July 19, 2013 The Dispatch/Maryland Coast Dispatch Page 43 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR FROM PAGE 42 ventions to these issues, tourism in our town will tank. We can’t have a myopic view of these problems or be of the opinion that these are isolated incidents. We must consider the history of other vacation resorts that did take an early and aggressive stance with these types of issues. For example, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., took back Spring Break, Virginia Beach, Va., took back Bike Week and Wildwood, N.J., passed and is enforcing its city’s ordinance banning males wearing saggy pants. If these resort communities can take a stand and refuse to show cowardice in addressing criminal and offensive behaviors, so can we. Mr. Mayor, people are looking for leadership on these matters. People are looking for political leadership in Ocean City, Md., to do the right thing. What is the right thing? Promote and provide public safety, and restore Ocean City’s reputation as a safe, clean, pristine and exclusive family resort. So, mayor, we are urging you to please take aggressive actions to resolve our community’s problems. In closing, I would like a response from you please to my question, “What are you and the council doing to address these concerns?” Rachel Fiorello Ocean City lives. Nationally, two-thirds of all home fire deaths occur in residences with no smoke alarm or no working alarm. Last year, 53 Marylanders lost their lives in fires, nearly half of which happened in homes without smoke alarms or with inoperable alarms. Already this year, 41 Marylanders have died in residential fires. The main reason smoke alarms don’t work: dead or missing batteries. By installing alarms with sealed-in 10-year batteries, we remove the burden of homeowners having to remember to replace them, and provide families continuous protection for a decade. It’s also important to have enough alarms. The law requires smoke alarms on each floor and in sleeping areas. Studies show you have on average three minutes to escape from the time the first smoke alarm sounds. The sooner an alarm sounds, the more time you have to respond. As a member of Maryland’s fire service for many years, I’ve seen too many fire tragedies. I urge you to not wait. Replace smoke alarms that are more than 10 years old with the new long-life sealed-in battery models and place them throughout your home. These simple steps can help save lives. Bruce D. Bouch (The writer is the deputy State Fire Marshal and director of Public Education and Media Affairs for the Office of the State Fire Marshal.) Between The Lines By Publisher/Editor Steve Green Ocean City Councilwoman Mary Knight ventured into the proverbial lion’s den this week when she attended the Ocean City Taxpayers for Social Justice’s town hall meeting, which was attended by about 40 people. “My goal was to be there to help people understand what is really going on in the city. The meeting was eye opening. It made me realize the council should do a better job of getting out the truth. There were a lot of misconceptions, and I was very happy to be there and answer questions and suggest guest speakers to offer insight,” Knight said. “What I saw was they are angry, but they are forgetting all the good in our city.” It was an interesting week for Tony Christ and his Ocean City Taxpayers for Social Justice group. At the group’s meeting, Christ took some time to disparage the local press and even at one point reported that I specifically said this newspaper’s coverage of the resort is slanted due to close ties with MGH Advertising, which handles Ocean City’s marketing. He said I used the word “heavily” to describe how much MGH advertises Ocean City in this newspaper and that was the reason why this publication was not covering the news the way he feels it should. The fact is MGH places some media buys with this newspaper for special events in Ocean City, such as Springfest and Sunfest, but it’s certainly not “heavily” advertising Ocean City in this paper, and I never told Christ anything of the sort. MGH has never been discussed in any of our conversations, which largely revolve around Christ’s claim that West Ocean City businesses are booming while Ocean City businesses are crumbling due to the increased cost of operating on the island. The fictitious claim about what this newspaper editor reportedly said was one of several mysterious things Christ said this week that undermines his credibility. Another came at this week’s Mayor and Council meeting on Monday evening, involving a strange story about a dog having a tick on his “butt bone” and how Councilman Dennis Dare was like the tick. Check that, maybe Dare was supposed to be the dog or maybe he was actually the butt bone. I had trouble following that one, but it had something to do with what happens to the tick after the dog dies. In all seriousness, citizens groups can be valuable in the public arena, but their meetings cannot be a forum for misrepresentations, baseless accusations and simple lies. When they spew inaccurate information, such as what Christ did when he publicly ridiculed two reporters and fabricated a story about a conversation he and I never had, that’s what I would term as “destructive.” Unfortunately, the term “good old boy” is often pejorative in nature and refers to backroom political malfeasance. However, it shouldn’t always be a negative. I got to reflecting about that this week after Steve Falck’s passing. To me, Falck was a “good old boy,” but in a positive sense. There is a large group of men in this area in their 60s and older, in some cases, as close as brothers that share a familiar bond. They grew up in the area, raised families, operated businesses, worked in the real estate and retail trades, spent hours surfing together and playing sports, enjoyed tipping a few cocktails back together from time to time and stayed close through the years. As is typical with all friendships, there are distant times as a result of work and family obligations, but in times of joy and sorrow they have always been there for each other. Falck was in this group to be certain. I largely knew Falck for the fact he built my parents’ house in the late-1980s and exchanged greetings in Berlin on a nearly daily basis for years before he got sick. While I knew him, I knew of him more. In fact, I think I learned more about the man after he got sick than I did when he was well, building houses, catching waves and coaching lacrosse. As I reflected on his life earlier this week, as thousands surely did, I recalled a chance encounter with a group of his fellow “good old boys” a couple months back. My wife and I were at The Globe sneaking in dinner at the bar before the weekend when we saw two men we knew having a drink and chatting. Slowly but surely, it became a group of about a half-dozen or so men. Several of them told me they were going over to pay a visit to their buddy Steve and The Globe was serving as the meeting place for a drink prior to heading over. They were perhaps in need of a little liquid courage to help them gather their thoughts before going to see their longtime friend, who they presumably knew was nearing the end of his long battle. It was no secret Falck loved the camaraderie, particularly as his illness took hold, and his friends knew that. I imagine there were lots of laughs shared that night during their visit (and probably some private tears later as reality took hold). In small communities, every death is felt on some level and particularly in specific circles of industry and friendships. For Falck, among his favorite passions were family, surfing, lacrosse and construction. He left his mark on each of those and his family can take comfort in the fact stories and memories of his life will continue to be shared for a long time to come. Zero Tolerance Needed Editor: I appreciated reading about the Walk Smart Campaign last week. Encouraging everyone to use crosswalks via means of education such as the lighted signs and the newly painted "no pedestrian X-ing" on the seven-block stretch of Ocean City is a good start for sure, but I believe that more needs to be done in order to even begin to put a dent in this problem for us here in Ocean City. As a resident here year-round, I continue to see people not using crosswalks. Young, old, people with small children, handicapped persons. It pains me to say this, but it is only a matter of time before we experience other injuries and tragedies. I believe that very few individuals are choosing to abide by the painted “No Pedestrian Xing” signs and cross wherever it is simply convenient for them to cross. Perhaps one idea that might curtail some of the j-walking in Ocean City is if some wall barriers were to be placed in various parts of Coastal Highway. This is a difficult problem to muster for sure. J-walking is something in many communities that is tolerated and not enforced and until there is a zero tolerance for j- walking, it will continue and we will experience additional injuries and losses of life. Doug Antos Ocean City Where’s Compassion? Editor: Following a brief prayer opening the Mayor and Council Meeting on July 15, 2013, invoking the need for compassion on the part of those officials in carrying out their responsibilities, a public hearing was conducted concerning the partial elimination of overnight bus service from November to April. The issue was based on "budget discussions" earlier this year in which the council directed staff to review the matter for council consideration, Note that the paid parking issue also evolved during "budget discussions earlier this year and the council also directed the staff to review the matter for council consideration. Why does one issue require a public hearing while another issue does not? Unfortunately the bus service reduction was approved, unanimously, largely because actual users of the service did not appear in person at the hearing to protest or speak to the issue. Several non-riders did speak suggesting alternative approaches but the council was not persuaded. Did the council consider that those who depend on the overnight service for their livelihood might actually be working at the time designated for the hearing? Do council members not recognize that they are responsible to all their constituents, not just those who show up or speak at meetings and hearings? The staff, to its credit, did acknowledge that in fact there are approximately 40 or so actual users of the service, who will have to find other accommodations. So much for compassion for our fellow humans. Joe Moran Ocean City Smoke Alarm Law Change Editor: In an effort to help reduce fire fatalities, Maryland has put a stake in the ground. As of July 1, families that rely on battery-only operated smoke alarms in their homes need to upgrade to models with sealed-in, 10-year lithium batteries. Working smoke alarms save