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APRIL 30, 2021
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OC geared up for gear heads in September Task force reviews steps taken to quell tuner cars By Greg Wehner Staff Writer (April 30, 2021) Nearly 50 socially distanced people filed into the City Council chambers in City Hall on Friday afternoon to discuss preparations for the tuner car pop-up rally expected to take place in Ocean City about five months from now. The Motor Event Task Force meeting was attended by representatives of the council, Ocean City Police Department, Worcester County government, a representative from Gov. Larry Hogan’s office, State Del. Wayne Hartman, and residents, most of whom are concerned about what will happen this year during what is expected to be a September event. The rally is a social media-generated See TASK Page 4
County weighs fire companies’ money in budget By Jack Chavez Staff Writer (April 30, 2021) Worcester County Commissioner President Joe Mitrecic updated the rest of the county commissioners on the state of the fire departments’ budget review during the county commissioners meeting on April 20. Mitrecic said that there was “much discussion” recently on an unofficial committee that’s reviewing the departments’ budgetary needs. The discussions regarded the flat rate of $450,000 funding per See COMMISSIONERS Page 3
LISA CAPITELLI/OCEAN CITY TODAY
TRAFFIC JAM
As the weather continues to get warmer, visitors and guests flock to Ocean City for food, fun and games. The Boardwalk has been bustling with activity on the weekends and so have the amusements. This trio enjoys a Saturday afternoon bumper car battle at Trimper Rides.
H-2B workers fill some gaps Resort business helped by replacing J-1 students with other nonimmigrant crews By Mallory Panuska Staff Writer (April 30, 2021) In an effort to quell resortwide staffing struggles, the same international workers who were once reserved for seafood packing houses and farm labor are taking on new roles at some Ocean City businesses this year. Each year, a set number of H-2B Nonimmigrant Temporary Worker visas are granted to individuals from foreign countries for six months to come to the United States and work for money to send home to their families. Businesses apply for cer-
tification to hire them and receive a number based on a lottery system. The workers are adults, not students like those who come from the J-1 student work and travel program, and typically perform manual labor — until this year. “We’ve always gone the J-1 route, now we’ve also gone the H2B route so that’s a new avenue for us,” said Steve Pastusak, the vice president of Ocean City’s Bay Shore Development Corporation. As the owner and operator of Jolly Roger Amusement Park, the Boardwalk Hotel Group and several other businesses and attractions in town, Bay Shore needs 500-plus employees to operate during the peak of the season, Pastusak said. But because of this year’s staffing challenges, that number would have been difficult to hit.
So, he decided in the fall to apply for H-2B certification and is now set to receive 150 workers through the program. “With the uncertainty there and what was going to happen, we needed to cover ourselves and go the H-2B route also,” Pastusak said. “The H-2B route is very different from the J-1 program because there is a lot of cost involved and it’s not so much a cultural exchange as it is a purely work visa.” Pastusak said 50 H-2B workers arrived earlier this month and that another 100 are expected to arrive in the coming weeks from countries that include Mexico, South Africa, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. He said they are mostly working as housekeeping staff in the hotels and as See BUSINESSPage 6
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APRIL 30, 2021
APRIL 30, 2021
Ocean City Today
Commissioners ponder how to help fund fire companies Continued from Page 1 county ambulance. Mitrecic said the minutes of that discussion would be delivered to the rest of the commissioners after the group’s April 29 meeting. The committee consists of County Commissioners Josh Nordstrom, Jim Bunting, Mitrecic and fire chiefs and officials from municipal departments around Worcester County. “They did give us a synopsis of what that money entails,” Mitrecic said. “I don’t think it added up to (Nord- Joe Mitrecic strom, Bunting and myself), but that’s just our opinion. There was a discussion about whether in fact (this money) will make them whole and ultimately what came out of that was me saying Jim Bunting (they) need to submit a budget for their needs this year (so we can determine if grant funding is necessary). Mitrecic said the fire department officials on the committee submitted a spreadsheet to give the commissioners an idea of what they wanted to request, but that they decided to take it back for more revisions, which will enable the commissioners to have a better idea of how they could address the departments’ needs this year. Mitrecic said the committee aims to meet every other week to “try to keep moving this forward (and) iron some of these details out.” Bunting said the commissioners sit-
ting on the committee made it clear to the rest that their goal this year is to address shortfalls in the budget and that any new budgeting formula or strategy would be brought to the commissioners, and meting it out would be a process, not a negotiation. Touching on a concern that arose during the previous week’s budget work session, Bunting reiterated that the fire department officials did not believe that the ideas and concepts discussed with the three commissioners in their meetings to date were a negotiation. Answering a question from Commissioner Chip Bertino regarding whether they felt the fire department officials were giving them requested information in a timely matter, Mitrecic said that he imagined that they would have the revised spreadsheets ready by the committee’s Thursday meeting, so it could be ready for the next budget work session. Another matter brought to the commissioners was exploring the possibility of giving money to fire departments directly. The funding comes from the county, but it flows through the local governing body, which acts as the middle man, assistant chief administrative officer Weston Young said. The issue with this agreement is, even if certain moneys are intended for fire departments, the county has no a way to ensure that it is distributed as the commissioners intended. “(We’d like to be able to say,) ‘Look, if we give you money to give to fire departments, you can’t cut what you are currently giving them,’ ” Young said. “Or else we’ll cut it out of their grants or some arrangement like that.”
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APRIL 30, 2021
Ocean City Today
Task force reviews how resort will handle car rally
GREG WEHNER/OCEAN CITY TODAY
Members of the Ocean City Motor Event Task Force met last week to discuss plans for how to control crowds during the pop-up car rally in September.
Continued from Page 1 event, and in recent years, it has turned into a raucous crowd of mostly 18-40year-olds who tear up and down the streets, and often challenge each other. The challenges include burnouts or spinning donuts in intersections, while being surrounded by a crowd of spectators. Mayor Rick Meehan has said repeatedly that he is concerned that someone will get hurt during these stunts, and to prevent that from happening, he has been working with OCPD and other state agencies to ensure those types of unscheduled events do not happen. Meehan led the discussion on Friday and said special event zones would be set up around town to try to keep people corralled. OCPD Chief Ross Buzzuro said his team is working to identify where the special zones will be located, adding that there are many moving parts, and he has been putting a plan in place since 2020 for the 2021 event. “Collectively, we will be ready as we’re approaching this, five months out…we’ll be surely ready for this event,” he said. “ In addition to the chief’s plan, Maryland Department of Transportation Secretary Gregory Slater told the task force that overtime grants are being given to law enforcement departments between the bay bridge and Ocean City to conduct safety checks along the entire corridor that week. Slater said speeders and aggressive drivers will be targeted during the campaign, and safety checks will be conducted to ensure that the modified vehicles attending the event are safe. “I think that’s excellent,” Meehan said, adding that the notion sends a message out to those who plan to attend the rally. Meehan continued to praise these efforts on Wednesday, saying the increased enforcement will have an impact on addressing problem vehicles before they arrive in Ocean City. “OCPD is already aggressively pulling vehicles over that violate Maryland inspection laws,” he said. Councilman Tony DeLuca recounted his experience with the rally last year, noting that alternative traffic patterns that included single-lane roads and speed bumps in residential neighborhoods were successful during the first few days of the event, but when Saturday rolled in, things took a turn for the worst. “Saturday was terrible,” he said. This week, DeLuca explained what he meant, saying thousands of people were in the streets, cars were everywhere, and people were lighting off fireworks like m-80s. On top of that, people were throwing stones at police officers from balconies and parking garages. See BUSINESS Page 5
APRIL 30, 2021
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Ocean City Today
Business spared harsh rally rules Continued from Page 4 To prevent the riotous conditions, DeLuca said he favored closing Baltimore Avenue from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., though Buzzuro said it would not be possible. DeLuca said a representative from the state highway department assured him that rumble strips could be temporarily placed along Coastal Highway at streets like 33rd and 94th, though the city would have to purchase its own because the department does not have a supply of them to provide. DeLuca also brought up the issue of security at private businesses. Historically, crowds gather at these businesses after hours, and unless the police have permission to enter the property, they cannot make the crowds disburse. The same businesses, though, can register with OCPD to get on a list that allows the officers to break up the crowds if they get out of control after
hours. During business hours, it is up to the owners to provide security. But whether the city can force a business to shut down becomes a tricky subject. According to Ocean City Attorney Heather Stansbury, the short answer is no — the city cannot shut down a business because of an unruly crowd or for not agreeing to provide security on the premises. Yet, if Meehan were to declare a state of emergency, the city could force businesses to close temporarily. “The town would never interfere with anyone’s business,” Stansbury said. In addition to security and speed bumps, Buzzuro said his department is prepared to make impound lots bigger if needed to facilitate the towing of vehicles during the event. “Everything we did last year will be a little bit bigger and larger this year,” he said.
When asked Wednesday, DeLuca said the city will be ready. He explained that Ocean City was ratcheting everything up from last year, and that the right people from law enforcement agencies and security companies were at the meeting. “I’m ready to try something. I’m ready to do some things,” he said, adding that the people who attend the event are not the same people from H2Oi – an event for fans of watercooled Volkswagens and Audis that was eventually forced to relocate to Atlantic City because of the disruptive behavior of nonparticipants who flooded the resort at the same time. Meehan added that the task force has been successful in putting together a team of citizens, businesses, various law enforcement agencies, the state’s attorney, and the governor’s office, to address the problem. “We have been successful in getting legislation passed to create the special event zone and to increase fines and penalties,” he said. “I think the initiative by the state to create a statewide traffic safety week during this event is just another example of how working together we will be prepared.” The task force plans to meet at least one more time before the pop-up rally takes place in September, though no date has been set.
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APRIL 30, 2021
Ocean City Today
Business turns to H-2B visas to fill summer worker needs
GREG WEHNER/OCEAN CITY TODAY
Jolly Roger Amusement Park is one of several Ocean City businesses that is hiring H-2B Nonimmigrant Temporary Workers this year to help fill much-needed staff openings.
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Continued from Page 1 amusement ride attendees. But unlike the J-1 students, who come to the area through agencies that set up housing and cover the majority of their expenses, employers provide all of the support for the H-2B workers, including housing. Pastusak also said that there is some uncertainty in the receipt of H-2B workers because the government places them via a lottery system to certified businesses. “The allotment, or S. Pastusak the cap, for the H-2B is far lower than the number of people that the government certifies,” he said. “ … It’s a true lottery so it’s not something you can count on, so that’s the uncertainty of the H-2Bs. Where we’re sitting, our need for H-2Bs is not all confirmed. Because we’re looking for cap relief. We applied for that also. It’s just a longdrawn-out process of paperwork on top of paperwork.” Lachelle Scarlato, the executive director of the Greater Ocean City Chamber of Commerce, said roughly 66,000 H-2B program visas are issued annually to U.S. businesses. L. Scarlato But on April 1, the Biden administration granted another 22,000 to use in the 2021 calendar year, which benefitted resort businesses like Bay Shore. But even with the boost in workforce, Pastusak said he still anticipates some challenges with staffing this year. “We need a lot more people when it comes to [being] open seven days a week,” he said. He pointed out that the uncertainty of the arrival of J-1 workers, who make up about half of his workforce in a normal year, is a large factor. Shawn Harman, the owner of Fish Tales Bar & Grill on 21st Street, can relate. He said he expects to receive a quarter of the number of J-1 workers he
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normally does but he has no way of knowing when they will come or exactly how many he will get. In the meantime, he is struggling. “I think we’re going to be very busy and I think we’re going to be shortstaffed,” he said. “And I actually think this year will be worse than last year. Last year, everybody was kind of still adjusting and this year everybody is going to be ready to go out and we don’t have enough people to serve them.” In a normal year, Ocean City welcomes a total of more than 4,000 students through the J-1 program and its various sponsors. Last year, due to federal covid-fueled travel restrictions, the area received no J-1 students, which made the pandemic’s effect on businesses even more severe. And while the students are allowed to come this year, Scarlato said the process is much slower, as the individual embassies gradually grant approvals. She said the outlook for their arrivals changes daily, though, and that countries are regularly issuing visa approvals. “Some conversations that folks may have had a month ago, two months ago, regarding specific countries and how they were processing or weren’t processing, those conversations are no longer relevant because it changes so quickly,” she said. “So, we continue to remain hopeful and just in the last seven days the difference that we have seen from countries that agreed to process and the rate at which some the countries are processing keeps us hopeful.” In any case, the uncertainty is there and the process is slow. That is why Susan Jones, the executive director of the OC HotelMotel Restaurant Association, said city tourism officials are reviving last year’s “Pack Your Patience” camSusan Jones paign to let visitors know to expect long lines at many restaurants and attractions. “It’s going to be a rough summer and it’s going to be busy,” she said.
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Ocean City Today
Organizers of Marlin Fest plan to hold a bigger event this August that will offer people a chance to watch a live stream of the White Marlin Open weigh-ins from the Third Street park.
Marlin Fest organizers plan family-friendly fun in August By Greg Wehner Staff Writer (April 30, 2021) Organizers of the White Marlin Open gained Ocean City Council approval for an enhanced version of this summer’s Marlin Fest, which goes with the fishing tournament and allows the public to watch weigh-ins of the pelagic royalty in areas other than Harbour Island. Madelyne Rowan and Sasha Motsko met with the council during a work session on Tuesday to go over the memorandum of understanding for the event, which is now in its second year. Marlin Fest will take place at the Third Street ball fields from Aug. 2 to 6 between the hours of 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. The event is free to the public and will feature a live stream of the tournament via large screen televisions as well as nearly 30 vendors selling things like food, alcohol, and tournament merchandise. Last year, the event was thrown together rather quickly to give people something to do in a socially distanced atmosphere during the pandemic. “What we are looking to put on ... is Marlin Fest,” Rowan told council. “Marlin Fest came out of the necessity last year to spread people out. “It’s important for us to make clear that we really want to offer an event that is free to the public,” she added. To enhance the experience of fish weigh-ins for children, Marlin Fest will feature educational experiences and other activities that don’t typically take place at Harbour Island, where the main event occurs. The issue Rowan and Motsko had was with the fee schedule associated with hosting an event on city government property. Rowan told council the week of the event is already one of the busiest of the year, and she believes the White Marlin Open is one of the reasons for that. Because of the event’s influence,
she asked council to offset the costs. For example, the city requires a facility fee of $125 per vendor per day to use the ballpark for an event. That would come to $625 per vendor for the week. Rowan asked that the festival be treated more like a sports tournament – such as lacrosse or baseball – where the organizers are charged a vendor concession fee of $75 that covers all vendors. Under the parks and recreation fee structure, however, the tournament would be required to pay upwards of $20,000. “We can’t even make our money back ... we’re losing money on vendors,” Rowan said. “We’re asking for some leeway there.” Her solution, at first, was to move some of the money used for in-kind services provided by the city for the event. For instance, Ocean City provides trash cans, police, public works, barricades and a shuttle to and from the event for the White Marlin Open. In years past, the city provided inkind services valued at approximately $20,000 for the fishing tournament, but this year no shuttle will be taking people from the convention center to Harbour Island. Also, Rowan said she was told by the Public Works department that 65 garbage cans were provided for the Harbour Island gathering, which she thought was overkill, adding that she has only spotted about nine trash receptacles in the area. Additionally, the city charges a facility fee of over $2,500. Mayor Rick Meehan said the organizers of the tournament organizers are really looking to expand its profit-making ability by hosting the supplemental event. By the same token, events such as Wine Fest are required to pay the $2,500 facility fee, so Marlin Fest should be no different. “Really, what we’re asking for is to be treated as any private special event See FESTIVAL Page 8
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