News

BERLIN — With the presentation of the proposed Berlin Fire Company budget by David Fitzgerald, President of the Berlin Fire Company, the Town of Berlin is prepared to adopt its $13.5 million fiscal 2013 budget after a public hearing May 29. Fitzgerald told the Mayor and Council that, at their request, the Company was able to keep their expenses in line with fiscal year 2012 and fiscal year 2011 budget numbers for both the fire and EMS sides of the operation but he pointed out some of the difficulties with continuing to maintain low operating costs. “We’d like to compliment Mr. [Michael] Day, he’s bringing a lot of things into Town,” he said. “But it is a stretch on services.” Day is the Director of Community and Economic Development and generally considered one of those primarily responsible for the Town’s economic growth over the last few years. Providing the services to support that growth is something about which the BFC prides its...

BERLIN — Generally last-minute, un-budgeted expenditures don’t get very good popular reviews, but the Town Council’s decision to tap into a small portion this year’s funds to bring Wi-Fi to the Downtown will likely do little to raise public ire. At the end of last year’s budget debate, Councilwoman Lisa Hall suggested adding funding for Downtown Wi-Fi as part of the fiscal 2013 budget, but the recommendation slipped through the cracks and remained all but forgotten about until this month. As the Town moved to finalize the budget, Mayor Gee Williams recalled Hall’s suggestion and asked Town staff to look into the cost and logistics of getting the work done.  “We forgot about it the whole time we went through the budget process,” said Williams. Tim Lawrence, Town Electric Utility Director, who headed up a similar project in his last job running the electric utility in Manassas, Va. took charge of the inquiry and discovered that the...

OCEAN PINES — Sharyn O’Hare has been tempted to run for the OPA board of directors more than a few times since the association was founded. Generally she’s shied away for either business or personal reasons but as the board and the association generally enter what could be a very critical period, O’Hare decided that her time to attempt to serve had come and entered the race. Over the last several years, the recurring issue of what to do with the association’s ailing buildings and infrastructure has been at the forefront of the boards’ and the members’ concerns over the next three years the groundwork will likely be laid for the buildings’ second 40 years. It will mark a critical time in the association’s history and O’Hare believes she can be a useful part of it. The primary difficulty, as she sees it, is to balance the vast amount of work that will need to be done with the members’ wishes to keep the assessments from g...

BERLIN — The Berlin Mayor and Council this week took up the issue of whether out-of-town contractors should pay a fee before they can perform work in the Town and, if so, how high the fee should be and how the rates should be structured. Although in-town businesses are required to have a business license to run their businesses from Berlin, contractors from neighboring or even out-of-state concerns are not required to register in any way with the town. Requiring contractors to pay a fee to register or be licensed with a municipality is a common practice. Town Administrator Tony Carson told the Mayor and Council that the cost of this licenses is a common question his office, and the office of Planning and Zoning receives regularly. Out-of-town businesses are often pleased with the fact that Berlin is one of the few towns that has none, which some believe is a selling point for not instituting a rate. There is also the question of whether the Town staff has the capacity to admin...

BERLIN — The weather never made good on its threat this weekend and the Berlin Jazz and Blues Festival continued throughout the day uninterrupted. Crowds were slow to materialize as many people were waiting to see what the weather was going to be but by the end of the day, officials estimate that around 2,500 people attended part or all of the festival. “I think the weather kept the attendance down a little bit but is was still a good crowd,” said Berlin Director of Business and Economic Development Michael Day.  By the time The Daryl Davis Band with Special Guest Margot Resto took the stage at 6 p.m., the festival had possible seen its best musical lineup yet. Olive Mawyer, Executive Director of the Berlin Chamber of Commerce, which sponsored the event, said that by Tuesday morning she was getting thank you notes from the bands that performed. “I’ve just had rave reviews about the music,” Mawyer said. “How well organized the event was...

SNOW HILL — As the result of a Maryland Department of the Environment fee levied on the Ocean Pines Sanitary Service Area, residents will receive a $15 bump in their sewer bills this June. The $2.50 per-user-per-month fee is applied to users of facilities with heightened nitrogen levels as part of a mechanism for funding the Bay Restoration Fund. Although many jurisdictions pay this fee, users in the Ocean Pines area have been exempt from it because of the plant’s efficiency. The fee was imposed after the treatment plant failed to meet MDE standards for nitrogen content in January and February 2011.  Jennifer Savage, who runs the County’s Enterprise Fund, told the Commissioners that the two months overage was attributable to cold weather that prevented sufficient pollutant processing. State standards place the maximum at 3.0 milligrams of nitrogen per liter. The Ocean Pines plant averaged 3.68 for January and February. It has since returned to well below normal...

OCEAN PINES — Ocean Piners kept 73,540 pounds or about 37 tons of recyclables out of landfills during the community’s first month of recycling. “That’s a huge number,” General Manager Bob Thompson told a group of approximately 45 people gathered at the Yacht Club last Thursday evening to learn about recycling.  Thompson and Jon Southworth of Waste Management, the trash collection company for Ocean Pines, discussed the new recycling program that includes possible cash benefits for the community and vouchers or coupons for residents. The program is expected to start in July.  Waste Management is partnering with SC Johnson, which is sponsoring the Green Choices program nationwide.  “Waste Management selected us to represent Maryland in the upcoming challenge,” Thompson said. “it’s very, very exciting for us. Other communities are of a comparable size.” “For poundage of the recyclables we send, points bui...

SNOW HILL — Although the Worcester County Sheriffs patrolling Seacrets this year will be in plain cloths they will be on the clock and providing both security and an extra set of eyes for possible DWIs. Seacrets has employed off-duty sheriffs for more than a decade but this year the nightclub entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Worcester County Board of Commissioners similar to the deal struck last year between the County and the Casino at Ocean Downs for sheriff protection. By having the sheriffs on the clock under the MOU both the officers and the county have better insulation against liability. “We have liability now regardless if they’ve moonlighting or working on their own,” said County attorney Sonny Bloxom. “It’s [just] best to have the maximum amount of coverage.” In order to take advantage of that coverage the sheriffs have to be on duty. Dale Smack, chief deputy for the Worcester County Sheriffs Department (W...

SNOW HILL — With about $75,000 in Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant funds remaining, Budget Accountant Kim Johnson asked the Worcester County Board of  Commissioners’ permission to use less than $10,000 of it to purchase energy-efficient refrigerators for County facilities. Her expectation is to use the money for the purchase and installation of 17 refrigerators before June. Under questioning from the Commissioners Johnson said that the replaced refrigerators must be scrapped and any money made from the process used to reduce the replacement cost. Commissioners Virgil Shockley and Judy Boggs had hoped to repurpose the refrigerators someplace else in the County but concented to the grant’s conditions. “I hate to see good refrigerators scrapped,” Boggs said. Wastewater issues The Harborside Bar and Grille was granted permission to use EDUs currently allocated to their off-site parking lot as part of the operating allotment for the rest...

BERLIN — Protecting homes and property from crime is something the Berlin Police Department has done well but in response to burglaries around town over the last six weeks Chief Arnold Downing cautions residents on what they can do to help prevent and deter these kinds of crimes. “We think [the burglaries] are all related,” Downing said. “But we thing these are crimes of opportunity.” A crime of opportunity is when someone takes advantage of an unlocked door or open window to grab something that’s in the open. These crimes are not so much planned — houses are not likely “staked out” for example — as occur where a lapse in vigilance meets chance. In order to begin to reverse this trend, Downing asks residents to call the police if they’re unsure of a person on a neighbor’s property. He was clear that the Berlin Police maintain a low-profile approach when it comes to strangers in a neighborhood. “Call if th...