Thoughts From The Publisher’s Desk

Thoughts From The Publisher’s Desk
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Despite rainouts on Wednesday and Thursday of this week, it was a positive to learn the major Coastal Highway repaving project is ahead of schedule and should be complete prior to Cruisin’, which begins May 19.

For many years, it’s been a fact that Cruisin’ kicks off the peak season. It’s no longer Memorial Day weekend. In many cases, although largely dependent on Mother Nature, Cruisin’ is busier in the Ocean City area than the traditional holiday weekend launch to summer.

Back when demoflush was relied on, the crowd data never bore that out. However, most hotels, restaurants and rental companies will report Cruisin’ is the weekend circled on the calendar as the true beginning of the busy season. It’s the week when all projects must be completed and adequate staffing needs to be in place.

It has long been my hope the State Highway Administration would adjust its mindset for spring project completion goals. It’s always been the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, but it truly needs to be the Thursday of Cruisin’ weekend. There’s no question these classic vehicle owners as well as the many locals who have sustained automobile damage through the life of this project would welcome that change.

Although flood insurance can be a complicated topic for many to digest, this week’s news should be simple. Due to a mistake by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on new flood insurance rate maps and the nature of the primary and secondary dune lines, dozens of oceanfront property owners will have to pay a lot more money than they should.

City Engineer Terry McGean reported to the Mayor and Council, “Because federal policy states that if any portion of a building is located within a flood zone, the entire building is considered in the zone. These buildings are being quoted flood insurance premiums many times higher than their oceanfront neighbors even though they are all protected by the same dune system.”

Delmarva Condominium Management Association President Joe Groves added, “It’s not just condos, some hotels are affected. When FEMA first did the mapping, everyone was told they were in the ‘X’ zone. Now they’re saying, oops, our mistake, these buildings are now in the higher zone. They were mandated by the town in 1983 to build their own dune. They essentially have a double dune and are double protected, but somehow they are in the higher zone. … This is a serious town issue and it needs to be corrected or else the oceanfront real estate market is done.”

Most irksome about the whole thing is even if this situation is corrected, and there’s no guarantee FEMA will admit a correction is needed, there will be no relief for the condominium owners and other property owners until next year most likely. Therefore, they will have to pay the unfair and unreasonable fees and just hope for relief down the line.

Is there any wonder why there’s such a distrust of the federal government?

There’s not much to say about Tuesday’s primary because there weren’t any significant surprises, but I had a couple thoughts.

•Clearly, to many, the country needs massive change. There is a major growing trend of disenchantment that Donald Trump has been able to capitalize on and manipulate in his favor. It’s no surprise Trump did extremely well on the conservative lower shore in Tuesday’s election, but his performance in other areas of the country, such as Pennsylvania, is nothing less than impressive. It truly is an unprecedented phenomenon in national politics.

His base is growing and the question over the next six months will be whether his momentum will carry him enough to knock off Hillary Clinton, who at this point easily defeats Trump in a head-to-head matchup come November.

•Salisbury Councilman Jim Ireton seemed surprised the demographics of the district played such a big part in his unsuccessful bid in the primary to represent the Democratic Party against Republican Congressman Andy Harris in November. That was puzzling to me. The geography of the district — the entire shore and section of a few counties on the western side of the bridge — was always going to be a challenge for him. I always viewed him as the underdog in this bid, despite how his competition looked, because of the sheer volume of votes on the western shore compared to the shore.

“I will go down as the veteran politician from the shore who campaigned hard and lost to a guy who practically didn’t even leave his house the entire campaign,” said Ireton. “We outworked a lot of other politicians in the state and raised over $36,000 and came within two points of winning the most gerrymandered district in the state and arguably one of the most gerrymandered districts east of the Mississippi River.”

About The Author: Steven Green

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The writer has been with The Dispatch in various capacities since 1995, including serving as editor and publisher since 2004. His previous titles were managing editor, staff writer, sports editor, sales account manager and copy editor. Growing up in Salisbury before moving to Berlin, Green graduated from Worcester Preparatory School in 1993 and graduated from Loyola University Baltimore in 1997 with degrees in Communications (journalism concentration) and Political Science.