SNOW HILL – Appeals for funding support in the areas of public safety and tourism highlighted municipal budget requests presented to the Worcester County Commissioners this week.
While Ocean City officials asked county leaders to consider a new funding formula as an alternative to a tax differential, other local towns presented requests in line with those heard in the past.
Pocomoke City officials said their primary concern heading into the coming fiscal year was the cost of ambulance service. Between the associated equipment costs and the price of fuel, the ambulance department struggles to break even.
“It’s a huge burden on our city to run that department,” Mayor Bruce Morrison said.
Morrison said the county currently provided mileage reimbursement at 60 cents a mile, a number he said would be suitable for a car but not an ambulance. He asked the county to consider increasing that rate to $1.50 a mile.
“We’re traveling more miles than anybody in the county,” he said, adding that ambulances faced a 70-mile roundtrip when they took a patient to the hospital, as the nearest one was in Salisbury.
Public safety costs were also cited as a concern by Ocean Pines Association (OPA) officials as they presented their annual funding request. Dave Stevens, president of the association’s board of directors, said the community’s 15-member police department handled 12,400 calls last year. Four hundred of those calls took place outside of Ocean Pines.
“That number has grown due to the expansion of activity on Route 589,” Stevens said.
Because of that, community leaders would like to see the county provide $625,000 to go toward the police department’s $1.6 million budget.
Stevens said two other areas in which the Ocean Pines Association provided services to county residents were tourism and recreation and parks. More than 35 percent of the people who take advantage of the array of programs offered are non-Ocean Pines residents, according to OPA staff.
“Everything we offer is available to all people in the county,” Stevens said, adding that the children’s programs offered in Ocean Pines filled a hole in the northern end of the county. “We’re paying for that out of our assessments. We do need some support to continue this.”
Although the county provided $10,000 to Ocean Pines for recreation programs last year, the association has requested $150,000 for that purpose this year. Association officials have requested an overall grant of $1.7 million. Last year, the county provided Ocean Pines with $1.1 million.
Berlin officials presented a grant request for $1.4 million but acknowledged that aside from the portion that went toward public safety, they weren’t yet sure what they would be using it for. Mayor Gee Williams told county officials the town was still in the midst of the strategic planning process, something the town’s citizens had been heavily involved in.
“It’s been very exciting,” he said. “They came up with wonderful ideas for everything except how to pay for it. Our responsibility is to work out some priorities and figure out where to begin.”
Commissioner Diana Purnell made a point to attest to the town’s wise use of county funds in the past. She said residents on the east side of Berlin had gone decades without sidewalks before they were installed through the efforts of Williams and his predecessor Tom Cardinale.
“I thank you,” Purnell said. “You’ve done a great job.”
On behalf of the Town of Snow Hill, Mayor Charlie Dorman asked for a county grant of $1.5 million, roughly $100,000 more than requested last year.
“We’re anticipating the upcoming year to be quite restrictive for Snow Hill,” he said.
Dorman said the town wanted to continue its work on the former opera house. With the funding the county provided last year, a portion of the aging building’s roof was replaced. Dorman hopes more roof work can be done this year.
He said the other reason the town was seeking additional county funding in FY 2016 was economic development. The town recently hired a full-time economic development director and wants to continue efforts that have been made to promote the town.
“People kind of realize we’re here now,” he said.
County officials are expected to take all of the municipal funding requests into account as they develop a budget during the coming weeks.
Exact funds requested (including debt) for FY 2016 were Pocomoke City, $1,124,803; Snow Hill, $1,493,231; Berlin, $1,452,727; and Ocean Pines, $1,699,449