SNOW HILL – With another $15,000, the Maryland Coastal Bays Program (MCBP) can create a $1 million endowment fund.The program has three weeks left to raise the remaining $15,000 required by an anonymous donor for a two-to-one match that will yield another half million dollars in endowment funds.The unidentified donor started off giving MCBP $500,000… Read more »

OCEAN CITY – The decision on a building permit extension for a downtown property was postponed this week, due to dissatisfaction from the Mayor and Council over the vacant lots.Bob Warfield, owner of the 1111 Edgewater Ave. property, came before the Mayor and Council two weeks ago in an effort to obtain an extension on… Read more »

BERLIN – Neighbors of noisy businesses in Berlin will get no help from Maryland law, but the town plans to look into adjusting its noise regulations to specify decibel levels. The state does have a noise statute, unlike the town, which limits decibel levels. Such regulations could be applied to loud operations like the ice… Read more »

OCEAN CITY – The Ocean City Beautification Committee could be expanding from seven to 10 members next year.At a regular session of the Mayor and Council Monday night, the ordinance calling for the increase in committee members by three passed unanimously. Each year the Ocean City Beautification Committee works to recognize those members of the… Read more »

BERLIN – A not-so-little side note to the completion of the General Assembly session this week was the approval of a plan to spend $50 million per year to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, but conspicuously absent from the legislation was any provision for state funding for the coastal bays in and around the resort… Read more »

ANNAPOLIS – With the closure of an exhausting three-week special session called by Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley to address the state’s projected $1.7 billion budget deficit, a session that resulted in sweeping tax reforms and the approval of a statewide referendum on the slots issue, the mood in Annapolis this week covered the full range… Read more »

BERLIN – While the slots issue garnered the most attention from local residents during the three-week General Assembly special session that concluded in the wee hours of the morning on Monday, sweeping tax reforms and other measures approved by the state legislature could have an equal or greater impact in the long run.The General Assembly… Read more »

OCEAN CITY – A hand-made wooden box emanating a rancid smell and several handwritten notes in Spanish found floating in a canal in Ocean City briefly baffled resort police last weekend before they were able to determine the unusual item was part of a religious offering.Last Saturday morning, Ocean City police officers were called to… Read more »

SNOW HILL – The slim hope of a referendum letting Worcester County citizens decide for once and all whether to allow slots within county borders was definitively extinguished with last week’s General Assembly vote to hold a statewide referendum.The even slimmer chance of seeing the Ocean Downs racetrack removed from the bill as a slot… Read more »