OCEAN CITY – The resort area lost a legend and a good friend this week when Boardwalk icon Russell B. “Bo” Ruggerio passed away last Saturday at the age of 69 at Atlantic General Hospital after a lengthy illness.Hundreds gathered yesterday at Ruggerio’s funeral services at Holy Savior Catholic Church to pay their last respects… Read more »

WEST OCEAN CITY – Three local juveniles were charged this week with setting the fire last Tuesday that claimed a 90-year-old vacant house not far from Keyser Point Rd. and snarled rush hour traffic in West Ocean City last Tuesday.The Worcester County Fire Marshal’s Office this week completed its investigation on the cause of the… Read more »

OCEAN CITY – The proposed operating budget for the fiscal year 2009 was presented this week to the Board of Education, reflecting a $2.6 million, 3.4 percent increase over last year’s operating budget.The current year budget sits at $81 million. Seventy percent of funding comes from the county, with 18.9 percent coming from the state…. Read more »

ANNAPOLIS – Several bills concerning the distribution and sale of alcoholic beverages in Worcester continued to plod their way through the Maryland General Assembly including one that would repeal the absolute monopoly of the Liquor Control Board (LCB) for Worcester County and another that has threatened to splinter or even dissolve the agency.Worcester is somewhat… Read more »

SNOW HILL – The introduction of state legislation allowing Worcester County and Ocean City to reduce taxes for Trimper’s Rides at the Boardwalk prompted Jolly Roger Amusement Park to ask for the same consideration this week, but the County Commissioners will not vote on their support for a tax break for Jolly Rogers until they… Read more »

SNOW HILL – Ocean City has requested the third highest tax set-off in Maryland and is asking for the highest percentage of reduction in the entire state, Worcester County Treasurer Harold Higgins said this week when he presented the staff analysis of the Ocean City tax differential report to the County Commissioners.Staff findings refuted the… Read more »

OCEAN CITY – The family of two Pennsylvania tourists who perished from carbon monoxide poisoning in their Boardwalk hotel room in June 2006 last week filed a civil suit in U.S. District Court seeking $30 million from four defendants including the hotel ownership group, the Bay Shore Development Corp.The suit filed in U.S. District Court… Read more »

WEST OCEAN CITY – The Worcester County Fire Marshal’s Office this week is investigating the recovery of as many as a dozen homemade soda bottle bombs, a few of which were detonated, at several locations around West Ocean City. According to officials, the homemade bombs were made in plastic soft drink bottles with various components… Read more »

OCEAN CITY – Bethany Beach, Del. will soon be seeing a smoking ban along its beaches and Boardwalk, a restriction that would be difficult to enforce along Ocean City’s 10-mile stretch of beach, officials say.Smoking prohibitions seem to be increasing as of late, with talk of smoking bans in certain apartment complexes around the country,… Read more »

SNOW HILL – A Virginia man, who pleaded guilty last November to the unauthorized removal of property after stealing a sport fishing boat from a West Ocean City marina in October before crashing the vessel into the Route 50 bridge and running it aground on a sandbar, was sentenced this week to five years in… Read more »