OCEAN CITY – With the approval of the plans for a downtown recreation park and the expansion of the Ocean Bowl Skate Park by the Mayor and Council Tuesday, residents and visitors alike will soon be seeing improvements and enhancements to the bayside area between 3rd and 4th streets.Tom Shuster, director of Recreation and Parks,… Read more »
Category: Featured Story
Debate Ensues Over Room Tax Increase Funding Intent
SNOW HILL – Tourism advertising needs more funds, resort and county business owners report, but that funding was provided for Ocean City at least through a room tax increase in 2000, some say, and the town used the money elsewhere.Now the town’s businesses have approached the County Commissioners for financial support to advertise the resort… Read more »
High Hopes For ‘Double Hit’ Holiday In Ocean City
OCEAN CITY – The Fourth of July is always a busy time for local businesses as they prepare their staff for large crowds, but this year, with the holiday falling on a Wednesday, businesses are hoping to see a significant surge from the two-weekend split.The lure of having Independence Day fall on a weekend is… Read more »
Md. Family Continues To Mourn Teen’s Death
OCEAN CITY – One year after an Elkton high school graduate in Ocean City for Senior Week was first reported missing and later found floating in the Cape May, N.J. harbor, and one week after what would have been his 19th birthday, the memories of the tragedy still linger in the resort and his family… Read more »
Tourism Industry Rallies For Funds To Promote Ocean City
OCEAN CITY – A caravan of local business owners and members of the Ocean City Hotel-Motel-Restaurant Association (OCHMRA) came before the City Council Tuesday to stress the point that tourism is the lifeline of our community, a lifeline that needs to be revived. At Tuesday’s work session, the OCHMRA presented a united front, giving several… Read more »
Accused West Ocean City Murderer Pleads Guilty
SNOW HILL- Accused West Ocean City murderer Gregory W. Stokes, 31, pleaded guilty on Monday to second-degree assault and aggravated cruelty to animal and now faces a maximum of 33 years combined for the two convictions.A Worcester County grand jury in January charged Stokes in the shooting death of Pamela Jean Balk in her parents’… Read more »
Weather, Crowds Make For Strong Holiday Weekend
OCEAN CITY – Last weekend marked one of the busiest Memorial Day holiday weekends in recent history with town officials reporting the largest crowds since 1994.According to the town’s demoflush numbers, the Memorial Day weekend crowds were up 8 percent over last year’s holiday affair. The demoflush numbers come from a system that calculates the… Read more »
OC’s Most Brutal Crime Remembered Five Years Later
OCEAN CITY – “Murder is rarely pretty or pleasant, and in this case particularly, it was gruesome and grotesque.”That’s how Worcester County State’s Attorney Joel Todd described the brutal murder of a Virginia couple in a north-end Ocean City penthouse condominium on Memorial Day weekend in 2002, five years ago today, in his opening statement… Read more »
OCVFC Reassured of Leadership Role in Resort’s Fire Service
OCEAN CITY- The leadership of the Ocean City Volunteer Fire Company were reassured during a two-hour heart-to-heart with the Mayor and Council on Tuesday they are still the lead agency in the umbrella of sorts that covers fire service in the resort, but a mysterious memorandum of understanding encouraging the volunteer outfit to work more… Read more »
Sea Grass Acres Dip 38% In Coastal Bays
BERLIN – Eleven square miles of coastal bays sea grasses have died off in the last two years, according to a report by the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences (VIMS).The institute reports that the coastal bays watershed has seen 38 percent of its bay grasses disappear, dropping from 17,012 acres to 10,548 acres.Grasses in Maryland’s… Read more »