Tired Of Tough Talk
Editor:
Regarding the recent “unsanctioned” H2OI event and the presence of these vehicles in Ocean City, I appreciate your updates with The Dispatch’s Daily Buzz E-Mails.
First, I want to commend Chief Ross Buzzuro, his officers, the allied partners and first responders that assisted in an attempt to keep our town safe this past weekend and thankfully prevented a tragedy. However, when I read the Daily Buzz E-Mail dated Oct. 3 about the OC officials “tough talk” about the ”unacceptable antics,” I was angered.
As long as the restaurants, hotels, and businesses are full and busy, and the Mayor and Council pander to the business community, nothing will change. The council talked about “bold solutionsm” but do they really want them? If the Mayor and Council want to end the “antics,” give the chief and his officers the tools and teeth to fight back. The H2Oi drivers who received tickets and wore them as a “badge of courage” flaunt disregard for our town’s regulations, threaten the safety of our citizens, law enforcement officers, and visitors, and give the Town of Ocean City a reputation as a lawless frontier where outlaws can do anything.
I have seen vehicle trailers, parked in parking lots, that have been “booted” because the trailer owner did not pay his “Pound of Flesh” to the Town of Ocean City just to park in town; yet actively driven vehicles operating in a reckless and dangerous manner only receive tickets? If you’re serious about ending this criminal activity, give the chief and his officers 100 boots. If a driver is ticketed for reckless driving, the vehicle gets a boot until a tow truck tows it to the impound lot. Then impose a $1,000 fee to remove a vehicle booted during a special event. Word will spread, the outlaws will leave town, the “antics” will stop, and the residents of Ocean City and the legitimate law abiding visitors can enjoy a beautiful weekend in Ocean City with the cars.
Tom Xenakis
Ocean City
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Vehicle Events Need To Be Election Issue
Editor:
As a year-long resident of Ocean City, I am anxiously awaiting the next elections for Mayor of Ocean City and Ocean City counsel. I will have one and only question to put forth to each candidate:
“What is your stance on these car cruising weekends, biker weekends and H2Oi weekends?”
If a candidate still wants to keep them going with some changes, they’re out and I will make it known they want these disruptive car shows to continue.
The candidate who wants them discontinued and put to an end completely will have my undying support and I will campaign aggressively on his behalf.
These car and bike weekends must end. No moving the dates. No setting up barriers to get down to one lane on Coastal Highway. Whoever thought that idea up is a moron. What are the citizens of Ocean City supposed to do? Lock themselves in their homes for four days? End them, don’t disrupt the lives of the citizens who live here year round.
I don’t want interviews only of people who have businesses or hotels or restaurants in Ocean City. Talk to the other people who live here year-round and have to put up with the gridlock, the crude and rude behavior of these car and bike people and the racing of their vehicles up Coastal Highway after 1 a.m. every night they’re here. By the way, does the Ocean City Police Department go to sleep at 11 p.m. They’re drag racing from 125 Street to the Delaware line between 1 and 3 a.m. and not a police siren to be heard. Don’t we have noise ordinances?
You would need to bring in an “Army” of police, position patrol cars on every block on Coastal Highway from the Inlet to the Delaware line and post a policeman on every median strip. I spoke with an Ocean City policeman during the H2Oi weekend and he told me “the police force hate these car and biker weekends.”
Another thing, the people who line the sidewalks from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. sit there with coolers full of beer drinking it openly. Don’t we have open container laws?
With the bikers and H2Oi cars in town, I was verbally assaulted, cursed at and threatened by these people. I was going to St Luke’s Church for Mass, pulled up behind one of these H2OI cars and the punk kid driver got out cursing at me and walking toward me saying I was too close to his rear bumper. As soon as I got out my phone with the camera and began taping his car and license plate, he ran back to his car, burnt rubber and fled.
Bottom line: End all car and biker weekends effective 2018.
I will question each candidate. Whoever wishes these shows to continue will be out and I will campaign against them
Whoever shows me he or she wants these events to end and disappear for good is my candidate and gets my complete support. I will actively campaign for his election.
Robert Derencz
Ocean City
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Disappointed By Vehicles On Beach
Editor:
I am writing to express my profound disappointment and frustration over the issue of Ocean City’s decision to allow vehicles on the beach during the off-season.
I have not had a chance to come “down the ocean” for a couple of years. I have finally come for the first week in October, staying in a condo for rent on 51st Street and the ocean. I have been having a wonderful time since Sunday, keeping everything open to see and hear the delights of the ocean in gorgeous weather. I loved being here at this time of year, and until today, firmly decided that I would be coming back to Ocean City from now on after Labor Day. So peaceful.
Then today, Friday, arrived the campers and trucks. The noise level suddenly accelerated, and I woke to see dozens of parked vehicles on the same peaceful ocean view I’d enjoyed all week. It’s just so ugly. It’s smelly and noisy. This isn’t why I come to the shore, and I have no plans to return to Ocean City. I don’t mind fishermen at all, but as a guest here I am frankly appalled by the decision made by Ocean City to allow this.
Environmentally this is even more of an insult to the shore than it is to me, one person. Grease, oil and tire treads mark the sand. So much for the cleanest beach in the country. The dunes must be at risk. And the shore birds and other life on shore are having their habitats encroached upon and poisoned.
How can the city defend such politically driven decisions? What long-term good can come from this?
As I write this, I count 15 large vehicles outside my “oceanfront” condo, and it is after noon. This morning when dawn broke there were more. Pick-up trucks wander. I forgo my morning beach walk–who wants to negotiate traffic on a beach? Who wants to smell car fumes on the shore? It’s a beautiful day but Ocean City has spoiled it for me. What has happened to this town? I’ve lived in the Baltimore area all my life. This change has made all the difference: until this policy changes, I won’t be back. And neither will many more just like me. No one comes to the shore for this. There’s an actual roadway in front of the oceanfront condo I got this week. What a waste. And I’m watching Ocean City poison it’s most precious resources. Ocean City will have no future as a family town if this policy remains in place. I can see and hear how the atmosphere has changed in terms of road noise and respect for the life on our beaches.
Please, please change this awful policy. Don’t allow vehicles on the beach. I would be happy to see the fishermen without them. And I am confident that without a change Ocean City will feel the negative difference economically. It’s already happening environmentally.
Reverend Monica Kennedy
Halethorpe
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Cruiser Event Success
Editor:
The Berlin Cruiser Committee would like to thank The Town of Berlin for their usual excellent support of our Semi-Annual Cruiser Event. We would like to especially thank Jane Kreiter and Wendell Purnell and the entire Public Works Crew, The Berlin Electric Department, Berlin Police Dept. and Sharon Timmons for posting our no parking signs.
In addition thanks to the Berlin Fire Company for bringing “Ole Mack” to our show each time (though not a Cruiser, it’s always the most photographed vehicle), the merchants that donated gift guards for the judges, all that helped with registration, 50/50 sales etc. and Big Al Reno of Ocean 98 for his PA System. Needless to say, we cannot forget the judges, all experts on the various classes of Cruisers.
Our apologies if we missed anyone.
Tanja Giles, Mike Wiley, Bill Hoshal, Ken Tomaselli
Berlin