STATE CHAMP: Decatur
AIR SHOW: Tight hotel room availability
sophomore Lucas Duker finds that his best jump is better than anyone else’s in 3A competition PAGE 40A
on a busy weekend could leave visiting crews scrambling to find a place to stay. And then, there’s that federal budget problem PAGE 3A
INSIDE THIS ISSUE: BUSINESS . . . . . . . . . . 45A CLASSIFIED . . . . . . . . . 26A ENTERTAINMENT . . . . . . 5B LEGALS . . . . . . . . . . . . 28A
LIFESTYLE . . . . . . . . . . . 1B OPINION . . . . . . . . . . . 20A OUT&ABOUT . . . . . . . . . 11B SPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . 39A
COUNCIL BACKS EFFORT TO REDUCE FERAL CAT POPULATION…PAGE 5A
Ocean City Today WWW.OCEANCITYTODAY.NET
MARCH 1, 2013
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Ocean City convention center
Cheerleaders fuel concerns over theater expansion Convention center space squeeze looms ZACK HOOPES ■ Staff Writer
STUDENTS IN GOVERNMENT
ganization and we can assign a dollar value to them,” Recor continued. “Our goal is to ask the council today for some parameters.” The city’s major source of income – property taxes – will remain level if the city adopts “constant yield” tax rate of 46.2 cents per hundred dollars of property value, a marginal increase over last year’s 45.85 cents. This is to make up for a 1.4 percent decrease in property values over FY13, following the reassessment last year of the resort’s south-end commercial properties. Although estimated at $7.13 million in value, the reassessed properties are only a
(March 1, 2013) When the price tag is $8.3 million, buyer’s remorse can be pretty rough. An ominous email from the organizer of last month’s lucrative cheerleading competition seems to have made public a long-lingering concern that the upcoming performing arts theater project at the city’s convention center will actually make the facility less marketable. The email, sent this week to local hoteliers from Epic Brands, the cheerleading promoter that organizes the semi-annual Reach the Beach Rec/School/Dance Competition, details that the massively successful event generated more than $600,000 in room stay revenue alone. But the message also concludes, “Until a decision is made on the proposed changes to the Convention Center – we are at a standstill!” “This competition has taken place in Ocean City 25 times and we desperately want this competition to remain in Ocean City! If the proposed changes to the convention center were to be made, we would lose a large portion of
See FEDERAL on Page 7A
See LOSS on Page 4A
OCEAN CITY TODAY/NANCY POWELL
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jerry Wilson tells students, from left, Yasemin Unal, Connor Neville, Meredith Smith, Torres Savage and Brittany Stevens, that Tuesday’s Students in Government Day was participatory democracy in action. Kelly Shanahan, the county’s assistant chief administrative officer, is also shown. The annual event gives high school seniors the opportunity to discuss various issues and make decisions regarding them. The issues are the same as those discussed by the Worcester County Commissioners. See full story on Page 16A.
CITYEXPECTSTOFACE$1.5MDEFICIT Parking, trash and stormwater fees could shore up city’s projected FY14 budget gap ZACK HOOPES ■ Staff Writer (March 1, 2013) With next year’s fiscal reserves looking to be un-replenished, the town of Ocean City may be taking measures to generate additional revenue through new and higher fees in order to close its projected budget gap for the 2014 fiscal year, which begins this July. Among those possibilities are establishing a stormwater utility fund, higher rates on parking meters and charging for trash collection.
In a preliminary overview of revenues for the upcoming financial cycle, City Manager City Manager David Recor and Budget David Recor Manager Jennie Knapp informed the council this week that the city is looking at a fiscal hole in its FY14 operations of roughly $1.5 million. “It does leave us with a projected budget gap, and as we move toward calendar dates
“There are … a number of challenges we face as an organization and we can assign a dollar value to them. Our goal is to ask the council today for some parameters.” CITY MANAGER DAVID RECOR on how to generate the needed revenue for the upcoming year’s budget for workshops and reviews … I wanted you to know up front that there is a projected gap,” Recor said. “There are also a number of challenges we face as an or-