October 2012 Ocean Pines Progress

October 2012 Vol. 8, No. 7410-641-6029www.oceanpinesprogress.com

Stachurski, O’Harepress for follow-upon Yacht ClubOcean Pines Association directors Dan Stachurski and Sharyn O’Hare have put General Manager Bob Thompson on notice that they are keenly interested in what happens next in the process that will lead to a new Ocean Pines Yacht Club. During the Sept. 12 monthly meet-ing of the OPA board of directors, Stachurski and O’Hare took differ-ing approaches on what they indi-cated should be next steps./ Page 9

Clearing begins for North Gate medical complex

Almost a year after receiving site plan approval and a series of waiv-ers for his planned 20,000 square foot medical center on a parcel ad-jacent to the Ocean Pines North Gate, developer Palmer Gillis has at last begun clearing the parcel for the fi rst phase in what he hopes will become a thriving medical campus in years to come. With re-cent approval of an ingress-egress confi guration from the State High-way Administration – that process included obtaining a small strip of land on Route 589 owned by the Ocean Pines Association for an exit acceleration lane -- Gillis cleared another hurdle needed to begin con-struction of the 20,000 square foot building./Page 5

Golf operationscontinue to rollup the lossesWhile the Ocean Pines golf course has been the benefi ciary of major capital expenditures in recent years, and will continue to do so later this year and next, there is no indication that these investments have shown up so far in golf operation’s bottom line with increases in membership or outside play. Indeed, fi nancial results for the month of August and through the fi rst four months of the 2013 fi scal year raise the question of whether the Ocean Pines Asso-ciation’s two-year experiment in outside management is yielding the dividends its proponents had envi-sioned./Page 3

THE OCEAN PINES JOURNAL OF NEWS & COMMENTARY

COVER STORY

Thompson to propose alternative funding for golf course greens replacement

By TOM STAUSSPublisher

With golf operations deeply in the red and substantially behind

budget for the current � scal year, the Ocean Pines Associa-tion board of directors will soon be confronted with a number of issues involving the Ocean Pines Robert Trent Jones-de-signed 18-hole golf course.

OPA General Manager Bob Thomp-son told the board during its Sept. 12 monthly meeting that, since there has been a shortfall in the number of life-time golf memberships sold and the rev-enue collected, he will have to come up with an alternative funding mechanism to complete the second nine holes of the greens replacement project that he ex-pects to resume later this year.

He said he would have a proposal for the board to consider at its Oct. 28 regu-lar monthly meeting.

Options would include taking the money out of the OPA’s major mainte-nance and replacement reserve – the funding mechanism used to pay for greens replacement on the front nine holes – or borrowing, the funding source for a related capital project on the golf

course, drainage improvements.Another funding mechanism

that the OPA has considered in the past in other contexts, with-out actually doing it, is selling association-owned land assets to generate revenue.

Thompson told the board at the September meeting that to date the OPA has collected $254,000 in lifetime memberships, which

leaves somewhere between $150,000 and $200,000 that will be needed for the back nine’s greens replacement.

Early this year, the board authorized greens replacement at a total cost not to exceed $850,000, with the cost and project spread over two � scal years. The front nine was substantially completed in the Fiscal Year 2012, which ended this

Parking plan hits permit snag

Life in the Pines: Permitting snag may not be such a big deal. Page 38.

Undeterred, Thompson to seek administrative waiver. Failing that, he will ask for special exceptionfrom the Board of Zoning Appeals to allow project to proceed with fewer spaces than code specifi es

YACHT CLUB UPDATE

See www.oceanpinesprogress.comfor update on waiver request.

To Page 12

To Page 9

The OPA has collected $254,000 in lifetime memberships,short of the funds needed to complete work on the back nine

By ROTA L. KNOTTEditor

The Ocean Pines Association will have to fi nd an alternative way to prove that it can pro-

vide adequate parking for customers at its proposed new 20,303-square-foot Yacht Club, after the Worcester County Planning Commission on Oct. 4 rejected a joint parking agreement between the OPA – and the OPA. The rejection probably postpones site plan approval of the Yacht Club by at least one month because that review can’t take place until the project adequate-

ly addresses parking.The association has another chance

during an administrative hearing on Tuesday, Oct. 9, to convince county staff that it needs less parking at the Yacht Club than that required by code. If that bid for a 20 percent exception to the re-quired number of spaces fails, then the OPA can plead its case to the county’s

Board of Zoning Appeals for the parking reduction.

In a 5-2 vote, with just members Wayne Hartman and Rick Wells in fa-vor, the county planning commission shot down the request from the OPA to count parking at the Mumford’s Land-ing swimming pool as parking for the new Yacht Club. Under the proposal the OPA would have agreed with itself to permit use of the parking spaces at the Mumford’s Landing pool for customers of the Yacht Club.

OPA General Manager Bob Thomp-

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Pines’ golf operations continue to roll up losses

Yacht Club, aquatics in the red for August, while Beach Club operations and parking

revenue are strong positives


While the Ocean Pines golf course has been the benefi-ciary of major capital expendi-

tures in recent years, and will continue to do so later this year and next, there is no indication that these investments have shown up so far in golf operation’s bottom line with increases in member-ship or outside play.

Indeed, financial results for the month of August and through the first four months of the 2013 fiscal year raise the question of whether the Ocean Pines Association’s two-year experiment in outside management is yielding the div-idends its proponents had envisioned.

While so far no one on the OPA Board of Directors is publicly calling for can-celling Billy Casper Golf ’s contract to

manage the golf course, and there is no groundswell in support for a manage-ment change from Ocean Pines dwin-dling number of golf members, it’s prob-ably only a matter of time before the is-sue emerges for public discussion.

OPA General Manager Bob Thomp-son is counseling patience, as course improvements are far from complete and indeed could continue for another several years, depending on how many years are needed to finish the ongoing drainage program. Greens replacement on the back nine holes is scheduled to begin this fall, after the front nine was completed earlier in the year. The expec-tation is that all 18 greens will be in op-timal condition in time for package play this spring.

Golf ’s actual loss of $33,958 for Au-

OPA FINANCES

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Ocean Pines Association - Departmental financial summary - Aug. 31, 2012

gust was the largest of any of the OPA’s major amenities, and through the first four months of the current fiscal year golf operations are in the red by $121,887. At the same time last year, golf was $78,700 in the black, so this fis-cal year represents a $200,000 shift to the negative in golf ’s overall financial performance.

Compared to budgeted expectations, net golf operations were $61,432 behind budget for August. Year-to-date, golf is $216,628 behind budget, with the trend line not a cause of optimism heading into the winter months.

Revenue shortfalls are the prime drivers behind the losses. Total rev-enues were $40,112 under budget for the month and $210,356 cumulatively through Aug. 31. Total revenues of $522,731 for the first four months of the current fiscal year contrast unfavorably to last year’s $711,756.

Every revenue category is under-per-forming, led by a $9,736 negative vari-ance in greens fees and a $12,792 nega-tive variance in cart fees, along with a $7,701 negative variance in member dues.

OPA financesFrom Page 3

▲

October 2012 Ocean Pines PROGRESS 5OCEAN PINES

▼

Golf was a major factor in the OPA’s less-than-stellar overall financial per-formance in August, during which a negative operating variance of $65,030 was recorded. According to a financial report prepared by OPA Controller Art Carmine and made available to the board in mid-September, revenues were under budget by $46,959, total expenses were over budget by $10,320, and new capital expenditures exceeded budget by $7,751.

For the first four months of the fiscal year, the OPA has a negative operating variance to budget of $205,233, with rev-enues under budget by $232,031, total expenses under budget by $54,429 and new capital expenditures over budget by $27,631.

The second worst performing major amenity in August was aquatics, sustain-ing $22,610 in losses against the budget-ed $11,498 loss, for an $11,112 negative variance. For the year, aquatics remains in the black, in the amount of $79,546, but the budget forecast a $135,624 sur-plus through August. The cumulative negative variance is $56,078.

Revenues for the month of $68,482 were only $2,400 off budget, but expens-

es of $91,072 exceeded the budgeted $82,374 by $8,699.

Wages and benefits exceeded budget by $16,503, while utilities were under budget by slightly more than $5,000.

The Yacht Club lost money in Au-gust, with $3,934 in red ink against the budgeted $7,142 surplus, for a negative variance of $11,076. Year-to-date, the Yacht Club is in the black by $21,132, but with a negative variance to budget of $48,449.

The $3,934 operating loss was pro-duced by net revenues of $117,829, off budget by $20,688, and total expenses of $121,763, better than budget by $9,613.

Through August, the Yacht Club has generated a modest $21,132 surplus, but that’s behind budget by $48,449.

To meet its budget for the year, the Yacht Club normally has to generate substantial surpluses during the prime summer months, which did not materi-alize.

However, the year-to-date net is slightly better than the $19,610 surplus generated through August of last year.

Thompson and Yacht Club Food and Beverage Manager Dave McLaughlin cut back days of operations to Thursday through Sunday immediately after Labor Day, which could mean that September financial performance could come closer

From Page 3

OPA finances to budget. However, the Yacht Club will also incur some additional expense with the hiring of a chef, who came on board in mid-September.

The August financial summary for the Yacht Club indicates that there has been some success in controlling wage and benefit expense at the amenity. In fact, almost all expense line items – wages, service/supplies, maintenance and utilities – were better than budget for the month.

The largest single item that explains the loss for the month would seem to be on the income side, with banquet rev-enue way behind budget. Actual ban-quet revenues were $6,719 against the budgeted $27,414, a $20,695 negative variance. Banquet beverage revenue of $2,784 missed its budget of $7,808 by $5,024. While costs associated with ban-quets were less than budgeted, these positive variances were insufficient to offset revenues that failed to material-ize.

There were several bright spots in the August numbers, with Beach Club food and beverage operations and Beach Club parking revenues solidly in the black and ahead of budget. As the Beach Club closes down after Labor Day, unau-dited August numbers for the most tell the story for the entire fiscal year.

The Beach Club’s bottom line was $35,816 for the month, compared to the budgeted $29,706, for a positive vari-ance of $6,110. Through August, the sur-plus was $121,016, $17,625 more than the budgeted $103,391 surplus.

Beach Club parking pass revenue reached $34,848 in August, compared to the budgeted $29,708, for a $5,140 posi-tive variance. Through August, parking revenue was a cumulative $372,829, against the budgeted $351,804, for a $21,024 positive variance.

Gillis begins site clearing for North Gate med buildingAbout four acres of what land planner Bob Hand

characterized a year ago as an ‘overgrown farm field’ has been cleared, in preparation for construction of a 20,000 square foot medical building that developer

hopes to have ready for occupancy by late summer or early fall of 2013.


Almost a year after receiving site plan approval and a series of waivers for his planned 20,000

square foot medical center on a parcel adjacent to the Ocean Pines North Gate, developer Palmer Gillis has at last begun clearing the parcel for the �rst phase in what he hopes will become a thriving medical campus in years to come.

Gillis obtained site plan approval and a series of related waivers in October of last year from the Worcester County Planning Commission.

With more recent approval of an in-gress-egress con�guration from the State Highway Administration – that process included obtaining a small strip of land on Route 589 owned by the Ocean Pines Association for an exit acceleration lane -- Gillis cleared another regulatory hur-dle needed to begin construction of the 20,000 square foot building.

Next up: Obtaining a building per-mit so he can begin construction of his 20,000 square foot medical building.

Gillis has used much of this past year prospecting for tenants and preparing for construction, at the same time he was working on plans to begin construc-tion of a much larger medical center on Route 113 in Millsboro.

He told the Progress in late Septem-ber that by late summer or early Sep-tember next year, his Ocean Pines build-ing should be ready for occupancy.

He declined to say when he expects to draw a building permit, indicating that tenants he’s lined up for the building are working on some proposed interior changes, which could affect the build-ing’s exterior design, such as the loca-tion of doors.

“It will be a minimal change from what we’ve been showing for some time now,” he said. “It’s going to look like the sign we have on site.”

Gillis declined to announce the ten-ants he signed for the building, but said that as of the end of September he’s leased about 50 percent of the available square footage.

He said he was sure the occupants would announce their intentions to lo-cate in the Gillis medical center at the appropriate time.

The imminent start of construction and possible occupancy in roughly a year means that, in the area’s medical center competition, Gillis is �rst out of the chute.

Another medical center campus is in the works just south of Ocean Pines, on a parcel fronting on Route 589, where de-velopers Jack and Todd Burbage recent-ly received approval from the Worcester County Commissioners for commercial rezoning that will enable the Burbages to develop a medical center campus in cooperation with Atlantic General Hos-pital in Berlin.

Litigation to reverse the Burbage rezoning has been rumored, but so far none has materialized.

“I would think that Jack would be a couple of years away from construction, maybe more,” Gillis said, adding that some time ago he had decided that he would not in any way be participating in legal efforts to delay Burbage’s medical campus.

“I think he’s a good developer,” Gillis said of Burbage.

Burbage’s association with AGH doesn’t necessarily mean that doctors af�liated with the Berlin-based hospital

couldn’t negotiate for space in his medi-cal campus, Gillis said.

“In many cases, doctors are indepen-dent contractors free to set up of�ces anywhere in the area,” he said.

The precise relationship of AGH to the Burbage’s medical campus has not been �nalized, with Jack Burbage re-cently telling the Progress that a prob-able scenario would be for his company to develop the site and handle construc-tion, working closely with AGH in the process.

Burbage chairs the hospital’s board of directors.

In addition to site plan approval last October, Gillis obtained a waiver to for-est conservation regulations to allow for the clearing of about four acres of what his land planner, Bob Hand, character-ized as an “overgrown farm �eld.”

Hand said it was an active farm �eld until about ten years ago, but has been fallow ever since, allowing small trees and brush to grow up in the �eld.

He said the property is so densely overgrown that crews had to cut lines through the brush “just so we could get access to see what’s going on in there.”

Prior to acquisition of detailed topog-raphy for the site, initial medical cen-ter concept plans called for locating it adjacent to Route 589, retaining forest and wetlands to the rear of the property. However, Hand said the topography re-vealed that the wetlands are actually

The Yacht Club lost money in August,

with $3,934 in red ink against the budgeted $7,142 surplus, for a negative variance of

$11,076. Year-to-date, the Yacht Club is in

the black by $21,132, but with a negative

variance to budget of $48,449.

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the highest point on the property. “This property falls from the wet-

lands all the way down to 589,” Hand said, adding that as a result the build-ing was shifted away from Route 589 to the highest point on the site exclusive of the wetlands.

Gillis has received state approval to clear the entire forested area of the front of the property but will retain a forested area on the west side of the site, allow-ing for a buffer between the cleared area and residents on nearby Dawn Isle in North Ocean Pines.

The planning commission consented to clearing of the overgrown area.

When asked by commission mem-ber Betty Smith last year why the area needs to be cleared, Hand said it was to ensure visibility of the medical center from Route 589.

He said it is more important to retain the six acres of forest on the rear of the site as a buffer between the medical cen-ter and homes in Ocean Pines.

The area designated for clearing will be replanted with grass.

“I don’t see another way to give the project visibility,” Hand said, adding that “the environmental value – I’m not

From Page 5

Medical complex going to say it doesn’t have any – but it’s very low.”

Commission member Coston Glad-ding asked if the wetlands will remain classi�ed as such since they are the highest point on the site.

Hand said “yes” and added that he believes the site was a spoil area during the original construction of Ocean Pines that bermed the site, allowing it to re-vert to wetlands.

“It drains down toward the major ditch which also drains a large portion of Ocean Pines,” he said.

Gillis said that he, as the developer, will be responsible for maintenance of that ditch.

He said that his development should actually improve drainage in Ocean Pines, since the ditch is not being main-tained now. “Currently, it’s somewhat of a blockage for the regional drainage sys-tem of Ocean Pines.”

The commission also debated the ap-pearance of the multi-unit building and access to the various medical facilities that will be located there.

County staff comments cited the “monolithic” appearance of the medical center and said the facility should either be broken down into several buildings or at least have the appearance of being several buildings.

In presenting color façade renderings that had not previously been viewed by staff, Gillis said that has already been done.

He said the large building is split by a central client drop-off area and has multiple facade fronts.

In response to another county staff concern about the scale of the building’s roof, Gillis said it is designed with gables to help break it up.

Any changes to the roof, while it is typical of similar medical of�ce facilities with a roof pitch of at least 6:12, would be a “substantial departure from this de-sign,” he said.

Gillis was adamant about needing a waiver to the requirement for roof scale versus building size. He was also insis-tent that not all entry doors to the build-ing be labeled for customer use.

“We’re trying to get all patients, or as many as we can, to distribute from a central location,” he said, adding, “I know how these patients are; they need clarity, absolute clarity. They don’t need choices.”

Gillis said a covered central drop-off point will serves the purpose of handi-cap accessibility.

With support and administrative ser-vices and rest rooms, the central drop-off point is a common element to the other

three units that will help improve pa-tient check-in and �ow, he said.

Gillis said the medical practice has evolved very quickly, and some local zon-ing codes haven’t kept up to changes in the business.

He said medical facilities used to be comprised of one or two doctor’s of�ces, but that is no longer the case. Instead, a cluster of medical facilities is now gener-ally served by a central check-in area.

Another area of discussion was the requirement for a sidewalk along Route 589.

The developer is providing a sidewalk along the entrance to the development, but it stops at Route 589.

The imminent start of construction and possible occupancy

in roughly a year means that, in the

area’s medical center competition, Gillis is first out of the chute.


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Aquatics panel members concerned about defects in pool surfaces


The blistering and peeling of plas-ter that covers the surfaces of swimming pools throughout

Ocean Pines has not gone unnoticed by members of the Ocean Pines Aquatics Advisory Committee, who seem to want more aggressive action by the Ocean Pines Association to repair the defects, even if means removing all of the plaster in the pools and starting over.

Heretofore it was generally known that the most recently resurfaced pools

at the Yacht Club and Swim and Racquet Club were subject to premature failure, most likely from the plaster surface los-ing its adhesion to the concrete beneath, ascribed to either defects in materials or poor application.

But during a discussion of the pool failures during the committee’s Oct. 3 monthly meeting, it was noted that ad-ditional pools – the Beach Club pool in Ocean City and Mumford’s Landing in Ocean Pines – are showing the same kind of symptoms.

The Sports Core indoor pool is not

experiencing the same sort of failures, primarily because time has simply worn away the plaster, leaving exposed con-crete throughout, according to Commit-tee Chair Virginia Reister. Resurfacing of the Sports Core is in the current fiscal year’s budget, but OPA General Manag-er Bob Thompson has been reluctant to spend the money at the Sports Core un-til a more lasting remedy of plaster fail-ures at the other pools has been found.

He also said several months ago that he was waiting for better financial re-sults in aquatics before authorizing

Sports Core pool resurfacing. It would appear that the earliest it could be done would be summer of 2013, assuming that the expenditure remains in the budget for next year.

Inclusion of a proposed project in the association’s capital budget in any par-ticular fiscal year does not guarantee that it will be funded and done in that year.

As for repairs or resurfacing of the other four pools, committee members voiced the hope that Thompson would ensure that the work is done prior to their reopened Memorial Day weekend next year. The new fiscal year begins May 1.

OPA Aquatics Director Tom Perry told committee members that he and Thompson were working on finding a so-lution to the growing problem. Thomp-son told the Progress recently that the

▼

Blistering, peeling spread to more swimming pools this summer

8 Ocean Pines PROGRESS October 2012 OCEAN PINES

www.OceanPromotions.info [email protected]

OPA has been in touch with Parrish Pool Co. to see if that Hunt Valley, Md., based firm has solutions that would work in Ocean Pines.

This past summer, as failures oc-curred and recurred, even in areas that were previously repaired, Thompson or-dered decorated rubberized mats to cov-er the most egregious areas of failure. The mats in many cases were not large enough to completely cover the damaged surfaces.

Reister suggested that the solution to the problem may be to remove all of the plaster surfaces from the pools and then re-plastering them, with care taken to the ensure that the adhesive is applied properly.

She said that when she witnessed the resurfacing work at the Swim and Racquet Club pool two summers ago, she thought the contractors may have worked too quickly in order to meet the deadline for completion.

She said she wasn’t sure all four pools with varying degrees of failure could be done before the reopening of the outdoor pools next Memorial Day, but it was clear that she and other committee members are hoping that Thompson and

From Page 7

Aquatics Perry will be doing everything possible to make it happen.

Some committee members wondered whether the contractors or subcontrac-tors involved in the work could be asked to fix the problems at their expenses, even if warranties may have expired. The condition of the pool surfaces will be included – perhaps even given top billing – on a list of the items of concern the committee will be assembling at the request of OPA President Tom Terry, due later in October.

Reister asked committee members to send comments – funding requests or areas of concern -- to her as soon as pos-sible via e-mail.

Among the items likely to be includ-ed on the wish list are items identified by pool consultant Gary Toner in 2009, some of which may be required by OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Ad-ministration) rules.

Reister also said she would likely be renewing her call for Ultra-violet filtering equipment to be installed at the Sports Core pool next year. It’s an improvement she said would make the indoor pool more comfortable for many swimmers while reducing the costs of chlorination and having to “dump” the pool twice a year because of the build-up of various contaminants.

UV filtering did not make the bud-get this year, but Reister said she is not giving up in her efforts to see that it’s included in next year’s approved capital projects list for aquatics.

The committee also discussed a pro-posal by member Randy Romblad to begin looking at how to simplify the fee structure for daily, three-day and week-ly user rates at the pools. Committee members, as well as board liaison Terry, seemed to agree that there are obvious inconsistencies in the rate structure and that fewer rate options – price points as they were called – should be considered for next year.

Committee member Edith Vogl raised a concern that it’s taken almost four months for the handicap shower in the women’s changing room at the Sports Core to be repaired, despite a work or-der sent in on the repair early in the summer by Perry.

She said that the Public Works finally came to fix the shower in late September or early October, but that in the mean-time some of her elderly participants in the programs she teaches were inconve-nienced.

She said that during that time the OPA was non-compliant with ADA (Americans with Disability Act) require-ments.

She said there needs to be a better way to ensure that work orders for re-pairs at the pools are done more quickly. Terry agreed.

Committee members spent some time discussing with Terry ways in which their concerns can be channeled to the appropriate personnel.

Operational matters should be sent initially to Perry, the association’s aquat-ics director, while policy matters should go to him as the liaison to the board of directors, Terry said.

This year’s Pink Ribbon Golf Classic, sponsored by the Eastern Shore Chapter of the Executive Women’s Golf Association, will be held at the Ocean City Golf Club on Friday, Oct. 19. As in past years, it is a women’s only event to support the American Cancer Society’s Breast Cancer Awareness and Research programs. The entry fee of $100 per player or $400 per team includes lunch, 18 holes of golf with a cart, dinner, an official tournament gift bag, great prizes for longest drive and closest to the pin contests, prizes for all division and more. Registration begins at 11 a.m. with lunch served at 11:30 a.m. The tournament is a scramble format with a noon shotgun start. Three divisions based on handicap and one fun non-competing division will play. The lowest handicap in a foursome determines each team’s division. In addition to golf, hole sponsorships and dedication flags are available in honor or memory of those touched by Cancer. To register or sponsor, contact Nancy Dofflemyer at 410-251-6555 or Judy Johnson-Schoelkopf at 443-235-4341. Pictured are Judy Johnson Schoellkoph, left, and Nancy Dofflemyer, organizers of the event.

Pink Ribbon golf tournament


son said the association would “manage” the operations of the new Yacht Club and the swimming pool so that their peak times would not coincide, thereby providing plenty of parking for both pool and restaurant patrons.

Consultants from AWB Engineers, representing the OPA at the Pct. 4 meet-ing, initially said the pool would be closed down when large special events like weddings are held at the Yacht Club in order to ensure there is adequate parking.

Thompson, however, said that is not the case. “It’s not our intent to close the pool,” he said, adding “We’re going to just have to coexist.”

Thompson said that the pool is only open during three months of the year, from Memorial Day through Labor Day, and as a result conflicts would only re-ally need to be managed during that short period of time. While the pool is open until 6 p.m., the Yacht Club’s busy time is in the early evening and at night, he said.

Additionally the majority of the wed-dings held at the Yacht Club are in the spring and fall, not peak pool time, which is in July and August, he said, adding that pool usage in June is low because students are still in school and the full seasonal influx has not yet occurred at that time of year.

The OPA’s Yacht Club site plan is short 62 parking spaces based on county code requirements for a building of its proposed size and use. While it is add-ing 46 new spaces, roughly in the area where the circular driveway for the cur-rent building is located, the site plan still falls short from what is required by that 62 spaces.

There are 79 spaces available at the

Mumford’s Landing pool that the asso-ciation hoped to use to cover that short-age.

Engineer Matt Drew from AWB add-ed that because the second floor of the Yacht Club will largely only be used on special occasions, the additional park-ing isn’t needed. If the second floor din-ing area is not included in the parking calculations for the building, then the Yacht Club does satisfy the parking re-quirements on site, he said.

Drew said data on the Mumford’s Landing pool indicates that the parking area there is never fully utilized because people car pool, walk or ride a bike to the amenity. “The data suggests there’s more parking there than really needed,” he said.

Hartman argued in favor of the joint parking agreement, saying that the OPA would only be hurting itself by not pro-viding adequate parking for all of its customers. “They would be their own worst enemy if they didn’t manage it properly,” he said, adding “because it’s a homeowners association” the request for a joint parking agreement is “kinda unique.”

Other planning commission mem-bers weren’t so sure that the association would do such a good job of policing it-self.

“Well I am concerned,” said Commis-sion Chairman Marlene Ott, an Ocean Pines resident, adding that there is al-ready a parking problem in that area. “I know that it’s already an existing prob-lem at the Yacht Club.” She said she was at the Yacht Club recently during a wed-ding event on a Friday night when the pools were not open and “people were parked all over the place.” The wedding event was held upstairs while the usual Friday night crowd was enjoying live en-tertainment downstairs.

Commission member Coston Glad-

ding said he is glad that the OPA is not adding more impervious surface to the area for parking but added that “you’ve got to come up with something that’s go-ing to be suitable for everybody.”

He also wanted to ensure that the Mumford’s Landing pool parking lot would have adequate lighting for anyone parking there and walking to the Yacht Club. He said the parking lot would have to be illuminated.

That brought up another concern for Ott – proximity of the pool is to residenc-es. She said that when property owners recently voted overwhelmingly for a new Yacht Club, they were not anticipating new lighting in the vicinity of the Mum-ford’s Landing pool parking lot.

Hartman said there was a “pretty strong indication from Ocean Pines that they want it,” referring to the recent positive referendum vote by property owner on the Yacht Club project.

Gladding and Commission Member Mike Diffendal wanted to know how the county would enforce the joint parking agreement if it was approved.

County planner Jennifer Grasso said a joint parking agreement would be placed in the county land records, but it would really be up to the agreeing parties to police it. In this case the OPA would have to police itself, she said.

Ed Tudor, county director of develop-ment review and permitting, said the joint parking agreement provision of the county’s code was initially intended for use in a situation like that presented by the OPA. He said it was intended to use in areas “where you had uses that are substantially different.”

He cited an example of a church and a manufacturing plant sharing a park-ing lot as a good example of the intended use, saying “they clearly will not be in-terfering with each other.” While church activities would be largely on weekends

and evenings, the manufacturing plant would be open during weekdays, he said.

In the OPA’s case, Tudor said, the agreement would be “between them-selves. It’s really not an agreement be-tween two parties.” Therefore from an enforcement standpoint “you really are going to be stuck.” He said the county couldn’t go in after the Yacht Club is built and tell the OPA to reduce the size of the structure or that it can’t occupy a portion of it because there isn’t suffi-cient parking.

“If you don’t think that something’s going to work I’d advise you not to ap-prove it; if you think it’s going to work approve it,” Tudor said, adding that he wasn’t trying to sway commission mem-bers to either approve or deny the joint parking request but simply to tell them how it was intended for use.

“If they don’t manage it properly it’s going to be to their detriment,” Hartman said of the OPA. He said the patrons won’t go to the Yacht Club if they can’t find adequate parking there.

Phyllis Wimbrow, assistant director of development review and permitting, said “oh yes they will” and then said the county will be inundated with com-plaints about why it allowed the facility to be built without adequate parking.

If a parking exception of one form or another isn’t granted for the Yacht Club, then the OPA will have to redesign the building to reduce its size, Grasso said.

That option is not on the table for Thompson, however.

His Plan B is to seek Tudor’s bless-ing for a parking reduction at the Oct. 9 administrative hearing. Failing that, he and his contracting team will be mak-ing a pitch to the Board of Zoning Ap-peals, probably at that panel’s Novem-ber meeting.

Call that Plan C.

From Page 1

Yacht Club

Stachurski, O’Hare press for Yacht Club follow-up

Ocean Pines Association direc-tors Dan Stachurski and Sharyn O’Hare have put General Man-

ager Bob Thompson on notice that they are keenly interested in what happens next in the process that will lead to a new Ocean Pines Yacht Club.

During the Sept. 12 monthly meeting of the OPA board of directors, Stachurski and O’Hare took differing approaches on what they indicated should be next steps.

Stachurski seemed more interested in addressing what he called the “ele-phant in the room,” the degree to which the board of directors will be involved in decision making relative to the new building, specifically details which were not addressed in the initial design phase that led to the recent successful referen-dum.

O’Hare, in contrast, emphasized that the OPA should be particularly con-cerned about communicating with prop-erty owners as the construction of a new Yacht Club unfolds.

“People want to know what’s going to happen next,” she said, calling for fre-quent press releases, town meetings or whatever else the general manager can

come up with to keep property owners well informed. While she said the local media will be part of the process, she said that the OPA should take a lead role in providing timely information to property owners.

Stachurski later explained that his “elephant in the room” reference was meant to underscore the fact that many critical decisions remain relative to the new Yacht Club project and that the di-rectors should not simply defer to the general manager on them.

Thompson is widely credited with conducting an aggressive public rela-tions campaign on behalf of the new

Yacht Club that resulted in a successful referendum in which two thirds of prop-erty owners voting endorsed the option of replacing the aging Yacht Club with a new building.

Stachurski told the Progress that Thompson’s successful stewardship of the referendum does not mean that the board has no role in decision making go-ing forward.

He said that while the contractors, Harkins Construction Co., have been working with a professional kitchen design company in outfitting and ar-ranging elements of the two kitchens planned for the new facility, other ar-

eas – interior design features as well as landscaping – deserve similar profes-sional treatment.

He said color schemes and overall in-terior design need board approval.

“I don’t want to see in the new Yacht Club what was done to the downstairs of the existing building,” Stachurski said, suggesting that he’s not a real fan of the first floor redesign accomplished by Thompson in the first year of his tenure as OPA general manager.

Other directors did not respond di-rectly to Stachurski’s call for board oversight and decision making as the Yacht Club construction process unfolds. Thompson did not comment during the meeting, but in other contexts and situ-ations consistently says that he will fol-low the instructions of a board majority.

Thompson has both a facilities plan-ning group and a related group of con-struction experts that he can call on to assist him in monitoring the project as it unfolds. O

cean Pines property owner Ted Mo-roney, a contractor based on the Western Shore but with a home in Ocean Pines, has served on both groups in recent years. -- Tom Stauss

Stachurski interested in addressing board involvement in decision making relative to the new building, while O’HareO’Hare emphasizes communication with property owners

as the construction of a new Yacht Club unfolds.


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OCEAN PINES

Yacht Club parking reduction request is a moving target

Just how many parking spaces short is the Ocean Pines Association in its site plan for the new Yacht Club,

for which a variance or special exception is needed?

At the Oct. 4 meeting of the Worces-ter County Commission, during which an application for a joint parking agree-ment between the new Yacht Club and nearby Mumford’s Landing pool was considered and rejected, county of�cials said the parking shortfall was 62 park-ing spaces.

The initial application for a parking special exception, however, was for only 46 parking spaces. That was based on the request by AWB Engineering, one of OPA’s contractors in the project, for 184 parking spaces, rather than the 230 spaces speci�ed in the code for a build-ing the size of the new Yacht Club. Un-der the code, an applicant can ask for no more than a 20 percent reduction in parking requirements; 20 percent of 230 spaces is 46, precisely what AWB initial-ly asked for.

County zoning administrator Jenni-fer Grasso told the Progress in an Oct. 5 e-mail that as part of a revised site

plan that was submitted to the Plan-ning Commission with the joint park-ing agreement, the OPA “decided to add 2,000 square feet of outdoor seating area as part of the restaurant. This increased their parking demand, which resulted in a shortfall of 62 parking spaces.”

The rejected joint parking agreement, which would have added Mumford’s Landing pool parking spaces to the total allocated for the Yacht Club, would have satis�ed this additional demand.

Grasso said that because the plan-ning commission rejected the joint park-ing agreement, the OPA will have to re-move the outdoor seating from the plan and only ask for the 46 space reduction as allowed by code” in order not to ex-ceed the 20 percent reduction allowed for a special exception.

An administrative hearing is sched-uled for Tuesday, Oct. 9, in Snow Hill to consider the OPA’s application for a parking reduction.

OPA General Manager Bob Thompson told the Progress in an Oct. 5 telephone interview that he and the OPA Yacht Club contractors, Harkins Construction and AWB Engineering, are working on an alternative strategy for the Oct. 9 ad-ministrative hearing, in which County Permitting and Development Review Director Ed Tudor will preside and rule on the latest OPA parking reduction re-quest.

“We’re not removing it,” Thompson said �atly of outside seating at the new Yacht Club. “It’s not an effective strategy for maximizing operations. We’ve always had outdoor seating in our plans. We’re still pursuing it. We’re working on ways to make it happen.”

He declined to spell out precisely what the OPA strategy would be going into the Oct. 9 administrative hearing because it was a work in progress. But when questioned, he did not deny a sug-gestion that the revised parking reduc-tion request would somehow incorporate parking spaces available at the Mum-ford’s Landing pool.

The Progress will post details at oceanpinesprogress.com on the OPA’s latest Yacht Club parking strategy, shortly after the Oct. 9 hearing.

Parking spaces are often difficult to find at the existing Yacht Club during special events.


County zoning administrator says OPA will need to revert to variance for 46 parking spaces, but OPA general manager says maybe not


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OCEAN PINES

From Page 1

Greens replacement

past April 30, while the back nine will be launched before the end of this calendar year. The greens reconstruction involved removing the old greens and rebuilding them from the ground up, and then in-stalling new surface sod.

The board approved taking funds from the OPA’s major maintenance and replacement reserve for the front nine, with the lifetime golf memberships, ap-proved separately by the board, iden-ti�ed as a funding source for the back nine. According to an approved board motion, the goal was to raise about 50 percent of the authorized $850,000 total project cost from lifetime memberships.

The motion did not specify the re-course if Thompson and the OPA was unable to sell a suf�cient number of life-time memberships to reach the 50 per-cent goal.

In July, Thompson and former di-rector Pete Gomsak proposed, and the board approved, an adjustment in the lifetime membership program designed to stimulate sales. Speci�cally, the board lifted previously approved caps on the number of memberships available in each age bracket.

In implementing the lifetime mem-berships, the board had placed limits on the number that could be sold by age category. While the sale of memberships

in the older age categories had been brisk, the OPA encountered resistance to memberships for those aged 60 or younger.

The policy change did not generate a ground swell of interest by younger golfers in the program. Dave Stevens, an OPA board member, Ocean Pines golf club member and critic of lifetime memberships, told the Progress recently that he’s heard that some of those who purchased lifetime memberships are ex-periencing buyers’ remorse, in part re-�ecting the less than optimal condition of course fairways.

Thompson told the directors at their Sept. 12 meeting that the next phase of the multi-year golf drainage program is set to resume in November, depending on weather.

He said the idea was to “get through” the fall season of package play on the golf course – pre-booked rounds sched-uled by local booking agencies – before resuming the program, which includes rebuilding the fairways and tee boxes on holes 11 and 12.

He said that he and Billy Casper Golf, the outside contractor hired by the OPA to manage the course, had been in discussions with Soule and Associates to deal with drainage issues on Hingham Lane, the street that runs between the green on the 11th hole and the tee box on the 12th hole.

“Soule shot the grades in the area,”

Thompson said, and determined that, over time, some of the drainage infra-structure simply doesn’t work as origi-nally designed.

He said that green replacement on the 11th hole will be coordinated with drainage improvements. McDonald and Sons is the contractor hired for both.

Stevens reminded the general manag-er that the drainage project this year has been funded in the budget by a $450,000 loan, which the director said would re-quire speci�c board approval before the funds are borrowed and spent.

Thompson did not speci�cally re-spond, and no other directors told Thompson that they agreed with Ste-vens.

Thompson could decide that the board’s budgetary action earlier this year is suf�cient authority for him to borrow the necessary funds.

Meanwhile, on another front, OPA Di-rector Dan Stachurski has disclosed that he has asked OPA President Tom Terry to arrange a meeting with Casper exec-utives to discuss a range of golf-related issues. While Stevens and Stachurski have often been at odds this past year, they seem to be in synch on the need for a face-to-face with Casper executives.

Stachurski said he’s concerned about the performance of golf operations un-der Casper management; cumulative losses through the end of August were $121,887 and overall golf operations

were $216,628 behind budget for that same period.

He also said he’s unhappy with the condition of fairways generally.

“I’m not happy with the way the course is being operated,” he said, not-ing the recent departure of the golf pro and his “temporary” replacement by a Casper executive.

“I’ve asked Tom Terry to arrange for a meeting where we can discuss all of this,” Stachurski said. “The concerns I have are really starting to pile up.”

Previously, Stachurski has raised the issue of whether the OPA is bene�ting from outside management. While not ready to say he is prepared to pull the plug on the Casper relationship, he said he’s not convinced outside management has improved the Ocean Pines golf expe-rience generally.

He said that the most recent mem-bership report from OPA Controller Art Carmine shows less than 175 Ocean Pines households have purchased pre-paid memberships in golf, an indicator that Ocean Pines golfers are playing elsewhere.

“Other courses in the area are in much better playing condition than Ocean Pines,” he said.

Stachurski said that as of the end of September, Terry had not yet gotten back to him on his request for a Casper meet-ing. “He seemed receptive,” Stachurski said of Terry.


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OPA hires Yacht Club executive chefThompson hopes to complete Yacht Club business plan before OPA budget process begins


Ocean Pines Association General Manager Bob Thompson seemed reluctant to announce the name

of the new Yacht Club executive chef when he had several opportunities to do so during September.

He declined to announce the name during the September meeting of the board of directors, only mentioning in passing that a new executive chef had been hired.

The quarterly OPA newsletter – wag-gishly called “Ocean Pines Pravda” by some competitors in the so-called legiti-mate media – similarly failed the whole truth and nothing but the truth stan-dard by omitting the name.

Then Thompson declined to disclose the name later in the month when a re-porter called to inquire; he told the me-dia nabob to call back on Friday and all would be revealed.

All he accomplished by that protract-ed roll-out was to pique curiosity.

Thompson’s reluctance to identify the new executive chef could be attributed to his reputation for holding certain

information close to the vest. But that theory seems barely credible, because the media-savvy Thompson must realize that the Yacht Club needs all the favor-able publicity it can get, and the hiring of a new Yacht Club executive chef could generate some favorable buzz if only it was publicized.

Here’s an alternative theory.The new chef ’s name – Chett Bland

(that’s Chett with two “t”s) – lends itself to all sorts of cheap and unsavory pun-ning in headlines, a fact that Thompson probably assumed, perhaps deciding to delay the day of reckoning because of it.

Whatever the truth of the protracted roll-out, Thompson pronounces himself pleased if not thrilled by Bland’s arrival on the scene in early September and the ensuing days and weeks.

The general manager told the Prog-ress he’s already received several phone calls from Yacht Club patrons very happy about the quality of meals since Bland has been employed.

“I’ve been told it’s the best it’s been in many years,” Thompson said.

In short, Thompson says, there’s noth-ing bland about the quality of food since

Chett Bland became the Yacht Club’s ex-ecutive chef, and he invites Ocean Pines residents to the Yacht Club to discover that for themselves.

Since Labor Day, the Yacht Club has been operating on a Thursday through Sunday schedule, closed Monday through Wednesday.

The latest menu is posted on the OPA Web site. Those looking for Eastern Shore Basic might need to �nd alterna-tive fare somewhere else.

Most recently employed as sous chef at the Broadmoor resort complex in Col-orado Springs, Colo., Bland has served both as sous chef and executive chef at restaurants in San Francisco, Georgia, and Baltimore, Thompson said, adding that Bland has a culinary degree from the Culinary Institute in New York.

The general manager said Bland applied to the Ocean Pines position be-cause he wanted to be closer to his par-ents, who live in the area.

Thompson acknowledged that hiring an executive chef as the Yacht Club en-ters the slower season may seem coun-ter intuitive, but that it makes sense given that the OPA is about to embark on a project to replace the existing Yacht Club with a new facility.

“We will have one more professional person on hand to offer his opinion on how best to design the new kitchens for maximum productivity,” Thompson said. “He and (Yacht Club Food and Beverage Manager) Dave McLaughlin will all be part of planning for the launch of the new Yacht Club. That’s critical to what we’re trying to accomplish.”

The general manager also said that Bland’s arrival does not mean that Yacht Club operations, already behind budget for the current �scal year, will be further behind budget at the conclusion of the �scal year in April of next year.

Through August, the Yacht Club was in the black by a relatively mod-est $21,132, compared to the budgeted

$59,582, for a $48,449 negative variance. Normally, the Yacht Club loses money during the colder months of the year.

“The approved (Yacht Club) budget included a Yacht Club chef,” Thompson said. “We just took our time interview-ing and �nding the right person for the job. In Chett Bland, we believe we have him.”

The general manager said that the new executive chef has experience in managing food costs, so Bland’s arrival means “in addition to putting out a great product,” it’s possible that the Yacht Club won’t fall further behind budget or descend into the red by the end of the �scal year.

In a related development, Thompson told the board of directors at its Sept. 12 monthly meeting that he intends to have a Yacht Club business plan com-pleted before the budget for Fiscal Year 1014 is completed in February.

That triggered a comment from OPA director Dave Stevens who opined that such a timeline “was a little late” for turning around the Yacht Club during the current �scal year.

Stevens said the board has been re-questing a business plan for the Yacht Club for the past two years. Stevens also said he wants to meet with Food and Beverage Manager Dave McLaughlin lest the board “cruise into another bud-get process” without direct contact with the department head directly responsi-ble for the Yacht Club bottom line.

In August, Thompson asked the di-rectors for comments on a draft business plan for the Yacht Club. Stevens told the Progress recently that he believed most if not all directors offered their opin-ions.

“But we’ve not heard back from Bob since then,” the director said.

Thompson did not respond to Ste-vens’ comments about the timeline for completing a business plan during the Sept. 12 meeting.


Stachurski motion aims to revive ten-year facilities planDirector wants list of major

projects, along with cost estimates and financing options, to be ready for board approval no later than June of next year.


A motion offered by Ocean Pines As-sociation Director Dan Stachurski and approved by the OPA direc-

tors at their Sept. 12 monthly meeting is designed to revive long-term facilities planning in Ocean Pines, including com-ing up with specific cost estimates and reserve requirements needed to finance big-ticket capital projects that a new ten-year facilities plan would identify.

Stachurski’s motion passed in a 5-1 vote, with Director Dave Stevens in op-position and Director Marty Clarke ab-staining.

The approved motion “directs the OPA General Manager to develop his recommendations to reactivate the Fa-cilities Group Plan,” a list of major capi-tal projects last updated in June of 2011. The list of projects and their estimated

Strategic plan anticipates expansion of Ocean Pines treatment plant to 3 mgd

Expanded capacity would provide wastewater service to areas outside the confines of Ocean Pines


Although it’s just a draft and no related policy decisions by county of�cials have been recommended

or made, an early version of a 2013-18 strategic plan for Worcester County’s Water and Wastewater Division antici-pates the possibility of expanding the capacity at Ocean Pines wastewater treatment plan from the existing 2.5 million gallons per day to 3 mgd.

The purpose of the expansion would be to provide treatment services to ar-eas outside the con�nes of the Ocean Pines Service Area, an area generally described by the boundaries of neighbor-hoods in Ocean Pines that are governed by the Ocean Pines Association. With Ocean Pines at or near build-out, no ex-pansion of the plant is needed to serve Ocean Pines property owners.

The draft strategic plan, copies of which were distributed to members of the Ocean Pines Water and Wastewater Advisory Committee in early August, also raises the possibility that, in the foreseeable future, action could be taken to reduce the discharge of highly treated ef�uent from the treatment plant into the St. Martin River.

“Regardless of whether the plant would ever get permission to discharge 3 mgd, it would be advisable to consider the future expansion capability of this facility,” the draft plan says. “No matter if plant discharge is ultimately moved to land application or surface discharge, the plant treatment capacity should be set at the level needed for the foresee-able future.”

There is no indication that the state of Maryland environmental of�cials are

preparing to mandate reduction or elim-ination of river discharge. The Ocean Pines treatment plant remains the best-performing plant in the state, exempt from Maryland’s so-called �ush tax.

“Where economically bene�cially and technologically viable, the service area should develop options for reducing dis-charges to the river,” the draft plan says. “The �rst and most obvious opportunity would be to study the use of plant ef-�uent to irrigate the Ocean Pines golf course. This would serve the dual pur-pose of reducing nutrient discharges to the river and reduce demand on the wa-ter aquifer serving Ocean Pines.”

The draft plan says that if this or oth-er options for reducing river discharge are pursued, “it is less likely” that the state will attempt to mandate “complete removal of (river) discharge.”

According to the draft plan, plant ex-pansion and reduction of river discharge are issues “appropriate for inclusion” in the �nal document, “but more evalua-tion and detail” are necessary.

Indeed, there is little supporting com-mentary in the draft plan that speci�es areas outside Ocean Pines that would need treatment capacity above the ex-

isting 2.5 mgd. Nor is there is an explicit statement

that Ocean Pines ratepayers will not in any way be expected to subsidize plant expansion not needed to serve Ocean Pines residents.

Early in the draft, however, current methods for �nancing major capital projects are explained, with the implica-tion that those methods would continue to be employed in the future.

“In general, funding to pay the capi-tal costs for major improvements or ex-pansions is obtained through multi-year bonding, which is paid for out of EDU (equivalent dwelling unit) charges to users,” the draft plan says. “Currently, there are seven outstanding bonds that will be retired over the next 14 years, starting in 2014/15. The major of the outstanding bonds will be repaid be-tween now and 2019.”

According to the plan, annual debt service on the bonds will drop from the current $2.1 million to $1.5 million in 2015 and then to $460,000 by 2019.

County of�cials say that this reduc-tion in bond carrying costs means that, even some large expenditures anticipat-ed in the coming years to deal with an

aging water and wastewater collection and treatment system, upward pressure on EDU charges should be contained.

In the section preceding references to the discharge and plant capacity is-sues, the draft plan itemizes �ve devel-opments, all outside Ocean Pines, that have the potential “to be major future connections” to the Ocean Pines water and wastewater treatment systems. Although the draft plan does not make this clear, at least some of these future developments presumably could be ac-commodated within the 2.5 mgd rated capacity of the plant.

The plan in its current iteration does not specify which projects can be ac-commodated by the plant as it exists or those that could only be accommodated by plant expansion.

The �ve projects cited by the plant as “major future connections” include what’s being called the Greater Ocean Pines Service Area, up to 611 equiva-lent dwelling units of mixed commer-cial/residential use, that the Worcester County Commissioners authorized for connection to the Ocean Pines water and wastewater system back in 2007. Some of those EDUs, including 92 from the Pennington Commons and Pennington Estates subdivisions, were allocated well before 2007.

In the case of the Pennington proj-ects, developers paid about $14,000 per EDU in combined water/sewer equity contributions as the price of connection to the Ocean Pines Service Area infra-structure.

Other projects included in the Great-er Ocean Pines Service Area include the Bay Point Plantation, with 33 EDUs, and another 486 EDUs for residential

costs were never formally adopted by the board of directors, something that Stachurski’s motion is designed to rem-edy.

The motion directed Thompson to deliver recommendations on reviving the plan by the board’s Oct. 27 monthly meeting.

“The object of this motion is to obtain the general manager’s recommendations on the steps necessary to move from the plan as reported on June 17, 2011, to a comprehensive, accurate, workable ten-year plan, including requisite work and financing that the Board can vote to ap-prove” in June of next year, the motion reads.

In offering his motion, Stachurski said the recent successful referendum approving construction of a new Yacht Club means it’s time “for the board and general manager to finish the process of developing a master facilities plan for Ocean Pines covering at least the next ten years.”

He called the June 2011 iteration of the plan “an excellent model where-in much of the basic asset and project identification work has been done.” But Stachurski said that “priority selection,

careful definition of the scope, time and cost of each project has yet to be accom-plished.”

He said that “now is the time to re-open this project with the goal of putting a true master plan for asset manage-ment into place for Ocean Pines.”

Stachurski said that revising and ap-proving a definitive list of capital projects is integrally related to the OPA’s reserve funds accumulated over the years.

“Once the (capital projects) plan is defined and approved by the board, long-term financial requirements – and therefore specific capital reserve re-quirements – can be identified and funds directed into the (reserve) accounts,” Stachurski said.

In a follow-up interview, Stachurski said he has no preconceived idea on what he expects from Thompson when the general manager comes back to the board in October with recommenda-tions.

But he said he thought it would be possible to have a capital project plan ready for the board to adopt even before the June, 2013, target included in his motion.

“It’s less important to me how he

wants to proceed than that we get started,” Stachurski said. Among the possibilities would be to assign the job to Thompson’s facilities planning group, which has not met recently but could be revived, or perhaps the establishment of an ad hoc committee.

While Stachurski’s proposal to ap-prove a revised major facilities plan might seem non-controversial, only five directors – Stachurski, OPA President Tom Terry and directors Ray Unger, Terri Mohr and Sharyn O’Hare – voted for it.

Stevens said the issue of facilities planning is “far too complicated” to get done by June of next year. He also said that to believe Stachurski’s motion will “get us moving forward” in facilities planning “is flat out wrong.”

Mohr defended the motion and Sta-churski’s effort to jump-start facilities planning.

“You have to start somewhere,” she said.

Thompson did not offer any comment on the approved motion, but it’s unlikely he will have any difficulty in meeting the Oct. 27 deadline for coming up with a recommendation on how to proceed.

▼


Costly improvements cited in draft strategic plan

and commercial development adjacent to Ocean Pines, mostly served by well and septic tanks.

The Pines Plaza Shopping Center west of Ocean Pines and Route 589 is operating under an emergency connec-tion to the Ocean Pines system via the nearby Pennington Commons pump sta-tion.

There has been no indication to date that the Greater Ocean Pines Service Area’s 611 total EDUs cannot be accom-modated by the plants 2.5 mgd of exist-ing treatment capacity.

Another project identi�ed as a future OPSA connection is the 64-unit Steen property adjacent to South Ocean Pines, approved years ago for eventual inclu-sion in Ocean Pines.

The draft plan indicates that 2014 is the timeframe for when the Steen prop-erty might require connection to the OPSA. As Steen’s 64 EDUs were at one time allocated to the Ocean Pines As-sociation, it’s likely that existing plant treatment capacity is suf�cient to han-dle the Steen development whenever it comes on line.

A third project listed in the draft plan is the Gillis Gilkerson North Gate prop-erty, a “small medical complex requiring approximately 12 EDUs” of water/waste-

water capacity. The draft plan indicates that “rough grading for this project is set to begin in late 2012 and the facility is expected to be completed by spring of 2014.”

This project, too, with its miniscule EDUs demands, probably can be accom-modated by the existing 2.5 mgd plant.

The fourth listed project is the Ocean Downs casino, located two miles south of Ocean Pines on Route 589, which has been expanded to include plans for a movie theater and bowling alley in the Ocean Downs complex.

“The casino could grow from its cur-rent size requiring 63 EDUs to as much as 333 EDUs based on estimates made by the casino owner,” the draft plan says, “… and could be under way as early as spring of 2013.”

The draft plan does not specify wheth-er these 333 potential EDUs could be accommodated by the existing 2.5 mgd plant.

Finally, the draft plan identi�es the Burbage property on Route 589 as an-other project that potentially could con-nect to the Ocean Pines system in the future.

It’s been rezoned for commercial use and its owners, developers Jack and Todd Burbage, are planning a major medical campus on the site, with up to 150 EDUs.

As in the case of the Ocean Downs

casino, the draft plan does not indicate whether the existing treatment plant needs expansion in order to accommo-date the Burbage medical campus.

The Ocean Pines treatment plant was most recently expanded back in 2004-05, when the capacity was increased from 1.5 mgd to 2.3 mgd, subsequently rerat-ed to 2.5 mgd.

The draft plan also identi�es a host of defects in the Ocean Pines wastewa-ter collection system that will require

From Page 10

Strategic plan repairs and upgrades in the relatively near future.

Immediate or top priority projects total $1,878,000. Second tier projects total $400,000; future major improve-ments are estimated at $1,075,000. Mi-nor repairs are estimated at $410,000; and plant de�ciencies are estimated at $1,150,000, including a new operations center estimated to cost $700,000.

[See separate story in this edition of the Progress for details.]


A draft 2013-2018 strategic plan that focuses on the condition of the Ocean Pines water and wastewater collection and treatment systems identifies some costly improvements that will need to be made in the next five years

or so.Earlier this year, the Worcester County Water and Wastewater Division contract-

ed with the Daft McCune and Walker engineering firm to evaluate pump stations that operate within Ocean Pines. As a result of that study, the strategic plan says that pump station improvements costing roughly $1,878,000 have been identified, with an estimated three to five-year timeframe for the work to be done.

“It is important to recognize that the study was limited to the pumping stations and did not include evaluation of the vacuum sewers and vacuum stations,” the draft plan states.

Among the top priority projects are the repair/replacement of Pump Station B’s wet well ($300,000), construction of a new force main from Pump Station A to the Ocean Pines wastewater treatment plant ($528,000), a new Pump Station A ($375,000), repair/replacement of Pump Station E’s wet well ($300,000), and a new Pump Station F ($375,000).

Second tier priority projects, with a timeframe of five to seven years out, include the replacement/repair of Pump Station P ($200,000) and Station S ($200,000), for a total of $400,000.

Other future major pump station improvements are estimated to cost $1,075,000, including a bypass connection and VFD controls at Pump Station T ($150,000), in a three to seven-year timeframe; force main/station upgrades to Pump Station N ($550,000), within seven to ten years; and a new Pump Station R ($375,000), also within seven to ten years.

Minor repairs, which the draft plan says can be done during normal system maintenance, affect Pump Stations C, D, G, H, I, M and Q, ranging in estimated cost from $40,000 to $70,000 each.

The draft strategic plan also identifies deficiencies at the wastewater treatment plant not addressed during the last upgrade in 2004 and 2005, when the plant was expanded from 1.5 million gallons per day to 2.3 mgd, later rerated to 2.5 mgd.

Within a three to five-year timeframe, the plan cites two projects costing a total of $450,000 -- repair of treatment unit No. 3 aeration system ($350,000) and repairs to the greenhouse ($100,000).

A new treatment plant operations center, to be built and equipped during a five to ten-year timeframe, is estimated to cost about $700,000.

On the water services side of operations, the strategic plan identifies a number of system deficiencies, most notably the numerous failures of polybutylene material, commonly known as blue tubing, used in water line installations at homes built from about 1983 to 1988. Failures of the blue tubing caused more than 500 water leaks in Ocean Pines during 2011 alone, the strategic plan says.

Replacement of the blue tubing with more durable materials has been ongoing, with an estimated five to ten-year period needed to complete the replacements. No cost estimate for these repairs is included in the plan. Repairing leaks is part of ongoing maintenance by county public works crews.

The plan also mentions the installation of “touch read” meters throughout Ocean Pines, eliminating the need to write down meter readings, with about 20 percent of the meters using radio heads, enabling drive-by readings rather than on-site meter-reading. Installing radio heads is “expensive”, according to the plan, and the radio heads themselves need more repair or replacement than touch-read meters.

“A decision is needed to determine if we continue to change meters from touch read to radio,” the plan says.

The plan calls for the construction of an additional elevated water storage tower somewhere in Ocean Pines to deal with a deficiency in peak day water demand. In addition, the draft plan indicates that the OPSA should apply to the state for an increased water allocation from the aquifer, sometime within the next months to a


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Residents’ concerns won’t alter plans for King Richard Road disruptionsBoggs attends advisory committee meeting with resident

who questions why Ocean Pines residents should be inconvenienced to benefit Ocean Downs casino


Despite concerns by residents who live on King Richard Road in South Ocean Pines Section 10,

the county’s Public Works Department fully intends to proceed sometime in 2012 with extensive trenching down the street to accommodate the newly creat-ed Ocean Downs water and wastewater service area, which will be connected to the Ocean Pines service area via a new force main.

A representative of residents who live on the street was accompanied by Worcester County Commissioner Judy Boggs to the regular monthly meeting of the Ocean Pines Water and Wastewater Advisory Committee meeting in early September.

They were told by county officials in attendance that, while sensitive to residents’ concerns, county officials have concluded that the most economical and practical way to provide wastewa-ter treatment services to the expanding Ocean Downs complex south of Ocean Pines is to add a force main down the length of King Richard Road, where it will connect to the Ocean Pines system and a nearby pump station located on Ocean Parkway.

The work is to be paid for entirely by Ocean Downs owner William Rickman. One benefit to residents, who might be inconvenienced by a week to two weeks, is that the damaged length of the road will be completely repaved from edge to edge, also on Rickman’s dime. Access to individual driveways will be maintained during construction and paving, accord-ing to county officials.

The Worcester County Commission-ers on Sept. 4 approved an amendment to the county’s master water and sewer-age 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 sys-tem for water and wastewater service.

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 fa-cilitate the connection to the 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 con-struction 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.”

Before work can begin, the property owner needs to acquire all of the neces-sary project approvals from the Mary-land Department of the Environment and the Maryland Department of Plan-ning.

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 an S-1 category, 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 capac-ity from the Ocean Pines Sanitary Ser-vice Area to serve the subject property.

The current on-site system is a mix-ture of eight septic systems with a ca-pacity of 35,670 gallons per day, accord-ing to Bob Mitchell, county director of environmental programs. All of those septic tanks are located within the At-lantic coastal bays critical area.

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tains an existing horse racetrack and video lottery terminal facility with un-occupied commercial-zoned land occu-pying 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 re-

From Page 17

King Richard Road

OPA board reviews White Horse Park

boat ramp redesignReconfiguration would

allow more boaters to use facility at the same time


Boaters who use the ramp in White Horse Park to launch their boats into the adjacent canal have long

complained about the steep drop-off from the edge of the ramp to the water, as well as congestion and delays caused by the ramp’s difficulty in accommodat-ing multiple launches.

That will change, if a ramp redesign recently unveiled is able to clear permit-ting hurdles. Ocean Pines Association directors were given a “first look” brief-ing on the proposed ramp redesign dur-ing the Sept. 10 monthly board of direc-tors meeting.

OPA General Manager Bob Thomp-son handed out a schematic of the exist-ing ramp configuration along with the proposed redesign, prepared by Soule and Associates, of Salisbury. He did not ask the board to approve what he called a “preliminary” design of the revamped boat ramp.

As presently configured, the ramp consists of a concrete slab with three sep-arate piers for launches, one embedded in the center of the slab and the other two on the slab’s southern and northern edges. These would be replaced by a new configuration, including a floating ramp in the center that will allow launches from either side.

In addition, the redesigned ramp will include a new L-shaped replacement pier in the southernmost area of the ramp that will allow temporary berth-ing for loading and unloading.

“We’ve created this L-shaped replace-ment pier so others can come in and launch their boats,” while others are coming in and out or dealing with their boat trailers,” Thompson told the board. The old northernmost pier won’t be re-placed under the redesign.

The advantage of the new configura-tion is that more boaters will be able to use the ramp at the same time, Thomp-son said.

The next step will be to determine whether county and state regulators have any problem with the proposed re-configuration. The intent will be to com-plete the work in time for next summer’s boating season.

quested 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 pro-vide capacity for the connections to oth-er properties within the Greater OPSA, which stretches from Taylorville along Route 589 to Gum Point Road and in-cludes 113 EDUs.

Board decides to move meetings to fourth week of the monthBy TOM STAUSSPublisher

As a way of diffusing friction between Ocean Pines Association management and the Budget and

Finance Advisory Committee over access to and review of OPA financial data prior to meetings of the board of directors, the board has decided to adjust its regular meeting schedule to accommodate the committee.

The directors adopted a meeting schedule for the coming year at their Sept. 12 regular meeting, after discussing it during a work session two days prior.

Among the significant changes in the schedule was a decision to move the regular meeting from the third week of the month to the fourth. That will allow more time for the budget committee to receive and review monthly financial data provided by the Controller Art Carmine prior to the monthly board meeting. The change will allow the committee time to provide timely commentary about current finances to the board, something that hasn’t occurred this past year.

The budget committee and OPA General Manager Bob Thompson have been at odds over Thompson’s policy of not distributing prior month financial

data to the committee without first providing it to the board of directors. Because of conflicting schedules, the committee did not have adequate time to review the latest numbers prior to board meetings.

Under a new procedure worked out by Thompson and the committee, financial information will be provided to it on the Friday before the committee’s scheduled monthly meeting on the fourth Tuesday of every month.

Under the board’s new meeting schedule, usually on the fourth Wednesday of every month, there will be time for the budget committee to review monthly financials in a way that makes timely commentary to the board possible.

The change to Wednesday meetings from this past year’s Tuesdays is a return to the traditional meeting day, which was moved to Tuesday a year ago to accommodate the schedule of a board member who no longer is serving.

In addition, this year’s board decided to hold one Saturday meeting every fourth month. The first one is the board’s October meeting, scheduled for Oct. 27 beginning at 9 a.m. in the Community Center’s Assateague Room. Saturday

morning meetings are also set for the last week of February and May next year.

Saturday meetings are designed to attract non-resident owners who are said to be more likely to attend weekend meetings than those held on weekdays.

During board discussion, OPA Director Dave Stevens said he didn’t believe conducting Saturday meetings would have much effect on the usually sparsely attended board sessions. He said that in past years when Saturday meetings were tried, there was no discernible difference in attendance between the Saturday sessions and the traditional Wednesdays.

In addition to the Saturday meeting in October, regular board meetings over the next year are scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 28, at 3 p.m.; Wednesday, Dec. 19, at 3 p.m.; Wednesday, Jan. 23, at 3 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 23, at 9 a.m.; Wednesday, March 27, at 3 p.m.; Wednesday, April 24, at 3 p.m.; Saturday, May 25, at 9 a.m.; Wednesday, June 26, at 3 p.m.; Wednesday, July 24, at 3 p.m. The annual meeting of the association is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 10, at 10 a.m. Meetings are streamed live on the OPA Web site.


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Budget Committee tries for reset in relations with OPA managementNew chairman asks for

restoration of department head meetings as part of OPA budget deliberations


With a new chairman taking the reins in September and several new members join-

ing the group, along with a new board of directors liaison, the Ocean Pines Association’s Budget and Finance Advi-sory Committee is trying to take a fresh approach to its responsibilities in the hopes that its role will be less politicized than in years past.

New chairman Dennis Hudson told the Progress prior to his panel’s initial organizational meeting in mid-Septem-ber that he wanted to remove politics from the group’s deliberations, but by the committee’s second meeting later in the month he wryly observed that he thought his job might be “90 per-cent politics, 10 percent numbers.” But he still has high hopes of improving the committee’s relationship with OPA man-agement while leeching contentiousness from the committee’s activities and rec-ommendations to the board of directors.

After committee members at the �rst

meeting unanimously expressed sup-port for resuming sessions with OPA department heads as part of the process of reviewing the general manager’s draft budget for next year, Hudson promptly set out to accomplish that by seeking a meeting with OPA General Manager Bob Thompson to discuss the commit-tee’s request.

The general manager last year ended the long-standing practice of department head sessions, to the consternation of committee members. By the end of last year’s budget review process, relations between Thompson and the committee had become adversarial, particularly be-tween Thompson and former committee member Marty Clarke, who was elected to the OPA board this past summer. Clarke attended both of the committee’s September meetings.

Hudson told his committee that Thompson had “reluctantly” agreed to cooperate in arranging for department heads to meet with the committee as part of the budget review process, with the “compromise” that the general man-ager would also attend each session with the department head.

Hudson said Thompson’s reluctance to agree to department head sessions stemmed from what the general manag-er called “abuse” of department heads in the past by committee members. Carry-

over members of the committee pushed back against the characterization that “abuse” had occurred in the past, but nonetheless committee members in gen-eral seemed pleased that Hudson and Thompson had been able to work out an acceptable accommodation.

OPA board member Dave Stevens re-marked during the committee’s initial meeting that open sessions with depart-ment heads have also been well attended by OPA directors, who gain insights and knowledge about department operations that can be useful as the board considers the budget and recommendations from the budget committee.

During the two September meetings, committee members signaled their in-tentions to renew a recommendation from past years calling for a review and possible change in the OPA’s bene�t package, speci�cally the policy in which the OPA agrees to pay for 100 percent of an employee’s base health insurance premium. Committee members have said that many corporations have gone to a system of asking employees to share in the cost. Another area that may come in for scrutiny is the OPA’s retirement contributions.

As in all budgetary matters, the committee can recommend whatever it wants, but it’s up to the board of direc-tors to decide any change in policy.

Committee members also spent some time in discussing the possibility of mak-ing recommendations to the board on budget guidance to the general manager in preparation of the Fiscal Year 2014 budget, which is already in the earliest stages of preparation.

Because the board apparently has de-cided to wait until its October meeting to �nalize budgetary guidance, accord-ing to the board members and commit-tee member Terri Mohr, it will still be possible for the committee to make rec-ommendations beforehand. Hudson said he might call for a special meeting of his committee in October to consider recom-mendations, although that might not be necessary, because the committee’s regular October meeting takes place be-fore the board’s meeting, scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 27.

The directors discussed budget guid-ance in their September meeting but were unable to approve a �nal version. Mohr proposed that the board �nalize the guidance via e-mail, but apparently that idea was subsequently scuttled af-ter an informal media request for copies of the e-mail was made to OPA Presi-dent Tom Terry.

OPA Director and Secretary Dan Stachurski told the Progress that bud-getary guidance was a matter that he believed was better aired in public.


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Board budget guidance delayed for more input


Unable to fi nalize Fiscal Year 2014 budget guidance to General Man-ager Bob Thompson during their

September regular monthly meeting, members of the Ocean Pines Associa-tion’s board of directors will probably do so formally at the board’s Oct. 27 meet-ing instead, if not before.

At the conclusion of discussion of budget guidance at the Sept. 12 month-ly meeting, board member Terri Mohr, recently elected as OPA treasurer, sug-gested that the directors wrap up the budget guidance via e-mail.

“We’ve done it before,” she said, with respect to the board dealing with policy matters via e-mail.

The directors agreed to send com-ments to her about a draft set of guide-lines presented during the meeting by Friday of that week. But that Friday came and went with only a couple of directors – Sharyn O’Hare and Marty Clarke reportedly – sending comments or offering suggestions. Predictably, Clarke said he is opposed to any guid-ance that presumes an assessment in-crease next year.

Subsequent to that meeting, Direc-

tor Dan Stachurski said that the issue of budget guidance was suffi ciently im-portant that he said it should be decided in public.

OPA President Tom Terry told the Progress if need be he could call a spe-cial meeting to deal with it, reacting to a media request to have access to board e-mails if the matter would be conclu-sively addressed that way.

More recently, Mohr told the Budget and Finance Advisory Committee that the board would not decide budgetary guidance until its October meeting. That comment indicated that the committee had time to draft relevant recommenda-tions to the board.

Committee chair Dennis Hudson told the Progress in late September that he

believed there would be opportunity for his panel to offer its views and recom-mendations on budget guiance before the board makes fi nal decisions.

The board is scheduled to hold its next regular meeting on Oct. 27 at 9 a.m., the fi rst of several Saturday morn-ing meetings designed to give non-resi-dent property owners an opportunity to attend.

The budget committee meets on the prior Tuesday.

The draft budget guidance appears little changed from guidance to the gen-eral manager approved by the board late last year and used by Thompson and his staff in drafting the budget for the cur-rent fi scal year. The only real change is that references to the applicable fi scal years have been updated.

Among the prominent features of the draft guidance is a call to continue with the so-called fi ve-year plan for capital funding.

If this call is accepted by the board in October – and it’s a good bet that it will be – then the base lot assessment next year would increase by $30, with $26 of it allocated to the major maintenance and replacement reserve and the other $4 earmarked for the operating recovery reserve, created for the purpose of off-setting operating losses in previous fi s-cal years.

Another element of the draft guid-

ance is its call not to raise the lot assess-ment to cover the operational side of the OPA budget.

“The operational portion of the bud-get should support the operational seg-ment of the dues, if possible, remaining at the same level as FY 2013,” the draft indicates.

In addition, the draft guidance: • Calls for realistic amenity budgets,

refl ecting “continuing efforts to increase revenues through greater usage and decreased expenses. The budget should emphasize a continuation of increased marketing for broader utilization of amenities.”

• Says major projects “identifi ed in the board of directors’ objectives for the coming year” should be used “as a guide for FY 2014 planning.” This probably re-fers to the Yacht Club, which Thompson hopes to keep open as a new replace-ment facility is built next to the existing structure. Should a decision be made to close the existing building during new construction, budgeting for Yacht Club operations next year will become more diffi cult.

• Calls for road resurfacing and tech-nology upgrades to be included in the budget.

• Says business plans for all new pro-grams and services and existing ameni-ties, such as the Yacht Club, Beach Club and Golf should be drafted.

OPA General ManagerBob Thompsonawaits guidance from the board of directors on next year’s budget.

Budget advisory committee may weigh in priorto expected board action in October


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OCEAN PINES

Clarke says he will share e-mails with personal attorney

when he fears potential liability ‘Air of distrust’ created by practice, OPA Director Terri Mohr contends


Fully aware that he risks jeopar-dizing working relationships with some of his colleagues on the

Ocean Pines Association’s board of di-rectors, Marty Clarke is holding fast to his resolve to share board e-mails with his personal attorney when he feels it’s necessary.

During a board organizational meet-ing Sept. 10, OPA President Tom Terry raised the issue of privacy expectations when directors communicate via e-mail, alluding to a recent incident in which Clarke made board e-mail available to his personal attorney for review. Clarke did so because he wanted legal advice on potential personal liability should the OPA be sued for an injury at the Yacht Club.

Some of Clarke’s Ocean Pines hold-ings are owned in partnership with oth-ers, and Clarke said he is also concerned about potential negative legal conse-quences for his partners in addition to his own.

Clarke had been encountering some dif�culty in obtaining all of the infor-mation the OPA has assembled on the condition of the Ocean Pines Yacht Club, and has been fairly consistent in his con-tention that if the condition of the Yacht Club is such that it needs to be replaced, then it’s very possible that it is unsafe and a danger to the public.

OPA General Manager Bob Thomp-son has said that while the amenity is nearing its useful shelf life, it has been deemed safe by experts who have looked at it and that he would not keep it open if he felt it was unsafe or structurally unsound.

Skeptical of those claims, Clarke also has been concerned that if Thompson is wrong and someone is seriously injured at the Yacht Club, he as a director could be personally sued for negligence if there is any evidence in the record that proves that the OPA was aware of un-safe conditions and kept the Yacht Club open regardless.

Clarke said he wanted his own attor-ney to help him with those concerns and shared relevant board e-mail with his attorney as part of his attorney’s review process.

Terry and other board members, es-pecially Terri Mohr and Dan Stachurski, were not pleased when they learned that their communications were reviewed

outside normal channels. Terry raised the issue as one that goes to the core of how “we as a board want to work.” He said he wasn’t comfortable with Clarke’s sharing of board e-mail with his person-al attorney.

“You may have the right to do it,” Ter-ry said, “but is it right?”

Clarke made it abundantly clear that he thinks it is and that avoiding possible legal jeopardy is more important to him than maintaining cordial relations with his colleagues.

He previously told the Progress that in response to a Terry comment to him that the board has worked successfully as a team for the past two years, Clarke said that “running a $16 million busi-ness is not a team sport.”

He also said that given losses at cer-tain high pro�le amenities in recent years, the degree to which the associa-tion has operated successfully is up for debate.

During board discussion Sept. 10,

Clarke said that whenever necessary he would share copies of legal opinions pro-vided to the board by OPA general coun-sel Joe Moore with his own personal at-torney.

“You won’t have a good working re-lationship” with the board, Mohr told Clarke, if he continues or follows through with that practice.

That promoted Director Dave Stevens to say that he didn’t understand why Mohr would have a problem with Clarke obtaining legal advice from someone other than the association attorney.

“I don’t have an attorney, and I don’t want one,” Mohr replied, but she did not explain why Clarke’s reliance on one of-fended her.

Clarke said one reason he feels it necessary to consult with his attorney on occasion is that property he owns in Ocean Pines is owned in partnership with others.

Defending Clarke, Stevens went on to say that directors have a duty “to seek information” from multiple sources as necessary.

“Why wouldn’t we seek advice from other people?” Stevens said, adding that in some cases information would be “con-�dential” and shouldn’t be shared.

Stachurski sided solidly with Terry and Mohr.

“I have strong objections if my e-mail is being sent to anyone else without my permission,” he said.


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OCEAN PINESStevens reminded his colleagues that

in the event of litigation, all board e-mail would be “discoverable” by opposing at-torneys, but that didn’t seem to persuade Stachurski, who said he might have to stamp all his e-mail as “con�dential” as a way of protecting his privacy.

Clarke defended his use of a private attorney to advise him on certain mat-ters, citing the fact that he obtained ac-cess to certain documents that Thomp-son had been reluctant to provide only after consulting with an attorney.

Mohr said Clark’s reliance on outside counsel had created what she called “an air of distrust” among the directors.

Director Ray Unger then joined the discussion, telling his colleagues that Clarke’s consultation with his attorney and sharing e-mails had done no harm and does not violate any law.

“If it’s the law and does no harm, I don’t have a problem (with what Clarke has done),” he said.

Clarke reiterated his position that if he has concerns about potential liability, he reserves the right to consult his at-torney, adding that he wouldn’t do it un-less he felt it was necessary, citing the expense involved.

After a question posed by Director Sharyn O’Hare, the discussion shifted to circumstances under which board corre-spondence is copied to Moore, the OPA general counsel, and whether Thompson can consult with Moore on legal matters without �rst clearing it with the board.

Stachurski said that as the OPA’s CEO, Thompson needs to have direct ac-cess to the association attorney without having to clear it with the board or Terry as the OPA president.

“Let’s don’t have every contact with Moore subject to Terry,” Stachurski said.

After Sharyn O’Hare suggested that both Terry and Thompson should have the authority to contact Moore, Stevens said that Terry shouldn’t have what he called “veto power” over any board con-tact with Moore and that there is no ref-erence to the general manager in OPA’s founding documents as CEO.

“The two-person system (of con-tacts with Moore) has been working,” Stachurski replied.

Terry said the digression over con-tacts with Moore resulted in a debate over “a solution to a non-problem,” while a board communication issue is “still a problem.”

The discussion shifted again to wheth-er board members have the authority to seek information from department heads or other OPA employees without going through the general manager.

Citing OPA bylaws, Thompson said he believed he has the authority to control access to OPA employees, but Stevens said there is an approved board resolu-tion that speci�cally gives directors the authority to seek information without going through the general manager.

“If a director needs information, he doesn’t have to ask Bob Thompson,” Stevens said, adding that if the infor-mation sought is not readily available, the director can then ask Thompson to provide it.

Ocean Pines Service Area water supply deficiencies cited in strategic plan


A draft 2013-18 strategic plan for the Ocean Pines water and wastewater collection and treat-

ment systems has identi�ed a problem that might seem incongruous in this water-logged, a few-feet-above-sea-level community.

Ocean Pines has a water supply shortage, but not in the sense of avail-ability or scarcity or Ocean Pines turn-ing into a desert arid wasteland. On the contrary, Ocean Pines sits atop an aqui-fer that is �ush with water and plenty of rainfall that constantly replenishes the supply. There is no danger that Ocean Pines taps or showers won’t turn on or its toilets won’t �ush on command.

The problem, such as it is, has more to do with accessing that readily avail-able water supply and having it easily available to users in quantities certi�ed by the water bureaucrats as suf�cient.

The draft strategic plan, made avail-able to members of the Ocean Pines Wa-ter and Wastewater Advisory Committee in August, brie�y mentions that, as the result of a recent capacity management study, the county discovered that the amount of water allocated to the Ocean Pines Service Area is de�cient re�ected in “annual average and month of maxi-mum use” numbers.

The plan suggests that, within six months to a year, the county should ap-ply to the state for a higher allocation from the aquifer that supplies water to the area.

According to that capacity study, the OPSA also is de�cient in supply for a peak day demand, normally provided by system storage, for the most in elevated water towers.

The strategic plan calls existing stor-age capacity – 750,000 gallons in two water towers and 250,000 gallons in ground-level storage – de�cient “in the amount of storage typical for a system the size of Ocean Pines.

“Normally, a system should provide no less than one day supply of water as storage and depending on fire demand, that amount could increase,” the draft plan says. “Since the Ocean Pines sys-tem provides an average of 1,400,000 gallons on an annual average and over 2,000,000 gallons daily during the peak summer months, there is a recognized need for additional storage.”

Back in the early 2000s, the county and advisory committee dropped the idea of building a new Southside water tower in favor of exploring an inter-con-nection with the nearby Glen Riddle de-velopment. That finally occurred, within the past year, but the draft plan indi-cates that the Glen Riddle inter-connec-tion fails to fix the water supply issue.

“Although the interconnection al-lowed the Ocean Pines Service Area ac-cess to an additional 400,000 gallons of storage from [Glen] Riddle, it is recog-nized that this storage is only available because the [Glen] Riddle … system is developing slowly,” the draft plan says. “Also, although the ground storage tank represents 250,000 gallons of storage, it is mostly not usable for fire protection because it is not elevated.”

The plan says long-term planning should include the construction of a new water tower in Ocean Pines in the five to seven-year timeframe.

Assistant Public Works Director John Ross said there is greater need in North Ocean Pines for a new water tower, but unfortunately there is no obvious loca-

tion for it. The South Side has no obvi-ous locations, either, he said.

Well 9 in South Ocean Pines encom-passes a 250,000 ground level storage tank, but because of high iron content, it was shut down after the installation of a new water supply control system that includes the Glen Riddle connection.

“A decision will need to be made as to whether the maintenance of Well 9 facili-ties is “justified based on the need for it,” the draft plan indicates, suggesting that Well 9 should be abandoned in the same five to seven-year timeframe in which a new water tower is constructed.

The plan identifies minor repairs to the water system in the three to five-year timeframe, including the replace-ment of three caustic tanks at the wells with stainless steel, costing $12,000 each, and floor replacement at Wells 2 and 5 at an estimated $20,000.

Power washing and inspection of the North tower is proposed for the one to two-year timeframe, at a cost of $15,000.

Other projects listed under “minor repairs” include North Tower painting ($200,000), an often postponed project; addressing increased water demand from outside of Ocean Pines (the Great-er Ocean Pines Service area), incorpo-ration of the Ocean Pines golf course wells into the community water sup-ply, replacement of water mains within the service area, a contingency plan for contamination from chemical leaks or spills, fluoridation of drinking water, and IT upgrades.

Some of these items probably would be considered major projects – $200,000 for tower painting is not small change -- and, in at least once instance, would probably be considered controversial.


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OCEAN PINES

Greater Ocean Pines Service Area still in limboWorcester County officials awaiting word on whether

Pines Plaza Shopping Center will be sold and redeveloped


The chances of any significant prog-ress this year on the creation of a new Greater Ocean Pines Service

area west of Ocean Pines in the area of Cathell Road and the Pines Plaza Shop-ping Center are rapidly fading.

The delay means that the timetable to begin construction of new water and wastewater infrastructure west of Ocean Pines has slipped.

But county officials remain hopeful that uncertainty over the ability of the owners of the Pines Plaza to pay its pro-rated sharing of debt service related to that infrastructure will eventually be resolved. Federal and state low interest loans for the project are good for three years, County Assistant Public Works Director John Ross said recently.

“We’re just waiting to see what hap-pens,” Ross said, regarding rumors that the shopping center may be sold to new owners, foreclosed on or, possibly, rede-veloped by the existing ownership.

Ross told the Progress recently 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 shop-ping center’s ownership and finances could come at any time. No new details on the shopping center’s status emerged during September.

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 com-plicated,” he said. “If we receive assur-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 re-ceived word from the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the status of funding that will provide a permanent source of water and wastewater treatment ser-vices 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 commer-cial 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, Ross advised mem-bers of the Ocean Pines Water and Wastewater Advisory Committee that he had been notified via e-mail by the Department of Agriculture office in Do-ver, Del., that the long-established ru-ral development program administered by that department would provide $2.1 million in low-interest loans to the coun-ty to help create the service area.

Total cost of the project is now esti-mated 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 Ser-vice Area in the form of an equity contri-bution 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 be-come 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 River Run.

The debt service on the loan portion of the $3 million package would be a re-sponsibility of the Pines Plaza owners, its tenants, and other commercial prop-erty 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-va-cant real estate office sits. Walgreens has long planned a new pharmacy for that corner parcel, contingent on the availability of public water and waste-water treatment services.

The funding of the new service area would solve that problem.

The rationale for federal and state funding of the project is that the new service area is being created to replace failed and failing septic systems in much of the commercial area just west of Ocean Pines and Route 589.

Ross has said previously that about a million dollars of the funding will cover the equity contribution for the


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From Page 26

Pines Plaza

OCEAN PINES

Pines Plaza, a struggling shopping cen-ter 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 coun-ty 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 con-tribution or financing it over time, Ross has said. About $300,000 or $400,000 of the project money covers equity contri-butions for businesses in the new ser-vice area other than the Pines Plaza. In total, Ross said about half of the funding would cover prepaid equity contribu-tions.

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 vi-cinity of the Adkins Co. hardware store and Verizon substation southward to Route 589, where it will pick up the 7-Eleven store, the adjoining real estate offices, banks and the McDonald’s res-taurant, Ross said.

Ross has said that of the $3 million, the share of it that covers the Pines Pla-za equity contribution will become avail-able for use in the Ocean Pines Service Area’s capital projects budget.

Possible uses of the money would be to finance improvements to Ocean Pines network of pump stations and to embark on a comprehensive community-wide program of holding tank replacement.

Aquatics Advisory reinstated after summer hiatusStevens appointed as board liaison to OPA’s

golf advisory committee that doesn’t officially exist


The Ocean Pines Association board of directors in September rein-stated the Aquatics Advisory

Committee to active status after a sum-mer hiatus.

The committee during its last official-ly scheduled meeting in May reportedly ran afoul of its board liaison, Terri Mohr, who according to informed sources told those “up the chain of command” that the committee had delved into an area that, according to OPA President Tom Terry at the time, is off-limits to the committee and otherwise specifically re-served for management.

Although a board resolution and the committee’s mission gives it wide lati-tude to delve into all matters involving aquatics, and indeed the history of the committee reflects interest in contrac-tual matters involving various swim in-structors who provide services to Ocean Pines, Terry told the Progress last May that the committee discussed a contrac-tual matter during its May meeting

after having been warned previously that such matters were not within the committee’s purview and should be left to management.

After being informed of the commit-tee’s discussion about a personnel mat-ter, Terry scheduled a meeting with the committee later in the month and advised them that the panel would be temporarily suspended. He declined to accept offers of resignation from the committee chair, Virginia Reister, and committee member Randy Romblad, who reportedly made the offending re-marks.

He told the Progress that the com-mittee would be returned to active sta-tus in the fall, and indeed that is what happened. With no discussion, the board unanimously approved the committee’s reinstatement during the September regular meeting.

Terry said in May that he didn’t think resignations were justified, and he declined to accept them. Committee members weren’t particularly unhappy about taking the summer off, although some of them individually expressed the view that the reason given for their sus-pension – delving into an area reserved for management – seemed a bit off since OPA General Manager Bob Thompson earlier in the year had tasked them with obtaining salary information for swim-ming instructors employed by other or-ganizations in the region.

Most of the swimming instructors employed by the OPA are technically pri-vate contractors, although Thompson re-cently hired a part-time “in-house” swim lesson coordinator to replace a contrac-tor who had taught learn-to-swim and

stroke mechanic classes for three years until the contract expired this spring.

According to the committee minutes posted for the May meeting on the OPA Web site, the offending remarks that triggered the committee’s summer hia-tus probably were made by Romblad, who according to the minutes prepared by Reister involved a question “on the status of the contract with the present water exercise instructor.”

The minutes indicate that Reister at-tempted to move past the issue raised by Romblad, and sources say that there was no substantive discussion of it.

But Terry last May said he did not be-lieve the decision to impose a hiatus on the committee was an over-reaction.

“I don’t want to make a bigger deal out of this than it deserves,” he said at the time, while reaffirming that he thought the suspension was an appro-priate response. He characterized his May meeting with the committee as pro-fessional and low-key.

But perhaps with a tacit understand-ing that some committee members might not have appreciated Mohr’s in-volvement with their summer suspen-sion, Terry in September moved to re-place her as the committee’s liaison. At a board organizational meeting, he simply informed Mohr that he would be taking over as the committee’s liaison, in effect swapping the recreation advisory com-mittee in which he has been serving as liaison with aquatics.

Terry did something similar this past year when friction developed between members of the Budget and Finance Advisory and the committee liaison, for-mer board member Pete Gomsak. Terry

quietly relieved Gomsak from his role as committee liaison and took over the po-sition himself.

In other developments affecting OPA board advisory committees, the board in September officially appointed a slate of board liaisons to the panels, including one, the golf advisory committee, that doesn’t officially exist. Director Dave Stevens is listed as liaison to the com-mittee, which the board in the past year officially declined to reinstate, acknowl-edging instead that another group, the Golf Members Council, functions in that capacity.

Terry later told the Progress that the approved liaison list is in error, that in fact there has been no upgrade in status of the Golf Members Council.

“Nothing’s changed,” he said.According to the approved list, Ste-

vens is liaison to the Architectural Re-view and Bylaws and Resolutions com-mittees. Mohr has been assigned to bud-get and finance, in addition to recreation. Dan Stachurski will serve as liaison to the Comprehensive Plan, Elections and Marine advisory committees, while Ray Unger will liaise with the Environmen-tal and Natural Resources Committee. Sharyn O’Hare has been named liaison to the Clubs Committee. Marty Clarke will liaise with the Communications Ad-visory Committee.

In addition to aquatics, Terry will serve as liaison to the Tennis and Search committees, in addition to serving with Unger as the liaison with Worcester County government. Unger also will liaise with the Ocean Pines Volunteer Fire Department.

Thompson will serve as the OPA li-aison with the Ocean Pines Water and Wastewater Advisory Committee, a group appointed by the Worcester Coun-ty Commissioners.


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Bunting offers new hope on resolvingBeauchamp Road drainage woes

District 6 representative says $50,000 fix might be enough to cure flooding

that has plagued Pinehurst Road residents for years


It’s been almost two years since Dis-trict 6 County Commissioner Jim Bunting first offered some hope for

residents who live along Pinehurst Road and Beauchamp Road in North Ocean Pines in solving drainage issues in the area.

At the December 2010 meeting of the Ocean Pines Association board of direc-tors, the newly sworn-in commissioner had said he would ask his commission colleagues for help in solving drainage issues in the area, telling the board he couldn’t do it alone and would have to “convince his fellow commissioners” that affordable solutions exist to remedy the drainage problems.

Fast forward to October of 2011, when Bunting expressed frustration

over the lack of progress since that ear-lier meeting. A committee of elected and appointed officials from the county and OPA had been appointed to address the issue weeks earlier. Among its members were OPA General Manager Bob Thomp-son, Bunting, County Commissioner Judy Boggs, the Ocean Pines (District 5) representative, and various county de-partment heads. Bunting was not par-ticularly hopeful that a large number of individuals meeting in committee would be able to make much progress on re-solving the outstanding issues.

Not much was accomplished in vari-ous meetings held by that committee during the time it met.

Fast forward to October of 2012, and there is still no concrete progress to report. The difference is that Bunting is now optimistic that a solution is at hand, costing significantly less than the six figures once estimated. In addition, he believes the low cost, somewhere in the neighborhood of $50,000, means that the county ought to be able to bear the full cost of the project and that county public works crews ought to be able to accomplish it. If that’s the case, no joint venture involving the OPA and the coun-ty will be necessary to devise.

The basis of his optimism is recent inspection of existing drainage infra-structure in the area that Bunting, a retired land planner and engineer, ac-complished on his own.

“I flipped open some manhole cov-ers and determined that pipes that ev-eryone had assumed were too small to accomplish what we needed are in fact large enough,” he told the Progress re-cently. What that means is that much

less new piping will be needed to accom-plish more rapid drainage of stormwater in the areas along Beauchamp Road and Pinehurst Road where flooding is most acute, Bunting said.

The remaining hold-up is formal per-mission from the developer of the near-by River Run subdivision, just north of Ocean Pines, to run some infrastructure on his property, Bunting said.

“We’ve received some good feedback from Lew Meltzer (the River Run devel-oper) and are just waiting for a letter giving us approval,” Bunting said. “Once that happens, I believe the work can be scheduled.”

Back in October of last year, Thomp-son told the OPA board of directors that the county committee that Bunting was skeptical could accomplish much was created to take “another look” at pos-sible solutions for the drainage issue on Beauchamp Road. His body language suggested that he joined Bunting in his frustration that a committee has been deemed necessary to deal with the is-sue.

Previously, Thompson had said he thought he had an agreement with Bun-ting and county officials to jointly install larger pipes at strategic locations along the roadway to facilitate stormwater drainage to the St. Martin River.

The agreement was for the OPA to supply labor for the project while the county was to purchase materials. The previous summer, the agreement seemed to unravel somewhat when an issue arose on covering the cost of liabil-ity insurance for OPA employees who would be working on county property. It was Thompson who first raised the is-

sue, and that’s all it took to spook county officials into retreating somewhat from a quick and elegant joint venture.

Indeed, it has even been suggested that the project should be handled in the traditional way, sent out for bids and the work awarded to the lowest and best bid, with the direct costs split between the OPA and county.

What seemed like a simple joint ven-ture was not so simple any longer.

The joint venture approach had seemed to finesse the vexing issue of whether fixing the drainage problem on Beauchamp Road is primarily an OPA or a county problem.

Bunting has consistently said that in his view the problems are primarily the county’s responsibility, but that a pos-sible solution could be a joint effort by the county and the OPA. He had said he believes that while the OPA should be able to do its part by having its Public Works Department supply the labor to make needed repairs, the county ought to step up to finance the cost of materi-als. Thompson agreed at the time.

With the latest revelations, though, Bunting now believes the project can be handled entirely by the county, at coun-ty expense.

Earlier in 2010, OPA staff met with representatives of Worcester County and OPA engineer Steve Soule to dis-cuss conditions in and around Section 3 of the community.

“We have asked our engineers to pre-pare topographic surveys in addition to work already performed assessing flows and alternatives to better manage storm water in the area,” former OPA General Manager Tom Olson said at the time. “Once these reports are received, it will be necessary to analyze the data, com-plete a recommended plan and prepare a timeline.”

The OPA then hosted a town meeting with the area to share with them infor-mation that had been developed.


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McDermott asks commissionersto support gambling ballot question

Delegate says Worcester County stands to reap $1 million if expansion is approved

By ROTA L. KNOTTContributing Writer

It wasn’t on their agenda, but dur-ing an Oct. 2 meeting the Worcester County Commissioners met briefly

with Delegate Mike McDermott, who asked for the opportunity to address lo-cal officials about the expansion of gam-bling in Maryland.

McDermott encouraged the commis-sioners to publicly support Question 7, which will be on the November general election ballot.

The referendum question as it will appear on the statewide ballot asks vot-ers if they “favor the expansion of com-mercial gaming in the State of Mary-land for the primary purpose of raising revenue for education to authorize video lottery operation licensees to operate ‘table games’ as defined by law; to in-crease from 15,000 to 16,500 the maxi-mum number of video lottery terminals that may be operated in the State; and

to increase from five to six the maximum number of video lottery operation licens-es that may be awarded in the State and allow a video lottery facility to operate in Prince George’s County.”

Worcester County stands to reap sig-nificant financial rewards if the ballot question is approved by voters on Nov. 6, McDermott told the commissioners. He said the county could garner at least an additional $1 million annually from the state’s gaming expansion.

“I think that alone for Worcester county residents is a huge thing for them to consider before they walk in there,” McDermott said regarding voters head-ing to the polls.

As approved by state legislators, the gaming bill eliminates “the kick-back to Baltimore City” of 18 percent of the local impact funds, he said, adding that will generate about $1 million more in rev-enue for the county.

When a new casino at the National

Harbor comes online and with the ad-dition of table games statewide, he said “we should realize all of that money that we’ve been sending across the bridge the last two years” now coming back to Worcester.

While he said he would not ask them to specifically endorse gaming, because of the potential financial impact McDer-mott did ask the commissioners to “be informed and perhaps speak out in favor of what it means to Worcester County” in terms of revenue.

He said the legislation approved by the General Assembly “held harmless Ocean City” and, with the exception of some small modifications, keeps restric-tions on entertainment, food and bever-ages at the Ocean Downs casino in place to protect the resort.

Approval of the ballot question on the expansion of gaming in state means a lot to the rest of Maryland as well, Mc-Dermott said, adding that it will gener-

ate both temporary and permanent jobs. Just the proposed casino at the National Harbor in Baltimore is expected to put about $180 million in the Maryland cof-fers.

At Ocean Downs alone the additional of table games is expected to create an-other 100 to 200 jobs, he said. “That’s go-ing to be a big deal for Worcester County because that’s a lot more people work-ing,” he said.

McDermott said he understands that many people are still opposed to permitting gambling. However, he said the ballot question is not one of whether or not to permit gambling but rather of how the industry should be operated in Maryland.

“This is about the business of gam-bling and whether question 7 passes or not we’re still going to have a casino on Route 589 that’s operating,” McDer-mott said, adding the “issue is money to Worcester County.”

He also told the commissioners that the massive amounts of advertising be-ing distributed in opposition to question 7 are being funded by out-of-state casi-nos.

Those operations realize that they will lose revenue if Maryland allows the expansion of its gaming operation and they are trying to keep that from hap-pening, he said.


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Planners grant design waivers for new Pines’ Walgreens By ROTA L. KNOTTContributing Writer

Construction of a Walgreens phar-macy on the corner of Route 589 and Cathell Road near Ocean

Pines earned site plan approval from the Worcester County Planning Com-mission during an Oct. 4 meeting, even though the project as designed required numerous waivers to county standards.

The 14,985-square-foot pharmacy is proposed for construction on prime C-2 commercial property, replacing a vacant building that once housed the Martin Groff Real Estate and Construction Company.

The new Walgreens will replace an existing pharmacy and storefront lo-cated in the Manklin Station shopping center in south Ocean Pines. It is still several years away from construction and occupancy.

This was the second site plan review for Walgreens, with planning commis-sion members having previously looked over and commented on the plans.

The consultants then revised the plans to address some of the commission members’ earlier concerns related to site development and building elevations.

“We have made the appropriate ad-justments to satisfy the concerns that

were expressed back then,” Mark Crop-per, attorney for Walgreens, said.

He acknowledged that a number of waivers to county design standards were needed for the building, but he said that those waivers help the company meet the intention of the design guidelines and enhance the overall appearance of the project.

Jason Pearce, project consultant from the Becker-Morgan Group, said his cli-ent has “taken every measure to comply with the code” and the design guidelines for a “town center” area as specified by the county.

However, certain aspects of the guide-

lines just didn’t work with the build-ing given its use and location. Under the guidelines, the proposed one-story building would need to have either four-foot deep projections or recessed areas in order to add some variety to its ap-pearance.

Pearce said that just isn’t possible on two sides of the structure, the south and west facing facades, because those are the locations of the drive-thru pharmacy window, the loading dock and dumpster area.

“This is a peculiar site where all four sides of the building are considered pub-lic,” he said, adding because of that the code requires four-foot projections or re-cesses on all sides.

That would create a hardship for the applicant with regard to the pharmacy drive-thru, loading dock and dumpster areas, he said.

Instead of using projections or re-cessed areas on those facades, Pearce said the Walgreens design incorporates changes in the building materials like the type and color of brick, and those sides of the building will be screened us-ing landscaping as well.

“We’re still meeting the intent which we believe is breaking of the mass of a large facade like this,” he said.

Requiring the four-foot projections or recessed areas “would also take up sig-nificantly more of the site,” according to Pearce.

He said including them would con-sume about another eight feet on those sides of the building, making it more dif-ficult to meet other code requirements for items like landscaping.

Additionally, he argued, that would have an impact on the interior layout of the store, making it “much more ineffi-cient.”

Planning Commission member Wayne Hartman asked if Walgreens could meet the code requirement for a four-foot projection by installing a short canopy over the loading dock area.

Cropper said that would interfere with ingress and egress for trucks mak-ing deliveries to the store.

Another issue related to the build-ing design was the county’s requirement for “transparency” in the facade. Pearce said that is also a problem on the south and west facing facades of Walgreens because those are the service areas and where highly sensitive and controlled merchandise like pharmacy drugs will be stored.

The planning commission ultimately granted waivers for both the building facade projections and recesses and the transparency issue, after much discus-sion mostly driven by Hartman.

It also granted a waiver to require-ments for a sloped roof on the structure because it is only one story yet is 60 feet tall.

A similar waiver was granted for the canopy over the pharmacy drive-thru. Instead both structures will have flat roofs.


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Two NARFE Chapter 2274 members, Bill and Jo Fortney of Ocean Pines, recently held a fund raiser for Alzheimer’s Research and raised $1,100 to be added to the fund for Alzheimer’s Research at NARFE’s state level campaign. Bill and Jo presented the check to Ted Jensen, NARFE Maryland Federation president, at a federation meeting in Bowie, Md., Oct. 2. Pictured from left are Arlene Page, NARFE Chapter 2274 Presi-dent; Bill and Jo Fortney; and Ted Jensen.

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WORCESTER COUNTY

Showell Elementary School reconstruction still a priorityBy ROTA L. KNOTTContributing Writer

As part of its review of the Fiscal Year 2014 capital improvement program, the Board of Educa-

tion on Sept. 18 acknowledged that a complete renovation or reconstruction of Showell Elementary School remains a priority. The SES project falls in line after construction of a new Snow Hill High School and upgrades to Snow Hill Middle School.

The plan highlights the reconstruc-tion of Showell Elementary schools as well as future additions and renovations at other county schools. A preliminary site survey for Showell was completed in 2008. The site survey determined that there is enough space on the school property to add on or build a new school. Building a new school instead of try-ing to renovate and expand the existing structure was estimated at that time to

result in a savings of $2 million.The existing 53,610 square foot facili-

ty was constructed in 1976 and augment-ed with a 12 classroom addition in 1990. Over the years as northern Worcester County has grown, SES, which is locat-ed on Route 589 north of Ocean Pines, experienced increased enrollment to the point where nine portable classrooms are currently used to accommodate all of the instructional programs. Those por-table classrooms provide a significant amount of the classroom spaces that are available at the school.

SES currently has a student popula-tion of about 546 and has staff that in-cludes a principal, assistant principal, guidance counselor, curriculum resource teacher, nurse and tech coach, 43 teach-ers, 18 educational assistants, two food services workers, two secretaries and four custodians.

Despite moving students in grades

4 and 5 to Berlin Intermediate School, SES continues to operate above rated capacity. SES uses numerous portable classrooms to accommodate existing programs including kindergarten and pre-kindergarten. Restrooms and other support functions are included in the main school building. Pedestrian traffic between the portables and main build-ing occurs via uncovered walkways that expose students to inclement weather. Although the portables are equipped with handicapped ramps, not all of the back entrances to the main building are compliant.

Preliminary estimates have indicated that it would cost more than $44 million to make the existing school big enough to accommodate future student popula-tions.

It is projected that state planning approval will be requested in the FY 2016 capital improvement plan for SES. A feasibility study, the first step in the planning process, is currently scheduled for the fall of 2013.

Other priority projects included in the planning document are the Snow Hill High School renovation and addition project. A request for state construction funding for the project will be included in the FY 2014 plan.

Funding will be included in the FY 2014 plan for the replacement of lamps and ballasts in more than 2,000 light fix-tures at Snow Hill Middle School.

This project is being submitted under the energy efficiency initiative program passed by the General Assembly in April 2012.

The Board of Education authorized staff to prepare and submit the required Interagency Committee on School Con-struction application for the capital improvement initiatives identified in the 2012-2013 Educational Facilities Master Plan. While contingent on final

authorization by the Worcester County Commissioners, submission of the re-vised capital plan will confirm the Board of Education’s desire to proceed with the identified projects when state and local funding is provided.

Shirleen Church, coordinator of in-struction, presented information on the new teacher induction program. Worces-ter County Public Schools provides a comprehensive, high-quality induction program for all new teachers that are new to the profession as well as a vet-eran teacher who is new to the district.

The goals of the induction program are to address professional learning needs, improve instruction quality and help new teachers achieve success in their teaching content-areas.

Superintendent of Schools Jerry Wil-son shared the results and analysis data from the community interviews that he held during his first couple of months as the incoming superintendent.

He said a generally favorable impres-sion of the school system was obvious from the information gathered during these meetings. Wilson plans to use this information as he develops a strategic direction for the school system.

Joe Price, facilities planner, reviewed the process for selecting construction management firms to provide profes-sional construction management servic-es for the Snow Hill High School reno-vation and addition project. Firms that were approved for interviews by the se-lection committee were Nason Construc-tion of Wilmington, Del., Oak Contract-ing of Towson, Md., J. Vinton Schaefer and Sons of Abingdon, Md., SPN, Inc. of Rockville, Md. and The Whiting Turner Contracting Corporation of Baltimore, Md.

Buckingham, Snow Hill and Pocomoke elementary schools are among 30 Mary-land Title I public schools in nine coun-ties being honored for their efforts to im-prove student achievement. The schools, known as “Reward Schools,” have made strides in overall student work, as well as in reducing gaps in achievement.

Maryland’s new reward schools pro-gram was developed as part of MSDE’s plan for flexibility from parts of the federal government’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Maryland plan, approved in May, refocuses the state’s ongoing accountability efforts by eliminating the continuum of sanctions known as the School Improvement pro-cess.

Title I schools cited are either high performing having met objectives for all subgroups over the past two consecutive years ending with the 2010-2011 school year, or high progress, having signifi-cantly cut gaps in achievement between racial or special services subgroups since 2007.

This recognition comes with no fi-nancial benefits, but certificates of rec-ognition will be sent to each school and additional honors will go to the highest achieving schools in the category.


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AROUND THE COUNTYRecycle electronics,hazardous waste

A household hazardous waste, and electronics recycling collection day will be held on Saturday, Oct. 20, at the Showell Elementary School parking lot from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Residents are encouraged to gather up those old or unusable cans of pes-ticides, pool chemicals, gas and other fuels, oil-base paints, thinners and ev-eryday hazardous wastes accumulating in and around the home and bring them to the recycling center for safe disposal. Electronic items, such as computers, monitors, keyboards, printers, radios, televisions and VCRs, will be collected and later recycled.

Because household hazardous waste and electronics don’t break down eas-ily, recycling them saves much-needed landfill space. Many of the items also contain poisonous materials that could seep out of the landfill and contaminate surrounding soil and groundwater.

This free event is open to Worcester County residents only. Clean Venture of Baltimore is responsible for the safe disposal of all hazardous waste collect-ed. The electronics will be shipped to an electronics recycler for dismantling.

Contact Worcester County Recycling Manager Ron Taylor at 410-632-3177.

County holds resourceday for the homeless

The Worcester County Homeless Committee will hold a Community Re-source Day for homeless people or peo-ple at risk of homelessness from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Oct. 19 Atlantic United Methodist Church in Ocean City.

The Community Resource Day is an opportunity for one-on-one time with groups that provide services such as housing, counseling, treatment and health care. In addition to the regular soup kitchen, people attending the event will have access to personal hygiene products such as soap and toothpaste that are not normally provided at food pantries.

Local businesses and individuals can donate personal hygiene products. The items will be distributed at the Com-munity Resource Day in October and at future Community Resource Days throughout the winter. Monetary dona-tions are also accepted. Contact Donna Taylor, Worcester Youth and Family Counseling Services, at 410-641-4598.

Last rabies clinicof the year set

Pet owners can take advantage of one more inexpensive rabies vaccinations clinic offered this fall by the Worcester County Health Department and Animal Control. The clinic will be held from 5:30-7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 24 at Worcester County Animal Control on Timmons Road in Snow Hill. This will be the last clinic offered in 2012.

Rabies is a dangerous fatal disease and ongoing problem in the county. The county has reported 15 laboratory con-firmed cases of rabies this year, with 13

of the cases raccoons, one fox and one groundhog. The county also reported 14 suspected cases of rabies in raccoons and foxes, which means the animal or contact was indicative of rabies but the animal was not tested.

People and animals can be infected by the virus if they are exposed to the sa-liva of an infected animal. Low-cost ra-bies clinics are offered to help residents protect their dogs, cats and ferrets.

The cost for a rabies vaccination is $5 per pet for Worcester County resi-dents and $10 per pet for non-Worcester County residents. Proof of residency is required. Vaccinations are available for dogs, cats and ferrets.

For more information on the clin-ics or to report animal bites or pos-sible rabies exposures to pets from wild

animals contact the Worcester County Health Department at 410-352-3234 or 410-641-9559. If an incident occurs af-ter normal business hours, contact your local law enforcement or the Worcester County Sheriff ’s Office.

County will soundcommunity alert siren

Worcester County emergency alert signals will sound from area fire sirens on Saturday, Oct. 6. A steady alert tone will sound at 10 a.m. for approximately one minute.

The signals are tested the first Sat-urday of each month. In the event of an actual emergency, the sirens would be used as additional means to warn the surrounding communities of imminent danger and the need to tune to either

radio, television or the internet for in-formation.

Unemployment rate drops In Worcester

The unemployment rate in Worcester County dropped to 7.8 percent in July 2012, a decrease from the rate of 8.5 percent in July 2011, according to data released in September by Worcester County Economic Director Bill Badger. He attributes the decline to an economy made stronger by job creation.

“This is great news, and shows we have made substantial progress in our goal to reduce our high unemployment rate and provide quality job opportuni-ties for the citizens of Worcester Coun-ty,” Badger said.

Of the 33,290 men and women who make up Worcester County’s labor force, 30,605 are employed. Fewer than 2,605 were unemployed as of July.

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CALENDAR OF EVENTSMonday, Oct. 8The Friends of the Ocean Pines

Library monthly meeting, Ocean Pines library, 10 a.m. Refreshments 9:30 a.m. Tina Pearson, owner and operator of Home of the Brave, a getaway for com-bat veterans and wounded warriors and their families, located in Berlin. Short business meeting follows the program. 410-208-4014.

Tuesday, Oct. 9The Women’s Club of Ocean

Pines autumn luncheon, Dunes Manor Hotel, 28th Street in Ocean City, 11:30 a.m. $23 cost includes a cup of tomato basil soup, non-alcoholic beverage, and a choice of three entrees. For reserva-tions, contact Pat Addy, 410-208-0171 or [email protected].

Wednesday, Oct. 10Town hall meeting, hosted by Ocean

Pines Association General Manager Bob Thompson, Ocean Pines Community Center, 6 p.m. Call 410-641-7717, ext. 3006.

Thursday, Oct. 11Worcester County tea party

monthly meeting, Ocean Pines Commu-nity Center, 7 p.m. 410-430-7282.

Saturday, Oct. 13Kiwanis annual fall pancake

breakfast, 8-11 a.m., Ocean Pines Com-munity Center, Assateague Room. Pan-cakes, sausage, fruit cup, coffee and tea.

$5 for adults, $3 kids under 12, under 5 free. Proceeds benefi t local youth.

Ocean Pines Anglers Club’smonthly meeting, 9:30 a.m., Ocean Pines library. “All About Bass.” Bob Head dis-cusses fi shing for large mouth bass in and around Ocean Pines and surf fi sh-erman Tom Nelson provides secrets of fi shing for striped bass in the surf. All welcome.

Sunday, Oct. 14Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orches-

tra season premier, Romantic Mood, Ocean Pines Community Church, 3 p.m. Contact 888-846-8600.

Thursday, Oct. 18Pine’eer Craft Club of Ocean Pines’

monthly meeting, Ocean Pines Commu-nity Center, 9:45 a.m. Business meeting, followed by a demonstration in stained glass and mosaics, then members will weave a reed reindeer. Cost for the rein-deer $2. 410-208-1979 to reserve your kit. Refreshments provided. All Ocean Pines residents invited.

Friday, Oct. 19Annual Pink Ribbon Golf Clas-

sic, sponsored by the Eastern Shore Chapter of the Executive Women’s Golf Association, Ocean City Golf Club, Ber-lin. Women-only event to support the

American Cancer Society’s breast can-cer awareness and research programs. $100 per player or $400 per team in-cludes lunch, 18 holes of golf with a cart, dinner, an offi cial tournament gift bag, prizes for longest drive and closest to the pin contests, prizes for all division and more. Registration 11 a.m., lunch 11:30 a.m. Scramble format with noon shotgun start. Contact Nancy Doffl emyer at 410-251-6555 or Judy Johnson-Schoelkopf at 443-235-4341.

Saturday, Oct. 27Halloween celebration, White

Horse Park, Ocean Pines, 1-4 p.m. Car-nival games, face painting, scarecrow making, moon bounces, costume awards, goodies from the Kiwanis Club of Ocean Pines, “headless” horse rides, tattoos, hay ride. Admission free, small fee to participate in some events. Volunteers needed and donations of individually wrapped candy needed. 410-641-7052

Sunday, Nov. 4Kiwanis’ annual Germanfest,

Ocean Pines Community Center, 4:30-7 p.m. Bratwurst, sauerkraut, green beans, red cabbage, potato salad, apple-sauce and fresh baked bread, dessert, coffee or tea. $12 adults, $6 child (12 and Under). Reservations/tickets call 410-208-6719. Carryout available 5-7

p.m.Walk-ins welcome. Proceeds benefi t youth of the community.

Ongoing

Pine’eer Craft and Gift Shop, White Horse Park, Ocean Pines (off Ocean Parkway), 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sat-urdays and Sunday. The shop features handcrafted home decor, jewelry and fashion accessories created by members of the Pine’eer Craft Club. Open Sat-urdays and Sundays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. thereafter.

Pancake breakfast every Saturday, 8 a.m. till noon, Ocean City Airport, to support the Ocean City Aviation Associ-ation’s Huey Memorial Display restora-tion and continuous maintenance fund. The display is located near the Terminal and requires no security procedures to view. Contact Tom Oneto, 410-641-6888, or Airport Operations,410-213-2471

Sanctioned duplicate bridge games, Ocean Pines Community Cen-ter, Sundays 1 p.m., Mondays noon, Tuesdays 10 a.m. Partners guaranteed. $5, special games $6. Third Sunday of every month is Swiss teams (no partner guaranteed for teams). Felicia Daly, 410-208-1272; Pat Kanz, 410-641-8071

The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, Flotilla 12-05, meets the fi rst Monday of each month at 7:30 p.m. in the U.S.C.G. Station, Ocean City. Visitors and new members are welcome. Dennis Kalin-owski, 410-208-4147. Web site http://a0541205.uscgaux.info.


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State gives preliminary approvalfor $2.28 million in funding

to improve Cove water qualityUtility company launches pilot program


Although it comes with caveats in-cluding the availability of federal and state funding, the Captain’s

Cove Utility Co. has received prelimi-nary approval for its application to the Virginia Department of Health for fund-ing to improve the quality of drinking water in Captain’s Cove.

In a recent letter to Tim Hearn, presi-dent of the utility company, the health department says it is prepared to pro-vide $2,282,300 for water system im-provements, consisting of a $1,826,640 in a 2.5 percent interest loan over a 30-year term, with $456,660 in principal forgiveness, effectively a grant.

The preliminary notice of this fund-ing package was contained in a letter to Hearn from J. Dale Kitchen, acting director of the Division of Construction Assistance, Planning and Policy of the Virginia Department of Health.

Hearn and the utility company noti-fied the state in writing by a Sept. 12 deadline that they accepted the initial funding package offer.

The state is reserving the right to change funding requirements, which suggests that it’s always possible that the funding will fall through.

But Hearn has said he is optimistic that in fact the utility company will be able to close the transaction.

Hearn said the utility company was among a handful of applications given preliminary approval from about 65 submitted to the state.

The low interest loan component will

save the utility company, and Cove wa-ter customers, about $200,000 per year in interest expenses, he said, when com-pared to seven percent interest that a commercial lending institution might impose on the amount financed.

Hearn confirmed that pilot testing for the project is already under way.

The funding covers two significant components.

One is the construction of a 1200 square foot building that would be built near the water tower, to contain reverse osmosis and ionic exchange equipment designed to remove organic material, metals and other contaminants from the Cove water supply. That component is roughly 80 percent of the funding.

“This equipment will allow us to pro-vide to our Captain’s Cove customers the best drinking water on the Eastern Shore,” he said.

The second component, covering the remaining 20 percent of the loan-grant funding, would finance the installation of about 900 water meters in Captain’s Cove houses.

The testing or pilot program that has already been launched involves two, 2500 gallon holding tanks for water that will be sent through miniature versions of water cleansing equipment that will be used to help determine the amount of filtering needed to result in the highest level of water quality.

Association approvesassessment increase

The anticipated increase in the Cap-

tain’s Cove base lot assessment occurred as expected in the biannual assessment notices received by property owners in recent days.

The annual increase is $100 per lot, raising the annual assessment to $790, payable in semi-annual increments of $395 or in monthly installments of $65.83.

The association’s October newsletter attributed the increase to capital items in the budget, new infrastructure and beefing up the Cove association reserves.

Hearn, who shortly will be elected to the Cove association’s board of directors, said that in addition to replenishing the reserves, the assessment increase will be used to improve the association’s overall financial condition, including paying off about $140,000 in invoices that have accumulated.

Hearn said that the POA has been running operating deficits in recent years in the range of $200,000 to $300,000.

He said the current and previous boards had allowed POA reserves to fall to an unhealthy $500,000, from a previous level of $1.5 million. Hearn said the board used about $500,000 from reserves to pay legal bills associated with litigation against the utility company and developer interests “that accomplished exactly nothing.”

He said that reserves will climb $250,000 to about $750,000 in the new fiscal year as a result of the assessment increase.

Hearn said about 2500 property owners in the Cove who will be paying $790 in annual assessment will raise about $1.9 million in revenue, that in turn will cover about $100,000 in general administrative costs, $200,000 in golf course losses, $100,000 in golf-related capital expenditures, $100,000 in restaurant losses, $100,000 in Marina Club capital expenditures, $100,000 in aquatics expenses, $400,000 in road maintenance expenses, $200,000 for security, and about $50,000 in insurance and other expenses.

About $100,000 will be budgeted to complete engineering for roads yet to be built in Sections One through 13.

Another revenue stream to the association will be ongoing efforts by the utility company, on behalf of the association, to collect assessment arrearages that are six months old or longer.

Roughly $200,000 has been collected so far in this effort, Hearn said. These funds are being used to service the debt on the association’s Marina Club acquisition and road construction. The annual debt service on the Marina Club is about $240,000, Hearn said, meaning that the collection effort is close to meeting its goal for the year.

Election resultsat annual meeting

The Captain’s Cove Golf and Yacht Club will conduct its annual meeting Nov. 3 at 10 a.m. at the Marina Club’s banquet room. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m.

Election results will be announced at the meeting, with some results preordained because ballots associated with developer-owned lots are assured of being cast for candidates Tim Hearn, Michael Glick and C. James Silfee, Jr.

Five slots on the seven-member board will be filled because of some resignations, including a former Cove president who Hearn said was much involved in spending reserve funds for legal battles that never succeeded.

Hearn previously has said that his slate of board members expects to work well with carry-over board members.

In addition to the three candidates associated with developer interests, Hearn said he and his partners expect to cast ballots for two other candidates that he declined to name.

He said the two candidates would be widely acceptable to the leadership and membership of the Concerned Citizens of Captain’s Cove (CCCC), a civic group that Hearn said has been supportive of many of the objectives that he and his partners have advocated.

“We all agree that we need to get our finances in order, and this new budget and a new board will work towards that goal,” he said. “The days of spending reserve money on futile litigation are over. It will take awhile, but we also will be building our reserves back to where they once were.”

He said various factions in Captain’s Cove will have representation on the board beginning in November.

At the same time, he acknowledged that the group that has controlled the board in recent years is no longer in charge of Captain’s Cove’s destiny.

Roads meetingmoves process

In a recent e-mail to the Progress, Hearn disclosed that he met with Cove General Manager Lance Stitcher and some Cove members, and the Cove’s engineer, Ed Young, on Sept. 7 to facilitate the completion of construction drawings needed to complete roads in Section 1 through 13.

Cove General Manager Lance Stitcher that he hopes road construction can begin next year.


LIFE IN THE PINESAn excursion through the curious by-ways and cul-de-sacsof Worcester County’s most densely populated community.

OM STAUSS/Publisherof Worcester County’s most densely populated communi

By TOM STAUSS/Publisher

The Ocean Pines Progress, a journal ofnews and commentary, is publishedmonthly throughout the year. It iscirculated in Ocean Pines, Berlin, WestOcean City, Snow Hill, Ocean City andCapain’s Cove,Va.Letters and other editorial submissions:Please submit via email only.We do notaccept faxes or submissions that requireretyping. Letters should be original andexclusive to the Progress. Include phone

127 Nottingham Lane,Ocean Pines, MD

PUBLISHER/EDITORTom Stauss

[email protected]

ART DIRECTORHugh Dougherty

CONTRIBUTING WRITERRota Knott

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ART DIRECTORRota Knott

CONTRIBUTINGWRITERSRota Knott

Ginny Reister

OPINION

EDITORIAL

LETTERYacht Club ‘shocker’

The headline screamed,” Yacht Club Shocker,” as the Ocean Pines Progress celebrates the salesmanship of OPA General Manger, Bob Thompson, and his effort to gain approval of the referen-dum to build a new Yacht Club. I wasn’t shocked. Mr. Thompson, by all accounts, is an excellent salesman, skilled in the buzzwords of sales and a masterful PowerPoint presenter. The questions re-main: Why is a homeowners association

the financial track record of the Yacht Club, there should be little question that the losses will continue long after Mr. Thompson has moved on.

There is no evidence that once the honeymoon is over the financial situa-tion of the new Yacht Club will improve. Frankly, there is no market for the Yacht Club that is not already being met by other restaurants near Ocean Pines. In the September issue of the Ocean Pines Progress touting the “Shocker,” in fact

in the restaurant business? How will a new facility improve the performance of the restaurant?

If there’s one thing the economy of the area is telling us, it’s that we don’t need another restaurant. Failing privately owned restaurants abound around Ocean Pines. So how will a pub-licly owned and managed facility avoid a similar fate? With the continuing finan-cial aid of the OPA dues paying mem-bers (a.k.a. “taxpayers”), of course. With

right next to the headline article, we find this: “Yacht Club days of operation are cut back.”

In a few years, after the ribbon cut-ting and grand opening are over, we will be complaining about the “unreal-ized revenue” of the new Yacht Club and wishing we had fixed the storm drainage problems, paved the streets, and paid the IRS our taxes.

Reggie D. Shephard Jr. Ocean Pines

Golf drainage: Let property owners decide

The just completed successful refer-endum on a new $4.3 million Yacht Club could easily be misinterpreted

by Ocean Pines decision-makers as a license to pursue every big-ticket capital project that might conceivably be proposed to deal with the community’s aging amenities. That would be a mistake.

It does not follow, for instance, that because property owners are willing to expend a sizable portion of community reserves to build a new Yacht Club that they will be willing to spend a similar amount of money on a new Country Club.

It doesn’t even mean they are all that supportive of spending millions of dollars on a golf course that is hemorrhaging members and on a track to lose more money under an outside management contract than it ever did when the golf course was managed in-house.

The simple matter is that the Yacht Club referendum results are not predictive of much of anything. Any future big-ticket project will have to stand on its own merits. Anything’s possible.

The same is true for capital projects already in the pipeline.

For instance, to test the theory that property owners endorse the golf course drainage project, now being done in a protracted year-by-year process that has rebuilt about a third of the course, OPA management should tote the costs of completing the project all at once and put it all out to referendum.

Such an approach if it succeeds would require the closure of the course for a year or moew, but that actually would reduce significant operating losses that otherwise are likely to result if the status quo is maintained.

Completing the reconstruction of the

golf course should fix, all at once, the poor condition of fairways that offset the improved conditions of the greens.

The OPA will be embarking on Phase II of the green replacement program very shortly.

Even assuming that new greens on the back nine are everything they ought to be next spring, fairways won’t be, absent some sort of extremely fortuitous weather or some sort of breakthrough on turf maintenance that the contract management firm running the course so far has been unable to effect.

A golf course perceived to be in poor condition and continually subject to a slow-moving rebuilding project is not the way to inspire lapsed members to renew or new golfers to sign up. Nor does it attract the outside package play said to be so crucial to golf operations’ bottom line.

Too many competing courses in the area are newer and in optimum condition and, for some, more fun to play than Ocean Pines’ challenging (some would way sadistic) Robert Trent Jones layout.

All the Yacht Club referendum results prove is that property owners are capable of listening to a well-prepared sales campaign on the merits of a new building.

The same sort of campaign could be waged on behalf of investing in a golf course that also is showing signs of age.

If the case is effectively made for why Ocean Pines needs a golf course owned by a property owners association, it shouldn’t be too difficult to make the case for making it the kind of golf course that more people will want to play.

At the very least, if indeed a golf course in our midst contributes to property values, then it shouldn’t be too difficult to convince a majority of property owners voting in a referendum, even those who have no interest

in a set of golf clubs, that maintaining and operating a golf course is important.

Some sort of mix of borrowing and tapping OPA reserves should be adequate to finance whatever the cost turns out to be. By doing it all it once, completing the project as a unit ought to reduce the overall cost.

If a majority of property owners in a referendum are unwilling to support a one-time expenditure of funds needed to complete the golf drainage project, then the community needs to have a serious discussion with itself on whether it should be in the golf business at all.

That wouldn’t necessarily mean that the course would close and be turned into a park. It could mean that the OPA actively search for a firm to lease the course and operate it for a period of say, five years, perhaps with an option to buy it if all goes well.

Perhaps some former Ocean Pines golf pro – there are quite a few of those still around – could assemble a small group of investors that would be willing to lease the course, keeping all the revenue from memberships and green fees and carts while maintaining the course and operating the Country Club’s snack bar.

Of course, such a scenario would mean the OPA will lose control over an asset that it has not managed effectively over the years.

It’s always possible that an outside company that leases the course would fail to run it profitably, in which case control would revert to the OPA.

At that point, the community would need to decide whether dumping more resources into the golf course makes any sense at all.

But first things first. If the powers-that-be are so confident that the golf course is a vital community asset, then let property owners decide by voting up or down on golf drainage. – Tom Stauss








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Ginny Reister

OPINION







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Ginny Reister

OPINION

Ten-year plan revival is a needed step forward

Although he encountered some flak from colleague Dave Stevens and an abstention from Marty

Clarke, OPA Director Dan Stachurski acted responsibly in his recent push to reactivate the Ten Year Major Facilities Task Force, or whatever it is that the planning group will be called in its latest iteration.

Stachurski’s motion during the Sep-tember meeting of the board of directors called for General Manager Bob Thomp-son to come back with a recommendation on how to jumpstart facilities planning. That should be happening by the board’s next regularly meeting in late October.

Stachurski’s motion reflected sensitivity to the way facilities planning ought to happen, a process that lately has been effectively managed by the general manager. Thompson deserves that level of courtesy and expression of board of directors’ confidence by virtue of the professional manner in which he led the effort to market the proposed new Yacht Club. While facilities’ planning to some extent is a policy matter, it intersects with Thompson’s role as Ocean Pines’ defacto town manager. It truly is a matter of board discretion as to whether the board of directors, or a subset thereof, or Thompson plays a

lead role in future facilities planning.Stachurski’s motion suggests that he

wants to give Thompson an opportunity to lead the charge.

The merits of Stachurski’s push to revise the rack-and-stacking of a laundry list of future projects, together with cost estimates and financing options, really doesn’t require much defending. Although Stevens said during board discussion that the task is too difficult to complete by Stachurski’s target date of June, 2013, a focused effort ought to be able to accomplish the goal by then, or even before. Much of the groundwork has already been laid by the defunct major facilities task force that last produced a future projects list in June of 2011.

Much has happened since then. Property owners approved in referendum the future expenditure of $4.3 million for a new Yacht Club, an expenditure that will take a very substantial bite out of the OPA’s major maintenance and replacement reserve. As of Aug. 31, that reserve had a balance of $5,879,820. Not even factoring in other likely withdrawals from that reserve over the next year or so, the Yacht Club project alone will be responsible for reducing that reserve to less than $1.5 million.

Although the OPA never has reached a solid consensus on just what constitutes an adequate level for the community’s reserve funds, there would be near-universal agreement that $1.5 million is too little, given the plethora of aging amenities and other facilities throughout Ocean Pines.

That said, reactivating the facilities task force or Thompson’s facilities planning group, a group that purposefully did not include members of the board, makes a lot of sense. The task set out in Stachurski’s motion needs to be done.

Thompson can choose the option that best suits his modus operandi, with the likely result that whatever he proposes, the board will accept.

Does permitting setbackaffect Yacht Club prospects?

The refusal by the Worcester County Planning Commission at its Oct. 4 meeting to accept what was a called a joint use parking agreement for the planned new Yacht Club might be construed as bad news for the project as it makes its way through the county’s permitting gauntlet.

Then again, it’s really too soon to say for sure what the ultimate impact will be. There’s no cause for alarm or panic. The setback could not have pleased

Thompson, but it may not have much affect at all, depending on whether a special exception to accomplish the same parking objective envisioned in the joint use agreement is granted by Ed Tudor, the county’s director of permitting and development review.

Tudor in a role of hearing examiner will conduct an administrative review Oct. 9 in Snow Hill to consider the OPA’s request for a parking special exception, designed to allow the OPA to include fewer parking spaces for the new Yacht Club than otherwise is required by county code.

Thompson will be there to make the case, rather than relying on representatives from AWB Engineering and Harkins Construction to do so. The new Yacht Club contractors stumbled a bit in making the case for the joint use agreement, including a confusing exchange with planning commission members over whether the Mumford’s Landing pool would have to be closed during a wedding at the Yacht Club to comply with the joint use agreement. It took Thompson a minute or two while seated in the audience to clarify that no pool closure would be needed, but perhaps the damage was already done.

If it was a mistake for Thompson not to take the lead Oct. 4, it’s not likely he will make the same mistake in the administrative hearing before Tudor. [Visit oceanpinesprogress.com late Oct. 9 for an up-to-date report on Tudor’s decision.]

Even if Tudor declines to issue an administrative waiver for the parking special exception, it’s merely a setback, hardly fatal for the prospects of surviving the county’s permitting gauntlet. In that event, the request for a special exception then would go to the Board of Zoning Appeals, perhaps as early as November. If that board approves the special exception, then the site plan (with reduced parking already baked in the mix) would be scheduled for review by the planning commission, as early as December.

If Tudor approves the waiver, then the site plan review probably could be scheduled for the planning commission’s early November meeting. There, the discussion could prove fascinating, depending on which way Commission Chair Marlene Ott, a local Realtor with many decades of ties to Ocean Pines, leans.

If she expresses concerns about parking associated with the new Yacht Club, as she did during the Oct. 4 meeting, then theoretically that could affect the planning commission’s vote

on the site plan. Some of her colleagues might defer to her, as she is the only Ocean Pines resident on the board.

By then, the parking reduction would have been approved by either Tudor or the zoning appeals board, so it would be appropriate for the panel to approve or reject the site plan without any new consideration of parking. But if she continues to harbor doubts about parking, she could decide that the proposed 20,000 square foot building is simply too big for the site and vote accordingly, with other board members following her lead.

During discussion during the Oct. 4 meeting, she expressed a “concern” about the proposed parking reduction, citing an experience at the Yacht Club on the last Friday in September, in which a wedding was held on the second floor of the Yacht Club, while the typical Friday night crowd enjoyed live music and drinks and assorted fare on the lower level.

According to Ott, a large number of cars were parked on the grass near the Yacht Club because there were too few spaces available in the parking lot.

Later, when one of her colleagues suggested that new lighting for the Mumford’s Landing pool parking lot should be required, Ott said that nearby residents in the Colonial Village might not be pleased by lights shining in their windows after dark.

She didn’t say so, but it almost seemed that for her, it was Strike Two.

Whether those concerns can be allayed by Thompson whenever the planning commission reviews the site plan can’t be known for certain. The general manager has a track record of articulating complex matters in a way that is comprehensible to others, so betting against him in any presentation he might make to Tudor, the board of zoning appeals, or the planning commission is probably not a good idea.

For instance, he might say that newly installed lights at the Mumford’s Landing pool parking lot will be put on movement-sensitive dimmer switches, as occurs elsewhere in Ocean Pines. He might say that guests during weddings will be accommodated in the future by valet parking, obviating the need for cars to be parked on the grass when the Yacht Club is congested.

Thompson has a good chance of persuading Tudor about the merits of a parking reduction, given that the Mumford’s Landing pool parking lot is close by. But even if Plan B fails, as did Plan A, Plan C – consideration of a parking reduction by the Board of Zoning Appeals – remains viable. Only if Plan C fails should the OPA consider reducing the size of the new Yacht Club as a way of complying with parking space availability.

The Oct. 4 was a setback, no question about it, but at worst it will only delay the inevitable by a couple of months.


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October 2012 Ocean Pines Progress