It was a significant news week around these parts, and here are a few opinions on news making headlines today.
In announcing the company was scrapping its plan to test its armor with explosives at a site in Newark, Hardwire CEO George Tunis III took a few shots at his detractors.
Tunis had said during this process that if community sentiment rejected the company’s intentions that he would consider other sites. He stuck to his word this week, but did have a few pointed words for opponents in a letter to residents.
“I had actually made up my mind last week against using the site, after talking with several of you personally. For those of you that spent your resources on meetings, lawyers and yard signs, I am sorry you wasted your time. However the real loss was to our local economy,” he said. “During this process, I have been surprised by a few specific individual’s public display of sensationalism and engineering ignorance. Images of nuclear explosions and narratives of jackhammers in people’s ears is ridiculous. It’s ok to say you won’t make the minuscule sacrifice to hear a loud noise once in a while to help protect American lives, but just come out and say it.”
After his letter was made public, the ‘Seashore Not C-4’ community group made it known it wants the Board of Zoning Appeals’ decision to grant a special exception vacated in some form to prevent any future actions at the site.
At this point, that seems appropriate, considering the company has made known its intention to do the testing elsewhere. If there are no plans to exercise the conditions of the special exception, it might as well be vacated at the next meeting, resulting in any further applications having to go through the same public process.
Word of a large-scale beach music festival coming to Ocean City next June should excite local residents, businesses and visitors.
Many of the details are unknown at this point, most importantly who the festival will land as its top acts, but Ocean City looks to be faring well with the proposal on the table. It gets a share of ticket sales and revenue, and it has the opportunity to weigh in on the bands booked for the event, which will fall during Senior Week season in between the Memorial Day holiday weekend and the OC Air Show.
The music festival sounds, at this point, like an excellent addition to the town’s special events calendar, which has never featured a major music festival with the caliber of bands mentioned this week.
Worcester County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jon Andes has announced his retirement effective next spring.
Although education funding has become a controversial topic over the last four years, as economic conditions strain resources, Andes has been a respected face of the local school system for the last 15 years.
Andes is an ardent education supporter, obviously, and he is unabashed critic of unfunded mandates from federal and state agencies as well as the limited per-pupil funding that has come down the pipeline in recent years.
Whether you agree or disagree with how education is or has been funded, Andes serves as the type of person any jurisdiction would be proud to have in the leadership chair. In his tenure, the county’s schools have blossomed and there’s no disputing that.
Plus, he can play a mean bagpipe, which we find incredibly impressive.
He will be missed in the local education world.
