OCEAN CITY – Eight public attractions in the Town of Ocean City will receive new signs from the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) as part of the Tourist Area and Corridor (TAC) Signing Program.
In a Transportation Committee meeting Tuesday, Donna Abbott, Ocean City’s tourism and marketing director, announced that SHA officials have approved new signage for eight locations – Ocean City Life-Saving Station Museum, Sunset Park, Ocean Bowl Skate Park, the Visitor Center, Center for the Arts, Northside Park, Eagle’s Landing Golf Course, bayside fishing and Boardwalk, and Ocean City Aviation Association (OCAA) Veterans Memorial, located at the airport.
Two of the locations – bayside fishing and Boardwalk and the OCAA Veterans Memorial – must address certain issues in the design process before appropriate signs are installed.
Ocean City and Worcester County were invited to partake in the TAC Signing Program early last year in an effort to create a unified signage system that highlights attractions in towns throughout the state.
SHA will create and install the signs at no cost to the local municipality, but officials in Ocean City were required to submit applications for each of the locations and must maintain the signs that are ultimately displayed.
Abbott was tasked to take the lead on the program and has since submitted nine locations – at the recommendation of committee members, the mayor and city council – for SHA’s approval.
The only application that was denied signage, she said, was the Performing Arts Center, located inside the Ocean City Convention Center.
“It just did not meet their standards for what this sign program is all about,” Abbott said. “It needs to be open to random visitors with all activities available at least five days a week. Obviously, that’s not the case with the Performing Arts Center, nor will it ever be.”
Public attractions must meet certain requirements to be considered for signage. For example, retail and commercial locations, places that are not ADA compliant and those with limited visitation opportunities do not qualify for the program.
The next step, Abbott told members, is to take the committee’s suggestions and feedback to SHA for consideration. The signs, she said, will be designed and installed when the program receives funding.
“Now the bump in the road is that we have got budget restrictions right now and kind of had to put this program on the back burner,” she said. “But they still wanted me to come forward and review these locations with you and the status and get your feedback to take back. So when the budget funding is restored, that they’ll be ready to go with these particular signs in Ocean City.”
Public Works Director Hal Adkins and Councilman Dennis Dare, two of the members on the committee, proposed signage for two more locations – the Fenwick Island Lighthouse, located north of the Delaware-Maryland line, and the Transpeninsular Line marker, located on the north side of 146th Street.
“The lighthouse isn’t in Maryland or Ocean City, but you can’t get to it without coming into Ocean City,” Dare said.
Adkins added that the marker, an engraved stone head, has been at its present location for hundreds of years and is a historic landmark for the community.
“I can take those comments back about the lighthouse and the stone,” Abbott said. “They said this is ongoing. So even when the funding gets restored, we can go back with some other suggestions.”
