OC Today WWW.OCEANCITYTODAY.NET
APRIL 1, 2016
SERVING NORTHERN WORCESTER COUNTY
LIFESTYLE
TEACHER OF THE YEAR Fourteen Worcester County educators are in the running for the top award – Page 38
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Rental policies stiffened Resort council aims for enforcement in single-family districts By Katie Tabeling Staff Writer (April 1, 2016) It may have taken months for the Ocean City Council to implement new policies for rentals in single-family zoning districts, but it won’t take long for property owners to see them in action. During Tuesday’s ‘We’re at the work sesbeginning of the sion, city fficials season and we otried to have a really make up small window to for lost time by fix this.’ ensuring — Tony DeLuca. new restrictions for R-1 (single-family residential) rentals, including a more thorough rental application, would finally be incorporated eight months after they were first introduced. Improvements to the application include asking homeowners to list the number of bedrooms a unit has, where the property is being advertised, and its advertised total occupancy. “All these changes were brought by Realtors as a first step to fix a big issue. We’re at the beginning of the season and we have a really small window to fix this,” said Councilman Tony DeLuca. In September, local Realtors made suggestions for rental control improvements instead of creating a new zonSee RESORT Page 3
JOSH DAVIS/OCEAN CITY TODAY
Three of the deeper draft commercial fishing vessels line the dock in the West Ocean Harbor Tuesday after maintenance dredging by the Army Corps of Engineers last month reopened the channel leading from Ocean City inlet to the harbor.
West OC harbor gets fishing boats back Channel dredging near inlet reopens navigation to docks for larger commercial vessels
By Josh Davis Staff Writer (April 1, 2016) Efforts by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to recreate a navigable channel from the Ocean City inlet to the West Ocean City harbor have apparently paid off, as several large
commercial fishing operations were able to resume activities Monday out of the local port. Winter storms were blamed for increased sediment deposits near the inlet, making it difficult for some of the bigger fishing boats to navigate the area without becoming stuck or damaged. Merrill Campbell of Southern Connection Seafood was clearly overjoyed on Monday, saying the commercial fish-
ing operations in West Ocean City were once again “open for business,” as at least three boats from the New Jersey area were docked there. “A lot of watermen from Ocean City have licenses that they put on these larger boats, and if we hadn’t gotten these fish in [during] the last month, we would have been lost,” he said. Campbell said federal legislation See FISHERMEN Page 6
Cop vehicle rear-ends stopped school bus
JOSH DAVIS/OCEAN CITY TODAY
The new but battered Ocean City Police Department pickup truck sits at the impound lot on 65th Street. The driver rear-ended a stopped school bus.
By Greg Ellison Staff Writer (April 1, 2016) Westbound Route 50 near its intersection with Route 113 was shut down for more than one hour on Tuesday morning after a resort government-owned pickup truck being driven by an Ocean City police officer rearended a school bus. The accident report was not available at press time, but
multiple sources said the bus was stopped at a railroad crossing when it was struck from behind by the truck, causing extensive damage to both vehicles. Other than the driver, the bus reportedly had only one student on board. Neither was injured, while the police officer, who was not identified, was taken to Peninsula ReSee MORNING Page 5