Council Approves ‘Adopt Your Street’ Initiative

OCEAN CITY — In the hopes of riding the momentum of the popular “Adopt Your Beach” program implemented this spring, resort officials this week approved a similar “Adopt Your Street” initiative.

In March, the Mayor and Council approved the Ocean City Surf Club’s “Adopt Your Beach” program and the initiative took off. The concept is a grassroots effort to have private groups or businesses supplement the town’s beach cleaning efforts.

The private sector immediately embraced the concept and to date all but 13 of the 147 oceanfront blocks of beach have been officially adopted. Based on the success of that program, the Maryland Coastal Bays Program in conjunction with the Ocean City Surf Club is now moving forward with a similar “Adopt Your Street” program. Maryland Coastal Bays Program representatives Sandi Smith and Samantha Bingaman presented the plan to the Mayor and Council on Monday.

“The concept is similar to the Adopt Your Beach model,” said Bingaman. “We hope to have groups or organizations adopt sections of the streets from Coastal Highway to the oceanfront and from Coastal Highway to the bayside. The goal is to keep the streets looking nice and instill a sense of pride while preventing garbage and other refuse from ultimately finding its way into the bays or on the beach.”

Bingaman said there is no financial commitment from the town, only a needed approval to move it forward. She said there has been some discussion about providing volunteer street cleaners with gloves and trash bags although no firm decision has been made on that. She said the volunteer street adoption groups would collect data about the type and volume of trash collected to better identify problem areas, similar to the format for the “Adopt Your Beach” program.

Councilman Tony DeLuca, who serves as a liaison to the Coastal Resources Legislation Committee, said moving forward with the program was a logical next step.

“Based on the success of the Adopt Your Beach program, it’s only natural to move forward with this,” he said. “You can see the excitement level of the organizations and families involved with the beach program and we hope to capture some of that momentum.”

The council ultimately approved the Adopt Your Street program after Mayor Rick Meehan asked for a little tweak.

“Often we think of the streets on Coastal Highway, but I think we need to look at the streets between Baltimore Avenue and the Boardwalk and work with the OCDC to get some of those businesses involved because I think it would really enhance the program,” he said.

About The Author: Shawn Soper

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Shawn Soper has been with The Dispatch since 2000. He began as a staff writer covering various local government beats and general stories. His current positions include managing editor and sports editor. Growing up in Baltimore before moving to Ocean City full time three decades ago, Soper graduated from Loch Raven High School in 1981 and from Towson University in 1985 with degrees in mass communications with a journalism concentration and history.