Ocean Pines Progress - September 2012 by Ocean Pines Progress

Vol. 8, No. 6

SEPTEMBER 2012

410-641-6029

www.oceanpinesprogress.com

Casino wastewater connection will impact Pines road Construction of a force main to link the Ocean Pines water and wastewater service area to the newly created Ocean Downs service area will require extensive trenching down the middle of King Richard Road, temporarily inconveniencing residents of the area. When the work, which is to be paid for entirely by Ocean Downs owner William Rickman, is done, the damaged length of the road will be completely repaved from edge to edge, again on Rickman’s dime. The Worcester County Commissioners on Sept. 4 approved an amendment to the county’s master water and sewerage plan to create a new Ocean Downs sanitary service area./Page 26

THE OCEAN PINES JOURNAL OF NEWS & COMMENTARY

YACHT CLUB SHOCKER

Yacht Club days of operation are cut back Ocean Pines Association General Manager Bob Thompson and Yacht Club Food and Beverage Manager Dave McLaughlin have taken steps to bring the OPA’s primary dining amenity back closer to budget. The move represents a modification of Thompson’s ‘Open for Business’ philosophy which, when first implemented over a year ago, had the Yacht Club open for business seven days a week, with the newly established Java Bay Coffeehouse on the amenity’s first floor accepting customers at 6 a.m./Page 5

Clarke spars with Thompson on OPA documents It didn’t take long after he was elected to the Ocean Pines Association board of directors in August before newly minted director Marty Clarke began sparring with General Manager Bob Thompson over access to OPA documents that, as a mere member of the Ocean Pines Association, Clarke was not entitled to inspect. One of his ﬁrst requests as a director was to review minutes of past board meetings, a request that initially was resisted by OPA General Manager Bob Thompson. Clarke immediately involved returning OPA President Tom Terry in the matter, who in turn consulted OPA attorney Joe Moore./ Page 3

COVER STORY

Two thirds of voters approve of new $4.3 million Yacht Club Successful referendum means OPA can ﬁnalize contract with Harkins Construction in hopes of beginning construction before the end of the year. Permitting issues remain, including the OPA’s pending request for a 20 percent parking variance By TOM STAUSS Publisher

cean Pines property owners overwhelmingly approved a $4.3 million reconstruction of the Ocean Pines Yacht Club in a referendum that concluded Sept. 7. The approval means that a majority of those voting endorse the former board of directors’ recommendation for a new two-story, 20,000 square foot facility, sized to accommodate conventional dining and a banquet/special event business on the second ﬂoor. Results of the month-long referendum were announced in a special meeting of the board of directors Sept. 7 by Elections Committee chair Judy Butler. While some in Ocean Pines were guardedly optimistic about the referendum’s chances, others were skeptical of a positive outcome in a challenging economy and the project’s cost. Hardly anyone expected the blow-out win that was recorded. Of the 7,698 ballots sent out, 5073 ballots were returned by the Sept. 6 deadline. Of those, 3,432 were cast in favor of authorizing the board to spend $4.3 million for a new Yacht Club, while 1,641 were opposed. More than two thirds of those voting, 67.65 percent, favored the new building.

About 66 percent of property owners participated in the balloting, which Butler said is the most who have voted in an Ocean Pines Association election in some time, perhaps ever. Roughly 34 percent of property owners did not participate in the mail-in referendum, meaning that less than half, 44.58 percent, are fully supportive of the $4.3 million expenditure. Even so, under OPA referendum rules, only those who cast ballots have a voice in deciding a community issue of this magnitude. In remarks leading up to Butler’s announcement, OPA President Tom Terry thanked the prior board for its unanimous support for a new building and others in the community who, in numerous town meetings, offered suggestions that he said improved the proposed new Yacht Club. The first floor dining area will be enclosed, keeping out flies and other flying insects, Terry said, and an area will be set aside as an employee break room. Pavers in lieu of sand will be used in the footprint of the existing building, he said. The decisive victory is a major win for OPA General Manager Bob Thompson, who pressed an aggressive timetable of bringing the project to a referendum vote. He previously said that he intends to keep the existing To Page 16

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Clarke spars with Thompson on release of OPA documents Director says general manager has been foot-dragging in making some Yacht Club materials available By TOM STAUSS Publisher t didn’t take long after he was elected to the Ocean Pines Association board of directors in August before newly minted director Marty Clarke began sparring with General Manager Bob Thompson over access to OPA documents that, as a mere member of the Ocean Pines Association, Clarke was not entitled to inspect. One of his ﬁrst requests as a director was to review minutes of past board meetings, a request that initially was resisted by OPA General Manager Bob Thompson. Clarke, who is in frequent contact with his attorney for legal advice on matters that affect his service on the board, immediately involved returning OPA President Tom Terry in the matter, who in turn consulted OPA attorney Joe Moore. Clarke told the Progress that Thompson initially said he had the authority to withhold access to minutes of closed meetings held before Clarke was elected, reportedly based “on good authority,”

Clarke said. After further investigation, that “good authority” turned out not to be so good after all. Within short order, Thompson was told that Clarke was to be given access to all minutes and other documents to which he has been seeking access. “Marty is entitled Marty Clark to them,” Terry told the Progress after a mid-September board of directors meeting. Clarke said he has reviewed minutes of closed meetings but, as of the end of August, still had not received access to other documents he wants to review, including any and all that pertain to the condition of the Yacht Club. Thompson, Clarke said, has ‘been foot-dragging” on turning over those To Page 5

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September 2012 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

‘OPEN FOR BUSINESS’ MODIFIED

Yacht Club days of operation trimmed

OPA documents From Page 3 documents. “I think they’re just sitting somewhere in a ﬁle; I could have them in an afternoon,” he said. Clarke said Thompson has told him that he has to locate them and will turn them over when he does. Clarke said he is concerned that the documents he had yet to see contained information that might show that the Yacht Club is in worse condition than other public documents – including an engineering report from AWB Engineering from last year – indicate. “As a board member, I would be liable for injuries caused by willfully ignoring proof that the Yacht Club should be shut down for safety reasons,” Clarke said. Thompson told the Progress in late August that he would turn over the documents requested by Clarke in the normal course of business. As it happens, Clarke may have obtained the documents from another

Thompson, McLaughlin decide on cost-cutting moves to bring the OPA’s primary food and beverage operation closer to budget doesn’t mean he’s abandoning his “open for business” philosophy. “Open for business doesn’t mean losing money,” he said. Thompson said that he and McLaughlin meet regularly in an effort to manage the facility more effectively. “We looked at the data for the last three or four years (in the months after Labor Day) and saw that business drops off in the days we’re closing,” he said. “The better course of action is to be open four days a week, when data shows that our members use the facility in greater numbers. This will help keep our costs in line and, perhaps, will bring the Yacht Club back closer to budget.” He said the intent is to keep this four-day schedule through the winter months, in order to accommodate the customer base that uses the Yacht Club year round. “The Yacht Club is both a business and an amenity that serves our members,” he said. “While closing down completely during the winter could be argued from a business standpoint, it isn’t consistent with providing a year-round service to OPA members.” Financial results for the amenity through July 30 indicate that the surpluses that normally accumulate during the summer months have not materialized to the extent budgeted, although the Yacht Club is still in the black through the ﬁscal year’s ﬁrst quarter. Budgeted

to be in surplus by $62,440 through the end of July, the Yacht Club instead has generated a year-to-date surplus of $25,067, a $37,373 negative variance to budget. The good news is that the year-todate surplus compares to the $16,678 surplus for the ﬁrst quarter of last year. Relative to budget, net performance at the Yacht Club for the month of July fell short by $24,893, based on an $18,022 proﬁt compared to the budgeted $42,915 surplus. Total gross revenues of $164,229 in July were $31,751 less than the budgeted $195,980. Year-to-date revenues of $623,792 were $42,679 under the budgeted $666,471. Even so, year-to-date gross revenues compare favorably to the $609,912 that had been generated through July of last year. Net revenues, gross revenues less food and beverage costs, are fairly close to budget through the end of July, only $13,686 under budget in fact. Net revenues were $417,203 through July, compared to the forecast $430,889. Last year through July, net revenues were $397,386, so McLaughlin’s tenure is showing a year-over-year improvement in one measure of performance. Expenses, on the other hand, are still higher than they should be relative to budget, which perhaps is the driving force behind the decision to cut back

days of operation. For July, total expenses reached $165,586, compared to the budgeted $146,350, or $19,236 over the forecast. Year-to-date, the story is the same, with expenses of $392,136 compared to the budgeted $368,449, a $23,678 overage. Last year through July, total Yacht Club expenses were at $380,707, perhaps suggesting that cost control was working more effectively last summer than this. Wages/benefits and services/ supplies all were higher relative to budget in the first quarter. July, which concludes the first quarter of operations for the OPA, produced a negative operating variance of $45,542, reversing the slightly positive variance in June of $2,950. Revenues were under budget by $23,984, total expenses were over budget by $1,626, and new capital expenditures exceeded the budget by $19,932. The numbers were included in a financial report issued to the board of directors by Controller Art Carmine in mid-August. Through July 31, the association has accumulated a negative operating variance of $140,198, up from almost $100,000 through June 30. The OPA is still feeling the financial effects of a challenging start to the fiscal year in May, mostly attributable to financial challenges relative to golf op-

source, a builder who Clarke said had a compact disc with all the documents included, with a business card from Thompson attached. The director said he is reviewing the CD and may have something to say about them at a later time. “Maybe Bob will be more cooperative in the future,” Clarke said. “I shouldn’t have to rely on outsiders for information I’m entitled to as an elected member of the board.” Thompson has said publicly for some time that the Yacht Club is currently safe but is fast approaching its useful life span. He said the OPA is in the process of doing its annual inspection of the facility to make sure it remains safe. Clarke remains a skeptic, contending that the OPA has done a poor job over the years of maintaining the Yacht Club in the hopes of convincing property owners that the building needs to be replaced. He cited a recent case in which a kitchen employee fell through the ﬂoor

near a leaky ice machine. “Of course the floor is going to rot out near a leaky icy machine if you don’t fix the machine, and somebody eventually is going to fall through the floor,” Clarke said. “This is going to happen in a new building as well as an old one. “If enough of this sort of inattention occurs elsewhere in the building, for long enough, then there are real safety concerns that might mean the building should be closed,” Clarke said. The new director has said that the Yacht Club should be completely closed immediately after Labor Day regardless of safety concerns, because the amount of business does not cover the expense of operation. Thompson differs. He said the amenity should remain open for business yearround because it serves as a community gathering place for a large number of Ocean Pines residents. On another matter, Clarke declined comment on whether he found evidence in the minutes of closed meetings confirming that the OPA board earlier this

year had made an offer in the neighborhood of about $1.3 million for the former Pine Shore Golf property off Beauchamp Road. “Can’t say whether I did or didn’t,” he said. “I don’t need conﬁrmation. I already know from two or three different sources that the OPA made the offer.” Another board member, Dave Stevens, recently disclosed one other fact about the offer that heretofore has not made its way into the public arena. Stevens told the Progress that the old board envisioned borrowing money to accomplish the purchase and that certain directors did not want information about the offer made public because they thought it might adversely affect the chances of a successful referendum on a new Yacht Club. Word leaked out about the purchase regardless. The Progress and other media reported on the offer, apparently rejected by the bank that owns the Pine Shore property, prior to referendum ballots being mailed to property owners in August.

▼

By TOM STAUSS Publisher cean Pines Association General Manager Bob Thompson and Yacht Club Food and Beverage Manager Dave McLaughlin have taken steps to bring the OPA’s primary dining amenity back closer to budget. The move represents a modification of Thompson’s ‘Open for Business’ philosophy which, when first implemented over a year ago, had the Yacht Club open for business seven days a week, with the newly established Java Bay Coffeehouse on the amenity’s first floor accepting customers at 6 a.m. This summer, the Yacht Club tried serving breakfast seven days a week, while continuing to serve lunch and dinner. With no fanfare and a small mention on the OPA Web site, Thompson and McLaughlin opted to scale back to a more traditional schedule after Labor Day weekend, abandoning seven-day-aweek operations for a Thursday through Sunday schedule, closing the amenity Monday through Wednesday. The schedule change also means that the Yacht Club pool bar, which normally has food service available throughout the month, will be a drinks-only bar Monday through Wednesday, with food service available Thursday through Sunday. The four-day schedule opens the Yacht Club Thursday through Sunday, with breakfast served and the Java Bay coffeehouse opening at 7 a.m. The popular Sunday brunch remains. Thompson that while the Yacht Club days of operation have scaled back, that

6 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

September 2012

OCEAN PINES

OPA Departmental Summary as of July 31, 2012

Yacht Club From Page 5 erations. In July, golf operations had a negative variance to budget of $15,648. Of all the departments, aquatics performed the worst against budget in July, with a $28,829 negative variance. Second behind aquatics was the Yacht Club with a $24,893 negative balance. Of the three, only the Yacht Club made money for the month, with an $18,020 surplus. Golf lost $6,596 for the month, while aquatics had a deﬁcit of $1,838. Year to date, golf is $155,196 behind budget while aquatics is $44,966 behind. The Yacht Club is $37,373 under its budget forecast through July 30. Of the major amenities, the Beach Club was a top performer, generating a $59,934 surplus, very close to budget. Marinas produced a $14,650 proﬁt. Year-to-date, the Beach Club is $11,515 ahead of budget while Beach Club parking is $15,885 to the good.

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September 2012 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES

Board elects ‘shadow director’ as assistant treasurer

Stevens fails in effort to deny former director Pete Gomsak a behind-the-scenes role in helping to manage OPA financial affairs sistant OPA treasurer, a role that will enable him to continue to wield influence over OPA financial management. Gomsak chose not to run for a second three-year term as director this past summer. He told the Progress and other media that he will not be attending board meetings in his role as an assistant treasurer. He also said that he did not seek the role but acquiesced to it, after it was broached to him by Stachurski prior to the board’s organizational meeting. Stachurski’s rationale for appointing

Gomsak to the position – OPA General Manager Bob Thompson also was appointed an assistant treasurer, unanimously – is Gomsak’s business career as a certified public accountant, financial acumen and demonstrated willingness to put in long hours on behalf of the OPA during his three years as a director. In proposing Gomsak’s appointment, Stachurski said Gomsak would be serving as a defacto chief financial officer of the OPA, a position which Stachurski said should be created over the next year to deal with the OPA’s increasing

financial complexity. Long-time Controller Art Carmine is the closest thing OPA has to a CFO as head of the OPA’s finance department. Stevens vehemently opposed Gomsak’s appointment, at one point in the discussion leading up to the 4-3 vote saying that it would lead to Gomsak serving as a “shadow director.” While no other director specifically agreed with Stevens’ characterization, Clarke and Unger voted with Stevens to oppose Gomsak’s new role. The 4-3 vote also triggered a later scathing criticism of Stachurski by Stevens, who said that his colleague had misled him when Stachurski told him he would not be supporting Gomsak for the position of treasurer. That posi-

▼

By TOM STAUSS Publisher vershadowing the election of new ofﬁcers for the 2012-13 term, the Ocean Pines Association board of directors in an organizational meeting in mid-August found themselves embroiled in a dispute that divided the directors 4-3. On one side were OPA President Tom Terry, chosen by his colleagues for his third consecutive year in his leadership role, and Directors Dan Stachurski, Terri Mohr and newly elected director Sharyn O’Hare. On the other side were newly elected director Marty Clarke and carry-over directors Dave Stevens and Ray Unger. The 4-3 vote involved the election of retiring Director Pete Gomsak as an as-

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OCEAN PINES The Pine’eer Craft Club has awarded Beverly Meadows the honor of being the September Crafter of the Month. She crochets American Doll hats and matching scarfs, as well as adult hats, afghans and baby afghans. Her items may be seen and purchased every Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Pine’eer Craft and Gift Shop, White Horse Park, Ocean Pines.

Assistant treasurer From Page 7 tion went to Mohr, in another 4-3 vote, with Stevens nominated as her opponent. The vote outcome was in favor of Mohr, a full-time nurse, most likely with the same four directors supporting her, though the voting was done by secret ballot. Prior to the organizational meeting, there had been some speculation in various circles that Gomsak would be named treasurer. Stevens told the Progress that when Stachurski told him he would not vote for Gomsak as treasurer, he did not tell

Stevens that instead he would be nominating Gomsak as an assistant treasurer. Stevens in effect said that Stachurski had not dealt with him in good faith. Stachurski explained his decision not to inform Stevens of his intentions with respect to Gomsak in three words: “He (Stevens) didn’t ask.” He said he had no regrets about the omission, adding that there’s no secret that he and Stevens – who served jointly on the board in 2003 – don’t always agree. “We agree on some things, disagree on others,” he said, adding that in this particular case he concluded that Stevens, who wanted the position of trea-

surer, would not support Mohr’s election as treasurer nor Gomsak’s role, which on paper is subservient to the treasurer but which, in all likelihood, will eclipse it. Mohr acknowledged that she would be relying heavily on Gomsak in her role as treasurer. Stachurski said he that while he did not expect Gomsak to attend board meetings, he does expect the new assistant treasurer to attend meetings of the Budget and Finance Committee, which Stachurski said is in the process of being reorganized, following the departure of long-time chair Brian Roberts. Members of the budget committee, including Clarke when he served on it before resigning last year, found it difﬁcult to work with Gomsak when he served as the board’s liaison. Terry quietly engineered Gomsak’s departure as the committee’s board liaison, according to some reports, with Terry assuming the role this past year. Other than the contested race for treasurer that Mohr won and Gomsak’s newly created role, other OPA positions sailed through with no opposition. Terry’s unanimous election as president means he will be ﬁrst person to serve in that role in all three years of his elected three-year term. Ray Unger will serve as vice-president, and Stachurski for the second year in a row will serve as secretary. Long-time general counsel Joe Moore

was reappointed to the position, while O’Hare was given the role of parliamentarian. TMG Group, LLC, the OPA’s longtime auditing firm, was given a temporary extension, with the understanding that the board might revisit the appointment when the current contract expires. Although no decision was made and no criticism of TMG proffered by any director, some board members suggested that it may be time to solicit bids for the auditing role in the coming months. The directors also considered a meeting schedule for the coming year, with the possibility that the traditional Wednesday meeting schedule will be restored. The directors also are considering the possibility of moving regular monthly meetings from the third week of the month to the fourth, allowing more time for directors to digest and reflect upon financial results for the prior month, generally distributed to directors just before the regular monthly meeting. The organizational meeting followed by about a week the annual meeting of the OPA, in which O’Hare, with 1,969 votes, and Clarke, with 1,789 votes, were announced as winners of the board election conducted over the summer. Placing third in the balloting was Mark Venit, with 1,389 votes, followed by incumbent director Bill Wentworth, with 1,178 votes, and Bill Cordwell, with 961.

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OPA reserves drop again in July from May’s historic highs By TOM STAUSS Publisher he July 30 reserve summary for the first quarter of the 2013 fiscal year shows the Ocean Pines Association continues to be well fortified with cash on hand, with total reserves at $7,520,504, about $172,000 less than at the end of June. The new reserve summary reflects the infusion of lot assessment dollars in the new fiscal year that began May 1. The major maintenance and replacement reserve at $5,902,1524 claims the largest share of that $7.52 million reserve balance. That’s a slight drop from $6,060,024 at the end of June. Of that $5.9 million replacement reserve balance, $1,350,797 reflects contributions from the five-year plan of assessment increases designed to raise funds for big-ticket capital projects. The remaining $4,551,357, from a so-called historical component, stems from a portion of lot assessment revenue collected over many years, linked to depreciation of the association’s capital assets. A little more than $1 million is parked in the OPA’s bulkheads and waterways reserves; much of it is spent over the To page 12

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AROUND THE PINES

Stevens proposes hold on greens replacement

Although it’s far from clear that he will be able to persuade a majority of his colleagues to his point of view, OPA Director Dave Stevens said recently he would vote to stop the second half of the OPA’s golf course greens replacement project from taking place this fall and winter. He said that while he is not necessarily opposed to greens replacement, he believes it should be conducted on a hole-by-hole basis along with drainage and other fairway improvements, rather than in a contract done separately. Something like that approach was done this spring on the par three seventh hole, which combined drainage improvements with greens replacement. He noted that the green on the 18th hole, resodded last year, is no worse for wear than the 9th green, rebuilt from the ground up and resodded earlier this year. He wondered whether it might have been possible simply to resod the front nine greens earlier this year, rather than rebuild them, at a signiﬁcant cost savings. Resodding could have involved some new surface dirt to allow the grass to take hold, he said. The problem with doing greens replacement as a project separate from drainage is that while it means greens are in better condition, fairways remain in poor condition in some cases, Stevens

said. The overall effect is that the course simply isn’t in as good a condition as it’s been in prior years, he added. The difﬁculty with Steven’s idea to halt the greens replacement project – the back nine is slated to be completed beginning this fall and extending into the winter – is that the contract with McDonald and Sons calls for all 18 greens – actually 19, including a replacement hole used whenever a hole is out of commission – to be replaced at a total cost of roughly $900,000. Although the project was divided into

Reserves drop From Page 10 course of a year in bulkhead repairs. There’s $308,157 in an operating recovery reserve, created several years ago for the ostensible purpose of offsetting operating deficits in prior years. Both are unchanged from the previously. Finally, the roads reserve has been beefed up, for the first time reflecting anticipated revenues from the OPA’s share of local impact funds related to operations at nearby Ocean Downs Casino. The reserve summary shows a $400,000 contribution to the roads reserves, ostensibly from the casino funds,

OCEAN PINES Golf pro Damian Cosby departing Ocean Pines

two phases, the front and back nines, the negotiated contract was for the entire golf course. “There would be ﬁnancial consequences for the OPA if we did that,” OPA General Manager Bob Thompson said, in effect saying that Stevens’ idea would result in the breaking of the contract. But he also said that the practical result would be an inconsistency in the greens themselves, noting that the new greens added this spring and the new ones this fall and winter include sod grown from a particular location in North Carolina.

Ocean Pines golf pro Damian Cosby, hired by Billy Casper Golf to serve as the Ocean Pines golf pro about two years ago, will be leaving Ocean Pines for another Casper golf course closer to family across the bay, OPA General Manager Bob Thompson has conﬁrmed. Thompson said that Casper is in the process of ﬁnding a replacement for Cosby, with assistant pros already on staff in Ocean Pines or elsewhere in BCG in the running. “This didn’t happen from any dissatTo Page 14

which Controller Art Carmine said is actually more than has been collected thus far, but which might rise to that level over the course of the current ﬁscal year. The road reserve of $415,183, too, is unchanged from the prior month. The slots money has been allocated to the roads reserve because the board of directors, as part of this year’s approved budget, has decided that the casino money will be used for road improvements going forward. General Manager Bob Thompson recently announced that the OPA will begin resurfacing side streets later this year. The $7.5 million reserve total compares to the April 30 balance of $4.06

million. That’s an increase of roughly $3.5 million. Factoring out the $800,000 or so related to the bulkhead and waterway reserves, which is funded mostly out of the higher assessments paid by owners of waterfront property, the remainder represents the amount of new base assessment dollars flowing into reserves at the beginning of the new fiscal year and not spent. A lot of that is earmarked for the major maintenance and replacement reserve. According to the reserve summary, $2.5 million in assessment dollars are flowing into that particular reserve this year, of which $878,384 comes from the five-year funding plan and another $1,682,950 is attributable to so-called

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14 Ocean Pines PROGRESS September 2012 Club referendum succeed, OPA Geneal AROUND THE PINES From Page 12 isfaction with Damian,” Thompson said. “He and his wife simply wanted to be closer to family members, and Casper agreed to the transfer.” There was no indication on how soon a replacement will be brought on board. Golf is substantially under-performing from a budgetary standpoint this ﬁscal year. Reducing the number of Casper staff working in the pro shop, especially during the colder winter months, could help reduce the golf deﬁcit that is likely to occur this year.

No employee to lose job from Forum ‘ballot stufﬁng’ Blaming it all on an overzealous OPA employee who wanted to see the Yacht

Manager Bob Thompson has acknowledged that this person or persons, whom he declined to identify, did indeed sign up to the Ocean Pines Forum Web site using ﬁctitious account names in order to cast ballots in an online poll about the Yacht Club referendum. In at least two instances, the names were of real live human beings who did not register on the Forum – golf pro Damian Cosby and a former intern in the ofﬁces of the OPA public relations department, who according to one press report lives in California. Cosby is in the process of transferring to another golf course. The 11 new sign-ups to the Ocean Pines Forum resulted in the online poll switching slightly against the Yacht Club rebuild to slightly in favor, Forum owner Joe Reynolds said recently. Reynolds said he determined that the

OCEAN PINES new Forum members all were registered from the same IP address that matches the one that appears in e-mails and press releases sent out from the OPA administration building. Thompson confirmed that the illicit sign-ups were done by an individual or individuals in the administration building. “The IP address used is assigned to the admin building and doesn’t belong to any single individual,” Thompson said. Reynolds said he agrees that the IP address he has identified doesn’t belong to anyone in particular, adding, “but I have my suspicions.” Thompson said the poll-stuffing incident resulted in a reprimand but did not, in his opinion, require any one to lose his or her job. Reynolds said he is not urging anyone to be fired but said the incident was unprofessional and unethical and might

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have resulted in some people who otherwise might have favored a new Yacht Club to vote against it.

House and Home Expo returning to Pines

The Ocean Pines House and Home Expo will be the center of attention Saturday, Sept. 29, between the hours of 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. at the Ocean Pines Community Center. The event will showcase a variety of products and services beneficial to homeowners including kitchen and bath design, design and build contractors, plumbing, electrical, pianos and keyboards, sunrooms, windows and doors, tile, decking, countertops, home energy systems, insurance and financial services, heating and air conditioning, waterproofing, garage storage systems, gutter protection and more. Admission to the one day fall show is free. All guests attending will receive free coupons for a complimentary home energy audit, compliments of Dr. Energy, a $100 value. Atlantic General Hospital will be on hand offering free blood pressure checks, and the first 250 people attending will receive complimentary lunch from Famous Dave’s BBQ. “This is a great opportunity for everyone in the Pines to meet with qualified experts about their home projects and have some fun at the same time. There is something for everyone,” said Scott Smith, President of Mid Atlantic Expositions and Entertainment, the producer for the show. “And lunch is on me!” he adds. Featured exhibitors include Bath Fitter, Atlantic Aluminum, Leaf Filter, Dry Zone, Coastal Comfort, Austin Cox Home Services, Tyler Construction, Better Living of Delmarva, Nationwide Insurance, Herl’s Tile, Milford Music, Ben Franklin Plumbing, Dr. Energy Saver, Mid Atlantic Waterproofing, Mr. Sparky, Affordable Tile, The Home Depot, Slide-Lok of the Eastern Shore, Artic Air, Delmarva Daylighting, Vacation Village Resorts, Delmarva Roofing, Handy Hays, Dry Tek, Ancient Art Stone, Ocean City Boatlifts, Gutter Pros of Maryland and Virginia.

Pines’ farmers market extends ﬁrst season

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The popularity of the weekly farmers’ market, sponsored by the Ocean Pines Association and located at 239 Ocean Parkway in Ocean Pines, has prompted the farmers’ request to extend the selling season. The farmers market will continue every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. through October 27, instead of the original ending date of September 1, said Christie McDowell, Ocean Pines Farmers Market Manager. Vendors’ products have included a variety of fresh produce, cut ﬂowers, vegetable plants, herbs, bacon and eggs, scrapple, chicken, pork, kettle korn, fresh baked bread, jellies, mike, butter, cheese, and even live music. Many of the current vendors have chosen to participate in the extended

September 2012 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES season and new vendors plan to join in the Saturday market as well. Some vendors include Chesapeake Bay Farms, Grateful Grains, Baywater Greens, Sovereign Soil Farms, Good Life Farm and other delights. For information about vending contact Market Manager, Christine McDowell at 410-713-8803. For more information about the Ocean Pines Farmers Market contact Teresa Travatello, director of marketing and public relations, 410-641-7717, ext. 3006

OCEAN PINES ASSOCIATION, INC. STATEMENT OF REVENUES AND EXPENSES -- Years Ended April 30, 2012 and 2011 -- Exhibit B

Chamber announces award recipients

The Ocean Pines Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and staff has announced the Chamber’s 2012 Citizen of the Year and 2012 Business of the Year award recipients. Citizen of the Year is Dr. Rick Handelman of the Woodlands and Catered Living and Business of the Year is the Courier newspaper. The award banquet is scheduled for Friday evening, Oct. 19, at the Ocean Pines Yacht Club. The Awards ceremony will be held with the installation of our new Board Members: Lee Ann Shull of Wor-Wic Community College and Kathy Jacobs of Brandywine Senior Living. This year’s theme is “Hats off, A Night in Wonderland.” Tickets for the dinner are $55 per person and can be purchased on-line: www. OceanPinesChamber.org or by calling the Chamber ofﬁce at 410-641-5306.

Players looking for new members

The Ocean Pines Players, among the oldest community theaters on the Eastern Shore, is in the midst of a makeover. The theater company is in a recruiting mode to enlist a wide range of volunteers who either secretly have grease paint in their veins or just like the challenge of making a non-proﬁt organization a success. OPPs membership is entirely made up of amateurs. “We are not just looking for actors to perform on stage, but we also need a wide variety of talented people who can work backstage and front stage as well as business specialists,” said Charles Sorrentino, OPP president. The OPP are speciﬁcally looking for volunteers with all levels of skills, theatrical or non-theatrical, who desire to participate in the theater group. There is need for new actors, young and old, male and female, who can add new vitality to future productions. The theater troupe usually produces three shows a year for adults in addition to an annual Children’s Theater performance. Ocean Pines Players have been bringing Broadway comedies, dramas and musical plays to the Ocean Pines, Ocean City and Lower Delaware communities for more than 38 years. Interested parties should contact opplayers@yahoo.com or call 208-4707 for information. The OPP Web site is http://www.oceanpinesplayers.org.

FISCAL YEAR 2012 AUDIT

OPA records $307,652 loss, reflecting ‘booked’ income tax expenditures By TOM STAUSS Publisher he Ocean Pines Association recorded a $151,348 operating surplus for the fiscal year ending this past April 30, before a non-recurring charge of $459,000 related to the protracted Internal Revenue Service dispute turned that surplus into a net loss of $307,652. The loss was based on total operating revenues of $10,544,353 and operating expenses of $11,992,457, for a deficit of $1,448,105. Operating transfers and other fund balance changes totaled $1,599,453 to the good, resulting in the $151,348 surplus before the one-time non-recurring charge. When reserve fund activity is included, the OPA financial Fiscal Year 2012 snapshot is rosier. Total revenues including assessment dollars allocated to reserves for the year

were $14,045,246, while expenses were $12,757,271, resulting in a $1,287,975 excess of revenues over expenses. The non-recurring charge of $459,000 dropped the combined operating/reserve surplus to $828,975. These results are reported on Exhibit B of the audit report completed by TGM Group and posted on the OPA Web site around the time of the OPA’s annual meeting in August. As the result of an unfavorable outcome in court in the IRS case, the OPA in Fiscal Year 2012 expensed $119,000 in federal taxes for the years 2003 and 2004. In addition, the audit report says, approximately $40,000 has also been expensed related to state income taxes and interest for those years, and approximately $300,000 has been expensed for federal and state income taxes and interest for the period 2009 through 2012.

According to the audit report, “those years remain open and subject to IRS examination and assessment.” A Progress review of the entire audit report, which includes departmental operational breakdowns, reveals the following: • Lot assessments produced $7,825,648 in revenue in FY ’12 versus $7,544,205 the prior year, a $281,443 increase. • Total OPA food and beverage revenue rose sharply year to year, from $1,525,858 in FY ’11 to $1,927,551 last year, veriﬁcation that the OPA General Manager Bob Thompson’s “open for business” approach has succeeded on the revenue side. • At the same time, the bottom line at the Yacht Club, Ocean Pines premier food and beverage facility, worsened considerably. Including depreciation expense, the Yacht Club lost $277,923 last

16 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

September 2012

year, compared to $212,901 in FY 2011. Excluding depreciation – the way financial performance is reported throughout the year – the Yacht Club lost $174,936 for the year, compared to $100,940 in FY ’11. The reason: Expenses consumed and exceeded increased revenues, a problem area acknowledged by Thompson. • The OPA as of April 30 owed $256,588 in long-term borrowings, attributable to the Sports Core pool loan. That compares to the $308,119 balance owed on April 30, 2011. • With depreciation expense included, operating deficits in the recreation and amenity departments substantially exceeded the surpluses generated by traditional surplus generators – Beach Club parking, Beach Club food and beverage, and marina operations. The deficit in the Parks and Recreation Department reached $574,840, with golf and related food and beverage operations losing $756,305, aquatics $352,550, the Yacht Club $277,923, tennis $354,032, and the club membership department $123,281. Combined, these deficits totaled $2,119,931. Departments with surpluses included Beach Club parking, $362,234; Beach Club food and beverage, $51,482; and marina operations, $103,586. These surpluses totaled $517,302. The difference between these deficits and surpluses,$1,602,629, includes depreciation, which is funded by the annual lot assessments. Conclusion: Ocean Pines is a community that

OCEAN PINES

Schedule of Net Revenues & Expenses (Including Depreciation) By Department Years Ending April 30, 2012, and 2011

invests considerably in recreation and amenities. • While the Yacht Club, golf operations and aquatics are high proﬁle amenities, the parks and recreation department with its $574,840 deﬁcit (including

depreciation) actually cost OPA members more in subsidies than did either the golf course or Yacht Club operations. Only golf operations, with a $756,305 loss, cost members more in subsidies. • The parks and recreation depart-

Referendum From Page 1 Yacht Club open during most of a new building’s construction period, until it simply is impossible to do so. The result elated most members of the board of directors who attended the Sept. 7 special meeting, while triggering a burst of applause when Butler announced that the referendum had won. A few property owners lauded Thompson for his stewardship of the process. The outcome means that the OPA can proceed with completing a contract with Harkins Construction, the Salisburybased ﬁrm that previously was awarded the project contingent on a success referendum. The intent, Thompson has said, is to begin construction before the end of the year, depending on receiving necessary permits from the county, including site plan approval by the Worcester County Planning Commission. One issue to be resolved is whether Harkins will be able to follow through on Thompson’s hope to be able to keep the existing Yacht Club open as site preparation and construction of the new building begins. OPA Director Dan Stachurski recently told the Progress he is skeptical that it can be, but Thompson has said he wants to try, as a service to the community and also to keep revenues ﬂowing to the Yacht Club. Only in the last phase of construction – a separate two-story bar annex that

One issue to be resolved is whether Harkins will be able to follow through on Thompson’s hope to be able to keep the existing Yacht Club open as site preparation and construction of the new building begins. would be built on the existing building’s footprint – would the Yacht Club have to be shut down, Thompson has said. Among decisions to be made now that the referendum is complete is whether to seek an administrative hearing before Worcester County Development Review and Permitting Director Ed Tudor on a parking variance needed to accommodate the proposed 20,000 square foot replacement Yacht Club, Thompson conﬁrmed recently. The alternative would be to ask directly for a variance from the Worcester County Board of Zoning Appeals, bypassing the administrative hearing. Department administrator Jennifer Grasso said that AWB, the engineering ﬁrm that is partnering with Harkins Construction in the Yacht Club project, said that AWB in August submitted a parking reduction application with the county. She said that the AWB request is for 184 parking spaces, rather than the 230

spaces speciﬁed in the code for a building of the size and with the proposed seating of a new Yacht Club. That’s the full 20 percent variance allowed under the code, she said. Grasso said that absent a formal request from the OPA or its contractors for a hearing before the Board of Zoning Appeals, it’s likely that she and Tudor would schedule consideration of the parking variance in an administrative hearing. Tudor would preside. If he issues an adverse ruling, it could be appealed to the zoning appeals board, she said. If it’s positive, the variance is granted and the project can proceed with reduced parking. Tudor told the Progress in late August that the variance request had not arrived on his desk for consideration and that he doubted it would do so until the referendum outcome is known. Thompson said that it’s been known for some time that a variance would be needed to accommodate the proposed

ment’s operating expenses jumped considerably in FY ’12 compared to the prior year. The overall loss, excluding any depreciation, of $451,149 jumped by more than $100,000, from $344,676 to $451,149. Salary and wage expenses rose from $205,651 to $246,788, while payroll costs rose from $74,463 to $96,980. • The Ocean Pines Police Department cost property owners a net of $1,027,443 in FY ’12, compared to just $959,395 in the prior year. The net expenditure is after county and other grants totaling $468,955 are applied. The OPA received $427,602 in grants in FY ’11. • Golf operations excluding depreciation lost less money last year than they did the prior year. Net revenues were virtually identical: $1,106,563 vs. $1,106,408. Expenses dropped from $1,423,705 to $1,394,627 year-over-year. The loss was $288,064 last year, compared to $317,225. Golf is a department with considerable depreciation expense associated with it: $468,241 in FY ’12. • Aquatics operations did better on the revenue side last year, with $624,755 from all sources, compared to $572,164 the year before. But expenses were up considerably as well, from $725,369 to $784,097, year over year. Salaries and wages were a big part of that, increasing from $336,759 to $373,267. The net loss excluding depreciation was relatively unchanged, $159,342 last year compared to $153,205 the year before. Yacht Club. He said he’s optimistic that the variance would be granted, citing the nearby Mumford’s Landing pool parking lot that could be used as needed under particularly congested conditions. “Swimming pool use at both the Yacht Club and Mumford’s tends to taper off as night time dining or other activities occur,” Thompson said. “I believe the county would consider actual patterns of use in deciding whether to grant the variance.” Thompson said one reason to go with the administrative hearing approach is that it might mean the issue would be resolved sooner, which in turn could mean that the project’s site plan would go before the Worcester County Planning Commission for review sooner as well. All requests for variances have to be approved or otherwise disposed of before a site plan can be scheduled for planning commission review. Thompson has hopes that the site plan review could be scheduled for the commission’s October meeting, but that could slide depending on any number of factors, including receipt of a favorable letter on the proposed project from the staff of the Maryland Critical Area Commission and submission of an acceptable stormwater management plan. Critical area considerations are not expected to be a signiﬁcant hurdle for the new Yacht Club, as no new disturbances are planned within 15 feet of the harbor. County stormwater management To Page 17

September 2012 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OCEAN PINES By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer peakers during the public comments section of the annual meeting of the Ocean Pines Association on Aug. 11 agenda asked the board of directors about issues ranging from the anticipated increase in annual dues to pay for a proposed new Yacht Club to the recycling collection schedule. During the public comments section of the agenda, during which property owners are afforded the right to speak on any topic for up to five minutes each, one member wanted to know how much of an increase in the annual property assessment is anticipated in order to pay for a proposed reconstruction of the OPA’s Yacht Club. OPA President Tom Terry responded that a $30 assessment increase is slated for next year as part of a five-year plan to generate revenue for future facilities improvements like the Yacht Club project. The increase will occur whether or not the new Yacht Club is approved by members in a referendum vote this summer, Terry said. He said the OPA will also need to fund additional depreciation costs of about $6 per year for the new amenity. However, that cost would likely be offset by savings from an improved efficiency in operations and a reduction of utility costs as compared to those at the existing structure. Property owners also asked what other major projects will follow the Yacht

Referendum From Page 16 director Bob Shockley said in late August that AWB has submitted an initial stormwater management plan to him for review and that he’s favorably impressed with what he’s seen so far. It actually reduces the amount of stormwater from the Yacht Club campus that currently ﬁnds its way into the harbor and coastal bays, he said. Pervious pavers that would cover the footprint of the existing Yacht Club are beneﬁcial, he said, and Shockley said that stormwater from the new building’s

Terry promises $30 increase in assessments regardless of referendum’s outcome Club reconstruction. Terry said the association has looked at every facility and building that it owns in order to develop a plan for improvements and replacement of them. He said the plan makes an “educated estimate” as to when every facility in Ocean Pines, from the new Community Center to storage sheds, will need attention. He said this was one of the ﬁrst efforts to “put all of those resources together in one place.” OPA General Manager Bob Thompson said the association is currently evaluating its roads and bridges to determine when improvements should be made and how to fund them. Both the Country Club and the Beach Club are on the list for improvements in the near future also. He said the board will have to determine which will be addressed ﬁrst. One property owner asked about the schedule for recycling and trash collection. She said she could use a recycling and a trash collection once per week each. Because her recycling container is full, she said she sometimes ends up throwing away recyclables. impervious surfaces would be diverted to an existing retention pond located between the parking lot and Route 90 to the north. “It’s better than what’s there now,” he said, adding that stormwater disposal from the existing parking lot is grandfathered under the old code, but that more stringent stormwater regulations govern any new impervious surfaces that are created by a new building. Thompson said that any stormwater management infrastructure that has to be installed as part of the Yacht Club project would be covered by the $4.3 million project cost that property owners voted on in the referendum.

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Thompson said Waste Management, which holds the trash collection franchise in Ocean Pines, suggested going to a schedule of one recycling pickup and one trash pickup. He said he was hesitant to make the change initially but it can be explored in the future and the contract with Waste Management can be amended.

By Nathan Brunet Staff Writer Country Barn Seafood, coowned by Speedy Voss, sells quality carry-out seafood. Maryland blue crabs are Speedy’s specialty, which he promises will be more “hot ’n heavy” and “hard and fat” than at more popular venues around town. �� Country Barn Seafood is bigger and sweeter than most crabs served at restaurants in the area, according to Speedy, who got his nickname after being born within minutes of reaching the hospital. Not only is the quality of crabs notable, but also the process in sorting crabs for purchase. Speedy measures the crabs individually and separates them into two piles by size and weight. Crabs deemed large enough are put in the regular pile to be sold by the bushel or dozen. “I’m not the last person I know of who does that,” said Speedy, who claims that no one has ever complained about the size of his crabs that were purchased by the dozen. He admits that some small crabs may be added to bushels accidentally because of the large quantity of crabs being processed, but it does not happen often. Surrounded by crabs since he was a little kid, Speedy has been a major part of local seafood businesses since the early 1970s. He has either owned or managed a number of seafood restaurants throughout his career, including the Crab Bag, City Fish Co. and Supreme Seafood.

Another property owner wanted to know if the OPA receives any monetary consideration for the recycling materials that are collected in Ocean Pines. Thompson said that it does not, but added that Waste Management provides its collection services at a lower charge per customer than the previous provider. Resident Barbara Boone asked how much money the association receives from the Ocean Downs Casino as part of its low impact contribution. Thompson said the OPA receives about $300,000 through the end of April or an average of about $18,000 per month. He added that the money is placed into a separate account and will To Page 22

NATHAN BRUNET/BAYSIDE GAZETTE Speedy Voss, owner of Country Barn Seafood, poses with one of his “hard and fat” Maryland blue crabs. Speedy individually measures each crab and separates them into piles based on size and weight. According to the owner, his is the only seafood place in the area that still does so. After getting tired of the increasing population in Ocean City, Speedy settled into a now 80-year-old barn on Cathell Road west of Ocean Pines in the late 1980s. His business partner is Ken Jaworski, but Speedy performs all the day-to-day management of the operation. In the mid-2000s, Country Barn Seafood was rented out and operated by different families, but it is now back with the man who started it all. �� still working,” said Speedy, who is helped out every day by his nephew, Marty, who began working at the store in 1998 when he was 13.

Little neck clams, jumbo shrimp and prawns, tuna and salmon are sold along with Speedy’s crabs, as well as his crab spice that comes from a recipe that has been in circulation since 1946. Beer and wine also is available to take home. In the future, Speedy would like to add a raw bar with draft beer and televisions on the wall, but that idea is only in the planning stages. Country Barn Seafood is open daily from noon until dusk. For more information, or to place an order, call 410-6415164.

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September 2012

September 2012 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

22 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

September 2012

OCEAN PINES

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From Page 17 be expended on roads improvements. Resident Norman Katz asked if the nearly $500,000 that the OPA owes to the Internal Revenue Service for back taxes and associated interest related to the sale of parking passes at the Beach Club from 2002 to 2012 includes any penalties. OPA Treasurer Pete Gomsak said penalties are not included in the estimated tax liability. He said the OPA has talked with its tax attorneys about the issue and has determined that the IRS will not be levying any penalties. In fact, the OPA and the government agreed that penalties would not be imposed well over a year ago, in the initial stages of litigation. Gomsak said the OPA will owe taxes and interest to the state of Maryland but will not be charged any penalties for nonpayment. Another property owner said the OPA has clearly neglected maintenance of its existing facilities over the years, and now they need to be replaced. She said she believes that even at the new Community Center basic maintenance is an issue, and that the gymnasium is not being properly cared for. She said she is concerned about constructing new facilities, such as the proposed Yacht Club, if they will be subject to the same lack of maintenance as have OPA facilities in the past. Terry said the board of directors has the same concern and has authorized the creation of a new staff position for a chief engineer to oversee maintenance of the facilities. He said that person will be in charge of major repairs as well as ongoing plans for general maintenance at all OPA buildings and facilities.

OCEAN PINES By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer

he last 12 months have been busy ones for the Ocean Pines Association, with many projects and improvements taking place in the community, General Manager Bob Thompson said during the Aug. 11 annual meeting of the Ocean Pines Association. Thompson told the gathered OPA members that upgrades were made at the Swim and Racquet Club to extend the beach by bringing in and placing more sand in the area and painting portions of the facility to improve its appearance. He said there have been “a lot of changes out there” and added that “these are all where your dollars go and these impact each of us differently.” While some people may never use certain facilities, like the Swim and Racquet Club, Thompson said it is important to uphold the overall value of the community by taking care of every asset in it. At the Community Center, new double doors were installed in the Assateague Room in an effort to reduce the level of noise emanating from the gymnasium and having an impact on other areas of the building. Additionally, improvements were made to remedy a problem with drainage at the rear of the facility. Thompson said these are “things that not everyone sees, but activities that public works are doing to keep the community in good shape.”

September 2012 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Thompson summarizes community improvements over previous 12 months At the Beach Club a new retractable awning was installed that closes automatically when the wind starts blowing. The facility was also painted, and a system for proactively pumping sand out the drains in the bathrooms was established, Thompson said. Using the OPA’s share of community impact revenue from the Casino at Ocean Downs, the association will be making road improvements this year. Thompson said the association had all of the lines on the roads as well as the parking areas in White Horse Park repainted. “At night we all know it’s dark in here. Having those lines refreshed every couple of years makes a difference,” he said. Now the OPA is preparing to repave select side streets. “We had an engineer come out and look at all 70 miles of roads, identify which ones were in the worst shape, had the most cut-ups, had just the most issues with and we’ve kinda’ ranked and stacked those,” Thompson said. As a result, paving will be taking place in different parts of the commu-

nity where the roads were determined to be in the worst condition. A collection box was installed in the lobby of the police department to collect expired medications. Thompson said Ocean Pines is one of only a few communities in the state that have these new pill boxes. “What it’s doing is taking drugs off the street basically,” he said. The OPA is also making a concerted effort to acquire grant funding, according to Thompson. “We’ve really gone after grants.” He said the police department has done a very good job of seeking grants and received funding for a database system. Additionally, the association is still working with the Federal Emergency Management Administration seeking reimbursement of costs associated with damage from Hurricane Irene last year. Thompson said the OPA has always been denied requests for such disaster reimbursement, but this time has appealed the matter to the senior level of FEMA. “We’re the largest year round community in the county; we represent the largest group of people in the county.

The feeling right now is that we may actually end up cracking into that and be able to get some replacement funds...,” Thompson said. The association is still working with Worcester County officials to find a solution to a drainage problem that plagues Section 3 of Ocean Pines. Thompson said the problem is that an undersized drainage pipe on the River Run side of Beauchamp Road allows water to back up on the Ocean Pines side of the road. The OPA and county are working with the developer of River Run to try to increase the size of the piping so the water flows more freely through the drainage system. Thompson also outlined major personnel changes that have taken place within the OPA in the last 12 months. New employees are Yacht Club manager David McLaughlin, Public Works Director Eddie Wells, Recreation and Parks Director Sonya Bounds, Beach Club Facility Manager Lynda Huettner and Secretary Michelle Bennett. Thompson also highlighted some new programs that kicked off in Ocean Pines last year, including construction of the Dog Park, the Cal Ripken baseball camp, the farmer’s market, and the Freedom 5K run on July 4. He said Ocean Pines is currently in eighth place in the SC Johnson Green Choices Recycling Challenge. One community from each state is participating in the recycling challenge to earn a $100,000 prize for recycling the most materials.

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24 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

September 2012

OCEAN PINES

Gomsak touts Thompson’s spending stewardship By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer ith a $151,348 operating fund surplus last year, millions in the bank in a reserve fund for future projects and revenues up at the amenities and food and beverage operations, the Ocean Pines Association is in good financial shape, according to its treasurer, retiring board member Pete Gomsak. During an Aug. 11 annual meeting of the OPA membership, Gomsak presented an overview of the association’s finances during the last year, saying it ended the year with a positive variance versus the budget. However, he said the OPA expects to owe the Internal Revenue Service nearly $500,000 in back taxes and interest related to Beach Club parking pass sales. Gomsak explained to the assembled members that the OPA follows a budget process in which it assembles the total amount of expenses for the year and then divides that figure by the number of assessable properties. The resulting figure is the annual property assessment for the year. For the third consecutive year, the OPA came in under budget in its expen-

ditures. The annual assessment was $843 in fiscal year 2012, with $528 of that amount budgeted for operating expenses, including $170 dedicated for police and fire service and $358 for all other operating expenses. The OPA came in $31 per assessed property under budget for operating expenses, with just $497 actually going to the operations. While the amenities were expected to make money last year, they actually cost property owners $4 each as part of the budget process. “By the way, we don’t send you an extra bill if we miss the budget, and we don’t send you a refund if we do better than the budget,” Gomsak told property owners. He added that the operating budget is largely devoted to providing funding for the police and fire departments. “Some people want to cut the dues. I don’t know how you do that. Eliminate police and fire, I guess. I don’t know.” Gomsak applauded OPA General Manager Bob Thompson for trimming expenses in other areas when it became apparent that the amenities, particularly golf and the Yacht Club were not going to meet budget projections for revenue last year. He said Thompson

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“managed effectively other operating expenses within his control.” The association’s efforts paid off with a $151,348 operating fund surplus at the end of FY 2012. But that is before the OPA pays the IRS the $459,000 it owes it back taxes and interest for the years 2002 to 2012 for revenue collected for Beach Club parking passes. “There goes that $151,000 profit for the year, but it’s a ten year catch up as you all know,” Gomsak said. The OPA’s operating fund has experienced an $864,236 change in performance over a six year period, Gomsak said. For three years the OPA had an operating fund deficit, $202,699 in FY 2007, $137,262 in FY 2008 and $159,883 in FY 2009 for a total of $499,814. However, for the last three years, the OPA had surpluses, with $174,862 in FY 2010, $38,212 in FY 2011 and $151,348 in FY 2012, excluding the IRS set-aside. In part to pay off that nearly $500,000 in accumulated operating fund deficit, the board of directors several years ago agreed to a five year funding plan. The plan included $30 per year increases in the assessments, with $4 dedicated to eliminating the deficit and $26 going into the capital replacement reserve fund for

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projects like reconstruction of the Yacht Club. The $4 increase was set to expire at the end of the five-year period. In light of the IRS debt, the OPA board recently passed a motion to extend the $4 component of the assessments beyond the five-year period to help cover that cost. Gomsak said that if the association has an operating fund surplus again in the current budget year, that money would “wipe that out” without extending that five-year period. Gomsak also addressed the funding of the proposed Yacht Club reconstruction project, outlining how the association intends to pay for the $4.3 million building. He said that $26 per year per property assessment increase that the board approved as part of the five-year plan has been set aside in a reserve fund for just such projects. So far the OPA has collected $2.195 million for future projects and expended about $800,000 for projects at the Swim and Racquet Club and to resolve drainage issues in the Wood Duck section of Ocean Pines. That leaves just $1.4 million available for the Yacht Club project. However during the next three years $4.7 million will be put in the fund.

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September 2012 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

WORCESTER COUNTY

Ocean Downs contributes $3.3 million in local impact funds OPA receives $356,548 so far and intends to use it for road improvements in the current ﬁscal year By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer ith local jurisdictions likely to receive even more money from the Casino at Ocean Downs starting next year, the Local Development Council during an Aug. 20 meeting reviewed the ﬁscal year 2011 and 2012 revenue distributions to Ocean Pines, Worcester County, the Town of Ocean City and the Town of Berlin. Since it opened in 2001, the local jurisdictions received a combined total of more than $3.3 million in funding from the casino. The General Assembly last month

passed legislation that will put a proposed gaming expansion for video lottery terminals and table games on the November general election ballot. If the legislation is approved, an 18 percent portion of the impact funding from the Casino at Ocean Downs that now goes to Baltimore and Prince Georges counties would stay in the local area instead. Although not a municipality, the Ocean Pines Association was designated to receive a portion of the local impact grant funding because of the community’s proximity to the casino. The OPA has been given a total of

$356,548 in slots funding through July of this year but has not yet spent any of the money. In fiscal year 2011, Ocean Pines received $112,395 and in fiscal year 2012 it received $216,530. Plans are to use the funds for road surfacing. OPA General Manager Bob Thompson said recently that bids for resurfacing side streets in Ocean Pines have been solicited, and that a list of streets most in need of repair has been drafted. A summary of revenue and expenditures for the Worcester Country portion of the fund for fiscal years 2011 and 2012 shows that the county-received revenue for the period totals $1.973 million. The county received $674,372 in FY ‘11 and $1.299 million in FY ‘12.

Moore reports on a year of little legal activity for OPA By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer oseph Moore has been representing the Ocean Pines Association as its general counsel for more than 25 years, and this was one of just a handful of years during that time that he didn’t have much legal activity to report other than routine filings related to property violations processed by the Architectural Review Committee. “The legal front at Ocean Pines Association has been very quiet this year,” Moore told property owners assembled for the OPA’s annual meeting on Aug. 11. He said that aside from the collection of unpaid property assessments and lawsuits filed by the OPA seeking compliance with either the declaration of restrictions or violations of Architectural Review Committee standards, the only legal activity was an ongoing tax issue with the Internal Revenue Service. “The only matter which Ocean Pines Association has been involved with is the matter of tax liability of the association with regard to the collection of fees at the parking lot at the Beach Club in Ocean City,” Moore said. That matter is being handled for the OPA by tax counsel with the firm of Gordon Feinblatt LLC in Baltimore. Following adverse decisions from the U.S. Tax Court and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, the OPA board of directors voted not to file a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court for further consideration of the matter. Moore said that would have been the last potential appeal of the case. Instead, the OPA is preparing to pay nearly $500,000 in back taxes and interest to the IRS. “The association, working in consultation with tax counsel and the association auditors, has determined the estimated tax liability as a result of the case,” Moore said. Meanwhile, Moore said his law office continues to file foreclosure cases against Ocean Pines property owners when the board of directors determines that it is

appropriate to do so in matters related to unpaid assessments by the association members. However, he said, that in many instances the homeowners association receives notices of foreclosure from banks and lending institutions foreclosing on those property owners as well. He said those liens in most instances have priority over association assessments. Also, sometimes the property owners have filed for bankruptcy. In several cases the OPA staff tries to set up payment plans for property owners who are behind in their annual dues so that the association may attempt to collect the maximum amount of assessments due. When instructed to do so by the board of directors, Moore said his office also files suit to enforce the requirements of the declaration of restrictions in various sections of Ocean Pines and alleged vio-

lations of the ARC standards. “In virtually all of these cases, Ocean Pines Association achieves compliance with the restrictions and standards by virtue of the orders of the Circuit Court in Snow Hill,” Moore said. In some instances, issues of noncompliance are resolved by the board of directors voting to have OPA personnel enter upon the subject property to clean up or otherwise bring the exterior of the property into compliance with the restrictions. That can involve removal of trash or debris or minor exterior repairs, for which the property owners are then billed. Following Moore’s report, OPA President Tom Terry concurred with his assessment of the legal issues faced by the OPA during the last 12 months. “Except for the IRS case it has been a quiet year,” he said.

So far the county has only spent $202,050 of the slots money. Phil Thompson, the county’s assistant finance officer, said the expenditures incurred so far were for the purchase of eight public safety vehicles. In the future, the county anticipates using the casino funds to retire debt on the recently constructed Worcester Technical High School in accordance with its the multi-year plan. The Town of Ocean City received the second largest portion of the slots revenue. From February 2011 through June 2012, $657,850 has been received by the town as a result of local impact grants funded by the Ocean Downs video lottery facility. Jennie Knapp, budget manager, said revenue resulting from local impact grants has been instrumental in contributing to the funding of nearly $2 million worth of street repairs and replacement initiatives accomplished during the past two fiscal years. For the FY ‘13 budget, the town estimated local impact grants at $450,000 and dedicated the money to partially fund another $2 million in street repair projects. Since the opening of the Casino at Ocean Downs, the Town of Berlin has received more than $309,089 in revenues. In FY ‘12 Berlin received a total of $196,693 and in FY ‘11 the town garnered a total of $112,395 from the casino’s slots operation. To date the town has spent $250,000 of that money, leaving it with net revenue of $59,089. In September of 2010 the town purchased land that will be later developed with a community center and a new police station. To date, revenues received from the local impact grant fund have been collected to help pay off the purchase of this land.

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26 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

September 2012

WORCESTER COUNTY

Ocean Downs to tap into Pines treatment plant Connection requires extensive construction on King Richard Road, to affect homeowners on the South Ocean Pines street in a big way

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. John Ross, deputy director of county public works, said there will be construction on King Richard Road in order to accommodate the connection and it will definitely have an impact on traffic flow and access to homes in the area on a temporary basis. The work involves digging up King Richard Road and installing a six-inch force main down the center of the road. Once the pipe is in place, contractors will then overlay the entire road. Ross said that is the best route for the force main. “It will be paved edge to edge,” Ross said of the improvements the developer will make after the connection between the two service areas is made. He said the county, which will oversee the project even though it is being paid for by Ocean Downs’ owner, will make sure that residents of King Richard

Road will have access to their homes. “Certainly while they are digging the trenches down there, there will be some inconvenience. There’s no doubt about it,” Ross said. “We’ll do everything we can to make sure they can get in and out of their houses. I can’t tell you there’s no inconvenience.” Commissioner Louise Gulyas asked when the project is anticipated to start. Ross responded that it will be at least a few months. Before work can begin the property owner needs to acquire all of the necessary project approvals from the Maryland Department of the Environment and the Maryland Department of Planning. 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 a S1 categor, which is planned for service within the next two years. The commissioners unanimously granted Ocean Downs an initial alloca-

tion of 63 equivalent dwelling units of capacity and an ultimate allocation of 333 EDUs of sewerage treatment capacity from the Ocean Pines Sanitary Service Area to serve the subject property. The current on-site system is a mixture of eight septic systems with a capacity of 35,670 gallons per day, according to Bob Mitchell, county director of environmental programs. All of those septic tanks are located within the Atlantic coastal bays critical area. Ocean Down’s 166-acre property contains an existing horse racetrack and video lottery terminal facility with unoccupied commercial-zoned land occupying a portion for the southern part of the property. Portions of it are zoned A-2 agricultural and portions are classiﬁed as 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. Mitchell said the force main to be installed for Ocean Downs will also provide capacity for the connections to oth-

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By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer onstruction of a force main to link the Ocean Pines water and wastewater service area to the newly created Ocean Downs service area will require extensive trenching down the middle of King Richard Road, temporarily inconveniencing residents of the area. When the work, which is to be paid for entirely by Ocean Downs owner William Rickman, is done, the damaged length of the road will be completely repaved from edge to edge, again on Rickman’s dime. The Worcester County Commissioners on Sept. 4 approved an amendment to the county’s master water and sewerage plan to create a new Ocean Downs sanitary service area for the racetrack, casino and Rickman’s residual property and to connect it to the Ocean Pines system for water and wastewater service. King Richard Road is located in Section 10 in South Ocean Pines. 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 right-of-way on Gum Point Road to property owned by developer Marvin Steen, who has provided an easement that will facilitate the connection to the

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September 2012 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

WORCESTER COUNTY

County approves ﬁndings of fact in Burbage zoning By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer espite receiving approval by a slim margin of Worcester County Commissioners for a rezoning of land located on Route 589 south of Ocean Pines, developer Jack Burbage isn’t counting on anything just yet; there are rumblings of an appeal by some local residents. “I have heard that,” Burbage said regarding rumors that those opposed to the rezoning of his 31-acre agriculturally zoned property for commercial use are preparing to take the case to the Circuit Court. But, he said, no one has come forward and contacted him since an Aug. 7 public hearing, following which the commissioners voted 4-3 to approve the zoning change, to express their intent to appeal the decision. “I’d be more than glad to talk to them, sit down and see if I can resolve their concerns,” Burbage said of opponents of the rezoning. “No one has contacted me.”

Ocean Downs From Page 26 er properties within the Greater OPSA, which stretches from Taylorville along Route 589 to Gum Point Road and includes 113 EDUs. “There will be capacity accounted for in the design of the force main to allow connections to the main to be made for unconnected properties within the GOPSA. This would provide a real connection point for the properties from Taylorville on Route 589 to the adjacent Gum Point Road properties to connect to public sewer. It increases the real possibility that the connections in this area can be made utilizing a low pressure force main and individual grinder pumps for the homes and businesses,” Mitchell said. Ross said the proposal will only represent a four percent increase in total capacity of the OPSA’s treatment plant when Ocean Downs reaches full build out at 333 EDUs. He said the initial flow from Ocean Downs will not necessitate any system upgrades but the county will evaluate the need for improvements to accommodate the full build out of Ocean Downs. Ocean Downs attorney Hugh Cropper was the only person to speak during the public hearing. His only request was for a minor modification to the application to clarify that all 166 acres of the property were included in both the master plan amendment and the new service area. “We want to make sure it includes the whole thing,” he said, adding that not specifically stating that all of the Ocean Downs property is included in the application could open the door for MDE or MDP to add conditions to the proposal when it reaches those agencies. Cropper further said that representatives from those state agencies have “al-

Opponents of developer’s planned medical complex may take the case to the Circuit Court, and have 30-day window in which to decide Regarding a potential appeal he added, “All this just pushes it back.” Burbage said that throughout the rezoning process only one person had contacted him with concerns about how the project would impact King Richard Road in Ocean Pines. There will be no impact because the project will be completely external to the community, he said. The Ocean Pines Association has not taken a position on the rezoning either in favor or in opposition. “What is there to take a position on? It doesn’t affect them. We’re not asking anything from them, and it’s not in the Ocean Pines footprint,” Burbage said, adding that the medical complex will serve a real need in Worcester County. He said the next step in the planning process is for him to retain an architect ready indicated that they may not want it all included.” Instead of stating that the applications include the racetrack, casino and the “unoccupied land” of Ocean Downs, County Attorney Sonny Bloxom suggested changing the language to the “remaining land” of Ocean Downs. “The state’s going to do what they’re going to do regardless,” Bloxom added regarding concerns about MDE and MDP. The Worcester County Planning Commission also reviewed the proposed Water and Sewerage Plan amendment at its meeting of July 12 and found it to be consistent with the Worcester County Comprehensive Plan and the zoning category for the subject property.

to start drawing the plans for the property. However he has been waiting to do that until after the rezoning was officially approved by the commissioners, which occurred during a Sept. 4 meeting with approval of the findings of fact and an associated resolution. Commissioner Jim Bunting made the motion for approval, which was supported by Commissioners Merril Lockfaw, Bud Church and Jim Purnell. Voting in opposition to the rezoning again were Commissioners Virgil Shockley, Louise Gulyas and Judy Boggs. Even during the meeting last week, Boggs tried to stall the approval process by arguing that the description of the neighborhood surrounding the Burbage property should be amended. She said it states that Route 90 serves as a boundary line diving Ocean Pines but really it joins together the community. Ed Tudor, county director of development review and permitting, said the findings of fact and resolution contain the applicant’s definition of the neighborhood. He said that definition was accepted by the commissioners when that gave initial approval to the rezoning. County Attorney Sonny Bloxom said that until the findings of fact are approved in any case the rezoning is not finalized. Until that happened, Burbage could not move forward with his plans for a medical complex associated with Atlantic General Hospital, and any opponents could not file an appeal. With those findings of fact now approved, the opponents have 30 days in which to file an appeal to the Circuit

Court, according to Bloxom. The opponents need to submit to the court a transcript of the hearing record along with all associated documents and file a memorandum stating why they think the case should be overturned, he said. Either the applicant or the county or both parties can file a response. If for some reason the commissioners would have voted down the findings of fact, Bloxom said, “Then there’s not a rezoning.” That would mean the developer would have had to wait a minimum of one year to file a new petition for a rezoning of the property. During the public hearing on the rezoning, the issue surfaced of Commissioner President Bud Church’s affiliation with AGH’s foundation board. Church announced that he had conferred with Bloxom on the matter as it relates to the county’s ethics law, and he was not required to recuse himself from voting on the rezoning. Bloxom said neither Church’s affiliation with AGH nor that of Commissioner Louise Gulyas, who also sits on a board and leases office space to the hospital, warranted a recusal. He said commissioners only need to set down from voting on an issue if criteria such as having a financial interest or being employed by the applicant are met. “The hospital is not a party to the rezoning, Bloxom said. They were there as witnesses giving testimony...The rezoning is really not about them.” Instead, he said, the rezoning relates to the specific parcel of property, and any use allowed under the commercial zoning category will be permitted there when the rezoning becomes final. He said it “has nothing to do” with whether or not the hospital has a medical complex on the site.

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28 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

September 2012

WORCESTER COUNTY

Burbage plans campus-style medical complex Developer may seek connection to Ocean Pines Service Area for water, wastewater By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer ith Worcester County’s final approval of a rezoning of the site now in hand, developer Jack Burbage is preparing to turn his attention to designing a medical campus for construction on more than 30 acres of land located just south of Ocean Pines on Route 589. Burbage said he was hesitant to start the design for the project, which will serve as satellite medical offices for physicians associated with Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin, until the rezoning process was completed. The Worcester County Commissioners voted 4-3 in July to change the zoning category for the property from agricultural to commercial, allowing any number of commercial uses. However, Burbage and his son, Todd, announced early on that the property would be developed in conjunction with AGH, which was not a party to the rezoning, for medical offices. The final step in the process, which occurred during a meeting on Sept. 4, was for the commissioners to approve a resolution and the official findings of fact outlining how the request meets the legal requirements for a rezoning; those are a change in the character of the surrounding neighborhood or a mistake in the property’s current classification. The developer argued for both of those criteria as reasons for the rezoning during the public hearing. With the findings of fact approved,

Kiwanis house signs Chairman Ralph Chinn of the Kiwanis house signs project recently presented a $500 check to the club from proceeds of the project. A total of 49 new signs were sold and installed free at $15 each and 11 signs were re-painted at $10 each for the August 2011 to July 2012 year. Kiwanians Bob Abele, Ed Aurand, Phil Lassiter, Charlie Warner, Bill Long and Roger Makowski are workers on the project and they install and re-paint the signs with Chinn. The Ocean Pines Association has approved the sign as the ofﬁcial house number sign for residents. Pictured is Kiwanian Al Kastner holding a sample brown with orange numbers sign.

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Burbage said he will begin the development process in earnest. “We would develop it ourselves,” he said, adding that the site will not be turned over to AGH or another developer for construction. Instead, he will retain an architect “and do a really nice layout and have a beautiful medical complex with a lot of open space.” Plans for the project currently call for on site water and wastewater systems, but Burbage said he hasn’t ruled out asking the county for the ability to connect to the Ocean Pines Service Area for those utilities. “It would be nice if we can hook into the county system,” he said, but added that he hasn’t yet broached the topic with county officials because he was waiting until after the rezoning process was completely finished to begin his planning. “I don’t even have the zoning yet,” he said. “Once I have the zoning I can go talk to them.” Burbage said the goal is to provide space for and attract physicians with specialties that are not currently available or are under-served in the area, such as pediatricians and dermatologists, and facilities for which residents currently need to travel, like outpatient surgical centers and those that provide diabetic care. “We’re looking at putting things in that center that don’t exist here right now,” Burbage said. “We want to have a first class medical facility to serve the community.” The campus will also serve to condense physicians’ offices into a central location that is easily accessible to the large population center of Ocean Pines. “Right now everybody’s scattered everywhere, and this could be a place to bring everybody together,” Burbage said of co-locating doctors in one complex.

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“There’re just so many advantages.” He said that will help attract new doctors to the area “so people don’t have to drive across the bridge” for their medical care. But, he added, that campus atmosphere is necessary in order to bring in those doctors. “You can’t just have one here and there,” located in scattered offices around the county. The developer plans to design the project as a campus, similar to that of a college, with a lot of open space, trees, gardens and benches. Burbage said he wants it to be an attractive area where people walk and sit outside with “a lot of open space, not just buildings crammed together.” Although some commissioners and members of the public during the rezoning hearing expressed concern about the impact of the commercial development on Route 589, Burbage said that is not an issue. “We’ve done a lot of traffic studies. The road is not jammed and it can carry it,” he said of the additional traffic that the medical campus may generate. He said traffic consultants studied Route 589 “on the worst days on the worst months of the year, and at those times it works.” As for allegations that there are better locations near Ocean Pines for an AGH medical complex, Burbage said that simply isn’t true. “Where else is better to put it than near your greatest population area? That is Ocean Pines. Why wouldn’t you put it as close as possible to the people who need it?” In addition to helping AGH attract a diverse group of physicians to the area, Burbage said the campus will generate good jobs for local residents who are trained in medical fields. “It will create a tremendous number of well paying jobs,” he said.

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September 2012 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

Pines Plaza project on hold pending clarification of developers’ ability to handle debt repayment County waiting for decision on whether shopping center will be sold or redeveloped By TOM STAUSS Publisher orcester County officials are saying that because of uncertainty regarding the ability of the owners of the Pines Plaza Shopping Center to pay its pro-rata sharing of debt service related to the creation of a new Greater Ocean Pines Service area, the timetable to begin construction of new water and wastewater infrastructure west of Ocean Pines has begun to slip. At a meeting of the Ocean Pines Water and Wastewater Advisory Committee in early August, Public Works Director John Tustin said that it was unlikely that the county would be able to begin construction of the project later this year, as had been hoped. “We’re just spectators,” Tustin said, with county officials awaiting clarity on

whether the shopping center will be sold or redeveloped or renovated by its current ownership. Assistant Public Works Director John Ross told the Progress in a subsequent telephone interview that the county doesn’t feel comfortable with proceeding with construction unless and until ofﬁcials are sure that Pines Plaza’s owners will be able to pay their share of debt service associated with the creation of the new service area. “We just don’t know,” he said, adding that clarity on the status of the shopping center’s ownership and ﬁnances could come at any time. Efforts to proceed with the project could be revved up fairly quickly, he said. “The engineering and construction of this project really isn’t all that complicated,” he said. “If we receive assur-

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ances that the debt service won’t be a problem, we could be doing this project very soon,” even possibly by the end of the year,” he added. Earlier this year, county ofﬁcials received word from the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the status of funding that will provide a permanent source of water and wastewater treatment services for the Pines Plaza, located just west of Ocean Pines and Route 589, and help create a new Greater Ocean Pines Service Area for much of the commercial district on nearby Cathell Road and Route 589. The Maryland Board of Public Works previously signed off on two separate requests before the state, one for about $200,000 for water improvements and another one for about $600,000 for wastewater collection.

In late January, Deputy Public Works Director Ross advised members of the Ocean Pines Water and Wastewater Advisory Committee that he had been notiﬁed via email by the Department of Agriculture ofﬁce in Dover, De., that the long-established rural development program administered by that department would provide $2.1 million in low-interest loans to the county to help create the service area. The total cost of the Pines Plaza water and wastewater project is now estimated at $3 million. Ross told the advisory committee that the federal portion of the funding is available for up to three years, and that therefore the current delay doesn’t threaten the project’s primary funding source. Much of that $2.1 million loan will in turn be allocated to the Ocean Pines Service Area in the form of an equity contribution related to the cost of building and expanding the Ocean Pines wastewater treatment plant years ago. Pines Plaza and the other commercial properties in the newly created service area will become customers of the OPSA, similar to the relationship between the OPSA and other nearby subdivisions or shopping centers, such as Pennington Commons, Baypoint Plantation and

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30 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

September 2012

WORCESTER COUNTY Pines Plaza

Diving blocks During the late August, ﬁve-day closure of the Sports Core indoor swimming pool for routine maintenance, OPA Public Works crews added diving blocks to the deep end to enable swim team members who use the pool to practice their starts. Also added in the former coat storage area was a new staff work and break room. The diving blocks were relocated from the Swim and Racquet Club pool, where the Ocean Pines Hammerheads swim team practices and hosts swim meets during the summer months. Swim team activity, both by the Hammerheads and the Stephen Decatur High School Swim Team, shifts to the yearround Sports Core pool with the close of the summer season.

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From Page 29 River Run. The debt service on the loan portion of the $3 million package would be a responsibility of the Pines Plaza owners, its tenants, and other commercial property owners in the new service area, Ross said. The funding of the project also would facilitate the redevelopment of a parcel located at the intersection of Cathell Road and Route 589, where a long-vacant real estate office sits. Walgreens has long planned a new pharmacy for that corner parcel, contingent on the availability of public water and wastewater treatment services. The funding of the new service area would solve that problem. The rationale for seeking the federal and state funding of the project is that the new service area is being created to replace several failed and failing septic systems in much of the commercial area just west of Ocean Pines and along Route 589. Ross has said previously that about a million dollars of the funding will cover the equity contribution for the Pines Plaza, a struggling shopping center whose ownership is believed to be in no position to easily come up with an upfront equity contribution but earlier was thought to be able to handle debt service on it. With the availability of public water and wastewater services, Pines Plaza property managers previously told Worcester County officials that they would be in a much better position to attract new clients. Other business owners in the new service area have been given the option of coming up with their full equity contribution or financing it over time, Ross has said. About $300,000 or $400,000 of the project money covers equity contribution for businesses in the new service area other than the Pines Plaza. In total, Ross said about half of the funding would cover prepaid equity contributions. The other half of the $3 million in state and federal contributions will be used to build water and wastewater lines for the new service area, that will extend down Cathell Road from the vicinity of the Adkins Co. hardware store and Verizon substation southward to Route 589, where it will pick up the 7Eleven store, the adjoining real estate offices, banks and the McDonald’s restaurant, Ross said. Ross has said that of the $3 million, the share of it that covers the Pines Plaza equity contribution will become available for use in the Ocean Pines Service Area’s capital projects budget. Possible uses of the money would be to finance improvements to the Ocean Pines network of pump stations and to embark on a comprehensive community-wide program of holding tank replacement.

September 2012 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

WORCESTER COUNTY

AROUND THE COUNTY Worcester County Tourism received the 2011 Business Partnership Award from the Town of Berlin. The award recognizes outstanding business cooperation, volunteerism and financial assistance as well as in-kind services. Worcester County Tourism officials received this designation for their ongoing partnership in marketing and advertising Berlin and for assisting to sponsor and volunteer during special events in town. “Berlin’s just a great town with a lot to offer visitors,” Tourism Director Lisa Challenger said. “We really love to help with advertising to make it more affordable for the small businesses.” Challenger said Worcester County Tourism has assisted with marketing, advertising and volunteering in the Ocean City and Delaware markets in an effort to help drive foot traffic during the summer season in particular.

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32 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

September 2012

WORCESTER COUNTY

Board approves policy for treating allergic reactions in schools By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer he Worcester County Board of Education during its Aug. 21 meeting adopted a new policy regarding the treatment of students experiencing an anaphylaxis reaction from an allergy while they are in the school. Frederick Grant, supervisor of student services, reviewed the proposed Anaphylaxis – Epinephrine Availability and Use Policy, IV-C-15, which is required by Maryland law. This policy will authorize the school nurse and other trained school personnel to administer an epinephrine shot to a student who is or is believed to be experiencing an anaphylaxis reaction. Each county will also be required to provide staff training and submit an annual report to the Maryland State Department of Education on the number of times an autoinjectable epinephrine pen

was used during the school year. Legislation was introduced in the General Assembly by State Senator Jim Mathias during the 2012 session to require placement of the so called “EpiPens” at each school. Jerry Wilson, superintendent of schools, reviewed with the school board his goals for the 2012-2013 school year. Included are academic excellence, educator effectiveness, efﬁciencies, facility improvement, technology, partnerships and implementing his entry plan. During the school board meeting, Barbara Witherow, coordinator of public relations and special programs, reviewed the 2012 communications survey. For the seventh consecutive year, a survey was distributed to parents and guardians of students in the Worcester County public school system. The primary objectives of the survey are to receive parental input in order to

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several issues, including an additional bus route for the Worcester Technical High School to address enrollment increases and other route adjustments. The changes were necessary to accommodate the fuel supplement paid to bus contractors because of increased diesel fuel prices in FY ‘12 and the increasing cost of maintaining school buildings. The Board also reviewed intra-category budget transfers of administration $36,495, instructional support services $204,570, other instructional costs $57,010, special education $521,028, pupil services $151, health services $8,405, pupil transportation $137,287, operation of plant $259,800, maintenance of plant $106,562 and capital planning $51,000. Araceli Martinez was recognized by the school board for earning the “ESL Student of the Year” Award. Deborah White was recognized with an honorary certiﬁcate. Dawn Hartley was recognized for being named the “2012 Adult Education Teacher of the Year.”

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Avoid being outdoors at dawn and dusk or wear long sleeves and pants at this time. When outdoors use insect repellents. Install or repair screens on windows and doors or use air conditioning instead. Empty any standing water from items outside your home such as gutters, ﬂowerpots, buckets, children’s pools, pet bowls and bird baths. Most people with West Nile virus will show no symptoms; however, some people may have mild to severe symptoms that may include fever, headache, body aches, joint pains, vomiting, diarrhea or rash. There are no medications to treat or vaccines to prevent a West Nile virus infection. People with milder illnesses typically recover on their own, although symptoms may last for several weeks. People age 50 and older and those with certain medical conditions such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension, kidney disease and organ transplants are at greater risk for serious illness. Anyone who has symptoms that cause concern should contact a health care provider. Although birds are not routinely tested for West Nile virus in Maryland, sick or injured birds can be reported to an appropriate local wildlife rehabilitator. Residents can call 1-877-463-6497 for a list of licensed rehabilitators.

From Page 31 kits, hazardous material emergencies and basic ﬁre suppression. CERT classes begin Thursday, Sept. 27 at 6:45 p.m. Classes are held at the Ocean City Public Safety building. Call Carol Boyles at 410-723-6616.

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measure the quality of school and school system communication sources. The survey also aims to increase parental involvement through enhanced communications, identify the most effective communication sources for school and school system information and seek out other communication sources that parents ﬁnd helpful. The results of the survey will help in reﬁning school and school system goals and strategies based on the survey’s statistical analysis, written suggestions and feasibility. It is also designed to increase parental involvement in school activities and in school improvement efforts in order to enhance student achievement. The board also agreed to adjust the FY 2012 operating budget to include several inter-category and the intra-category budget transfers. The proposed inter-category budget transfers for student transportation at $380,582 and maintenance of plant at $45,238 were necessary as a result of

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Worcester County health department ofﬁcials are urging residents to take measures to protect themselves, since mosquitoes in the area have tested positive for the West Nile virus. The best way to prevent contacting the virus is to avoid mosquito bites.

Stevens appointed director of health program

Debra Stevens has been appointed as director of the Worcester County Health Department’s Community Health Program. Stevens has more than 22 years experience in public health nursing. She has been integral in developing new community health projects including the health department’s emergency preparedness and aging services. Most recently she has taken a lead nursing role in behavioral health integration initiatives.

September 2012 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

WORCESTER COUNTY

School system shifts funds to pay for after-school program By ROTA L. KNOTT Contributing Writer n an effort to keep after school academies functioning in local schools through the first half of the school year, the Worcester County school system plans to transfer more than $270,000 in funds in its budget to cover the shortfall. Grant funding of $638,000 for the after school academies at Buckingham Elementary, Berlin Intermediate and Stephen Decatur, Pocomoke and Snow Hill middle schools was eliminated by the Maryland State Department of Education. The grants supported programs and services to more than 900 students in the five schools. School system officials on Aug. 21 approached the Worcester County Commissioners for approval to transfer funds to cover the cost of operating the after school academies until January. However, when that money runs out there is no plan for funding the ASA programs for the remainder of the school year. The commissioners gave their OK to the request in a 5-2 vote with Commissioners Jim Bunting and Merrill Lockfaw opposed. Commissioner Louise Gulyas asked how the ASA will be funded once the money from the budgetary transfer runs out. Jerry Wilson, superintendent of schools, said the school systems hopes to find another source of grant funding to keep the academies in operation, but he cautioned that school officials may “be back to talk to the commissioners.” “We don’t have any money,” Gulyas responded. “We’re looking for you and Vince to do some magical financing of some kind.” Vince Tolbert, school system chief financial officer, indicated that staff will continue to explore all options to maintain these programs in the future, including securing other funding sources. Wilson added that because the ASA are no longer being grant funded, there are some cost savings; for example, the programs no longer need to be evaluated for compliance with the grant requirements. Commissioner Judy Boggs asked if additional savings could be realized by sharing program coordinators among several schools. Gulyas also suggested using existing paid staff to run these programs instead of hiring special coordinators. “It’s tough times, and I think that everybody should step up to the plate and be willing to do a little more,” Gulyas said, adding that school system employees haven’t necessarily been doing that. “As much as I support the school system, I haven’t seen that - stepping up to the plate, your staff stepping up to the plate.” Lockfaw called the requested budget transfer “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” He declined to support the funding shift saying the money was included in the

Transfer only good for half year; board of education may ask county commissioners for funding infusion if another source of revenue can’t be found budget for other items and should stay there. Commissioner Virgil Shockley supported the request to transfer existing funding within the budget to cover the cost of the ASA for now but added that the school system should get busy pursuing additional funding options. “The kids at the elementary school and middle school need those programs,” he said. Board of Education President Jonathan Cook agreed. “I’ve seen the after school academies work,” he told the com-

missioners during their meeting. “This is such an invaluable service.” At a meeting later that same day the Board of Education voted to approve the funding transfer. The after school academies for fourth and ﬁfth graders at the schools were funded under the 21st CCLC for the past nine years, while the programs for sixth, seventh, and eighth grades were grant funded for the past three years. Every three years, 21st CCLC grant-funded programs at schools and non-proﬁt organizations must reapply for a continu-

ation grant. ASA was phased in at all home schools in order to meet the individual needs of each student by offering support and enrichment beyond the regular school day. Currently, ASA programs serve 43 percent of about 2,600 of the students in Worcester County public schools. In addition to providing remediation and enrichment, ASA programs provide meals to students. Supper is provided to ASA students at Buckingham Elementary School, while snacks are provided to students at Berlin Intermediate and Stephen Decatur Middle schools. Wilson said these programs are offered in schools attended by some of the county’s neediest kids. He said the ASA does things like give students a meal in the evening before they go home.

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34 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

September 2012

Monday, Sept. 10 Friends of the Ocean Pines Library monthly meeting, at the library, 10 a.m. Coffee and refreshments 9:30 a.m. “Everything You Wanted to Know about Voting and Elections, but were Afraid to Ask,” presented by Kay Hickman, president of the Worcester County Board of Elections. Open to the public. 410-208-4014. AARP monthly meeting, Ocean Pines Community Center, social time 9:30 a.m., meeting 10 a.m. Guest speaker, Michele Andrews of Right at Home, Care & Assistance. Over 50 welcome. Tuesday, Sept. 11 Free basic computer sessions by Coastal Sanctuary Church Education and Empowerment Center, 10550 Friendship Road, Unit A, Berlin. Three class sessions for 12 weeks on Tuesdays for 1.5 hours each at noon, 2 p.m., and 4 p.m. beginning Sept. 11 and ending Nov. 27. Sessions include introduction to computer basics, Windows operating system, Microsoft Word, the Internet, computer graphics and making computer generated graphics for T-shirt press. Registration required, 410-208-1582, leave contact information and time slot desired. Tuesday and Wednesday Sept. 11 and 12 Atlantic General Hospital Auxiliary’s lobby sale, 8 a.m. – 4 p.m., main lobby, AGH, Berlin. Huge selection of the newest styles and colors at 40-70 percent off regular retail prices. Wallets, mini bags, small leather goods and luggage. All proceeds beneﬁt Atlantic General Hospital. Thursday, Sept. 13 Ocean Pines Garden Club bus trip to Ladew Topiary Gardens and Manor House. Leaves Ocean Pines Community Center 7:30 a.m. Breakfast and

CALENDAR OF EVENTS rest stop. Lunch at noon, manor tour at 1 p.m., garden tour at 2 p.m. Depart at 3 pm for Ocean Pines, arrive approximately 6:30 p.m. $50 per person, includes bus transportation, admission fee, lunch, tax, gratuities. 410-208-4567 for reservations. Worcester County Tea Party monthly meeting, Ocean Pines Community Center, 6:45 p.m. 410-430-7282. Saturday, Sept. 15 Fall open house, Pine’eer Craft and Gift Shop, White Horse Park, Ocean Pines, off Ocean Parkway, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Door prizes and refreshments. Seasonal handcrafted home decor, jewelry and fashion accessories, created by members of the Pine’eer Craft Club. “Working Through Grief” workshop, sponsored by the Worcester County Commission for Women in partnership with Atlantic General Hospital, Pocomoke Medical Center (AGH), 500 Market Street Exchange in Pocomoke City, 10 a.m. Speaker Gail S. Mansell, director of Palliative Medicine and Pastoral Care Services at AGH, on ﬁnding hope and healing while working through grief. To register call 410-208-1272 or email f.daly@mchsi.com. Donuts and coffee. Space limited. Free. For information about “Suddenly Single”, call Barbara Passwater, 410-251-2886, or Beverly Thomas at 410-641-8299. Annual Ocean Pines Dog Swim, Mumford’s Landing pool, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. RSVP: astull@oceanpines.org. Wednesday, Sept. 19 Blues on the Bay fundraiser, Macky’s Bayside Bar & Grill, 54th Street bayside, Ocean City, 6 p.m. $50 per person, which includes open bar and hors d’oeuvres. Everett Spells will provide

the musical entertainment. coastalhospice.org or 410-742-8732. Thursday and Friday, Sept. 20-21 Art League of Ocean City’s 8th annual Sand Castle Home Tour, featuring ten homes that surround the waterways of Ocean City. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. $30 per person. Tickets available at 410-524-9433. Kick-off cocktail party sponsored by the Gateway Grand at the home of Palmer Gillis Wednesday, Sept. 12, 6-8 p.m., featuring hors d’oeuvres including local seafood and hand-shucked oysters, tickets $75 per person. Saturday, Sept. 22 Bus to the National Book Festival on the mall in Washington, sponsored by the Friends of the Ocean Pines Library. Leaving the library at 7 a.m., returning by 8:30 p.m. Short rest stop in Easton in the morning, and a stop for fast food near Annapolis on the return trip. $35 per person, check payable to Friends of the Ocean Pines Library, mailed to Mary Stevens, 122 Central Parke East, Ocean Pines, MD 21811. 410-641-7946. The deadline for reservations is Saturday, September 8th. Sunday, Sept. 23 Star Charities VIP Covered Dish Social, Ocean Pines Community Center, Assateague Room, 4-8 p.m. Tickets $10 includes live entertainment, two bands, food, byob or cash bar. Beneﬁts Wounded Local Soldiers. Reservations 410-208-9514, 410-641-7667. Thursday, Sept. 27 Atlantic General Hospital Foundation’s 19th Annual Fall Golf Classic, Newport Bay and Seaside courses of Ocean City Golf Club. For more information about the tournament or how to

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LIFESTYLES become a sponsor, contact Golf Chairperson Bill Gibbs at 410-726-6508 or Donna Pellinger in the Development Office at 410-641-9690. Friday, Sept. 28 Quilters by the Sea of Ocean Pines’ quilt show, Ocean Pines branch, Worcester County Library, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.. Admission free. Raffle tickets on a quilt made by the guild available for sale, handcrafted and quilted items. Light Henderson, 410-641-8152 Saturday, Sept. 29 Ocean Pines House and Home Expo, Ocean Pines Community Center. Free admission. Variety of products and services beneficial to homeowners. Free coupons for a complimentary Home Energy Audit, compliments of Dr. Energy, a $100 value. Free blood pressure checks, and the first 250 people attending will receive complimentary lunch from Famous Dave’s BBQ. Flea market and bake sale, Church of the Holy Spirit, 100th St. and Coastal Highway, Ocean City, 7 a.m.-noon. 410723-1973 for more information. Thursday, Oct. 4 Blessing of the animals ceremony, Church of the Holy Spirit in Ocean City, 100th Street and Coastal Hwy., Ocean City, church parking lot. Pets should be on leashes or otherwise under their owners’ control. Any size, shape or type of pet is welcome. 410-723-. Saturday, Oct. 6 The Parke at Ocean Pines’ fall community yard sale, 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., in the driveways of residents. Clothes, lamps, artwork, household items, electronics, furniture and more. Maps will be available at the main entrance of the Parke at Central Parke West, off Ocean Parkway near the south entrance of Ocean Pines. Saturday, Oct. 20, rain date. 410-208-4994. Saturday, Oct. 13 Kiwanis annual fall pancake breakfast, 8-11 a.m., Ocean Pines Community Center, Assateague Room. Pancakes, sausage, fruit cup, coffee and tea. $5 for adults, $3 kids under 12, under 5 free. Proceeds benefit local youth Ongoing Ocean Pines plant clinic, Ocean Pines library lobby, every Tuesday 14 p.m. May 1 until Sept. 25. Got plant problems or bugs? Bring your bagged samples by and let expert master gardeners find solutions to your questions. Kabbalah class with Saturday services, coffee, juice and bagels, 9:30 a.m., Saturdays, Temple Bat Yam, 410-6414311. Republican Women of Worcester County, fourth Thursday of each month, 11 a.m. meeting (doors open at 10:30), lunch at noon, local restaurants. For information, call membership chair Barbara Loffler at 410-208-0890. January through June and again September and October. Dinner meeting in November.

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36 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

September 2012

CAPTAIN’S COVE

Developer, utility co. poised to elect three members to board By TOM STAUSS Publisher allots for three vacancies on the Captain’s Cove property owners’ association board of directors will be sent to association members around Oct. 1, with three candidates well connected to the community’s prime developer and utility company virtually assured of election to the seven-member board. Results of the balloting will be announced at the POA’s annual meeting Nov. 3. That’s because entities that control developer-owned lots can and presumably will cast their votes for the three candidates with developer or utility company ties – Tim Hearn, Michael Glick and Jim Silsee. Hearn is president of the Captain’s Cove Utility Co. while Glick and Silsee are principals in CCG Note LLC, Captain’s Cove prime developer and owner of unimproved lots throughout Captain’s Cove. Glick is the managing partner of CCG Note. Hearn and several of his colleagues attempted to run for the Cove board last year, only to see two of those candidacies rejected by the board secretary, with a board majority complicit in deciding

that two of Hearn’s colleagues were not actually owners in good standing of property in Captain’s Cove, a requirement to run and serve on the board. Hearn, a Cove homeowner, was not disquali�ed but he fell short in his bid. The Cove directors a year ago decided that developer-owned lots could not to be voted in the election, on grounds that CCG Note or related entities had not paid any annual lot assessments to the POA, meaning that they were not considered members in good standing and therefore were ineligible to vote. The dispute ended up in a suit �led in Accomack County Circuit Court, only to be settled out-of-court as part of a landmark agreement between developer interests and Captain’s Cove Golf and Yacht Club, the property owners’ association, in January of this year. As part of that agreement, CCG Note was recognized as the declarant/ developer of Captain’s Cove and that, as such, it is not responsible for paying any dues or levies to the POA as the owner of lots in Captain’s Cove. The developer exemption from lot assessments is typical in developing subdivisions, and indeed was also the

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association makes progress on a number of fronts, road and utility build-out and improvements in �nancial management chief among them. Already the association has embarked on an aggressive program of collecting past due annual assessment, with the assistance of CCG Note. There also is some progress on the road front, with Stitcher disclosing that a Sept. 7 meeting of all parties concerned about road construction had been scheduled, with the purpose of determining and agreeing on the types of engineering documents that will be required by Accomack County permitting of�cials to enable the build-out of roads in Sections 1 through 14. Stitcher said he believes it’s reasonable to expect that the POA’s engineering �rm, George E. Young of Pocomoke, will be submitting complete engineering documents to the county by the end of the year, with copies also made available to the Captain’s Cove Utility Co., which Hearn has said intends to install water and sewer lines along the roads as they’re constructed. Stitcher also it’s reasonable to expect some road construction next year, perhaps by late spring or early summer, starting with Section 7 and then – although the Cove board has not yet formally made any formal decisions – moving on to Sections 12 and 13. But Hearn’s pending presence on the Cove board with at least two solid allies does set up an intriguing situation because, even as late as last month, there was continuing evidence of a contentious relationship between the POA and Hearn and the utility company over a protracted rate dispute. The Captain’s Cove property owners association and the utility company that supplies water and wastewater treatment services to the community located just south of the MarylandVirginia line are awaiting word from the Virginia Corporation Commission on whether a proposed rate increase, To Page 38

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case in the early years of Ocean Pines’ development. That provision of the agreement means that Glick and Silsee are considered members in good standing of the Cove POA and can run for the board and serve if elected. While the agreement preserves the CCG Note’s right to cast three votes for every developer-owned lot, the developer agreed not to exercise its three to one voting rights so long as the POA is not in default of the agreement and so long as HOA is operating at, at least, on a break-even basis. The agreement includes an exception, allowing the developer to use the 3 to 1 right to elect a maximum of three members of the POA board of directors. That exception would appear to give CCG Note the right to cast three votes per lot in this fall’s election, but that may not happen. Cove General Manager Lance Stitcher said exercising the three-voteper-lot right to elect Hearn, Glick and Silsee might not be necessary because, based on typical numbers of votes cast in annual elections, just voting one ballot per developer-owned lot would be suf�cient to decide the outcome. In short, whether one or three votes per lot are cast on behalf of developerowned lots, Hearn, Glick and Silsee are virtually guaranteed of election if votes associated with the developerowned lots are cast, and Hearn has previously told the Progress that they would be, although he said he was not sure the three-vote-per-lot right would be invoked. Hearn also said several months ago that it was not the developers’ intent to take control of the POA. Three directors are not enough to dictate outcomes in board votes, and Hearn said that he and his CCG Note colleagues are determined to work well with sitting directors and the POA at large. At the same time, he said their purpose in assuming a near-majority of the board is to ensure that the

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September 2012 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OPINION

Effort paid off in big Yacht Club win

27 Nottingham Lane, Ocean Pines, MD

A Yacht Club narrative

I have to frame this letter by BLISHER/EDITOR BLISHER/EDITOR recounting an event that happened to us Tom Stauss Tom at theStauss Yacht Club that was attended by auss1@mchsi.com me, my wife and two grandchildren. We tauss1@mchsi.com 410-641-6029 had this overstuffed braggart come over 410-641-6029 Advertising to our table and ask how the meal was.

Advertising We told him it was good and he bragged that he was overweight because he ate ART DIRECTOR his own cooking and was in charge of the ART DIRECTOR Rota Knott Yacht Club and was responsible for the Hugh Dougherty meal that was acceptable. CONTRIBUTING My youngest granddaughter, taking WRITERS TRIBUTING WRITER him at his word and not recognizing that he wasKnott a blowhard, asked if they needed Rota Knott any help. He proceeded to make an Ginny Reister ellmedia@comcast.net appointment with her for an interview. 443-880-1348 She was delighted to get the interview, and she showed up very smartly attired and he was not there. The manager also was not there. The staff explained to her that he was not in charge of anything. This was in mid-March and, before the interview, I had committed to holding a small intimate graduation dinner for my youngest granddaughter. I decided that this was an isolated incident and could not possibly re�ect the real management of the Yacht Club. During the next two months, I made several contacts to assure that our group of thirteen would be seated away from the noise of the bar, which I had noted on a couple of occasions. When �nally the day came for the dinner, we the entire group appeared at the club, and they acted as if they had never heard of us.

EDITORIAL needn’t stay up at night indulging in recrimination for not working harder in opposition. It probably would not have mattered. What almost everyone thought was going to be a nail-biter at the end was a blow-out. Opponents if they’re so inclined could decide to gum up the works by opposing a 20 percent parking variance for the new Yacht Club, but the overwhelming endorsement of the project by voters probably means that any such effort will fail. And probably should. All it could do is delay the inevitable by a month or two. If Thompson and the board truly want to bring the community together as construction begins on a new Yacht Club and anticipation grows on its opening, they would usefully spend time on completing a realistic business plan for the Yacht Club. To that end, as actions and deeds always trump words on paper, Thompson has taken a positive step forward by cutting days of operation at the Yacht Club post-Labor Day. By closing the Yacht Club Monday through Wednesday, earlier than his “open for business” philosophy had previously countenanced, Thompson is reacting to less-than-stellar ﬁnancial results at the amenity during the prime summer months. The next step is to realistically assess how well breakfast is doing on any of the remaining days the Yacht Club is open. With the exception of the

popular Sunday brunch, just a cursory inspection of the Yacht Club most mornings suggests that there is no compelling reason for it to be open for breakfast. Morning coffee at the 7-Eleven or Mickie D’s is still an easier reach for many than a drive to the Yacht Club. Unfortunately for the Yacht Club bottom line, that may well be true even during the summer months. Looking ahead, here’s a suggestion for making the Yacht Club (and its swimming pool) even more of a “community gathering place” it is purported to be. Ending or, perhaps more realistically, modifying the “adults only” policy at the Yacht Club pool is long over-due. Making the pool family-friendly for often than Wednesday family fun nights could help to rebrand the Yacht Club, which unfortunately has a reputation as an amenity used primarily by those of a certain age. It just doesn’t seem fair that the nearby Mumford’s Landing pool is bursting at the seams most summer week days while the Yacht Club pool is rarely even close to full. Even the pool bar seemed dead this summer compared to previous summers. Diehards who command premium space poolside won’t like this suggestion at all, so here’s a compromise: Keep the pool adults-only, say, until 2 or 3 p.m., but then open it up to all-comers after that. Some families may even decide to stay for dinner or order something from the pool bar. A new Yacht Club brings with it the opportunity to change perceptions. Modifying “adults only” at the pool would be a start. – Tom Stauss

LETTER One assistant manager after another came out to apologize stating that they pass notes back and forth to the manager. The manager �nally came out, at least she said she was the manager, and stated that the reservation was noted in her book and she just did not know what had happened. In other words, an admission that no one knew what they were doing. There was an acceptable place at the club at the far end away from the noise of the bar. This space was occupied by a couple of overstuffed chairs and a couch which could have been easily moved and a table set up so that there would be a chance to have a civil conversation. They proceeded to set up a table against the wall a couple of feet from the bar, which seemed to be occupied by every loud mouth in the county and the noise was deafening. No explanations, no apologies, just here it is – take it or leave it. Back in January I had a nice dinner of MauiMaui and, when I spoke to the manager, I asked if they would have this dish and she assured me they would. There was one problem, however. The price had doubled. Now I could understand an increase, but I could not understand a 100 percent increase, so I pointed this out to the management. When it was �nally time to have dinner, our end of the table was served

�rst and enough time had elapsed for everyone on our end of the table to �nish dinner before the other end of the table was even served. If this wasn’t bad enough, one person sent back their meat because it was raw. My wife usually cuts my meat because my vision is impaired, and I noticed that with a steak knife she could not cut the meat. It was all gristle, 100 percent gristle. She decided that she would share her steak with me and hers was 100 percent gristle and a steak knife would not cut it. My oldest granddaughter had chicken, which was so bad she could not eat it. So, four out of �ve meals were inedible. I decided to skip the meat and just eat my vegetables. I picked up what appeared to be a green bean and when I bit into it I discovered that it had never been cooked at all. It was just laid on the plate. So I put down the green bean and picked up a chunk of carrot and bit into it and it had not been cooked. I am lucky to not have broken a tooth. I knew that squash was supposed to come with this combination, so with my fork I scooped up what I thought was squash. The squash had been cooked so long that it was completely tasteless. I put down the squash and took a bite of the mashed potatoes and, aside from the fact that they were lumpy and some of them were under cooked, and pieces of potato peel were evident, the potatoes were at least

edible, but they were what should have been a disgrace to any one claiming to be a professional. The other diners, one of whom had ordered the Maui-Maui, said that he thought that the �sh had been twice cooked and it was barely edible. By the time that several other complaints had drifted back to me, I discovered that my dining experience was not unique but rather typical. I called to the manager and told him what I thought of the meal. I think this manager was sent out to cover for the two assistant managers and the manager who had drifted away. After I explained to him what he should do with the cook or “chef” or whoever was responsible for this disaster, he just walked away mumbling. It was at this time that they sent out this very cute blonde who, rather than listen to what I felt were legitimate complaints, proceeded to say that she knew that I was upset but she didn’t understand why and never gave me a chance to explain why and then she disappeared. In my many years I have never had a worse meal that from beginning to end was the result of what I consider to be inept, incompetent, bungling. I paid the bill, left a substantial tip and left with the hope that someone would �re the manager, �re the two assistant managers and give the royal boot to the cook or chef or whatever his claim to fame is. With two full months to prepare for a small group and with

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n the midst of their understandable elation over the outcome of the Yacht Club referendum, the s by-ways and cul-de-sacs Ocean Pines Association directors who support elythe populated community. most densely populated $4.3 million versioncommuni of a new building can take pride in the fact that no stone went unturned in the attempt to “sell” it to property owners. In the end, the full court press of mailings, town meetings, Yacht Club tours and civic group presentations proved successful. OPA General Manager Bob Thompson worked tirelessly on a cause he believed in, and, as often happens, conviction and effort paid off in a very big win. Even in a challenging economy with many costs on the rise and seemingly impossible to control, many Ocean Pines property owners showed their willingness to spend money on rebuilding an aging facility that is the community’s signature amenity. Collectively, Ocean Pines voters decided that putting more Band-Aids on a facility that old and in such poora condition an Pines Progress, journal of just didn’t seem like such a good investment. d commentary, is published While the lessyear. than throughout It is50 percent of Ocean Pines property owners cast d in Ocean Pines, Berlin, West a ballot in favor of a new Yacht Club, all that really means is a Snow million Hill, Ocean City and ity, $4.3 signiﬁcant number of property owners who didn’t Cove,Va. participate were acquiescing in whatever outcome nd other editorial submissions: those who participated in the referendum chose on bmit via email only.We do not their behalf. xes or submissions thatheads requireof households were at odds Or perhaps Letters be originalby andnot voting. andshould compromised to theThose Progress. Includeafﬁrmed phone their support of a new $4.3 voting million Yacht Club by a two thirds margin, a margin convincing enough that those on the losing side

38 Ocean Pines PROGRESS

OPINION

September 2012

OPINION

Clarke’s presence on board makes group-think less likely

t hasn’t taken very long for newly As August turned to September, Clarke said Thompson still hadn’t elected OPA board member Marty Clarke to make his presence felt. His turned over the CD. An excursion through the curious by-ways and cul-de-sacs An excursion through curious by-ways and cul-d election makes two directors – he joins The the general manager, borrowing of Worcester County’s County’s most densely community. of Worcester mostpopulated densely populated communi a page from playbook of Dave Stevens as a director who resists of Worcester County’s mostStachurski’s densely com of Worcester County’s mostpopulated densely popula OM STAUSS/ going along for the sake of getting studied indifference with a veneer of STAUSS/Publisher By TOM Publisher OM STAUSS/ Publisher STAUSS/ By TOM Publisher along – who are willing to challenge plausible deniability, said in effect that the conventional wisdom, whatever it treasurer, replacing Gomsak, who issues going forward with Stachurski, he would respond to Clarke in the normal may be on any particular issue. If some does. Clarke told one local newspaper although he said it in way that needed course of business, that there were other directors tend more to fall in line with that Mohr will be “Gomsak’s puppet,” to be sanitized for public consumption. more pressing matters competing for his time. the prevailing sentiment, to place civility a characterization that offended Mohr With Clarke, it often is. and team-playing above all else, Stevens and apparently triggered a furious With all this skirmishing in the early Stachurski, when asked about Stevens and now Clarke will make sure the other email exchange among the directors, and Clarke’s remarks, shrugged them days of the board term, it remains to be directors don’t get too comfortable. with Terry, according to Clarke, calling off, in effect saying that since he knew seen how all these testy relationships To the extent that group-think or a for everyone one to play nice as team neither would support any continued will play themselves out. There is OPINION sort of fraudulent or forced unanimity players. role by Gomsak in the affairs of the some evidence, perhaps premature and replaces lively debate, Clarke and Uh, right. association, and in fact would obstruct inconclusive, that a new board majority Stevens’ presence on the board will Clarke, who in as previous tenure on the process, he wasn’t particularly has emerged, consisting of the four make sure that doesn’t happen. the board was never known for his tact, interested in bringing them into the directors who voted in Mohr as treasurer Some contentiousness emerged early reportedly responded that as a board discussion until he had the necessary and Gomsak as her faithful, self-effacing on when Stevens and Clarke, joined in member that oversees a budget of $16 votes linedPines up, Progress, even indeed that The Ocean a journal of was and deferential assistant. ThebeOcean Pines Progress, by Director Ray Unger, took exception million or so, he doesn’t exactly regard possible. If so, it will a very long year aforjourn Chalk this one up for hardball news and commentary, is published news and commentary, is pub Stevens and Clarke. to former Director Pete Gomsak’s his role as participating in a team politicking 101. the year. It is monthly throughout h the curious by-ways and cul-de-sacs throughout the year. monthly appointment as an assistant treasurer, sport. Stachurski said he believes that, as Another battle Pines, emerged in Ocean Berlin,very Westearly circulated y’s most populated community. er County’s mostsaid densely populated communi in majorities Ocean Pines,will Berlin, which densely Stevens will allow Gomsak, different As if to underscore just how true on over access to OPA documents, it often does,circulated Ocean City, Snow Hill, Ocean City and Snowissue Hill, Ocean Ocean City, on the -- no Cit who didn’t run for reelection this that is, and how this board is unlikely this time pitting Clarke against OPA emerge depending blisher Capain’s Cove,Va. summer, to become a kind of “shadow to play nice with one another, both General Manager Bob Thompson. The lasting alliances but shifting Capain’s Cove,Va. coalitions. Letters and other editorial submissions: board member.” Then again, he has proven record Clarke and Stevens, in varying degrees GM resisted Clarke’s initial request Letters and a other editorial submis Please submit via email only.We do not majority of directors in d Just prior to Gomsak’s appointment, have accused Stachurski of engineering for Please submit via email only.We access to minutes of board closed of forging a solid accept faxes or submissions that require a board majority of four – Tom Terry, Gomsak’s appointment – Stachurski meetings stint on the board that occurred before Clarke’s his previous six-year accept faxes or submissions that re retyping. Letters should be Terri Mohr, Dan Stachurski and Sharyn doesn’t deny coming up with the idea election that managed to increase to the board. By original Clark’sand telling, – a majority retyping. Letters should be origina Progress. Include phone exclusive to the assessments by $150 in one year, enclose O’Hare – voted in Mohr, who has no and selling three directors on why it’s Thompson cited “good authority” for Include p exclusive to the Progress. particular background or expertise a good idea – and doing it in a way denying a board member access to the Sports Core pool for about a million in �nancial management, as the OPA that erodes their con�dence in their minutes of closed meetings, but it turns dollars, and approve multi-year golf somewhere colleague’s trustworthiness. out that “good authority” 127the Nottingham Lane, actually course drainage project Nottingham Lane, (the latter without Stevens said Stachurski told him hadn’t said what Thompson said he did. north of $3 million127 Ocean Pines, MD bene�t of a referendum). Somewhere in before the vote that he wouldn’t vote Bottom line: Ocean Pines, MD Thompson was advised to for Gomsak as treasurer, omitting provide Clarke with access to all the there was a very expensive Community PUBLISHER/EDITOR Center project, too, that eventually fell Stachurski’s plan to nominate Gomsak documents PUBLISHER/EDITOR he was requesting. PUBLISHER/EDITOR PUBLISHER/EDITOR of escalating as assistant treasurer. Stevens more or Tom Stauss It didn’t Tom end there, Staussof course. Clarke by the wayside because Tom TomStauss Stauss less regarded that as a lie of omission, received immediate access to meeting costs. tstauss1@mchsi.com The Ocean Pines Progress, a journal of tstauss1@mchsi.com tstauss1@mchsi.com What �nally killed it? A threatened and he called himself “disgusted” with minutes, but another set of documents tstauss1@mchsi.com news and commentary, is published 410-641-6029 410-641-6029 it, one Marty how it all went down. he wanted410-641-6029 to see, containing detailed lawsuit by, you guessed monthly throughout the year. It is 410-641-6029 Advertising Clarke. Clarke was even more blunt, if that’s Advertising Advertising information on the condition of the circulated in Ocean Pines, Berlin, West It wouldn’t be too Advertising surprising if possible, saying he has in his possession Ocean Pines Yacht Club, was not quickly Ocean City, Snow Hill, Ocean City and ART DIRECTOR coalition of four an email from Stachurski promising turned over. Clarke accused Thompson something like thatART DIRECTOR Capain’s Cove,Va. ARTRota DIRECTOR Knott emerges this year. ART Only DIRECTOR it won’t be not to vote for Gomsak in any role, a of continuing to stonewall, and in early Rota Knott Letters and other editorial submissions: Hugh master. It will be promise Clarke said was violated when September saidDougherty he received a copy of Gomsak as the puppetHugh Dougherty Please submit via email only.We do not Stachurski nominated Gomsak for the documents from a contractor on a Stachurski, if it’s anyone at all. When CONTRIBUTING accept faxes or submissions that require CONTRIBUTING assistant treasurer. He declared himself compact disc, with Thompson’s business it comes to forging winning coalitions, WRITERS CONTRIBUTING WRITER retyping. Letters should be original and CONTRIBUTING WRIT “on notice” that he would be having trust card attached to it. Stachurski has a record WRITERS second to none. Rota Knott Knott exclusive to the Progress. Include phone Rota Knott Knott

LIFE IN THE PINES

E PINES

127 Nottingham Lane, Ocean Pines, MD PUBLISHER/EDITOR PUBLISHER/EDITOR Tom TomStauss Stauss tstauss1@mchsi.com tstauss1@mchsi.com 410-641-6029 410-641-6029 Advertising

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ART DIRECTOR ARTRota DIRECTOR Knott

Hugh Dougherty

CONTRIBUTING

WRITERSWRITER CONTRIBUTING Rota Knott Knott Ginny Reister Inkwellmedia@comcast.net 443-880-1348

LETTER a minimum of four contacts in the intervening time, every request that I had made was totally ignored. This is beyond comprehension and inexcusable. As the military would say, “no excuse, sir.” In this job market I am sure that there are people who would be happy to take the place of the manager and, indeed, manage competently and return dining at the Yacht Club into an enjoyable experience. If we continue with what we have, I am sure that the dining part of this operation is doomed, unless success is measured by a cluster of loud mouths surrounding the bar. Jerre Epps Ocean Pines Editor’s Note: This incident occurred before the arrival of a new Yacht Club manager, David McLaughlin.

Ginny Reister Inkwellmedia@comcast.net 443-880-1348COVE CAPTAIN’S

From Page 36 or tariff, will be approved, rejected or accepted in part. At issue is whether paid interest associated with a promissory note acquired by the developer-owned utility company from a predecessor developerowned entity, Captain’s Cove Group LLC, can be considered a valid expense for purposes of rate-making. The POA has argued that a threeyear statute of limitations applies and that the debt is not valid for rate-making purposes. The case, which dates back to 2010, has involved a series of dueling submissions to the corporation commission, with the latest salvo coming from the utility company. In a brief �led Aug. 3, the utility company’s attorney took exception to

Ginny Reister

Inkwellmedia@comcast.n the POA’s previous brief, characterizing it as primarily consisting “of unfounded 443-880-1348 ad hominem attacks on Mr. Timothy Hearn, president of CCUC. This reply will not delve into CCGYC’s allegations about Mr. Hearn, as they are not worthy of a reply.” The CCUC lawyer argues that the debt is a valid one, citing case law indicating that a “corporate debtor’s acknowledgment of a debt on its annual reports has been held suf�cient to remove the bar of a statute of limitations.” The lawyer adds that the utility company has “always acknowledged its obligation to repay the debt owed to Captain’s Cove Group, LLC (now CCG Note)” and that even the POA itself “guaranteed repayment of the very debt it now disputes.” The brief concludes that the corporation commission should “strike and disregard” the POA’s objections.

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