A few months ago, this paper suggested Commissioner Virgil Shockley take over the post of commission president for James Purnell, who was appointed to the position by his colleagues in 2005 after Sonny Bloxom stepped aside to seek a state Delegate seat. After much drama, including some heated private conversations among the commissioners and a… Read more »
Category: Between The Lines
Thoughts From The Publishers Desk
Wicomico County State’s Attorney Davis Ruark was arrested for allegedly driving drunk last weekend in Ocean City. This is a big deal as it was when the Ocean City cop was busted after a Fraternal Order of Police holiday party last year. It all goes back to those who enforce the law should also have… Read more »
Thoughts From The Publisher’s Desk
Ocean City is not going to get its tax differential. The town is seeking a tax setoff, also known as a tax differential, for services it provides outside of municipal limits. The resort estimates it costs nearly $14 million a year for it to provide government services outside Ocean City. Therefore, that’s the amount of… Read more »
Thoughts From The Publishers Desk
There will be no Verizon’s Springfest. No Comcast’s Art’s Alive. No Pepsi’s Sunfest. No The Dispatch’s Winterfest of Lights. It seems the town is content with the sponsorship dollars it receives for its special events and wants the big festivities to remain town-sponsored events. This is fine, but it’s understandable some folks find it a… Read more »
Thoughts From The Publisher’s Desk
Some folks are saying the Ocean City Council’s vote to support slots at fraternal clubs, such as the Elks Lodge, VFW and American Legion, to name a few, epitomizes hypocrisy. An argument could certainly be made the decision contradicts the resort’s infamous anti-slots stance, which is annually reiterated in Annapolis during public hearings. However, it’s… Read more »
Thoughts From The Publisher’s Desk
A good man known by many in the community passed away this week. Mr. Coates, the patriarch of a local family of well-known lawyers, died after a long illness on Sunday. It’s been a while since I last saw Mr. Coates and longer since we had a conversation, but I got to know him well… Read more »
Thoughts From The Publisher’s Desk
Some people will get a chance to relive the disturbing slaying and dismemberment of Martha Crutchley and Joshua Ford at the hands of Erika and Benjamin Sifrit this weekend. The investigation and the case in general will be featured on the Oxygen Network’s show “Snapped,” which details cases of females accused of murder that seemingly… Read more »
Thoughts From The Publisher’s Desk
This is the winter of major changes for Maryland. First, the sales tax increased earlier this month from 5 cents to 6 cents on the dollar (it’s 7 cents for any business selling food and beverage in Ocean City to pay off the bond for the 1995 convention center expansion) and the smoking ban kicks… Read more »
Thoughts From The Publisher’s Desk
One of the key issues the Ocean City Mayor and Council will confront in the coming months is the future of the resort’s fire service, specifically changes in its structure, the costs associated with those modifications and how to address the concerns of the volunteer and career firefighters. Last year a controversy mounted over the… Read more »
Thoughts From The Publisher’s Desk
In what has become an annual tradition, I venture the following predictions, some of local significance and some not so much, for the year ahead:— Sen. Hillary Clinton will be elected president in a landslide general election victory over former New York Gov. Rudy Giuliani.— Sixty percent of Marylanders heading to the polls will vote… Read more »