SNOW HILL – A local board fined an Ocean City bar $2,000 and urged management to start working with local law enforcement to avoid future problems.
The Worcester County Board of License Commissioners (BLC) fined Cowboy Coast $2,000 this week following a noise violation. The decision came after Ocean City Police Department Sgt. Doug Smith said law enforcement needed more cooperation from the business.
“For him to even be here asking for cooperation means in his opinion they’re not getting it,” said William Esham, BLC chair. “You need to be listening to what he says otherwise you’re going to be in more trouble than you are today.”
Attorney Pete Cosby and Cowboy Coast’s Mark Bogosh told the board during this week’s hearing that the noise issue arose from an attempt to offer electronic dance music. Bogosh said he hadn’t thought about the heavier base associated with the music.
“We were just trying something different,” he said. “I have no further plans to continue that.”
Smith, who said he was attending the hearing to represent the Ocean City Police Department, said he’d seen many businesses try to offer new types of entertainment to increase business on an off night.
“Certain elements come in with that and certain problems are inevitable with those venues,” he said.
Smith said he’d heard concerns from both his fellow Ocean City officers as well as Maryland State Police officials.
“I know they can’t directly be responsible for something that occurs at the Wawa or the Royal Farms or something like that but when incidents happen and you link it back to a venue and it’s repetitive, you start questioning what’s this venue doing now that they weren’t doing in the past,” he said.
Smith said the noise issue was just the most recent problem officers had with Cowboy Coast.
“I’m here to represent the police department and hopefully build a better working relationship with this establishment,” he said.
Smith said that while a lot of major bars in Ocean City have camera systems, Cowboy Coast did not.
“That’s one issue I would hope maybe moving forward if we’re going to continue to have large events that could potentially have problems maybe think about adding cameras like some of these other establishments have done,” he said.
Large events at Cowboy Coast have required as many as 10 officers to deal with crowds as well as issues like assaults and drug use, according to Smith.
“Their business is right on the highway,” he said. “At Seacrets, they have the entirety of 49th Street, which is a long street, to get to Coastal Highway so some of those problems are never seen on Coastal Highway. This establishment, as soon as they walk out of the entrance they’re on Coastal Highway and spilling on to Philadelphia Avenue.”
He added that officers have had problems with staff cooperation during incidents there in the past. Smith said OCPD wanted to build a relationship with the bar’s management so that when it was hosting an incident that might attract a large crowd they could work together.
“We feel there’s a little bit of disconnect that could be improved,” he said, adding that he wasn’t trying to single Cowboy Coast out. “Does Seacrets have problems? Absolutely. Does Macky’s have problems? Absolutely. Does Fager’s? Absolutely. When you get a lot of people together, you’re going to have issues.”
Cosby said Bogosh likely wasn’t aware the police had specific concerns about his business. Smith said he was at the hearing to relay the message that police wanted to work more closely with Cowboy Coast.
Esham said the bar was clearly much too loud the night it offered electronic dance music.
“It was loud enough it was rattling the windows at the fire station,” he said.
That, he added, was just the latest issue at Cowboy Coast, as there were noise, fire code, disorderly conduct and even alcohol purchasing violations in the bar’s history. Esham encouraged Bogosh to start improving his relationship with the Ocean City Police Department.
