OCEAN CITY — Before the Mayor and Council has had an opportunity to weigh in on the proposed “Adopt Your Beach” program, the concept is gaining momentum with potential interest in roughly one third of the resort’s beach blocks already.
In January, the Coastal Resources Legislative Committee, or “Green Team,” began cursory discussions about an initiative aimed at keeping the resort’s beaches clean. The “Adopt Your Beach” program is being explored by the Ocean City Surf Club, a grassroots organization that advocates for clean beaches, increased awareness and outreach, among other things.
Last week, Ocean City Surf Club representative Effie Cox presented some additional information about the proposed “Adopt Your Beach” program to the Green Team in advance of a formal proposal to the council, perhaps as early as next week.
“We’ve had a tremendous response so far,” she said. “If everybody that has responded follows through, we would have 50 beaches adopted already and that’s without going out and aggressively seeking it.”
The club’s Adopt Your Beach program would solicit volunteers, from schools to businesses to church groups and condo associations and other organizations to take ownership, or perhaps more appropriately stewardship, of “their beach.” Under the program, a group or organization would literally adopt a section of beach in Ocean City.
The organizations or individuals would be required to cleanup and monitor their adopted beaches with at least four organized beach cleanups from April to November, although year-round monitoring would be encouraged. The volunteers would document the types of trash and debris collected and ultimately hauled away by the town’s Public Works department and that information could be used to identify certain problem areas.
Councilman and Coastal Resources Legislative Committee liaison Tony DeLuca said it appeared the program was ready for a formal presentation to the council.
“It’s a great program,” he said. “I’d really like to see it implemented this spring, so we need to get something together to present to the Mayor and Council.”
The program would include, at least initially, installing signs at the street ends advising residents and visitors who adopted the beach and would also include information on how a group or organization could adopt their own section of beach. Cox presented an attractive mock-up of a potential sign last week, and while most agreed it would make a nice addition to the rest of the signs at the street ends, some voiced concern they would only contribute to the clutter already at the street ends.
“I’m really anti-signs,” said DeLuca. “Maybe initially we need the signs to get this rolling, but once we get to 140 streets, maybe the signs can go away.”
Cox said the Surf Club initially proposed a $200 fee for a group or individual to adopt a beach in Ocean City, but the organization has since backed off that proposal and eliminated the fee in the interest of attracting more interest.
“When people look at the signs, they see we have an adopt-a-beach program and they want to be part of it,” said Cox. “We need to have the contact information available to allow the program to grow.”