SNOW HILL — Budget season may be months away, but the Worcester County Commissioners started their new year by immediately looking for ways to trim costs for a study reviewing possible changes to the Ocean Pines Operations Facility. One commissioner, however, felt her colleagues were going overboard.“It’s not a zillion dollars … we’re not going… Read more »

OCEAN CITY – The Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) named this week a new captain following a change in the department’s structure, despite two councilmen’s concerns on how it will affect the department’s budget in the future.The OCPD announced that Lt. Gregory Guiton will be filling the new captain’s position.“He has been instrumental in working… Read more »

SALISBURY — It’s likely that the voters in Wicomico County will play a big part in determining what changes, if any, will impact the Board of Education  in the future.The Wicomico County Council voted Tuesday to send a letter to state delegates asking to have a three-choice, non-binding referendum placed on next year’s ballot.“We had… Read more »

BERLIN — The ongoing legal battle between a Berlin farm family and an environmental watchdog group over alleged pollution violations continued this week with a federal judge ruling the defendant’s leak of confidential information regarding settlement negotiations did not warrant sanctions.In March 2010, the Waterkeeper Alliance, along with the Assateague Coastkeeper and the Assateague Coastal… Read more »

SNOW HILL — A crackdown on “nuisance” properties in Worcester County got off to an agreeable start Tuesday.Resident Michael Ward appeared before the Worcester County Commissioners for a hearing regarding a property located in Snow Hill recently served with a nuisance abatement order. The order set Ward on a tight timetable for addressing “three ramshackled… Read more »

SALISBURY — After almost two decades of service, Salisbury City Clerk Brenda Colegrove has decided to retire.The announcement, delivered Tuesday, came as a shock to the Salisbury City Council.“We were floored last night,” said Councilwoman Laura Mitchell the day after the announcement.While it may have been a surprise, Colegrove noted that the retirement has been… Read more »

OCEAN CITY — Nearly one year to the day after threatening to sue federal fisheries officials over a failed threatened or endangered listing for Atlantic Bluefin tuna, an environmental watchdog agency last week filed suit in U.S. District Court in an attempt to reverse a rule change expanding the fishery.In late December 2010, the National… Read more »

BERLIN — A delegation of Eastern Shore lawmakers last month lashed out at state fisheries officials over a new regulation to hold back 5 percent of the Maryland’s annual striped bass quota in the wake of last year’s illegal taking of tons of rockfish around the state.Last February, Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) confiscated 10… Read more »

OCEAN CITY – A positive review of the town’s Cigarette Butt Beach Container initiative was presented this week.As Ocean City Surfrider Foundaion member Terry Steimer prepared for his report on the Cigarette Butt Beach Container initiative, he wheeled in a grocery cart of bags full of cigarette butts and placed it directly in front of… Read more »