3/28/14 Ocean City Today

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OC Today WWW.OCEANCITYTODAY.NET

MARCH 28, 2014

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City will re-light smoking on beach, Boardwalk debate Area resorts have already put in place measures to be entirely free of smoke

OCEAN CITY TODAY/JACOB COHEN

NOT EXACTLY INDIAN SUMMER The Indian at the inlet parking lot was covered by guess what? More snow. With spring already started, we’re still dealing with winter’s leftovers. Worcester County Public Schools were closed Wednesday.

By Zack Hoopes Staff Writer (March 28, 2014) City Council announced this week that a discussion on making the resort’s beaches smoke-free will be scheduled for next month, a long-anticipated move that seems to be gaining traction amidst the recent tide of “clean image” policies from City Hall. “I think the support is there for some type of plan to be more pro-active,” said Councilman Brent Ashley, noting that the measure had been the subject of favorable discussion at one of the council’s recent strategic planning sessions. “I think we’re falling behind our competitors if we don’t go forward with

this,” Ashley said. The topic will be presented at the April 15 council session, City Manager David Recor said, along with a bulletpoint list of “best practices for the beach and Boardwalk” gathered from city staff. “This is an extremely important discussion,” said Council Secretary Mary Knight. The push to ban smoking on the city’s beach goes hand-in-hand with a number of other quality-of-life initiatives the council has undertaken. This summer will be the debut of “no profanity please” signs on the Boardwalk, a ban on riding in the beds of pickup trucks, and proposed increased enforcement of cigarette butt littering. “It’s not unlike the profanity signs,” said Councilman Dennis Dare. “We tried addressing it three years ago by having a voluntary smoking area on the See CITY Page 3

City to install ‘No Profanity Please’ signs on Boardwalk brought up the idea after it was suggested to her, she said, by two hoteliers. City Manager David Recor said the signs would likely be made in two sizes, 12-by-18 inches and 24-by-18, using the vinyl sign machine recently purchased by the city’s Public Works Department. Cost, including materials, labor, and installation, is $45 for the smaller and $67 for the larger. Signs of a similar nature have long been in use in Virginia Beach. There, however, they are enforceable under an ordinance prohibiting “abusive language” or language “reasonable calculated to provoke a breach of the peace.” When discussed earlier this year by Ocean City’s Police Commission, the consensus was that the resort should not create any laws that may be challenged as a violation of Freedom of See PUBLIC Page 4

Initiative only courtesy notice as resort has laws against swearing in public

By Zack Hoopes Staff Writer (March 28, 2014) The city will banking on goodwill and voluntary obedience when it comes to the “no profanity please” signs that are planned for the Boardwalk. City council voted this week to go ahead with the initiative, which will see signs placed at each street end on the boards. Done in a style similar to the city’s website and other promotional materials, the signs will only be a courtesy notice, as Ocean City has law against swearing in public. “The whole idea is just to show that Ocean City cares,” said Council Secretary Mary Knight, who initially

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