Enforcement Lacking
Editor:
I recently returned home from Ocean City, my first trip of three or four for the year.
I visited from June 3-9. I stayed on the Boardwalk at the Holiday Inn on 17th Street. I was on the Boardwalk every night from the Inlet to 17th Street. I observed many police and safety officers throughout the Boardwalk, but it seems that they are overlooking the number of people who are smoking cigarettes, vaping, smoking cigars and riding bikes and skateboarding during hours they were not permitted to. Also, there were many dogs on leashes on the Boardwalk that were not service dogs. Every time the police did nothing but turn their heads, like they didn’t see it. Why aren’t they enforcing the rules?
I actually saw one man mixing whiskey with Pepsi right next to the restroom on 9th Street right in front of where a male police officer was waiting for two female officers in the restroom. The male officer looked right at the man, watched him put the whiskey in his backpack and never said a word and did nothing about it.
I appreciate that I actually saw more officers than I have seen in years past, but what good are they if they are not doing anything to enforce the law. Citations and fines are income to the city and will help to deter the expense of their wages, but I honestly can say in six nights on the Boardwalk, what’s the use of having laws if we aren’t going to enforce them?
Duane Mrazek
McKees Rocks, Pa.
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Trash Can Art Sponsors Thanked
Editor:
The Art League of Ocean City would like to sincerely thank the 17 sponsors who stepped up to sponsor 32 art-enhanced trash cans that are now in the sand on the Ocean City beach from the Delaware line to the fishing pier. The color designs are colorful and beautiful and, most important for beach cleanliness, visible from a distance.
Our environmentally-conscious trash can sponsors for 2018 include The Gateway Grand, Hotel-Motel-Restaurant Association, Beach Bites, Paige Cox, Valentine Accounting, Ish Boutique, The Hobbit Restaurant, Glitter & Gold, Frulu, Delaware Elevator, Mother’s Cantina, Barn 34, Indigo Octopus, OC Elks Lodge #2645, Pit-n-Pub, the Davis & Lepson families and Our Lady of Hope/St. Luke’s School of Dundalk, Md.
The success of our project would not have been possible without the support of Ocean City’s Public Works Department who deployed the cans on the beach and made sure they were in the right spot, especially Hal Adkins, Woody Vickers, Tom Dy and Ronnie Shockley.
We would also like to thank the member artists of the Art League who provided the original designs, and Sun Signs for producing the wraps for the cans.
The Art League and Public Works developed the Art CAN Clean Beaches program from an idea brought forward by Ocean City Councilman Tony DeLuca and the Ocean City Green Team. The program hopes to remind beachgoers that trash belongs in the receptacles and not in the sand. A $5,000 grant through the Maryland Environmental Trust’s Clean-Up and Green-Up Maryland helped fund the project.
Rina Thaler
Ocean City
(The writer is the executive director of the Art League of Ocean City and Ocean City Center for the Arts.)
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Tourney Changes Needed
Editor:
Ocean City started out as a fishing village and worked up to a great tourism spot. These fishing tournaments bring in numerous people to town. I actually support these tournaments. But this “Mako Mania” tournament winner of $6,200 for catching a thrasher shark is wrong. Wrong because they did not abide by the rules of the “Mako Mania” tournament.
First rule out of 15 was not abided by which is “All IGFA Rules apply.” That states IGFA International Angling Rules state that if a fish was caught through the use of shooting, harpooning or lancing, the catch will be disqualified in a tournament setting. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources also prohibits fish from being snagged, shot, gafted, speared, scaled or mutilated in competition. This shark was not skillfully brought in, it was shot in the head. This is sportfishing, which to me means you and that shark fight it out, either he gives up or breaks loose or you the fisherman gives up. The excuse the angler gave was a pitiful one, he was looking at dollar signs. The angler should not receive any money or title.
The short fin mako along with the thresher are both classified as vulnerable because of their declining numbers. This tournament should cease.
June C. Lewis