OCEAN PINES – Ocean Pines officials agreed to proceed with emergency improvements at the community’s country club.
During a meeting July 28, the Ocean Pines Association (OPA) board of directors agreed to have Willow Construction draw up plans and provide cost projections for the long-discussed renovations to the second floor of the country club. Brett Hill, OPA’s acting general manager, recommended the company be hired to address issues created by OPA’s public works team, which was initially tasked with handling the project.
“It’s an emergency measure brought about by emergency notification from the fire marshal,” said Dave Stevens, president of the board.
According to Hill, he was notified by the Worcester County Fire Marshal’s Office that OPA had violated the terms of its demolition permit for the work at the country club. The second floor of the facility was set to be reconfigured to include a board meeting room and community meeting space.
“They exceeded the scope of the permit and the building is no longer under fire protection,” Hill said.
Because of that, the fire marshal mandated a fire watch for the building. Hill said the watch, which consisted of staff monitoring the site during all hours of operation, with regular checks and log reports, was costing the association $500 a day. Failure to perform the watch, he said, would mean a fine of $1,000 a day.
“At this point, we’re unable to obtain permits on our own,” he said, adding that he wanted to have Willow Construction, the company that handled improvements at the Ocean Pines Beach Club, take over the project.
Hill said company representatives assured him they could complete the work within 90 days. He asked the board to approve a $536,500 design/build contract with the company.
Board member Cheryl Jacobs said she wanted to see the work to move ahead but was worried the cost could exceed the contract price. Board member Slobodan Trendic suggested tabling the decision to provide the board with more time to evaluate the situation.
“I don’t believe it’s fiscally responsible and also we haven’t been given time to digest the information,” he said.
Hill replied that it was an emergency situation. He said the second-floor renovations were supposed to have started in February and been completed by summer. He said that if the work moved ahead immediately, the space could be usable by winter.
“The work we did caused damage,” he said. “That’s why we’re in this boat. The way we’re doing it now is not working.”
Stevens said he understood Trendic’s concern but wanted to see the work move ahead.
“If we have that facility available, it opens up other options with respect to food and beverage during the winter time,” he said. “It will cost us money every day that we wait.”
Hill added that as long as the fire watch was in place, employees were tasked with inspecting the entire building every half hour and keeping accurate logs of those inspections.
“If there is a deficiency in the logs, the fire marshal has the right to close the building down,” he said.
Hill said this was in fact the second violation the fire marshal had identified at the facility this year. In June, the building’s Tern Grill was forced to close because OPA didn’t file drawings of the improvements being made there with the Worcester County Fire Marshal’s Office.
Hill said that if the board approved the contract with Willow Construction, the company would be taking over responsibility for the current situation.
Terndic and Jacobs continued to express concern over the fact that the board didn’t have a final cost for the work from the company, as the $536,500 figure was preliminary.
Hill suggested the board approve having Willow Construction handle the design work and submit a firm budget for the overall project.
“The fire marshal was very clear he wanted to see a licensed contractor with permits to move forward on any activities to remedy this,” Hill said.
The board agreed to have the company move forward with a design for the second floor and submit a budget for the entire project.
