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City Manager Proposes Tax Rate Drop In Budget

OCEAN CITY - A declining housing market mixed with skyrocketing fuel and energy costs are anticipated to affect the resort town in fiscal year 2009, predicted City Manager Dennis Dare in his presentation of the proposed budget this week. 'The budget recognizes we are entering a time of uncertainty. We are faced with rising energy costs. Gas may approach $4 per gallon during the summer driving season. The housing downturn is having a large impact on many people nationwide. These factors, and...READ MORE

Gulyas Joins Colleagues, Votes Against Tax Differential

SNOW HILL - In what was a rather quiet end to what has become an annual contentious debate, the County Commissioners on Tuesday voted unanimously to reject Ocean City's request for compensation for duplicated services, or tax differential. For years, Ocean City has requested tax differential compensation from the county for services it provides for its citizens that the county does not have to provide. It's a complicated issue to be sure and perhaps the best example is law enforcement. The...READ MORE

New Coastal Bays Head Named

OCEAN CITY - The Maryland Coastal Bays Program announced last week 10-year veteran Dave Wilson will take over as executive director. The former public outreach coordinator started with the program in 1997 as work began to unite fishermen, farmers, builders, scientists, and interested citizens to develop a consensus-based plan to clean up the bays behind Ocean City and Assateague. Last week, Wilson took over as full-time director after serving as acting director since January when Dave Blazer...READ MORE

County Vows No Tax Rate Hike In Budget

SNOW HILL - It was different year, same story this week as Worcester officials got their first real glimpse at the proposed fiscal year 2009 budget, and while the commissioners have to reconcile a difference in revenue and requested expenditures totaling over $14 million, the elected body vowed raising taxes is not an option. County Administrator Gerald Mason this week laid out the good, bad and ugly in the proposed fiscal year 2009 budget this week, and as anticipated, there appears to be more...READ MORE

OC Holds Line On Budget Requests

SNOW HILL - There were no buckets of popcorn, no saltwater taffy and no T-shirts this year when Ocean City officials met with the County Commissioners to discuss the town's budget requests for fiscal year 2009, just a somber realization simply holding the line on what was allocated last year was probably a prudent approach in what will be a tough budget year for both entities. Earlier this year, Ocean City officials resurrected the old tax differential issue seeking roughly $13 million from the...READ MORE

State Tightens Geese Laws

BERLIN - State officials this week announced modified regulations to help farmers and property owners cope with an increasingly larger population of Canada geese that have taken up residence on fields, parks and golf courses across Maryland including Worcester County. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) this week announced it was partnering with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services on a plan to provide farmers and other property owners across the state with the...READ MORE

Suspect Admits To Killing Woman In Her Home

WEST OCEAN CITY - A local woman was murdered in her West Ocean City home last Sunday evening by a neighbor during what allegedly started as a dispute about an unsigned check for some yard work the suspect did for the victim. Roberto Antonio Murillo, 28, of West Ocean City, is being held behind bars without bail after being charged with the first-degree murder of Cecilia Dea Parker, 56, in her home just a few doors down from his own residence Sunday evening. Parker was discovered deceased in her...READ MORE

Tech-Savvy Detectives Nab Burglars

OCEAN CITY - Ocean City police this week made two arrests in connection with a rash of burglaries in the resort, using the Internet and other cyber-savvy techniques to catch the perpetrators, who were setting up the thefts through their computers. In early April, OCPD detectives were investigating multiple burglaries that had been carried out in the resort area since early January and began to notice several of the cases had similar characteristics and that in most of the cases, flat-screen...READ MORE

Annual Kite Expo In Ocean City

OCEAN CITY - The resort will kick off the season early by painting the sky with every color under the sun at the Maryland International Kite Expo (MIKE), set for this weekend. The festival will be showcasing a spectacular cast of kite builders and sport kite competitors from around the United States. The 18th Annual Mid-Atlantic Stunt Kite Championships starts on Saturday morning. Individual and team flyers from around the country choreograph flight routines to music at one of the most...READ MORE

Cancer Express Bus To Make OC Stop

OCEAN CITY - The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) 2008 Fight Back Express, a nationwide bus tour awareness effort, will be stopping in Ocean City this June, as the bus makes its three-day tour through Maryland. Local American Cancer Society volunteer Dawne Pappas came before the Mayor and Council this week to request permission to park the Fight Back Express bus at North Division Street, on June 3, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. The Fight Back Express bus will be traveling across...READ MORE

County Approves Program's Grant Request

SNOW HILL - Satisfied the state would continue to pony up its share, at least in the current fiscal cycle, county officials on Tuesday approved a requested $200,000 in-kind matching grant for the Maryland Coastal Bays Program (MCBP). The MCBP is in the process of applying for National Estuary Program grant funding for the time period of October 2008 to September 2009, but in order to qualify for the $591,000-plus in federal funding, the local program must provide an in-kind amount from...READ MORE

County Ranks Route 589 Work As Official No. 2

SNOW HILL - While Worcester County's top priority in terms of highway projects funded by the state continues to be the ongoing dualization of Route 113, the County Commissioners on Tuesday made it known in no uncertain terms the second most important highway project in Worcester is Route 589. The commissioners on Tuesday reviewed a 'highway needs inventory' list it will submit to the state before the end of the month. The document is a wish list of sorts submitted to the state by county...READ MORE

County Volunteers Honored By State At Ceremony

ANNAPOLIS - A number of Worcester County residents were recognized this week for outstanding service at the 25th Annual Governor's Volunteer Service Awards ceremony at the Maryland Hall for Creative Arts. 'Of course we realize that we haven't covered everyone with this ceremony this afternoon,' said Lt. Governor Brown. 'But as Marylanders, we all benefit from the extra effort put forth by the people who are here and others who are not.' The Governor's Volunteer Service Awards presentation...READ MORE

Giant Chess Set Planned For OC's Somerset Plaza

OCEAN CITY - Somerset Street will be seeing some changes this summer, with the opening of a new retail store along the downtown street as well as the addition of a giant chess set, to be displayed for public use in front of the store. Summer Set Games, a retail shop featuring family board games, will be making its debut along Somerset Street this summer. Kirill Dunaev, owner of Summer Set Games, presented the Mayor and Council with his idea for a giant chess set this week, receiving unanimous...READ MORE

No More Meters For Downtown Street

OCEAN CITY - Residents of 10th Street disagreed over parking issues this week, resulting in the decision by the City Council not to meter additional parking spaces along the street as requested. Resident Charlie Barrett came before the Mayor and Council Monday, requesting meters be added to additional parking spaces on the street to encourage parking turnover. Currently, part of 10th Street contains metered spaces, but Barrett approached the council in hopes of adding 13 more meters on the...READ MORE

OC Airport Employee Charged With Theft

OCEAN CITY - An Ocean City Municipal Airport employee was charged this week with felony theft after an audit at the facility revealed she allegedly pocketed cash payments made for a hangar rental. An Ocean City auditor recently conducted a routine audit of airport accounts and discovered one hangar rental contract was overdue for payment. When the customer was contacted regarding payment, he explained he had paid an airport employee, later identified as Joy Babcock, 50, of Salisbury, in cash for...READ MORE

OC Bomb Threat At Motel A Hoax

OCEAN CITY - A Virginia man this week is being charged with threat of arson after admitting to writing a phony bomb threat note at an Ocean City motel last Friday as part of a prank on his cousin. Around 1 p.m. last Friday, Ocean City Police received a call from the Best Western motel on 55th Street about a possible bomb on the premises. A maid entered a room to clean it and discovered a hand-written note making reference to an explosive device on the premises. Ocean City police officers and...READ MORE

Resort, FOP Ink New Collective Bargaining Deal

OCEAN CITY - Ratification of a collective bargaining agreement with the local lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) was passed 6-1 this week by the City Council, marking the beginning of a second, three-year collective bargaining agreement. The passing of the resolution will put the new contract into affect July 1, 2008 and will continue through June 30, 2011. Although he did join Council member Margaret Pillas in voting against the resolution, Councilman Jay Hancock voiced concerns with...READ MORE

SD Senior Wins AXA Scholarship

BERLIN - AXA Advisors, LLC, a leading provider of financial services for consumers and businesses, has announced that Emily Meadows, a high school senior attending Stephen Decatur High School in Berlin, is the Maryland winner of the 2008 AXA Achievement Scholarship in association with (ITALICS)U.S. News & World Report. Under the AXA Achievement Scholarship program, Meadows is one of 52 students - one from each state, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico - that have been awarded...READ MORE

Spray Irrigation Bill Fails To Meet County Approval

SNOW HILL - Worcester officials this week sent a proposed bill that would shrink the size of the buffer on county-owned spray irrigation systems back to the drawing board after concluding what is good for the goose should be good for the gander. The County Commissioners on Tuesday held a public hearing on a proposed piece of legislation that would allow the buffer on government-owned spray irrigation systems throughout Worcester County to be reduced from the existing 300 feet to 100 feet. In...READ MORE

World's Top Carvers Compete

OCEAN CITY - The Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, Salisbury University, will host the largest bird carving competition in the world this weekend. Now in its 38th year, the Ward World Championship Wildfowl Carving Competition and Art Festival Carvers takes place at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center in Ocean City from April 25-27. Carvers from the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia and the United Kingdom make their annual pilgrimage to Ocean City, Maryland to compete for a chance to win the...READ MORE