment differential, for purposes other than canal dredging. The waterfront reserve was not being used for bulkhead replacement and maintenance, which in Captain’s Cove, unlike in most parts of Ocean Pines, is a homeowner responsibility. Not much canal dredging was occurring, either. That accounting change resulted in a board decision to lower the lot assessment in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 for waterfront owners, who constitute roughly a quarter of Cove property owners. The other three quarters of owners had their annual assessments increased to $950 per year, higher than in Ocean

Saturday, Oct. 12

Ocean Pines Anglers Club, monthy meeting, 9:30 a.m., Ocean Pines library. Featuring Joe Reynolds, former eastern editor for Field & Stream magazine and recipient of Maryland’s Travel Writer of the Year award and the Gurney Godfrey Award, presented by the Maryland Fly Anglers. Fly fishing in distant and local waters. Kiwanis annual fall pancake breakfast, Ocean Pines Community Center, 8-11 a.m. Adults $5, children under 12 $3, and under 5 free. 410-2086719 for tickets or information, or purchase at the door. Carry-outs available. Proceeds benefit community youth. Monday, Oct. 14 Friends of the Ocean Pines Library, monthly meeting, 10 a.m., library. Refreshments 9:30 a.m. Featuring astronomer Dr. Doug Hemmick who will discuss comets in general and the upcoming comet, Ison, which will appear in December. 410-208-4014. Tuesday, Oct. 15 Worcester County Commission for Women, monthly meeting, 5-6:30 p.m. Worcester County Board of Education, 6270 Worcester Highway, Newark. The purpose of the WCCW is to promote social, education, and economic equality for women in Worcester County. Open to the public. For information, contact Chairman Donna Main at 410-632-5040. Fall card party luncheon, St Paul’s by the Sea Episcopal Church, 3rd Street and Baltimore Avenue, Ocean City, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Noon luncheon. $20 per person. Reservations, Amanda Cropper, 410-641-5049, or church office, 410-2893453. Thursday, Oct. 17 Pine’eer Craft Club of Ocean Pines, monthly meeting, Ocean Pines Community Center, 9:45 a.m. After the business meeting, members will make a crab shell angle decoration for the cost of $3. Call 410-208-3032 to reserve a kit. Refreshments. Card and game party, hosted by

Pines, where golf, aquatics and tennis require additional fees to use. There no longer is a differential between what canal-front owners and non-canal owners pay to the Cove POA in annual dues. This past year, the Cove board also began working on a plan that, in the coming years, will result in new road construction in those areas of the Cove in Sections 1 through 13 where they are lacking. Engineering documents are currently under review by Accomack County planning officials. Hearn has said that having roads and utilities available to property owners is an important factor in property

the Ocean Pines Women’s Club, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fager’s Island Restaurant, 60th Street, Bayside in Ocean City. Organize a table to play a game or cards with friends or the club will find a group that needs a player. Munchies, coffee, tea and water during play plus choice of lunch from the following list: minestrone soup and half Islander sandwich, chicken salad wrap, Ceasar salad with organic chicken strips, powerhouse vegetarian wrap, or eight-ounce cheeseburger. Fundraiser to benefit high school scholarship fund and community donations. $25 for Women’s Club members or $30 for non-members. Checks payable to WCOP and sent to WCOP Card Party, 7 Central Parke West, Ocean Pines, MD 21811. Deadline for reservations Oct. 10. 410-208-0171 or 410-208-2569. Friday, Oct. 18 Ocean Pines Chamber of Commerce banquet and awards ceremony, honoring the 2013 Ocean Pines citizen, business, and non-profit organization of the year. Ocean City/Ocean Pines Lions clubhouse, Airport Road, West Ocean City, 6-9 p.m. Roaring Twenties theme. Installation of Chamber officers for 2013-14. $55 per person, tickets online at the Chamber Web site or 410641-5306. Drop-In Dodge Ball Wars, grades 6-8, Ocean Pines Community Center, 6-8 p.m. Gladiator, German, backboard and tournament-style 6 vs.6 dodge ball. Snacks and drinks. $8 residents, $9 non-residents. Walk-up registration preferred. $1 off with canned food donation. Family Fun Night, pumpkin painting, Ocean Pines Community Center, 6:30 p.m. Bring your own pumpkin or purchase one at the event for $6. All decorations and paint provided. $5 residents, $6 non-residents. Sunday, Oct. 20 Spaghetti dinner and fund-raiser, sponsored by the Ocean City Power Squadron. DeNovo’s Trattoria in Ocean Pines. Seatings at 5, 6 and 7 p.m. $10 adults, $4 children under 12. Reserved seating only. Spaghetti and meatballs,

owners deciding to pay their annual assessments. The percentage of owners current with their assessments is in the mid-90s for those served by roads and utilities, he has said. The Cove acknowledges that it has an assessment delinquency problem, and Hearn and his board colleagues have authorized an aggressive program of enforcement measures ending, if necessary, in foreclosure actions. Two such auctions have been concluded so far in 2013, and there are more to come. Another significant management decision: The Cove board is moving ahead to consolidate POA or developer own-

salad, rolls and butter, dessert, coffee, tea and soda provided by DeNovo’s. Take-out and cash bar. For tickets and reservations, Peter Fox, 410-208-1108 or petefox@verizon.net. Tuesday, Oct. 22 Legislative town hall meeting, sponsored by the Legislative Committee of the Ocean Pines Chamber of Commerce, 5-7 p.m., Ocean Pines Library. Open to all residents and business owners interested in learning about current issues and projects facing local representatives and their committees. Featuring State Senator Jim Mathias (District 38), Delegate Michael McDermott (District 38B) and Del. Charles J. Otto (District 38A). Brief opening remarks and questions from the audience and committee. Light refreshments. Businesses and individuals encouraged to submit questions in advance by email to the committee at info@oceanpineschamber.org, faxed to 410-641-6176 or delivered to the Ocean Pines Chamber Office by Oct. 16. Saturday, Oct. 26 Ocean Pines’ fall/halloween celebration, sponsored by the Ocean Pines Parks and Recreation Department, White Horse Park, 1 to 4 p.m. Music, costume contests, carnival games, face painting, pony rides, refreshments, and candy. Admission and games are free; however, some attractions have a small fee attached. Volunteers and candy donations needed. 410-641-7052. Ocean Pines Association, board of directors, monthly meeting, 9 a.m., Ocean Pines Country Club. Homemade pie and chicken salad sale, Showell United Methodist Church, 10115 Pitts Road, Showell, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Pies $9 and chicken salad $6 for a pint. Place orders no later than Oct. 23 by calling 410-352-5163 or 302-4368942. Saturday, Oct. 26 & Sunday, Oct. 27

Autumn Home and Condo To Next Page

ership of lots in Sections 14-18, for the purpose of then marketing the acreage as one large parcel to developer or farming interests. At the board’s Sept. 29 meeting, the directors discussed how to deal with a $411,000 capital reserve shortfall in the budget approved for the 2013-14 fiscal year. Selling off Sections 14-18 is one option for addressing this challenge. The directors also are considering the need for establishing a media campaign to present Captain’s Cove to a broader audience. The objective is to bring into the POA new owners willing and able to support Cove operations.

42 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OPINION

October-Early

COMMENTARY Much improved Yacht Club change order tracking

he recent kerfuffle over the extent to which General Manager Bob Thompson has delivered timely and sufficiently detailed updates on change orders and other miscellanea related to the new Yacht Club project has seemingly ended in a way consistent with the interests of Ocean Pines Association members. But the tempest that occurred online about imagined transgressions of the general manager, and the flurry of emails from agitated OPA members to the OPA that it generated, including misguided calls for the general manager’s resignation or firing, spoke volumes about how easily this community becomes overwrought and fraught with dis- and misinformation. The central theme of early media reporting and commentary on this affair is that Thompson had deliberately misled and withheld pertinent information from the board of directors and OPA members about the Yacht Club, particularly a change order related to a portion of the building’s exterior, decorative fauxstone siding that ran afoul of county regulators, and the sometimes nanny-state nitpicks they enforced, last year. Thompson’s purported sin had to do with his almost inadvertent disclosure of his unilateral decision to replace the offending river rock accent siding with something called split block, which is supposedly inferior in appearance and perhaps longevity but somewhat less expensive than the faux river rock. So much faux siding to choose from, so little time to decide from among the myriad choices. So Thompson, appointed as the association’s project manager by the board, took it upon himself late last year or early this year to make the replacement accent siding choice, never realizing that by so doing he would set off a minor furor many months later for his unilateral and supposedly heavy-handed and duplicitous decision-making. Never mind that in a presentation to the board early this year, he alluded to the siding substitution, apparently calling it split stone, as opposed to split block, a horrendous slip of the tongue for which he’s From Page 41 Show, Ocean City Convention Center, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Sunday. Interior and Outdoor displays, showcasing new products and ideas on remodeling, decorating, accessorizing, and renovating. Arts and crafts, free drawings, Health Craft cooking show, door prizes, free parking. Tuesday, Oct. 29 Town hall meeting, Ocean Pines Community Center, Assateague Room, 6 p.m., hosted by OPA General Manager Bob Thompson. Questions or topics of discussion may be submitted in advance to www.oceanpines.org. Saturday, Nov. 2 Holiday craft fair and bake sale, sponsored by the Ocean Pines Pine’eer

been figuratively drawn and quartered. And then this past May, in a board meeting when a small group of OPA members were polled and decided they liked a blue as opposed to a green or red roof, a display easel was set up in which samples of the building’s various siding materials were mounted for all to see. The so-called split block accent piece was among the samples, hidden in plain sight and labeled as such, although the label was difficult to see from certain heights, evidence of a vast conspiracy to hide the appalling truth from the OPA membership. Granted, despite these low-key disclosures, not one OPA director, nor anyone else for that matter, remembered that Thompson had made them. He hadn’t made a big deal of the material substitution for the simple reason that it wasn’t a big deal, then or now. The success of the new Yacht Club as a business amenity, to say nothing of its architectural appeal, will have nothing to do with whether faux river rock, split block or some other material is ultimately chosen as an exterior accent. The substituted split block probably would not have been noticed by anyone had Thompson not, at a board meeting in mid-September, mentioned it again in the context of a change order that, understandably and appropriately, caught the attention of board members. Change orders, since they usually but not always involve the expenditure of association money, are clearly within the purview of the board. Even if the amount at issue is within the general manager’s Yacht Club spending authority, now $40,000 as the result of a change just approved by the board, change orders are matters to which directors are entitled to timely disclosure. It affects the project’s bottom line, for which the directors will be held accountable should the project’s final price tag exceed the $4.3 million cost approved in referendum. At a subsequent meeting in September, the matter had escalated, and the general manager acknowledged that an implementation task force previously created to track the project’s progress had fallen

into a state of dysfunction. He even admitted that, about a week prior, he and task force member Ted Moroney had had a major “blow-up,” meaning that a somewhat isolated general manager was riding solo on a project that the board of directors collectively thought needed more oversight. Moroney was brought back into the fold, as was Bill Rakow, the former OPA president. Both Moroney and Rakow have had extensive experience in the building business and, absent personality conflicts or clashes of male ego, should be valuable contributors to the oversight process going forward. Thompson seems on board with the resurrected task force. OPA President Tom Terry had a lot to do with urging the general manager to recreate a monitoring system and the implementation task force that had worked well during the construction of the new Community Center. As for what sort of accent materials will finally be used on the Yacht Club exterior – river rock, which would require a county waiver; split block, which doesn’t; or some other product – that’s a matter still to be determined, with the board making the final decision. Perhaps there could be another helpful showing of hands among those who show up at a future board meeting. The newly revived implementation task force also is in the process of drafting a detailed accounting of change orders that have occurred thus far, a document that will be shared with the board and continually updated as needed. What Thompson has conceded was a somewhat loose system for handling change orders has now been tightened up. That’s to everyone’s benefit. Thompson has a group upon which he can rely for the minutiae of contract management; the board can receive timely updates on change orders and other material of keen interest; and the OPA membership can rest easy knowing that the process is being managed professionally and appropriately. It’s unfortunate that the general manager had to endure a lot of unfair sniping before this good end was achieved. – Tom Stauss

HAPPENINGS Craft Club, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Ocean Pines Community Center. Luncheon items for sale sponsored by the Kiwanis Club. Free admission. Pine’eer Craft and Gift Shop open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Arts and crafts fair, sponsored by the Parke at Ocean Pines Community Association, Parke clubhouse, 2 Arcadia Court, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Original artwork, jewelry, quilts, knitted and crocheted items, home décor, wreaths, authors’ books, children’s wooded rocking chairs. Free admission, door prizes. Information 410-208-4994.

Ocean Pines Community Center, 7 p.m. Chairs of OPA advisory committees meet with the OPA president and board members.

Wednesday, Nov. 6 OPA Executive Council meeting,

Friday, Nov. 8 Family Fun Night, bingo, Ocean

Thursday, Nov. 7 Women’s Club of Ocean Pines, holiday auction, 10 a.m. to noon, Assateague Room, Ocean Pines Community Center. Baskets, baked goods, raffles and new or like-new gift items for sale or auction. Fundraiser to support club’s scholarship program. For information or to donate items, Joan Gentile, 443-4652400, or joanierags@verizon.net.

Pines Community Center, 6 p.m. First game begins at 6:15 p.m., last game begins at 7:45 p.m. All ages. No cash prizes. Free admission.

Ongoing

Pine’eer Craft Club, White Horse Park, Ocean Pines, open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Handcrafted home decor, jewelry, and fashion accessories, created by members of the Pine’eer Craft Club. Pancake breakfast every Saturday, 8 a.m. till noon, Ocean City Airport, to support the Ocean City Aviation Association’s Huey Memorial Display restoration and continuous maintenance fund. The display is located near the Terminal and requires no security procedures to view. 410-641-6888 or 410213-2471.

OPINION

October-Early November 2013 OPINION

Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Boggs’ retirement offers possibilities for improvement

he recent announcement by Ocean Pines County Commissioner Judy Boggs that she intends to retire at the end of her term next year and not seek reelection in November of 2014 presents a good opportunity for Ocean Pines to upgrade its representation in Snow Hill. It’s not that Boggs has been an unmitigated disaster in her 12 years as Ocean Pines’ paid representative and advocate in county government. She did, in fact, keep her promise to conduct frequent town meetings to keep her most diehard supporters apprised of the goings-on down in the sleepy seat of county government. How often is it that a politician keeps a promise? So, yes, kudos to Judy for staying true to her word that she would remain visible, listen to her constituents and steadfastly endure these whinefests. Who else among us would have had the stamina and patience to do so? It’s doubtful her successor will want to spend his or her time in a similar fashion. Sometimes these town meetings were marginally helpful, though the last one, in which she invited county health department reps to address the Obamacare roll-out in a meeting dominated by a room of retirees on Medicare, seemed comically targeted at best. No doubt after almost 12 years on the job, finding topics to fill a town meeting can be a real challenge. The same town meeting featured North Gate medical campus developer Palmer Gillis, invited in to explain why it’s taken so long to get a start on the first of several medical buildings so many months after the parcel was cleared. It turns out that the county’s permitting processes are designed to create delay and additional costs for developers, along with secure government jobs for underworked paper pushers, a fact of life in the county that Boggs has done nothing to remedy in 11 years and counting. But she can be justifiably proud of the fact that she was helpful in the installation of a traffic light on Beauchamp Road and Route 589, or was it the lowering of the speed limit on this much traveled thoroughfare? Details fade. If memory serves, she also had something to do with the striping of a crosswalk on Route 589 at Cathell Road. Alas, she didn’t quite have the political chops – the ability to persuade, influence and horsetrade for maximum benefit -- to arrange a crosswalk on the far more dangerous intersection of Route 589 and Manklin Creek Road. After declaring for anyone caring to listen that this intersection is a disaster waiting to happen, she couldn’t find a way to fix it. Perhaps no one could ever pull that one off, absent death and mayhem on human beings as opposed to the

needed commercial services to Ocean Pines residents close to home. If Boggs’ record as a commissioner is An excursion through the curious cul-de-sacs An excursion through theby-ways curious and by-ways and cul-de-sacs replete with failures to achieve numerof Worcester County’s County’s most densely community. of Worcester mostpopulated densely populated community. ous political objectives, it also has been By TOM STAUSS/ characterized by a less than stellar reBy TOM Publisher STAUSS/Publisher cord in working with the Ocean Pines Association and its elected and unelected leaders. Sometimes these town meetings were When Jim Bunting was elected to the commission in 2010 from District 6, the marginally helpful, though the last one, in so-called Northern district that includes which she invited county health department a swath of Ocean Pines, he became the go-to person OPINION for boards and general reps to address the Obamacare roll-out in a managers whenever they wanted some meeting dominated by a room of retirees on favor from or position conveyed to county government. Medicare, seemed comically targeted at best. It was Bunting, not Boggs, who accomplished county-funded drainage improvements in parts of Ocean Pines center, a meritorious ideaa except The Ocean Pines Progress, journal for of the located along Beauchamp Road, Ocean occasional unlucky goose. An excursion through the curious cul-de-sacs excursion through theby-ways curious and by-ways and cul-d fact that AGH executives This much is certain: She sure didn’t. inconvenient news and commentary, isAn published Pines’ northern boundary. Worcester County’s most densely populated community. Worcester County’s most densely populated com the of site directly on That brings to mind the drawn-out preferred monthly throughout the of year. It Route is The next county commissioner reprewhere would be more accessible drama for dualization of Route 589, a 589, circulated in itOcean Pines, Berlin, West Publisher Publisher By TOM STAUSS/ By TOM STAUSS/ senting Ocean Pines’ District 5 in Snow GlenCity, Riddle and Ocean City as Hill, whoever he or she may be, will have singular Boggs’ objective complete with to Ocean Snow Hill,West Ocean City and as Ocean Pines. bike lanes and boulevardish center is- well Capain’s Cove,Va. a hard act to follow in so far as sheer She and lostother thateditorial battle submissions: at the county political survival is concerned. lands lush with trees and plaques honLetters a via majority of her colleagues oring the politicians who wouldmake it level, Pleasewith submit email only. We do not As for effectiveness, that act will be voting against her on the proposed happen. accept faxes or submissions that require re- much easier to follow. testament fact that, A fitting memorial, to be sure, if only zoning, retyping.aLetters shouldtobethe original and on Ocean Pines can do better and probmatters publicInclude policy,phone her abili- ably will. it has happened. exclusiveoftomajor the Progress. Not long ago, her colleagues saw fit ty to persuade and prevail has come up to bow to political and economic reality short. The approved rezoning, however, is and drastically cut back the width of 127a Nottingham Lane, litigasubject of protracted the rights-of-way for dualization, which on hold, probably won’t Pines, MD be resolved probably won’t happen in the lifetime tion thatOcean of anyone alive today despite years and until sometime next year, whenever the Court of Special Appeals renders years of brainstorming, concept draw- state’s PUBLISHER/EDITOR PUBLISHER/EDITOR The Ocean Pines Progress, a journal of ings, public hearings and grandstand- a judgment.Tom Stauss The Progress, isa journal of newsOcean and Pines commentary, published It can be Tom said, Stauss of course, that the vising. tstauss1@mchsi.com news and commentary, is published tstauss1@mchsi.com monthly throughout the year. It is Her record of futility in office was fur- iting judge from somewhere across the 410-641-6029 monthly year. It is circuthe case locally agreed circulatedthroughout in Ocean the Pines, Berlin, West ther punctuated in 2011 in her hercule- bay who decided 410-641-6029 lated in Ocean Pines, Berlin, Ocean City, Advertising an battle against the county’s Board of with her. Ocean City, Snow Hill, Ocean City and Advertising and Captain’s Cove, Va. If the rezoning ultimately fails, it will Elections over whether to move the DisCapain’s Cove,Va. Letters and other submissions should be ART DIRECTOR of the tenacity of residents on trict 5-1 voting place out of the South- be because Letters and other editorial submissions: sent via email only. We do not accept ART DIRECTOR Gum Point Road, a county road outside Rota Knott side firehouse. Pleaseorsubmit email only.that We require do not faxes other via submissions Hugh Dougherty well outside the confines When the smoke cleared, so to speak, of Ocean Pines, accept faxes or submissions that require retyping. Letters should be original and 5. the board of elections over her objections of District retyping. to Letters should be original and CONTRIBUTING exclusive the Progress. Include phone Almost 12 years ago, as a newly decided to move the precinct voting out exclusivefortoverification. the Progress. Include phone WRITERS CONTRIBUTING WRITER number of the district to the community church minted commissioner, she waged a fight Rota Knott KnottCommons Shopon Route 589, maybe a mile and a half against the Pennington 127 Nottingham Lane, Ginny Reister pingInkwellmedia@comcast.net Center, a commercial fixture on from the firehouse. Ocean Pines, MD. 21811 127 Nottingham Lane, across from the Ocean Pines Somehow her much beleaguered and Route 589 443-880-1348 Ocean Pines, MD inconvenienced constituents managed South Gate. PUBLISHER/EDITOR She objected to the sale of water and to find the church and cast their ballots Tom Stauss wastewater treatment capacity from the in the 2012 elections. PUBLISHER/EDITOR tstauss1@mchsi.com PUBLISHER/EDITOR Then there was the battle, stretching Ocean Pines Service Area to a developer 410-641-6029 Tom TomStauss Stauss over a number of years, over a propos- outside the confines of Ocean Pines, nevtstauss1@mchsi.com tstauss1@mchsi.com al to create a medical campus affiliated er mind that the equity contribution to ADVERTISING 410-641-6029 410-641-6029 with Atlantic General Hospital on a par- the OPSA was about $1.4 million. Tom Stauss Advertising That contribution, once the deal was cel just south of Ocean Pines. Advertising Boggs opposed the rezoning needed consummated and proceeds delivered, ART DIRECTOR ARTRota DIRECTOR to make the medical campus possible, financed any number of OPSA system Knott ART DIRECTOR Rota Knott a position no doubt pleasing to some of improvements that otherwise would Hugh Dougherty CONTRIBUTING her anti-development constituents in have required funding by Ocean Pines WRITERS ratepayers. Section 10. CONTRIBUTING Rota Knott WRITER Completion of a community-wide But it was inimical to the notion that WRITERS CONTRIBUTING Ginny Reister the county desperately needs high-pay- installation of fire hydrants was made Rota Knott Knott Susan Canfora ing jobs and that Ocean Pines would possible by that equity contribution, and Ginny Reister Inkwellmedia@comcast.net benefit from having medical offices close the shopping center continues to pay PROOFREADING 443-880-1348 to its residents. Boggs advocated moving user fees to the OPSA at rates higher Joanne Williams the medical complex to the site of the than those paid by individuals. The shopping center also provides under-performing Pines Plaza shopping

LIFE IN THE LIFE INPINES THE PINES

44 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

October-Early November 2013

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