Articles

NEW FOR WEDNESDAY: Changes Sought To Save Beach Stand Operators

OCEAN CITY – Beach stand operators continued this week to express their concerns about having one owner permitted to own half of Ocean City’s beach equipment franchises while bid prices are increasing and the economy continues to struggle. Patti’s Beach Service owner Patti Murrell has been in business for over 37 years and came before the Mayor and City Council during Monday’s meeting to ask for a change for the amount of beach stands one operator can own. In November of...READ MORE

NEW FOR TUESDAY: Fenwick Island Still in ‘Recovery Mode’ Three Weeks After Sandy

FENWICK ISLAND -- Three weeks after Hurricane Sandy roared through the mid-Atlantic area, Fenwick Island is still picking up the pieces, but the tiny resort community just north of Ocean City is now moving beyond recovery and into a return to normalcy. While most of the last vestiges of Sandy have long since been cleared from Ocean City and little evidence remains of the storm’s devastation, Fenwick Island was far less fortunate with most of its bayside residences flooded, decks and docks...READ MORE

Council Okays Public Works Purchases, Changes Meter Ordinances

OCEAN CITY – The Mayor and City Council had its first work session together on Tuesday and members worked their way through a list of business, including numerous items presented by Public Works Director Hal Adkins and approved. Radar Device Purchase OK’d According to Adkins, the purchase of a Ground Penetrating Radar would advance the department’s capabilities to complete accurate underground service line locating. The need for such a device hasn’t come up until recently...READ MORE

Berlin Testing Remote Metering Program Potential

BERLIN -- The Mayor and Council of Berlin invested $18,832 this week into the beginnings of a remote metering program that officials hope will help modernize the town. “The initial investment surely is extremely reasonable for the potential,” said Mayor Gee Williams. There are currently five of the Nexgrid electric remote monitors running, according to Town Utilities Director Tim Lawrence. Those meters will serve as the foundation for a pilot program that could eventually lead to...READ MORE

Downtown Ocean City Hoping To Light Up For Holidays, Again

OCEAN CITY – The Downtown Association is looking to return the holiday spirit to downtown Ocean City by adding a celebration to Sunset Park this year, while keeping a goal to collect contributions in returning the light displays to the Inlet by next year. According to Downtown Association Light Up Downtown Celebration Committee Chair Brian McCarthy, for a number of years the town of Ocean City provided the Inlet parking lot with light displays during the holiday season for visitors to...READ MORE

Driver Gets Five Years In OC Pedestrian Fatality

SNOW HILL -- A Virginia man who struck and killed a pedestrian on Coastal Highway last Memorial Day weekend while driving drunk and then fled the scene was sentenced last week to five years in jail. Around 1:20 a.m. on May 28, Ocean City Police responded to the area of 54th Street and Coastal Highway for a reported hit-and-run accident involving a pedestrian. The investigation revealed the pedestrian, later identified as Matthew Jude Cheswick, was attempting to cross Coastal Highway from east to...READ MORE

Charges In Alleged Knife Threat

OCEAN CITY -- An Ocean City man was arrested on a first-degree assault charge this week after allegedly threatening his girlfriend with a knife during an argument over phone calls and text messages from the father of one of her children. Shortly before 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Ocean City Police responded to a residence on 13th Street for a reported domestic assault that had just occurred. The female victim told officers her boyfriend had threatened her with a knife and only left the residence when she...READ MORE

Clean Water Act Suit Enters Final Stretch

BERLIN -- The latest milestone in the ongoing landmark civil suit filed against a Berlin farm family and Perdue over alleged pollution violations passed this week with parties on both sides filing their proposed findings of fact and conclusions. Testimony ended in mid-October in the civil trial pitting a New York-based environmental watchdog group against Berlin’s Hudson Farm and Perdue and on Wednesday, each of the parties filed their proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law...READ MORE

County Shelter Thankful For Renovation Help

WEST OCEAN CITY -- A team of contractors and their crews, led by the local Home Depot, helped give a facelift to the Worcester County Humane Society (WCHS) last week. “We had so many different people from so many different companies,” said WCHS Director Kenille Davies. Davies guessed that more than two dozen people volunteered time or materials to renovate the Human Society. The office and bathroom were completed remodeled, new floors were installed, a new roof was placed over the...READ MORE

Two Sentenced In Raceway Citgo Store Armed Robbery

SNOW HILL -- Two of the four suspects indicted by a Worcester County grand jury for their roles in the armed hold-up of a Route 50 convenience store and subsequent high speed chase in Ocean City in August each pleaded guilty to armed robbery last week in Circuit Court and each was sentenced to a considerable amount of jail time. Charles Richard Conden, III, 19, of Edwardsville, Pa., last Thursday pleaded guilty to armed robbery for his role in the hold-up of the Raceway Citgo store on Route 50...READ MORE

Worcester’s Drop-Out Rate Far Below ‘Acceptable’ Standard

BERLIN -- Flexible programs and support tailored to the individual student are the main reasons why Worcester County constantly sports some of the lowest drop-out and highest graduation rates in the state, according to County Coordinator for Drop-out and Recovery Diane Stulz. According to Stulz, Worcester public schools only had a drop-out rate of 6.68 percent in 2010, which fell to 6.42 percent in 2011. The “acceptable” drop-out rate in the state is considered to be 13 percent....READ MORE

Track Repairs Bring Trains Back To Berlin

BERLIN -- The blaring train horn so familiar to Berlin residents and visitors silenced for months after a major August storm has returned. For decades, the loud, shrill whistle of the Maryland and Delaware Railroad Company as its locomotives and cars rolled through town have been a way of life for Berlin residents and a quaint reminder of a bygone era, but the familiar whistle has been silent for much of the late summer and early fall since the epic Aug. 25 storm, deemed a...READ MORE

Resort Expected To Soon Name Interim Police Chief

OCEAN CITY -- With the clock ticking on Ocean City Police Chief Bernadette DiPino’s tenure as head of the department, resort officials are now undertaking the process of finding her replacement, which will include a national search but could result in an internal promotion. DiPino is set to officially retire from the OCPD on Dec. 1 and will begin her duties as the chief of police in Sarasota on Jan. 1. While DiPino’s departure did not catch town officials by surprise after she...READ MORE

Proposed Music Festival Moving To Country Genre

OCEAN CITY – Although the presentation before the Mayor and Council was unexpectedly delayed this week, documentation shows the High Tide Music Festival’s genre has been transferred from rock and roll to country music. Although Tom Russell of Founders Entertainment was not in attendance during this week’s meeting, a presentation was submitted with a couple of requests for the event. According to Ocean City Private Events Coordinator Lisa Mitchell, the requests are to start the...READ MORE

Salisbury Police Awarded Grants

SALISBURY – The City Council faced a lengthy consent agenda this week but was happy to accept the list of donations and grant funds to benefit the city’s fire and police department. The City Council started off Tuesday’s legislative session by approving a couple of resolutions to accept donations to the Salisbury Fire Department (SFD) to enhance capabilities in providing effective and efficient delivery of fire, rescue and emergency medical services to the city. First on the...READ MORE

Supreme Court To Review Local DNA Case

SALISBURY -- U.S. Supreme Court justices late last week announced they will take up a potential landmark Maryland DNA testing law rooted in a Salisbury rape case dating back to 2003. In July 2010, Alonzo Jay King, Jr., now 29, was found guilty of first-degree rape for an unsolved 2003 during which he allegedly broke down the door of a residence in Salisbury armed with a gun and wearing a mask over his face and sexually assaulted a 52-year-old female victim. In September 2010, King was sentenced...READ MORE

Council Delays Fire Company’s Mediation Request

BERLIN -- The Berlin Fire Company (BFC) turned out in force at Tuesday’s meeting to petition the Mayor and Council to enter third-party mediation to resolve the ongoing dispute and to restore the roughly $600,000 funding stripped from the fire company earlier this year. While the council said future mediation is possible, there are a number of conditions the town wants resolved before ever sitting down at a table with BFC leadership. However, even if funding is restored, the council has...READ MORE

One Turtle Hatchling Thriving After Being Relocated From Assateague

ASSATEAGUE -- It was good news, bad news this week as just one of the loggerhead turtle hatchlings rescued from the beach on Assateague in advance of Hurricane Sandy has lived, but the tiny survivor is well on the road to rehabilitation. On Friday, Oct. 26, just about two days before Hurricane Sandy arrived in the mid-Atlantic area, biological technicians and other staff from the Marine Animal Rescue Program (MARP) of the National Aquarium in Baltimore excavated a loggerhead sea turtle nest from...READ MORE

New Comfort Station, Stage Will Be Ready By Summer

OCEAN CITY – Demolition of the existing Caroline Street Comfort Station on the Boardwalk will begin next month and a new and improved facility with a stage will be completed just in time for next summer. Over a year ago, the early design stages for a new Caroline Street Comfort Station and Stage began. Since then, the Mayor and City Council have gone through three different renderings and finally decided on the third concept as well as budgeted $1 million for construction funded from a...READ MORE

Historic Pier Will Be Rebuilt Before Next Summer

OCEAN CITY -- The iconic Ocean City Fishing Pier, one of the lasting symbols of the damage left in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, will be repaired and replaced likely in time for the next summer season, Mayor Rick Meehan confirmed this week. The famous pier, which dates back over 100 years, is an iconic symbol of the resort and almost every image of the downtown area features the historic structure prominently in the background. It was one of the first casualties when Hurricane Sandy arrived in...READ MORE

New Cat Adoption Center Opens In West OC Store

OCEAN CITY -- A partnership between Petco in West Ocean City and the Town Cats organization of Worcester County resulted in the opening of a new cat adoption center this week. “We are very excited about this new outlet for our rescued cats and kittens and think it will serve the Ocean City community well,” said Town Cats representative Chris Aument. Officially founded in 1998, Town Cats is the evolution of several independent efforts that began in 1992 to manage the area’s...READ MORE

Shockley Honored With Hazard Award

OCEAN CITY -- Shenanigan’s Irish Pub owner Greg Shockley was presented with the Paul Hazard Award at last week’s Ocean City Hotel-Motel-Restaurant Association (OCHMRA) dinner meeting. This award is special because it is not given annually, only when there is a deserving recipient. The award was last given out in 2005 to Amy Rothermel.   The award, named after Hazard, one of the original OCHMRA members when the Association was reorganized in 1971. He was owner of the Stardust...READ MORE

New Ocean City Council Talks ‘Common Ground’

OCEAN CITY – All “what ifs” were put aside at last Thursday’s Mayor and City Council organizational meeting as the new council were sworn in and took their seats, including a new council president and council secretary. Council Secretary Lloyd Martin sat in Council President Jim Hall’s chair to conduct the meeting in his absence. “[Jim Hall] asked me to express his thanks to all of the citizens and let them know that he is still an Ocean City resident …...READ MORE

Medical Center Presents Annual Leadership Awards

SALISBURY -- Peninsula Regional Medical Center President/CEO Dr. Peggy Naleppa and Board of Trustees Chairman Martin "Marty" Neat recently presented members of the Peninsula Regional healthcare team with President's Leadership and Chairman's Awards for their contributions to the Medical Center and the patients they serve. There were six submissions for the Chairman's Award this year, reflecting many achievements in Clinical and Operational Performance Improvement. The teams submitted...READ MORE

Median Barrier, Lower Speed Limit Eyed To Improve Pedestrian Safety

OCEAN CITY – Coming off a summer with numerous pedestrian accidents, city officials sat down this week with state authorities to come up with solutions. On Tuesday afternoon, the Mayor and City Council met with the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) for their annual fall meeting. SHA Assistant District Engineer Ken Cimino said the SHA hired a consulting engineering firm to do a pedestrian safety study on MD 528, or Coastal Highway, between 62nd Street and Convention Center Dr. The...READ MORE

Local Completes First Novel

BERLIN -- Against a hectic schedule, other commitments and a lost manuscript, local author Kelly Roberts was still able to complete her first novel, “The Road to Chianti,” an accomplishment that she said has been a lifelong dream. Set in 1977, “The Road to Chianti,” focuses on the struggles and adventures of two young siblings who were recently orphaned. The novel, which Roberts said she wrote for both children and adults, follows the two orphans across Italy through...READ MORE

FEMA Details Declaration Process For Storm Damage

SNOW HILL -- With a state application for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) support pending, FEMA Public Information Officer Michael Wade sat down with The Dispatch to detail what steps property owners should take to address storm damage from Hurricane Sandy. “A lot of people don’t understand that FEMA just can’t come in here,” said Wade. Beginning days before Sandy even made landfall in Maryland, Wade said that FEMA resources were in place in preparation for the...READ MORE

Dr. Berger Honored With Annual Glick Service Award

OCEAN CITY -- More than 400 people celebrated last Saturday the life, accomplishments and contributions of Dr. Leonard Berger, who was bestowed with the 2012 Hal Glick Distinguished Service Award during a gala event. Berger was presented his award by award and gala namesake Glick to cap off an evening of tributes, personal recollections and at times emotional stories. Glick was the first honoree of the award in 2010. Last year, Seacrets owner Leighton Moore earned the...READ MORE