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APRIL 11, 2014
SERVING NORTHERN WORCESTER COUNTY
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TOWSON BOUND Stephen Decatur senior Chase Sams to play football for the Md. university next year–Page 31
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City looks to PIO consolidation in ‘one voice’ effort
False assumption causes budgeting shortfall for city
Allocations, however, are defended by departments
$979,000 transportation fund expectation cited
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OCEAN CITY TODAY/CLARA VAUGHN
Students from Crisfield’s Carter G. Woodson Elementary School unload nearly 300 Atlantic white cedar trees that they raised at school at the Nassawango Creek Preserve, near Snow Hill, last Thursday. With other volunteers, they planted nearly 8,000 of the native trees at the preserve last week.
Students help bring back long absent swamp plant By Clara Vaughn Staff Writer (April 11, 2014) Lower and middle school students from across this county and Wicomico are helping restore a plant absent in Maryland’s swamps for decades. The Atlantic white cedar, once a giant among the lower shore’s lowlying areas, virtually disappeared with the loss of its habitat when people moved in, but collaboration between the National Aquarium’s Conservation Team, The Nature Conservancy and local schools is helping bring the trees back. “It’s not just the replanting. It’s a whole habitat restoration project,” said Deborah Landau, a conservation ecologist with TNC, at the planting at Nassawango Creek Preserve near
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By Zack Hoopes Staff Writer (April 11, 2014) Recent budget hearings have indicated a desire for the city to eliminate or consolidate department-level public relations functions, and move toward what is being termed a “one-voice” approach for the entire town. Councilman Joe Mitrecic questioned line items in both the Ocean City Police Department and Ocean City Beach Patrol budgets that included seasonal Public Information Officer positions. “I thought the town was moving toward a ‘one voice’ public information-type setup,” Mitrecic said. “I just don’t think we need separate public information coordinators for every different division.” In both cases, the departments defended their allocations by arguing that the summertime PIOs performed more specialized, active outreach that could not be done by other communications staff. “His responsibilities include operational capacities,” OCPD Chief Ross Buzzuro said of retired officer Mike Levy, who will be returning this summer as a reserve officer to teach classes on counterfeit IDs as part of the department’s RAAM (reducing the availability of alcohol to minors) program. Levy also coordinates outreach and education for foreign student workers, among other functions. “There are functions the reserve PIO will have to perform that the civilian PIO is not able to perform,” Buzzuro said. The department’s current PIO, Lindsay O’Neal, is not a sworn officer. Similarly, OCBP Captain Butch Arbin said the beach patrol’s parttime PIO, Kristin Joson, is responsible for proactive dissemination of water safety and rescue information. See PUBLIC Page 11
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Snow Hill last Thursday. The project began last fall, when aquarium team educators visited Stephen Decatur Middle School, Berlin Intermediate School and Deal Island and Carter G. Woodson Elementary Schools. Armed with a historical and ecological background on the plants, more than 500 students helped grow scores of white cedar saplings in small “wetland flats” on their campuses over the winter. The students “get to monitor the growth, they get to see what a wetland is like and at the end of the year, they get to come here,” said Laura Cattell Noll, conservation project manager at the National Aquarium. Last week, the kids loaded their See STUDENTS Page 7
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By Zack Hoopes Staff Writer (April 11, 2014) Balancing the budget on an anticipated windfall increase in bus revenues has come back to bite City Hall, as council was told during last week’s budget sessions that the town would be down $979,000 due to false assumptions in the transportation fund. “The current budget is structured around enhanced revenues of around $1.5 million in transportation, which is about $979,000 over what it should be,” said city Public Works Director Hal Adkins. In response, the city will be cutting funds from street paving and canal dredging, hoping to back-fill those accounts later with extra revenues realized throughout the upcoming fiscal cycle. In addition, council discussed a number of options over the past week to raise further revenues, including additional paid parking on cityowned lots and a tiered fee structure for the Fourth of July holiday. When originally presented to council, the city’s transportation budget called for a mere $395,082 subsidy from the general fund, a drastic reduction from the $1.7 million cost last year. This was due to $1,471,893 in additional bus revenue expected to be gained by eliminating the $1-per-ride option and having the $3 ride-all-day ticket be the only fare choice. The model used to determine this number, supplied by the transportation department to the City Manager’s office, assumed that all $1 fares would now become $3 fares. City Budget Manager Jennie Knapp also noted that she estimated a 25 percent decrease in ridership due to the change. However, when Adkins himself reviewed the numbers, he noted a seriSee BUDGET Page 10
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