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MARCH 14, 2014
SERVING NORTHERN WORCESTER COUNTY
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STANDOUT PERFORMANCE Ocean City’s Mike Hedlesky does well during international competitions in Ohio – Page 39
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Worcester County Humane Society tabs new director
Cabbies continue to ask for ceiling increase on fares
Lugo, former Wicomico exec. to lead local animal shelter
Commission votes to move issue to mayor and council
By Clara Vaughn Staff Writer (March 14, 2014) Four months after the ouster of its former board president, the Worcester County Humane Society has named a new director. “It’s a new day and I’m excited about that,” said Linda Lugo, who’s worked for Wicomico County animal shelters since 1994. “I just feel like this little shelter is a diamond in the rough and we’re going to get the word out about what we do.” Lugo joins two full-time and one part-time employee and a slew of volunteers at the no-kill shelter. She brings experience as a kennel attendant, adoptions agent, animal control technician and most recently, executive director of the Wicomico Animal Shelter for more than 10 years. “When I was hired in 1994 and got in and started working with the animals, I just felt like I found my niche,” she said. “I love working with animals.” With a degree in social work, Lugo said she also enjoys the human side to her work, whether it’s reuniting owners and lost pets, educating people on how to work with their pets or making the match between an animal and family. With the shelter still working its way out of a financial hole, people skills will be vital moving forward. “It takes a lot of money to run a shelter and take care of an animal, and this shelter exists almost solely on the donations of people,” Lugo said. “Probably the biggest challenge is to make us more visible in the public and just to let people know who we are and where we are what were about. “But that’s a challenge for every shelter,” she said. One way to encourage donors is by showing where their money goes See WCHS Page 4
Power to the people? By Zack Hoopes Staff Writer (March 14, 2014) If James Cameron ever does another movie in the “Terminator” franchise, it could very well start with Wednesday’s town hall session on smart meters. Just as with Skynet – the network that eventually become self-aware and sends an Arnold Schwarzenegger robot back in time to kill its own future killer – concern over the implementation of smart meters comes not from what the power company intends to do with them, but what they could potentially do with them, and why. “We need to be looking not at what the power company says is in front of us,
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but what it could become,” said Jonathan Libber of Maryland Smart Meter Awareness, the group which has lobbied the state’s Public Service Commission against smart meter implementation. “Technologically speaking, it’s only a matter of time.” Libber, as well as representatives from Delmarva Power and Light, presented their respective sides of the issue to a crowd of roughly 100 citizens at the Ocean City Senior Center on 41st Street Wednesday afternoon. The public forum was sponsored by the Town of Ocean City and the local Chapter 1917 of the American AssociaSee SMART Page 6
By Zack Hoopes Staff Writer (March 14, 2014) Local taxi operators continued to press the city’s Police Commission this week on a proposed increase to the city-imposed ceiling on cab fares. The commission voted Monday to move the issue to the full mayor and council for further hearing. “It’s not about greed, it’s about fair market value,” said John Donohue of Nite Club Taxi. Donohue proposed an increase from the current $2.20 per mile to $3.70 – a considerable hike, but one that Donohue and At the Beach Taxi owner Norm Mullinix said would only amount to an extra $3 on the average 35 to 40 block trip up or down Coastal Highway. Cabs are permitted to charge up to $3.00 for boarding, followed by a permile rate. The $2.20 rate cap was established in 2009; originally, when the city first instituted taxi regulations in 2000, the rate had been $3.00 per mile, but this was subsequently lowered. In an email, Mullinix noted that the price of gasoline has risen 50 percent in the past four years, and most costof-living indexes have risen 20 percent. Importantly, taxi companies are free to charge less than the legally proscribed maximum rate if they so wish. The rate cap was established by the city to prevent price gouging of visitors who may not be savvy to the taxi system, and thus protect the resort’s image when it comes to transportation. “Other carriers will still have the flexibility to charge less, which benefits them,” Donohue said. “We’re going to be the ones that will suffer at first.” “Any time you have a jump like that, someone is going to go back and undercut you,” said Mayor Rick MeeSee CAB Page 3
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