OC Today WWW.OCEANCITYTODAY.NET
JANUARY 26, 2018
SERVING NORTHERN WORCESTER COUNTY
LIFESTYLE OC NATIVE RECOGNIZED Jimmy Charles has been named ‘Outstanding Young Tennessean of the Year’ – Page 29
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Coastal closes two lanes for median fence
Tax differential request could affect state
SHA contractor needs time, space to finish
Code treats certain counties differently
By Brian Gilliland Associate Editor (Jan. 26, 2018) While the closure of the left lanes on both the northbound and southbound sides of Coastal Highway are old news to offseason resort travelers during business hours, the State Highway Administration announced last week the closures would become permanent until work is completed — expected in May. The closures were to facilitate work including installing a median fence, meant to force pedestrians to use designated crosswalks, between 26th Street and 62nd Street. “The ongoing lane closure will allow for our work crews to work a bit later, or earlier … but it also allows them to keep their projects ‘open,’ meaning that they do not have to patch holes, or remove equipment when they are finished work for the day,” Tanesha Hankerson, State Highway Administration spokeswoman said. Hankerson said work crews have finished installing electrical conduit to support the installation of streetlights in the median as well as removing the curbs and gutters. She said crews are not expected to extend work hours at this point, but that might become necessary closer to the project’s estimated May completion date. The LED light poles to be installed will be placed in the median between the convention center and 62nd Street, will be 40 feet tall, and the arms holding the physical lights will vary between four and 10 feet in length. Crews finished installing the foundations for the poles last week, Hankerson said. Work has not yet begun on the fence itself, she said. George & Lynch Inc. of Dover, Delaware, has been contracted by the Maryland Department of Transportation and the State Highway Administration to complete the $6.5 million project.
JOSH DAVIS/OCEAN CITY TODAY
Lyndsey Odachowski on Thursday welcomes the first clients into Positive Energy on 9939 Jerry Mack Road in West Ocean City, Worcester County’s first medical marijuana dispensary.
West OC dispensary opens
By Brian Gilliland Associate Editor (Jan. 26, 2018) Without the crowds or fanfare seen in other states, Positive Energy, the county’s first medical marijuana dispensary, opened its doors to the public on Thursday. “It’s incredible. It’s been just a little over three years in the making and to have the patients come in and being able to interact with them is huge,” Lyndsey Odachowski, general manager, said. “I had my grandparents come in, and seeing it come full circle for them is really huge.” Odachowski said both her grandmother and grandfather have seen benefits from medical marijuana use. The dispensary is on Route 50, at the intersection with Jerry Mack Road, in a complex owned by the Odachowski family. The full address is 9939 Jerry Mack Road. Maryland law allows two dispensaries per state senate district and Odachowski’s Positive Energy is the first to open. Robert Davis, owner and clinical director of Hi-Tide dispensary, also in West Ocean City at 12600 Marjan Lane, said he expects to open in February. Hi-Tide is still waiting on
final approval from the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission to open. “For the community, we can now offer an option for them to get natural medicine in their own backyard, and they don’t have to go far, she said. Because the shore is a popular and growing retirement area, Odachowski said she thought it was important to provide that population with a local solution for symptom relief. “There are a lot of older people who put a lot of miles on their body and they deserve pain relief too, or whatever relief they can get for their condition,” she said. Odachowski announced Positive Energy’s opening during an information session she hosted last week in Ocean Pines, which drew about 100 people. She said people began arriving about an hour before it was scheduled to start, and had many questions from audience members for certifying physician Dr. William “Eddie” Gunn. Many of the questions were specific to certain ailments, and how cannabis might be used to control certain symptoms, she said. The process for obtaining medical cannabis in Maryland
is somewhat inverted from the traditional doctor-patient relationship, where a patient brings a complaint and the doctor prescribes medicine. In this case, a patient already registered with the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission schedules an appointment for certification from a provider, also registered with the state. Registration is available online via the commission’s website. mmcc.maryland.gov. The patient describes the result they would like to achieve to the provider, and if that matches with one of the state’s qualifying conditions, a certification is issued. That certification is taken to the dispensary by the patient, who determines, with assistance from the dispensary staff, what product best suits the patient’s needs. Because state and federal marijuana laws conflict, payments for medical cannabis have been made mostly on a cash basis. However, Odachowski said she could also accept CanPay, a credit and debit payment app launched in Littleton, Colorado in 2016, specifically to handle medical marijuana payments. For more information about Positive Energy, visit www.facebook.com/PositiveEnergyOC.
By Brian Gilliland Associate Editor (Jan. 26, 2018) Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Garrett, Harford, Howard, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties are required to provide tax setoffs for similar services offered by municipalities and counties, while the rest of the counties and Baltimore City are not, and the action filed by the resort last week could change all that. There are two operative words in consecutive sections of the state property tax code regarding tax setoffs for duplicated services: “may” and “shall.” In legal terms, “may” refers to something allowable, but not required and anything that “shall” be done is mandatory. According to the complaint filed by City Solicitor Guy Ayres in Circuit Court, 19 of 23 counties that “may” provide tax setoffs have done so. The four that have not are Howard, Baltimore, Wicomico and Worcester counties. Of those four, Baltimore and Howard counties do not have municipalities. Ayres cites the State Department of Legislative Services December 2016 report, the most recent at the time of the case filing, which noted that 136 Maryland municipalities receive a tax differential or tax rebate from their county. The state lists 157 municipalities in Maryland. In lieu of tax rebates, Worcester County provides grants to its municipalities. According to Ayres’ complaint, the resort receives “a fluctuating annual amount of about $2 million.” Ayres also cites Ocean City’s internal study conducted a decade ago that determined there were about $17 million worth of duplicated services. Ayres states the county’s own study, See RESORT Page 5