OCEAN CITY — Optimism tempered with reality was essentially the Mayor and Council’s reaction to the city manager’s memorandum outlining a potential reopening timeline this week with the majority favoring an expedited schedule.
Prior to Tuesday’s work session, a framework for reopening the resort and preparing for some semblance of a summer season prepared by City Manager Doug Miller and staff was included in the agenda packet. Miller’s outline was prepared with the best current data surrounding the COVID-19 situation available and was built largely around Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s roadmap to recovery plan announced late last week.
Miller’s plan, for lack of a better phrase, takes into consideration the three basic stages in the governor’s recovery plan including low-risk, medium-risk and high-risk phases spaced out over period of weeks and even months in some cases. It also provides a framework for ramping up city services in preparation for the summer season from lifeguard coverage to police deployments to public works efforts and practically everything in between.
Hogan said last week Maryland could be in a position to begin phase one of his roadmap to recovery in early May if certain key indicators, such as hospitalizations and deaths, continue to trend in the right direction. Miller’s plan released in the form of a memorandum to the Mayor and Council on Tuesday follows the same basic assumptions, but appears to err on the side of caution with a timeline for the three stages far less aggressive than most desire, including the majority of the Mayor and City Council.
The plan calls for a gradual reopening of Ocean City following the governor’s plan with the first stage including the lifting of the stay-at-home order. While Miller’s plan does include a loosening of sorts on some of the restrictions in May, it does suggest most of the month and a good portion of June will likely remain under tight social distancing restrictions. With an eye on erring on the side of caution and not making false promises and predictions based on COVID-19 data that changes almost daily, Miller’s outline suggests a true start to the summer season far less palatable than most hope.
“Our hope is that July 4th will be the new Memorial Day and that the July, August, and September portion of the season will resemble typical seasons,” the memo reads.
After Miller presented his plan, councilmembers praised him for the thoroughness in terms of preparing for a season that will come at some point, but many questioned some of the dates in the timeline.
“It’s well thought-out, but I don’t support your timeline,” said Councilman Tony DeLuca. “It doesn’t match up to the governor’s timeline. To me, with the governor’s timeline, we’re probably getting close to stage one.”
Miller said less emphasis should be placed on the actual dates in the outline and more on the preparation aspects and the boxes that need to be checked as the town ramps up toward an eventual season. Those efforts include being prepared from a staff and resource standpoint as if Memorial Day will be somewhat normal.
“We are going to be ready for Memorial Day weekend,” he said. “If you look at my proposed start dates, I want to be firmly ready for Memorial Day.”
Councilman John Gehrig also questioned some of the relatively dire dates in the outline.
“That is a major difference,” he said. “It’s not going to provide much guidance when we have all of these different sets of data. The governor said we were days into plateauing, so we’re clearly further down the line. I understand we don’t know what’s coming and things can change, but if he said 14 days, we might be seven days down that line.”
Miller’s outline suggests Ocean City could reach stage one under the governor’s plan in late May or early June and stage two in late June or early July. The outline suggests Ocean City likely will not reach stage three, which includes larger gatherings such as special events, and high capacity restaurants and bars and entertainment venues will not operate at all this summer because of the belief stage three relies on finding a vaccine or treatment for COVID-19.
However, Gehrig pointed out Hogan’s roadmap for recovery did not tie reaching stage three to a vaccine or cure for the virus.
“It’s an ‘if this, then that’ situation,” he said. “We can expect to be at stage one in early May and then stage two by mid-May. Between stage two and stage three will clearly be a longer time, but the governor never said stage three required a vaccine or treatment.”
Instead, Gehrig suggested a more ambitious timeline for Ocean City’s recovery plan based on the milestones in the state’s plan.
“We can feel confident we can be looking at early May,” he said. “The residents, the visitors and the businesses all need guidance. We may be open for business on a limited capacity by mid-May and would almost be back to normal by Memorial Day.”
Councilman Matt James agreed the proposed reopening timeline was less ambitious than what it could possibly be and pushed for setting some firm dates for planning purposes even if they were moving targets.
“I’m much more optimistic than the dates in this,” he said. “I’d like to see this group give the public a date. Mid-May would be great. If we have to push that date if things change, we can do that.”
Whatever timeline the state and town reopening plans follow, the coronavirus is not going to suddenly go away and there will likely be social distancing and capacity restrictions in place throughout the summer. James said it was critical to begin planning to reopen before the collateral damage to local businesses and the economy intensify.
“The economic damage that has been done will outlive the virus,” he said. “If we don’t get back to where we need to be, Ocean City can be in bad shape for a long time. It’s time to prepare to reopen and get things up and running sooner rather than later.”
Mayor Rick Meehan agreed some of the dates in city manager’s timeline could be expedited if the virus situation improves as it appears, but tempered the enthusiasm suggested by some on the council.
“We’re doing everything we can to move this forward,” he said. “You gave us an outline, but it’s just that. We need to fill in the points under that basic outline. It needs a lot more roman numerals and numbers. I’m more optimistic than this, but maybe less than some of my colleagues.”
Councilman Dennis Dare urged resisting a rush to reopen despite everyone’s obvious desire to do so, pointing out the potential problems with suddenly flooding the resort area with thousands of visitors. He said Ocean City’s reopening plan needed to be tailored to the uniqueness of a seaside resort and major tourist destination. For example, he pointed out area schools haven’t reopened and likely won’t, yet some plans are suggesting welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors.
“I have a number of concerns,” he said. “It seems like we’re fixated on Maryland and Hogan. There are so many ramifications from this when we start to bring people to town. I’m just concerned because this seems a little optimistic.”
Councilman Mark Paddack said some of the data associated with COVID-19 suggested it was time to begin preparing to reopen.
“I want to thank Doug Miller for preparing this basic outline,” he said. “When this began, the model showed us losing 2.5 million people, but the models are now showing fewer and fewer deaths and hospitalizations. We need to move forward with the future. We know the numbers are declining.”
After considerable debate, it was decided to use Miller’s plan as a basic framework for recovery and make adjustments and expedite certain dates as the situation improves.
“I think we need to drill down a little deeper on this plan,” said Council President Lloyd Martin. “If we’re in recovery and the numbers are right, we’re doing the right thing and need to get reopened.”
