News

By Tony Russo Staff Writer BERLIN — Although they will begin finessing the edu application and deposit process over the coming weeks, the Berlin Mayor and Council approved a deal that will provide sufficient edus to complete the renovation of 113 North Main Street — formerly the Town Center II building — clearing the way for additional housing and retail in the space. Developers hope to put six one-bedroom apartments upstairs will likely need about 3 edus to complete it but will also need a little help with financing the project.  As part of the payment structure for the new wastewater treatment plant, the cost of edus went up significantly. In order to be able to both fund the plan and not deter the growth the expansion was designed to accommodate the town developed a plan wherein edus could be paid off in 5 years, rather than requiring they be completely paid upfront as had been the policy in the past. Toy Town is one of the Downtown businesses that will r...

BERLIN — Both commercial and residential ratepayers could see rates further stabilize and in some cases decrease as well after the recent power purchase agreement goes into affect. According to an announcement by the Town, they were able to take advantage of a temporary drop in the market and sign an additional two-year electricity supply contract with NextEra Energy Power Marketing, LLC, (NextEra Energy).  This move, they said, would help stabilize bills for the town’s electric customers starting in June 2013 and continuing through May 2015. Although the agreement was reached last week, the Mayor and Council passed it, as required, at a public meeting this week. The new contract is an extension of the one-year contract in which the Town engaged last year and which was credited with bringing residential rates down. When the most recent contract with NextEra Energy becomes effective in June 2013, purchased energy for the town will drop significantly below the contr...

BERLIN — When the Town engaged Worcester Youth and Family Counseling Services (WYFCS) to run its youth programs it got much more than it expected. The original plan had been to hire a person at a $24,000 salary to help coordinate youth activities for the town. When WYFCS director Teresa Fields showed up and asked the Town to contract the local non-profit the Council was a bit skeptical but in the end relented. The primary condition was the WYFCS make quarterly presentations demonstrating what they have been doing with the funding and how they will use it in the coming weeks. After the most recent presentation the Council voted to extend the contract two more years. The extension was structured to line up with the annual budget process so that WYFCS would eventually have their funding in step with the rest of the Town programs and employees. Fields told the Mayor and Council that WYFCS provided in-kind support and matched dollar for dollar the $24,000 the town provided. Field...

OCEAN PINES — About 15 minutes into his recent presentation on the concept plan for replacing the Yacht Club the projector displaying OPA General Manager Bob Thompson’s PowerPoint presentation went on the fritz. A women in the front commented on the outage but Thompson didn’t hear her clearly. “What’s that?” he asked. “I said, ‘You’ve worn it out.’”  Thompson laughed. “I probably have,” he said. Over the last several months, in addition to budget presentations he has given this talk or one very much like it nearly 10 times. The slides change depending upon how much time he expects to commit to the talk but the message is unchanging. Thompson’s evidence indicated the Yacht Club must be replaced and given that, he believes he has a plan that will make the operation not only viable but also profitable. While he has given the talk several times, when he spoke to the membership Saturday the theme ch...

OCEAN PINES — In his latest pitch to the community for the complete replacement of the Country Club, OPA General Manager Bob Thompson leaned more heavily than before on the holistic approach — what he called the “Campus Concept” — for the entire area than he had in previous explanations of the plan. By the time Thompson reached that point of the explanation, three hours into a meeting that ran nearly five hours, he’d lost much of the audience. Many of those who stayed, however, were surprised to hear how significant a part the necessary closure of the Golf Course’s 10th hole played in the plan. Although his plan was ostensibly for the rehabilitation or replacement of the Country Club, Thompson said he had a wealth of other problems he was working to solve that both coincided with and had a direct affect upon the Golf Course as a whole; problems that would have to be addressed whether or not anything at all was done to the Country Club. Chief ...

BERLIN — Nearly six years after the building was slated to be turned into a La Hacianda and almost three since that restaurant gave up on the project, eventually moving to Ocean Pines, the issue of the former Neon Moon building has begun to come to a head. For the second time in six-months a resident came to the Berlin Mayor and Council meeting to complain about the building’s condition. Last fall, a petitioner asked that the overgrowth around the dilapidated building be trimmed back for both traffic safety and neighborhood aesthetic reasons. This week, another came to flat out ask the Council to have the building demolished. When Bill Herbst, who owns both the Ocean City and the Ocean Pines La Hacienda but is no longer involved in the project, was attempting to open a restaurant on the property, he ran into resistance getting the site plan approved by the Town. At issue was the Town’s comprehensive plan provision that banned parking in front of the building. Herbs...

BERLIN — Although it nearly failed for lack of a motion, the Chamber of Commerce successfully persuaded the Town Council to approve their petition to have a beer and wine tent at this year’s Jazz and Blues Bash. Late last year, the town passed legislation that would allow the suspension of their open container laws on a case by cases basis with the Council’s approval. The rules were put in place to bring the law prohibiting public drinking into sync with reality.  During major events it was common for people to leave the premises of some local bars carrying alcohol but enforcing the rule with so many people on hand became, in the eyes of the Council, an unneeded distraction for the police. The test event for the open container law’s temporary suspension was to be New Year’s Eve, which came and went without incident despite attendance approaching 3,000 people. Berlin Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Olive Mawyer told the Council that the Ch...

OCEAN PINES — For the first time in years the annual General Manager’s budget report to the membership came week’s in advance of the board of directors’ final vote on it. While one of the attendees complained that the presentation took place too far in advance of the final vote, for the most part members were happy with the additional time. During the question and answer period about the budget, General Manager Bob Thompson fielded enough questions about the process for repairing the golf course and Yacht and Country Clubs that he made a pointed defense of the projects, outlining what he saw as their necessity. Thompson turned the assertion that the golf club was being intentionally repaired at below-referendum increments on its head by reminding attendees that there is an all around new approach to dealing with maintenance generally: “We need to start looking at and managing our facilities better,” he said. To that end, the plan for the golf c...

OCEAN PINES — OPA General Manager Bob Thompson presented the board of directors and the membership with his plan to increase revenue and better improve association operations with the addition of three new positions for the fiscal 2012/2013 budget. The positions: a facilities engineer, a human resources manager, and an aquatics instructor will be funded by a shift of other position expenses and will not require additional funding by the membership. The facilities manager position will be funded in part by the decision not to replace Kerry Nelson, the Public Works Director who resigned earlier this year. Thompson praised Nelson’s former assistant, who was elevated to chief, but said the new position would require a different skill set than has been required of public works personnel. The facilities engineer will take over the jobs formerly completed by the members of public works department in their spare time. Thomspon said it wasn’t a criticism of the job that ha...

OCEAN PINES — When Dan Stachurski ran for the board of directors last year the primary question was whether he could overcome many Ocean Pines’ resident’s anger over his participation in the installation of the cover for the Sports Core pool. In a way he put those concerns to rest when he voted in the minority against spending $900,000 on redoing all 18 greens at the Ocean Pines Golf Club over the next two years. In casting his no vote — which was insufficient to stop the approval — Stachurski warned the other directors about good intensions aimed at driving revenues and how easily they could completely evaporate. At the time he helped pass the covered pool expenditure, he was swayed by the argument that it would help drive revenues, that it would pay for itself quickly and that it would be a wise out-of-budget expense. In retrospect, it is difficult to imagine Stachurski voting any other way. As the saying goes, once bitten twice shy. “I just c...