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APRIL 3, 2015
EASTER The offices of Ocean City Today and Bayside Gazette will be closed April 3, and will reopen on Monday at 8:30 a.m.
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Online travel outfits could see tax shift Now in House, measure would tax full room price
STEWART DOBSON/OCEAN CITY TODAY
IT’S FINALLY SPRING After a long, cold and dreary couple of months, at least something recognizes what time of year it is, as a patch of crocuses in Ocean City goes into full bloom in a late March that is slightly less chilly.
By Brian Gilliland Staff Writer (April 3, 2015) The problem here is the notion of “taxable price.” Is it what the buyer pays the supplier, or what the buyer then charges the consumer? That is the question Maryland General Assembly is attempting to answer this week, with a pair of bills that would clarify the law by establishing that sales taxes on hotel and motel room bookings be paid by online travel vendors at the regular retail rate. Theoretically, people can find deals for lodging at good rates, because hotels contract with online travel agencies to sell unused room inventory. Among the largest of these vendors are Expedia and Priceline who negotiate a wholesale rate of sorts to sell what See ROOM page 5
Firehouse overhaul gets hauled out for discussion City to rethink current plans after FD says it could need vacant water tower property
By Zack Hoopes Staff Writer (April 3, 2015) A decision that threatens to make you look bad either way is everyone’s least favorite decision. Especially for politicians. Nevertheless, the Ocean City Council made a belabored decision this week to postpone work on the Ocean City Fire Department headquarters building at 15th Street for at least another 90 days. This could involve scrapping the current design that the city has already spent $105,000 on, but also would mean the potential for future service improvements and cost savings by integrating
additional property into the project now, and avoiding headaches with an inadequate building years down the road. “It’s not easy for me to come to you with what looks like a last-minute, whodid-what change,” said OCFD Chief Chris Larmore. “But we’re trying to continue in that role of being responsible. Given new information, we wanted to come back before the council.” That new information is the revelation that the city water tower on the southwest corner of the current fire station could be removed as early as 2016. This would provide space for the aging station to be improved and expanded beyond what is currently planned, adding a number of needed upgrades that weren’t do-able within the space that currently exists. See ENGINE page 3
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Ocean City Today
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APRIL 3, 2015
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Ocean City Today
APRIL 3, 2015
PAGE 3
Engine bays’ size will need to be addressed Continued from Page 1 “Can you work with what you have? Yes,” Larmore told the council on Tuesday. “We can proceed today with the existing plan. Candidly, it would be much easier for me to do that.” However, the board of the Ocean City Volunteer Fire Company, which provides the bulk of the OCFD’s operational manpower, is now asking Larmore and City Engineer Terry McGean to reconsider given the possibility of incorporating the water tower land into the project. The 15th Street tower, along with the one at Worcester Street, is slated to be torn down in 2016 after the city builds a new water tower at First Street and St. Louis Avenue. The new tower will have greater capacity than the two old ones combined and is supposed to improve water quality and freshness. When plans for renovations to the fire headquarters were approved this past July, the water tower project was not scheduled to happen until 2018. But when the city’s new five-year water and wastewater plan was approved earlier this year, it developed that the project could be budgeted sooner because of the water department’s favorable debt position. This apparently caused a change of heart from the OCVFC, which first planned the project in 2012, and was apparently under the impression that the 15th Street facility would never be able to expand its footprint to any great degree. “We had some discussion about the effect of relocating the water tower and the thought was, because it was going on in the relatively distant future, we would proceed with the design we had,” McGean said. “We had a design, we had hired a construction manager, and we were in the process of going out to bid when the water rate study came out ... indicating they could accommodate that project sooner.” The current design for the headquarters renovation, McGean said, addresses three issues. Firstly, it would see a new roof, windows, and doors installed, and the sides of the building cleaned and refinished, to stop leaks and structural deterioration. Secondly, the heating and air conditioning system in the bunk room would be replaced. Thirdly, two small additions would be
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put onto the building. Extra office space would be added to the south side, and an area on the northwest corner would lengthen the north engine bay and add an exercise room on the second floor. The $105,000 spent on design and planning comes out of the estimated $2 million total for the work. However, the renovation would still leave the station lacking in two respects, both of which relate to the size of its engine bays. For one, the bays were designed at a time when fire vehicles were much smaller, Larmore said. In recent years, the increasing size of firefighting technology has made those bays extremely tight, both in width between the station’s vertical steel support beams, and in ceiling height. As a result, the city had to specially order its most recent fire truck with smaller tires and a lower suspension so it would fit in the building.
During the fire at De Lazy Lizard recently, Larmore said, a standby truck from another jurisdiction tried to park in the 15th Street station, but ended up hitting the entrance archway because it was built to a standard height. Additionally, the small engine bay lacks the clearance to install a Plymovent system, Larmore said. This system is essentially a large, centralized vacuum with hoses that attach to the exhaust pipes of fire trucks and ambulances, in order to reduce the toxic exhaust fumes floating in the engine bay air. The city has received several formal complaints from the International Association of Fire Fighters – the union that represents the city’s paid fire and EMS staff – about exhaust fumes rising into offices and living quarters. This caused considerable distress from the council as to why they were not apprised of outstanding issues.
“Why wasn’t this mentioned in July if these were inadequate plans?” asked Council Secretary Mary Knight. “It’s always been a concern,” McGean said. “Ten years ago when we looked at this, the engine bays were a concern then ... the amount of work necessary to bring them up where we’d like them to be, it’s almost as cheap to just build a new building. The feeling was ‘we’re okay with what we’ve got, given the space constraints on the site.” Although wanting to take advantage of the best possible building, the council was more apprehensive about the sudden change in direction, and the idea of work being drawn out further on a building that has been in need of repair for over a decade. “In the past eight months, the direction has changed completely just because we moved up the water tank ... the See COUNCIL Page 5
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