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land Coast Dispatch, 10012 Old Ocean
City Blvd., Berlin, Md. 21811, is pub-
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and probably will be whenever the
topic is discussed because its im-
pacts are widespread.
sion to add the Cale parking sys-
tem to the south side of 146th
Street, one of several new parts of
town that will be metered this year
that were not last year.
first sign of willing to compromise
with the outraged property owners
affected by the move on 146th
Street. While the council did not
change its mind, a dialogue was
held that might lead to a consult-
ant studying parking in Ocean City
in general and the financial com-
plexities that surround it.
would obviously fly in the face of
consistency if the Mayor and
Council decided to fund an expen-
sive study of parking in the resort
when the whole concept behind
the new paid parking areas was to
but Councilman Dennis Dare
broached the topic during a recent
budget session.
ish the beach this coming year it
seems to make sense to extend
the paid parking for half a block of
some of the most prime parking in
Ocean City," Dare said. "I just
think we need to have our day trip-
per' participate in beach replenish-
ment, beach cleaning, lifeguard-
ing, street paving and all the
amenities we provide."
should start with this area and
question the reasoning behind
why the city has not taken advan-
tage of what seems to be an obvi-
ous move. Other resort areas
charge for prime beachfront park-
ing and it seems illogical for
Ocean City to not address these
areas, while picking and choosing
other blocks of town that will reap
far less revenue.
ance the budget.
ing and financial feasibility study,
the hope here is it will encompass
the entire resort area.
meters is justifiable in our view, the
city is missing out on major revenue
by not looking at the Boardwalk
prime spots, those ocean block
spots from 11th to 27th streets that
are currently not paid parking. The
Inlet to 10th Street on the ocean
blocks are currently paid parking.
cussed briefly back in April, the
Mayor and Council for some rea-
son is hesitant. It does not make
sense because adding meters to
those streets, or at least the dozen
or so eastern most spaces closest
to the beach, will boost turnover
rates and help the businesses in
the area. It's no secret some
locals and visitors park in these
prime places for days at a time so
they can utilize their own parking
the Worcester County Board of
Education does the math.
cester County school bus contrac-
tors. Actually, they have been
doing the same thing for the past
five or six years. By having eight
different categories by which con-
tractors are paid, they can give a
certain percentage as a raise and
actually be paying much less.
eraged aged bus would generate
a monthly check of $6,027.50. A
true 1.5-percent increase would
equal $90.41 per month for 10
months. While the Board of Edu-
cation will receive this amount
from the county, they will actually
pay out an increase of only $43.13
per month on this contract. What
this means is that of this so-called
1.5-percent raise, the contractors
will see less than half of what the
Board of Education receives for
them. The amount that the con-
tractors will see from this "raise"
will amount to an average of six-
tenths of 1 percent of their month-
ly check.
over the last five years. The aver-
age on-the-road price of a new
bus is $125,000. An oil change
runs $400; a set of tires about
thy of current Washington or
Annapolis politics. It's a shame
that it was perpetrated on Worces-
ter County school bus contractors.
held on May 7. Current budget
requests exceed anticipated rev-
enues by approximately $7 mil-
lion. To fully fund the requests, the
commissioners would have to
raise properly tax rates. In these
hard economic times, with many
county residents unemployed or
underemployed, businesses
struggling to stay afloat, and more
tax increases being forced on the
citizens by the state and federal
governments, it would be unwise
to raise property taxes.
regarding the hearing and the
Board of Education's request for a
"modest increase in funding for
next year". The flyer made the
claim that the county had a sur-
plus last year of $7,000,000. This
is a little misleading. Yes, rev-
enues last year were approxi-
mately $7 million more than antic-
ipated, and after an audit, the
commissioners prudently decided
to use the funds to pay down
school construction and other
debt and to replenish the budget
a quarter of a million dollars listed
for increased routes and con-
tracts, while the board actually
eliminated two contracts. No one
has explained where that money
went.
voted against the contractors'
raise and therefore clean their
hands of any responsibility. After
all, they did submit a 2-percent
increase for the contractors to the
County Commissioners.
for the contractors were split off
from the rest of the board's budg-
et. This is the first time that this as
ever been done. Something
smells of a backroom deal.
tion first, the board would get
favorable votes from Commission-
ers Shockley and Purnell for their
increases. When the bus contrac-
tors' portion was voted on, these
commissioners would have to
excuse themselves from the room.
"no" votes, as four "yes" votes are
needed to pass anything. One
commissioner had already voiced
an opinion against any 2-percent
raise and had voted against the
Board of Education's portion. That
left only one commissioner for
them to get to, to vote against the
bus contractors.