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OCEAN PINES — Marty Clarke is ready and willing to serve on the Ocean Pines board of directors for a second time. He compared his reason for being a candidate to the little Dutch boy. “Because when the little Dutch boy removes his finger from the dyke, it continues to leak,” Clarke said of unresolved issues in Ocean Pines, especially the future of the Yacht Club. “We have to fix the Yacht Club,” Clarke said. “We can’t let it fall down. And we should lock the door Sept. 15. Since they started opening it year round in 1989, it has never made a dollar in the winter.” Clarke, an Ocean Pines property owner since 1977 and a full time resident since 1992, is a developer and builder whose business has been centered in Ocean Pines since 1986.  He was a member of the board of directors from 2007-2010. “The Ocean Pines board is made up of dedicated members, but unfortunately, they see problems of Ocean Pines with their own eyes and d...

BERLIN — Over the last few years, each new town-wide event is more surprising than the last, drawing well over the expected number of attendees. But even in that light, last year’s inaugural May Day Play Day was a notable success. This week, in anticipation of the upcoming event, Mayor Gee Williams cited WOCM-98.1, the radio station that conceived of, organized and promoted the event for all of their work and commitment to the town. While the better part of the Town’s events are planned and run by either the Chamber of Commerce, Main Street Merchants Association or the Town itself, the addition of May Day Play Day is more an unexpected gift from a friendly neighbor and it was in recognition of that, as much as anything else, that the station was honored with the proclamation. “We are definitely a town that enjoys a celebration,” Williams said as part of his introduction. “Life is something to be celebrated, not suffered.” It was Berlin’...

BERLIN — As economists look for signs that the economy is well on the road to recovery they would do well to look at the Town of Berlin, which will be adding businesses and expanding businesses in fast succession over the next two months. The Mayor and Council cleared another hurdle for expanding business when it approved this week a measure giving the Zoning Board of Appeals (BZA) the discretion to allow bed and breakfasts to increase their potential market share. The move came in response to the BZA’s appeal to the Council for guidance in the wake of a rules that prevent the Waystead Inn, a bed and breakfast on Harrison Street and Main Streets, from serving lunch and dinner to their paying guests.  “You have 12 provisions in your code that lists what you can and cannot do,” said Mark Cropper, the attorney representing the Waystead Inn. In his testimony Cropper pointed out that the way the code is written, exceptions that aren’t allowed are prohib...

BERLIN — Take Pride in Berlin Week, the inaugural expansion of what was formerly Take Pride in Berlin Day, began last Saturday with volunteers gathering in Stephen Decatur Park and Henry Park to clean up the area and restore local rain gardens.  The project, organized by Grow Berlin Green and the Berlin Parks Commission, is part of a weeklong effort to stimulate Berlin pride and "encourage businesses…to go green," according to Grow Berlin Green Project Manager Debbi Colley.  Participants included both residents of Berlin, local high school students and people for whom the local parks have come to represent their favorite place in Town. Mayor Gee Williams, who presented an award to the Grow Berlin Green group at this week’s Town Council meeting said he was surprised by and grateful for the number of non-residents in attendance. “They enjoy the parks, they tell me how much their families use them and they want to support them,” he sai...

BERLIN — Houses that have fallen into disrepair beyond hope of rehabilitation are often demolished by the Berlin Fire Company during a controlled burn. The controlled burns double as practice for firefighters. There are several houses in Town, however, that the BFC as been unable to burn and the owners have been put on notice to have the homes demolished or face Town-initiated demolition. Town Administrator Tony Carson told the Mayor and Council last night that several homeowners have been warned that the Town will demolish the homes in question if the owners are not more proactive. This is something the Town has done before and generally the cost of the demolition is taken out in a property lien. Mayor Gee Williams instructed Carson to get in touch with the BFC and ensure whether the properties in question were slated for controlled burn and to arrange for demolition based on their reply.  In recent years the Town staff and administration has redoubled efforts to keep nu...

BERLIN — After weeks of debate and competing alternate solutions about how to best define a neighborhood, the Berlin Mayor and council this week changed the course of the debate by eliminating the finesse with which they’d been struggling and proposed a new building height standard altogether. In March members of the Town Planning and Zoning Boards appealed to the Town to revisit their building codes and address them in terms of neighborhoods rather than with town-wide standards. The Council consented to hire a company to develop a “pattern book” that would divide the Town by neighborhood character to better guide the Boards’ decision making process when it came to basic projects as well as to variances by delineating the character of a neighborhood. This week, however, the discussion took another turn as the Council decided to just consider changing the height restriction to 35 feet town-wide and be done with it.  After an objection to s...

BERLIN — Olive Mawyer, Executive Director of the Berlin Chamber of Commerce, this week tendered her resignation effective May 25. “I am thankful for the professional and personal development the Chamber has provided me over the last couple of years,” she said. “While it has been extremely challenging it is the most rewarding job I have ever had. I will greatly miss the daily social interaction and all the great people I have met that I am now proud to call my friends.” Mawyer will stay on through the next three big town-wide festivals: the Jazz and Blues Bash, May Day Play Day and Cruisers weekend before moving on to her new position. “Olive has been given a new opportunity that she felt she couldn’t pass up and we understand that it was a difficult decision for her to make,” said Chamber President Elaine Brady. “She has been a great asset to the organization and will be sorely missed.” Mawyer came to the Chamber as a part...

OCEAN PINES — The first phase of the greens replacement project at the Ocean Pines Golf Club will be completed within days and the affected holes ready for use before the Memorial Day Weekend deadline, according to General Manager Bob Thompson. Thompson brought with him to the meeting a piece of wood as an example of the type of debris, which also included discarded drainage pipes, that had been found during the replacement project. Thompson showed slides of the replacement project process culminating with photos of completed greens. “Everything has worked out ahead of schedule,” Thompson said. “I think this is going to make a significant difference, as we expected.” The project may have been finished even sooner, but the opportunity to add Hole #7 to the nine-hole project presented itself this week and the Board, via e-mail vote, agreed to approve the additional $32,500 to get it done. The estimated savings associated with including it, according to...

OCEAN PINES — Should the Ocean Pines Association fail in their latest attempt to reverse the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision, the membership may find what was meant to be a temporary increase in dues extended indefinitely. This week the Board of Directors voted to use the funds that have been set aside to pay down the Association’s debt by means of a $4 annual increase over five years to instead pay any fines handed down by the IRS. After the IRS amount is paid, the five-year plan will be reinstated. The five-year plan was designed to pay down a $500,000 structural debt by setting an automatic increase of $4 per year, eventually doing away with the need to increase the Association membership fee to combat debt. At the time is was passed some expressed skepticism over the plan, worrying that the board could not be trusted with a large amount of money set aside. Should the OPA lose the IRS case, the amount owed could be in the $1 million range. During thi...

OCEAN PINES — Roy Foreman of the Ocean Pines Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee presented an update on that body’s goings on to the Ocean Pines Board of Directors this week. Foreman told the directors that the committee was considering changing the flooring in the Assateague Room of the community center from carpet to a more cleaning-friendly substance. He said that hard-surface flooring would likely be preferable since the room is so often used for food service. The carpet in the room as already been replaced once and the current one shows stains but not much other signs of wear. “Any room that’s going to be used as a food surface area shouldn’t have carpet,” said Boardmember Bill Wentworth in response to the suggestion. Forman told the Directors that the Committee would narrow the choices and make a presentation to the Board as the time to make a decision neared. He also told them that the Committee was considering the possibility of cha...