BERLIN – The arrival of the holiday season signals a time for charitably giving and donations to those less, but local law enforcement officials this week warned it can also be a time for the criminal element to prey on the community’s collective good nature.Perhaps more than any time of the year, the holiday season… Read more »

BERLIN – A community meeting in support of anti-crime initiative Take Pride in Berlin has yielded some positive results, according to Berlin elected officials who attended the event last week. Several Berlin elected officials informally discussed the Take Pride in Berlin indoor picnic held last weekend during the council comments section of Monday night’s town… Read more »

BERLIN – The increase in Berlin’s sewer rates, approved for Jan. 1, 2010 to last for as long as 18 months, could trend sharply upward in the future, elected officials said Monday night at the Berlin Mayor and Council meeting.The Berlin council can look at the rates, which will increase 6.5 percent in January, in… Read more »

ASSATEAGUE – While it make take some time before Assateague Island is fully recovered from the coastal storm that ravaged the mid-Atlantic coast two weeks ago, some of the totals for the tons of debris cleared from one end of the 37-mile barrier island to the other suggests the damage was considerably more than first… Read more »

OCEAN CITY – Perhaps reflective of the economic times and the associated lack of discretionary dollars for most, three islands totaling about 30 acres smack dab in the middle of the Assawoman Bay behind Ocean City sold last week at auction for $260,000, providing the unknown buyer with a little slice of paradise for a… Read more »

OCEAN CITY — Local retailers are hoping the biggest shopping day of the year kick starts an improved holiday shopping season for 2009, but few are expecting a vast improvement from last year.Area merchants are admittedly cautiously optimistic about the looming holiday shopping season, and as Black Friday approached this week, a few of them… Read more »

OCEAN CITY – One of the most important fisheries for Ocean City and the entire East Coast, black sea bass, was closed abruptly and without warning in October, forcing a handful of local captains to join a national recreational fishing advocacy group in a multi-party lawsuit with plaintiffs from North Carolina to Maine against the… Read more »

OCEAN CITY – A federal judge this week dismissed a $20 million civil lawsuit filed against Ocean City paramedics in June by the family of two Pennsylvania tourists who died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a Boardwalk hotel room in June 2006, stating no “special relationship” was forged during the tragic incident between the defendants… Read more »

OCEAN CITY — The Army Corps of Engineers told town officials this week it’s going to take at least $10 million to repair the damage to the sand dunes.City Engineer Terry McGean told The Dispatch on Wednesday that he had received the preliminary cost estimates from the Corps to replenish at least 450,000 cubic yards… Read more »