October 4, 2013 The Dispatch/Maryland Coast Dispatch Page 43 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR FROM PAGE 42 stove. Keep cooking areas clean and clear of combustibles (e.g. potholders, towels, rags, drapes and food packaging). Keep children away from cooking areas by enforcing a “kid-free zone” of three feet around the stove. If you have a fire in your microwave, turn it off immediately and keep the door closed. Never open the door until the fire is completely out. If in doubt, get out of the home and call the fire department Always keep an oven mitt and a lid nearby. If a small grease fire starts in a pan, smother the flames by carefully sliding the lid over the pan (make sure you are wearing the oven mitt). Turn off the burner. Do not move the pan. To keep the fire from restarting, do not remove the lid until it is completely cool. Never pour water on a grease fire. If the fire does not go out, get out of the home and call the fire department. If an oven fire starts, turn off the heat and keep the door closed. If the fire does not go out, get out of the home and call the fire department. A cooking fire can quickly turn deadly. I have seen many homes destroyed and people injured by fires that could have been easily avoided. Please heed these simple safety rules and keep you and your family safe! Ryan L. Whittington Ocean City (The writer is a member of the Ocean City Office of the Fire Marshal.) My only option here was to leave and not get to enjoy the music. Nancy Lower Ocean City Between The Lines By Publisher/Editor Steve Green It was refreshing to see some frank talk about this summer season. The general summation is it was one unique summer with some businesses reporting it was a record breaker and others referring to it as forgettable. That dichotomy was addressed several times during this week’s EDC meeting by panelists representing the private sector as well as town government. Here’s a review of some comments that jive with business people I have spoken with in recent weeks. OCHMRA Executive Director Susan Jones: “Depending on who you talk to, it was either the worst summer or the best summer ever. The reactions have been all over the board. I’ve never seen this much emotion attached to a review of a summer season.” D3Corp President John Gehrig: “We have a great community here and things are good, but things are getting tougher. We need to work harder when things are tougher … This year was good, not great, but it is sure is finishing great.” Tourism Commission Chair and Councilwoman Mary Knight: “You have to really keep up on online review sites like Trip Advisor because consumers are utilizing those more than ever when making decisions. I talked to one restaurant owner who was up 35-40 percent and credited positive reviews on Trip Advisor for that. You have to read those and stay on top of it, and respond to negative comments if necessary. It works both ways.” Tourism Director Donna Abbott: “We have a $5 million advertising budget and we’re going to look at how things went over the winter and see what markets we need to target. We’re going to use the money the best way we can. As you all know, we are outspent by a lot of our competitors. This has been an interesting season, and we’re going to take all the feedback and see where we need to go.” Although it’s a worthwhile effort, Ocean City will likely never get a tax differential because the Maryland General Assembly will not pass legislation making it possible. The fact is it’s unfair that Ocean City property owners pay twice for certain services, such as Recreation and Parks, Fire Marshal’s Office, Emergency Services and Public Works. Their tax dollars not only support the Ocean City departments through the town’s tax rate, but they also support the county’s efforts when they pay their county taxes. Let’s take Recreation, for example, because it’s the most simplistic. All Ocean City property owners pay property tax and some of that money collected by the city is used to fund the town’s recreation department and its programs. Ocean City property owners also pay a county tax rate and a portion of that revenue supports Worcester’s recreation department in Snow Hill and its vast offerings. Therefore, an Ocean City-based family is funding recreation programs in the resort as well as in the county, although it’s almost certainly only utilizing those services in the resort. The argument is that’s not fair to the city’s taxpayers, and the city maintains the county needs to either reduce the taxes city property owners pay to the county or return more in grant money to the city because the county’s services, such as soccer leagues in the recreation example, are not being extended to Ocean City. The issue here is the precedent a change of this magnitude will set and the major economic hardships it would cause for the county governments. If legislation would be introduced permitting tax differential, municipalities throughout the state will seek the differential because it would significantly reduce the tax rate the property owners pay, resulting in the county they are within suffering irreparable financial harm. In Worcester’s case, a tax differential would mean a $17 million reduction in county tax collections, per a recent study. Instead of the tax rate being set at 77 cents per $100 of assessed valuation in the county, the property tax rate will jump to 95 cents for all property owners, except those who live in Ocean City, who would pay a reduced rate. If it was simply a fairness issue, a tax differential would be in place. However, in this case, it’s more about the money and politics. Those two factors will keep the legislature from ever passing this sort of measure in my opinion. Removing Citizen From Meeting Wrong Editor: (The following letter was addressed to the Ocean City Mayor and Council.) Ladies and Gentlemen, The recent decision of the Council President to expel a citizen of our community from a council meeting must be addressed. As one who has frequently attended council meetings over the past 30 years, I am aghast at such action, with hardly a whimper from the mayor or most of the council members. I understand the rationale for the attendance of a uniformed police officer at these sessions, sadly the behavior of some citizens over the years at public meetings in our country have made this a necessary precaution, but never before in my memory in Ocean City, has a citizen been removed by anyone, police, mayor, council president or anyone else. This indignity must not become the norm in our town and should be condemned by everyone who has a voice. While I know of the woman in question, we are not personally acquainted. However, from firsthand observation, I have seen her sincere interest in public policy and government operation. I have witnessed her interchanges with the Mayor and Council over the past few years, this is not a new or sudden or threatening action on her part. She gives as well as receives on these occasions, from the mayor, president and council members, regularly. This is not a new occurrence. From my observation, the meetings of the Mayor and City Council need more than a police officer in attendance. They need a referee to separate the combatants who reside on the dais. Recent exchanges between the mayor, president and council members have bordered on a barroom brawl, with frequent exchanges of charges and allegations, that, in an earlier time, might lead to duel challenge; is it any wonder that these ladies and gentlemen appear to lose it more frequently these days, perhaps a time-out is in order. Like it or not, these officials were elected to represent all of us, whether we voted for them individually or not; part of their obligation is to listen to the people, whether they agree with them or not. If this proves too difficult, they have another option. Incidentally, whatever happened to "Roberts Rules of Order” and the appointment of a sergeant at arms to control decorum? Joe Moran Ocean City Smoking Area At Sunfest Needed Editor: As ex-smokers, my husband and I fully understand it’s not that easy to be denied a cigarette when you need it, but we’ve always tried to be considerate of the people we were around. That was not the case at the outdoor music venue during Sunfest. We tried to enjoy the talent but found it very difficult to breath with being surrounded by chain smokers. As I overheard one person say, “Why would anyone complain, there’s a wonderful breeze” and that’s just the point. The breeze blew the smoke right into our faces. The tables were so close together, there was no way to get around it. In a venue where there are people next to each other, since it’s obvious many of the smokers didn’t seem to care about offending nonsmokers, it would be nice to cordon off a section allotted for smokers or make the immediate area around the stage for non-smokers. I’m not interested in taking away smoker’s rights. I just would like to have the right to enjoy what OC has to offer without being overcome with the smoke. At least at the beach, I can move. Quotable Quotes “This place is going to create tax dollars and jobs and we have been waiting for a project like this on that property for a long, long time. What we don’t want to do is approve a project that is going to be there for at least the next 50 years that will create an even worse traffic problem then we already have downtown.” OCEAN CITY PLANNING COMMISSIONER PECK MILLER ON THE PROPOSED RESTAURANT PROJECT NORTH OF THE OCEANIC MOTEL AND SOUTH OF SUNSET PARK Expanding Our Reach. Improving Our Look. Broadening Our Commitment. Check Out The Dispatch’s “You all need to reach out and let us know just how important this is. It’s millions of dollars. We all know when we lose a weekend in the summer in Ocean City it could be all of our net. By the same token, if we get a week back in August, that can be huge.” STATE SEANTOR JIM MATHIAS PROVIDING AN UPDATE ON A COMMITTEE BEGINNING TO MEET ON REQUIRING SCHOOL START AFTER LABOR DAY IN MARYLAND E-DITION ONLINE www.mdcoastdispatch.com “We are not asking to take money from anybody else. We are just asking to have money returned to Ocean City.” OCEAN CITY MAYOR RICK MEEHAN ON THE CITY’S POSITION ON TAX DIFFERENTIAL