City Council Candidate Has Big Plans

OCEAN CITY – Among the
many objectives City Council candidate Sean Rox wants to see accomplished if he
is elected next month is limiting tobacco sales in town, expanding the
municipal airport, catering to senior citizens more, building schools in the
town, constructing a monorail-like system, replacing parking lots with parks
and installing surveillance cameras in Ocean City to help police catch
criminals.

Rox, 35, has lived in Ocean City
for the last 10 years and is among five individuals seeking the four open seats
on the council. He has spent his years in town volunteering as a referee and
umpire for the Ocean City Recreation and Parks Department, substitute teaching
in the public school system, spinning tunes as a disc jockey and operating his
own wedding services business.

Rox, a member of the
Ocean City Volunteer Fire Company and a graduate of the Citizens Police
Academy, said he would
not be leading an organized campaign for office and is adamantly opposed to
knocking on any doors.

“I spent $25 on my
campaign when I filed at City Hall and I am not going to spend another dollar.
I have been campaigning for the last 10 years …,” he said. “I will not knock on
one door. I would not want some stranger coming to my house knocking on my door
and I am not going to do that to someone else.”

Rox labeled the
expansion of the Ocean
City Municipal
Airport on Route 611 as
“essential” to expanding the town’s tourism base.

“A key to our long-term
growth is expanding the airport we have. It’s a travesty that Salisbury
has a larger airport than Ocean
City. We have the dollars
available and I think it will be very beneficial to the citizens of Ocean City,”
he said. “It’s very frustrating when I want to go somewhere we have to drive 2
½ hours and I’m sure that affects consumers on the back end. If we had an
accessible airport, we could target a lot of other areas for tourism.”

Over the years, Rox said
he has observed the town becoming more of a “retirement community”. Therefore,
he said it’s critical for the elected officials to “cater to the seniors, not
the senior weekers.”

Rox said he wants to see
schools built in Ocean
City to bring in more
working-class citizens to balance the growing retiree base. He suggested the
town purchase the 45th Street Village and construct a school in its place
to attract teachers, administrators and more families. “Built it and they will
come,” Rox said.

One of the other key
aspects Rox mentioned this week was continuing to make the town “green.” He
said this can be done by decreasing the numbers of cars in town, relocating
parking lots to West
Ocean City
to encourage mass transit options and bicycle and pedestrian use and
potentially a monorail system. A part of his vision for the town involves a
phase out of tobacco sales in the municipality. He said cigarette litter has
become a major problem, citing an example of his cat often picking them up on
the streets and sidewalks.

“Cigarette butts are a
real problem everywhere in Ocean
City. Ever since it was
banned in public places, the litter has gotten worse and that’s why I favor the
phased withdrawal of tobacco sales on the island,” Rox said.

Rox said the fact he has
visited over 30 countries in six continents at a young age allows him to bring
a global perspective to the council.

“I have gotten to see
how resorts are run all over the world and can bring that experience back. I
have more international experience than anybody on the council,” Rox said.
“Going abroad has helped me put my town into perspective.”

If elected, Rox would be
the youngest member. He said that’s a positive.

“I am in a position to
make a long-term difference, not a short-term difference. I will be here years
from now and be able to see some of the decisions through to the end,” he said.

About The Author: Steven Green

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The writer has been with The Dispatch in various capacities since 1995, including serving as editor and publisher since 2004. His previous titles were managing editor, staff writer, sports editor, sales account manager and copy editor. Growing up in Salisbury before moving to Berlin, Green graduated from Worcester Preparatory School in 1993 and graduated from Loyola University Baltimore in 1997 with degrees in Communications (journalism concentration) and Political Science.