Public Safety Hurt
By Parking Decision
Editor:
Recently the town council adopted a policy to control Inlet
parking to suit one prominent business.
Previously, the policy was to cone off Philadelphia Ave.
and channel the traffic away from the Inlet lot, when filled, up Baltimore
Ave, but this affected the aforementioned business. This method kept traffic
moving and allowed cars to use the Inlet lot when spaces became open. It
worked.
Complaints from that business led to coning Philadelphia
Ave. to the point where all lanes were separated, thus shutting down a paid
parking lot, putting them completely out of business, but let the big guy get
his way.
After visits by the city engineer and police chief, the
road was put back to the original lay out. It worked. Next the town
council got involved and left Philadelphia Ave. open with five signs that
the motoring public ignored and channeled drivers to the lot where they
wait one by one for a car to leave. This was done to allow parking at the big guy’s
lot.
Sunday morning, July 4, I watched from my balcony on
Worcester St. as the traffic backed up in all three lanes on Philadelphia Ave.
to North Division St. and over the Route 50 bridge for over three hours. I
watched as four town buses sat 40 minutes waiting to enter the South Station.
If any emergency vehicle had been needed during this time, there was no way it
could have gotten south of North Division St.
This issue shows the total lack of regard our town council
has for public safety over a prominent business. The council members may know
how to run T-shirt shops, convenience stores and real estate houses, but as far
as I know none have degrees in traffic engineering. This town has two well-paid
professionals, one a police chief and the other a city engineer, who together
could handle this matter better in their sleep than the town council.
This situation should be rethought, with the general
public in mind, not just one business, by the professionals, before we have a
reoccurrence on the next busy weekend.
Remember this at the voting booth.
Chris Smith
Ocean City
Selbyville, Del.
Thanks
For Homeless Help
Editor:
I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank
Delmarva Cat Connection (DCC) for all they do for homeless cats.
I first became aware of DCC, in 2004, when we adopted our
first kitten, from them, an 8-week-old Calico we named Lucy. She and her entire
litter were homeless, from several days old and were bottle fed, by a foster
care mom. Two years later, we adopted, Major, at age 8 weeks, a Maine Coon type
cat, who was saved from the mouth of a nasty tom cat and bottle fed, by a
caring foster care mom. Most recently, we adopted Sirikit, a Bluepoint Siamese,
at approximately 10 weeks old, who was in a caring DCC foster care home. I know
for a fact, her brother, Romeo, is ready for adoption, as I’m the one that
caught the six kittens, taking them to the foster home, then fell in love with
little Sirikit, bringing her back home to our dog and two cats.
Delmarva Cat Connection is in dire need of homes for
beautiful cats and kittens, as the Ocean City area is overrun with cats. They
can only do so much and need as much help as possible. They have cats and
kittens, for adoption, at Petsmart, everyday, and Petco (White Marlin Mall),
every second weekend. You can also visit www.delmarvacatconnection.com
Once again, thank you Delmarva Cat Connection for all you
give these wonderful cats and kittens and the love you’ve given our family.
Ginger Marcus
Ocean City
Clarifying
Cat Program
Editor:
There
is legislation in the works to establish a TNR program for the feral cats in
and around Ocean City. However, there seems to be some confusion among those
who are not familiar with the term as to what precisely TNR encompasses.
Hopefully I can clear that up.
TNR, simply
put, is an acronym for Trap-Neuter-Return, a program that entails capturing
feral animals (in this case cats), sterilizing them, conducting health checks
(including giving rabies vaccinations), marking the animals (aka eartipping)
and returning them to the place they were captured to live out their lives in
peace.
The
benefits to TNR are:
— The
animals are placed under the care of a designated caregiver so they are
carefully watched for any changes that may necessitate medical intervention.
—
Caregivers routinely provide food and shelter for their colonies thus lessening
the colony’s impact on the surrounding ecosystem.
—
Caregivers quickly become familiar with all of the fuzzy faces in their
colonies and will act quickly to trap and process any newcomers before they
(the newcomers) have a chance to reproduce or create a health hazard.
—
Caregivers actively work with the residents of neighborhoods housing the
colonies in an effort to lessen the colony’s impact on that neighborhood. By
taking a proactive approach any potential issues are addressed before they
become untenable.
—
Caregivers maintain records on all of the colony members so there is a paper
trail in case of accident or mishap. Further, these records are readily
available to the designated city government contact as well as Animal Control
and the Health Department for follow up purposes.
Areas
without active TNR programs experience the following:
—
Unsterilized, free-roaming animals reproducing and creating more of the same.
—
Free-roaming animals competing for limited food supplies and, upon occasion,
hunting wild birds, rabbits, squirrels and other wildlife in an effort to
obtain nourishment.
—
Free-roaming, unsterilized animals creating noise and other disturbances in an
effort to mate and establish territories.
—
Free-roaming, unvaccinated animals spreading a myriad of diseases, some deadly
some not, to owned animals and within households.
One of
the downfalls to active TNR programs is that they are not cheap to implement.
The average start-up is about $300 per animal. This includes a full medical
check-up, shots, sterilization and micro-chipping. However, once the animal has
been through the process the costs are minimal, mostly food for the colony.
Most of the after care costs are undertaken by the colony caregivers.
Occasionally some assistance will be needed in case there are animals with
severe medical issues or there is a sudden influx of new animals to the colony,
but this is a rare happenstance.
The sad
fact is that there are a large number of stray and feral cats living in our
area. The individuals currently providing care for these cats are not
responsible for their presence; they are merely trying to keep a bad situation
from getting worse. The only alternatives to TNR are capture-and-remove or
capture-and-kill, neither of which are workable solutions because, as has been
readily found in other locations, nature abhors a vacuum and will quickly fill
the void left by such programs. TNR, on the other hand, allows for natural attrition
and the gradual loss of a colony over time, thus allowing nature to make the
necessary adjustments to the ecosystem.
If you
would like to read the TNR proposal currently being offered, please check
DAAR’s website at http://daar2009.webs.com/. We
are open to any comments or suggestions that you may wish to offer.
Paul
Toulotte
(The
writer is the founder of the Delmarva Association of Animal Rescuers.)
Club Thanks All
Editor:
Coastal
Lacrosse Club recently held its 2nd Annual “High Tide” fundraiser at
Seacrets night club in Ocean City. As the only non-profit youth lacrosse club
in Worcester County, we would like to thank the community for its continued
support through financial contributions, donated auction items and the many
hours of volunteer labor.
The
fundraiser was another huge success as over $7,000 was raised. This was
accomplished through ticket sales, silent auctions and 50/50 raffles. The party
included entertainment by Opposite Directions, the lively atmosphere of
Seacrets, continual door prize drawings and lots of great food.
The
funds raised are put to great use by our organization by purchasing needed
equipment and supplies, securing field space for practice and games and
subsidizing the cost of new uniforms. In addition, Coastal Lacrosse is raising
funds for our future growth. We plan to expand a practice facility in West
Ocean City, improve our web capabilities and set up a fund to support the
growth of lacrosse in the area by providing opportunity to all children who
have an interest in playing the sport, no matter financial circumstance.
The
fundraiser couldn’t have been such a success without the hard work of many
people. Coastal Lacrosse would like to recognize and thank the following people
and businesses that made this possible: Karen Hammond, chair for the event, and
her talented committee, Rico Rossi and the able staff at Seacrets, C.L.
Marshall and Holt Foodservice and all the parents of Coastal Lacrosse. In
addition, numerous local businesses (too many to list here) donated items for
auction and Jack and Kevin from WQMR (101.1FM) and Bulldog and his morning crew
from 98.1FM gave us live airtime to advertise and talk about the fundraiser.
Our
club and numerous volunteers are excited to continue to expand the lacrosse
opportunities for local youth in
southern Sussex, Worcester and Wicomico counties. Coastal Lacrosse will
continue to offer fun and exciting ways for children to learn and succeed at
the game of lacrosse. We offer year-round opportunities including our spring
outdoor season, fall clinic program and our winter indoor season. Check our
website (coastallaxclub.com) for details.
Thanks
to all for their continued support. It is much appreciated by our parents and
the children in our program.
Gary
Richins
Berlin
(The
writer is the president of the club.)