per for Worcester County. Periodical
postage paid at Berlin, Maryland, and
additional mailing offices.. The Mary-
land Coast Dispatch, 10012 Old Ocean
City Blvd., Berlin, Md. 21811, is pub-
lished weekly on Friday mornings, 52
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P.O. Box 467, Berlin, Maryland 21811.
Maryland Coast Dispatch offices are lo-
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Berlin, Maryland.
hammered on social media over its
new $50 park-all-day fee at the Inlet
parking lot on the Fourth of July.
over what is being perceived as a
blatant gouging of motorists and an
attack on day-trippers.
was made months ago and it was
reported at that time. However, like
many things, the uproar did not
come then because it was months
away. Now, with the Fourth looming,
the public, or at least those with
some social media savvy, have ex-
pressed their outrage. This is just
the latest public relations black eye
the resort has endured on the park-
ing front in recent months.
this move: "So sad that OC has de-
cided their bottom line is more im-
portant than the tourists. I'm asham-
ed that they have decided to do this.
You are driving families away from a
fun experience. Terrible and stupid
public relations move ..."
come up with to gouge tourists? If
they really wanted to benefit the
tourists and the town all of OC
works to 11 p.m. That would have
cost $32.50 previously, compared to
the flat fee of $50.
ology the city used to alter the fee
model. The fact is many people
watch the fireworks on the beach
and then head home immediately
thereafter. That means they are
paying to sit in their cars as they
wait to pay the attendant. That can
be aggravating. The flat fee erases
that situation.
day. Many will surely be unaware of
the change in policy, and that could
result in issues at the entrance to
the lot from motorists who refuse to
pay it. They will likely be granted ac-
cess, but only to turn around and
immediately leave the lot.
mid-afternoon. What will be compel-
ling is reviewing a comparison of
when the lot first filled up last year
as opposed to this year as well as
the impact on traffic after the fire-
works.
tain the move was not made for that
reason. Of course, once the revenue
increase is realized, it will be even
more difficult for the city to maintain
it was not about the money.
of July like the rest of America that
celebrates this holiday ... perhaps
the Mayor and Council need to do a
little research to remember exactly
what this holiday is about."
the move is not about revenue and
is aimed at addressing some long-
standing issues associated with the
busy holiday.
they think it was done for revenue
purposes but it was not ... it was a
decision that was made to improve
operations for our visitors and hope-
fully make traffic flow a little smooth-
er, and avoid having people pay for
time they are waiting in traffic ... the
good news is we have multiple op-
tions for parking," Waters said.
it's not about revenue generation,
then the flat fee should be lowered.
Detractors have a point there.
per hour on weekdays to park in the
Inlet parking lot. Therefore, if a mo-
torist parks at 5 a.m. and stays until
midnight, covering a 19-hour period,
the fee will be $47.50. Of course,
that is highly unlikely. A more mod-
erate approach would be to consid-
er a beach arrival time of 10 a.m.
with plans to stay all day and
minds? Fifty dollars is an outra-
geous amount for a day parking.
as much out of the visitors as we
can. Wouldn't $30 be more reason-
able? Who came up with this out-
landish amount?
too crowded and I prefer the enter-
tainment at Northside Park, but I
feel sorry for those that do and will
be saddled with this outlandish fee.
the mayor and all the council people
and complain. Then maybe when
the people's voices are heard this
will be reduced, but who am I kid-
ding. What do they care?
at City Hall.
Ocean City
They have finally adjusted the
and abused. The best I could do
was to tell him to write a letter to the
city since it is obvious that he will
not be able to come back in a month
or two to present his argument in
court.
paint a water tower, "Thank You For
Coming To Ocean City." Thanks in-
deed. Let's just hope he didn't get
stopped for speeding by the four to
six State Police troopers that set up
a radar station to unsuspecting in-
coming traffic every day.
that its police, if they wanted to
demonstrate that they were truly
proficient in their work and interest-
ed in our tourists and the city, would
have handled this situation much
differently. But, in a town that thinks
more of squeezing each dollar out
of each tourist, it is understandable
that the $30 or $50 earned by the
police to help meet the city's deficit
spending caused incidentally by the
pay raises negotiated by the police
union is going to take priority.
get across Coastal Highway safely.
Previously, there was about a three-
second delay before the light chan-
ged from walk to green for vehicle
traffic. Now there is over a 30-sec-
ond walk signal before vehicles can
turn onto Coastal Highway from
94th Street,
Washington, D.C., to get people to
come to Oecan City, it would seem
that we could and should inform the
police in the town that we appreci-
ate guests who come here and we
do not want to unnecessarily harass
them.
whose wife was shopping on the
Boardwalk fell asleep in the car and
his parking meter ran out. The city
response: two teams of two police-
men each visited his car. Did they
knock on his window to tell him of
the problem(s) or, even worse, to
see if something was wrong? No,
they each wrote him a ticket and