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JUNE 26, 2020
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Styrofoam ban delayed ‘til fall Alternative materials not in great supply as manufacturers reopen
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SHORT-STAFFED Fun City, an arcade on the Boardwalk, has signs asking guests to be patient, as they are understaffed and just reopened last weekend. The arcade had been closed for months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
J-1 students officially out Local businesses semi-prepared as program had been on hold By Elizabeth Bonin Staff Writer (June 26, 2020) It’s official: J-1 students will not be coming to work and live in Ocean City this summer. Although many resort businesses assumed as much, President Trump put an end to any speculation to the contrary Monday, when he ordered a temporary ban on all new work visas, citing the coronavirus pandemic. This
includes the J-1 cultural exchange program. Even before the ban, J-1 students couldn’t come to Ocean City because the federal government had advised against nonessential international travel and suspended visa processing at U.S. embassies abroad. In addition, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs had a 60-day pause on its programs that ended on May 13. As nearly 4,000 J-1 students typically come to Ocean City every summer, this will have a heavy impact on the resort town. See BUSINESSES Page 2
By Elizabeth Bonin Staff Writer (June 26, 2020) The statewide ban on the sale or distribution of polystyrene, or Styrofoam, has been postponed from July 1 to Oct. 1, or 30 days after Gov. Larry Hogan lifts the state of emergency, according to a notice from the Maryland Department of the Environment. The ban was postponed as the state continues its efforts to open the economy after closing most businesses this
spring because of the novel coronavirus outbreak. The Maryland General Assembly passed the legislation on April 3, 2019, making it the first state in the nation to do so. According to the notice, food service businesses and schools may continue using Styrofoam until Oct. 1, but may not purchase Styrofoam products after July 1. Sandi Smith, of the Maryland Coastal Bays Program, said the postponement is disappointing. She also expressed frustration that the manufacturers of environmentally friendly products See BAN Page 2
Open meetings talk closed By Josh Kim Staff Writer (June 26, 2020) Ocean City resident and former councilman Vince Gisriel, whose Open Meetings Act complaint against the mayor and City Council was backed up by the state just three weeks ago, denounced the council Tuesday for going behind closed doors again to discuss the state’s findings. In a June 3 opinion responding to a complaint filed by Gisriel and others, the state’s Open Meetings Compliance Board found that the council violated the open meetings See CITY Page 3
Fireworks won’t work out for this year’s Fourth By Josh Kim Staff Writer (June 26, 2020) After hashing out a communication snafu that occurred last week, the Ocean City Council is eyeing sometime in August or Labor Day weekend to host its postponed Fourth of July fireworks.
“At our meeting last Monday, we had this on the agenda, and quite possibly I did not articulate the question well enough, but it was our advice at the time that we not shoot on [July 4], even though we all wanted to, because again of the state regulations as it relates to gatherings,” City Manager Doug Miller
told the mayor and City Council Tuesday. Miller said he had hoped the fireworks vendor, Celebration Fireworks, could attend the meeting to join the date issue discussion, but the company had prior obligations. “I had to conduct a poll of you by
phone, and three members wanted to proceed with fireworks, four wanted to delay,” Miller said. Councilmen Matt James, Mark Paddack and John Gehrig favored staying with the scheduled Fourth of July fireworks, while Council members Lloyd See SPLIT Page 4
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JUNE 26, 2020
Ocean City Today
Businesses seeking workers Ban on Styrofoam use won’t as J-1 ban becomes official go into effect until October Continued from Page 1 Nancy Schwendeman, interim executive director for the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce, said most businesses understood the students would probably not arrive. “I think most … of our businesses have been working under that premise because of the uncertainty of that program,” Schwendeman said. “They have taken other measures and we are assisting them.” She said the chamber has a virtual job fair and has reached out to schools, the tri-county and tri-state area. “They need staff, so we’re reaching out any way possible to try to match employers with employees,” Schwendeman said. “We are actually working with the county and other organizations.” She said some businesses have had to adjust their hours since they have fewer employees, but some have not needed to since they are operating at a limited capacity because of coronavirus health safety restrictions. Schwendeman added that it was unfortunate that the cultural exchange program was included with the immigration order. “We were trying to have the pro-
gram pulled out of that, but I guess that has not been done,” Schwendeman said. “It was just one lump sum for a variety of immigration and covN. Schwendeman ered all bases.” Susan Jones, executive director of the Hotel-MotelRestaurant Association, echoed that the J-1 program had been in jeopardy for weeks. “From the lack of international flights, the embassies being closed, revised school calendars, to the fear of travel amongst students — I guess there were real hurdles that could not be overcome,” Jones said. As a result, Jones said staffing has been “causing restaurants to change operating hours, hotels to not fully open all rooms and even city bus ridership and revenues to be in serious decline.” However, she attributed part of the low staffing issues to people making more money through unemployment than their regular job. “Rather than tying unemployment amounts to a percentage of previous job, a flat $600 a week extra was handed out and that has created the workforce challenge,” Jones said.
Continued from Page 1 can’t keep up with the new demand. “That’s because of the covid-19,” Smith said. “What happened was all our restaurants had to focus on carryout and so people are going to restaurants and they’re doing all carryout. There’s just not enough supply of environmentally friendly products for them to purchase.” In response, Maryland Coastal Bays Program will hand out canvas bags to restaurants that are source reduction pledgees. “We’re going to provide those to our pledgees to encourage them to give those to repeat customers [for carryout] so they’re not using plastic bags,” Smith said. The program will also put out a press release regarding the ban postponement. “Hopefully, we’re helping make a little bit of a dent and a difference,” Smith said. “We’re also going to be putting out PSAs [public service announcements] encouraging our visitors, now that Fourth of July
weekend is coming up, to encourage our visitors to be more responsible due to the lack of availability of environmentally friendly products.” Smith has previSandi Smith ously said that the danger of Styrofoam is that it never goes away and animals can end up consuming it. The Ocean City Council’s Green Team and the Maryland Coastal Bays Program have been working for months to educate the public, and especially restaurants, on alternative options, such as biodegradable cardboard carryout boxes. Smith said she commends the local restaurants that have been trying to find more environmentally friendly products. “They’re worked really hard on doing the right thing, and now we’ve had this setback, especially in a resort town, with the bay on one side and the ocean on the other,” Smith said.
To help area businesses, Jones said the association had been pushing for the Open Air Job Fair that took
place in Snow Hill on Wednesday. To see Ocean City’s virtual job fair, visit oceancity.org/employment/.
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Ocean City Today
PAGE 3
City’s closed sessions topic of closed session Continued from Page 1 requirement by meeting in private for 18 months to discuss the renewal of the Pier Amusements franchise. The board went on to say the facts of this case suggested the council had broader problems with following the act’s requirements. “… We find that the council violated the act over a period of time by secretly conducting public business that the act required it to discuss publicly and by failing to disclose to the public either the fact of the discussions or the creation of a negotiating committee until after the council had decided the terms of the franchise and ordinances. The council’s violations were not trivial,” the compliance board said in the 11page opinion. The council’s decision to discuss the board’s opinion in private led Gisriel to
object, adding, “I find it ironic that you would go into closed session to discuss the act.” Drawing from the opinion, Gisriel said, “The mere fact that an issue has legal ramifications does not mean that the public body may discuss it in closed session. I would also like to advise you and point out to you that the law itself, under section 3-305D3, reads … ‘If a person objects to the closing of a session, the public body shall send a copy of the written statement to the board.’ I hope you follow up and do that.” He then read another portion of the compliance board’s opinion, and also raised a question to the council. “’Finally, we encourage the council to provide the public with minutes of the portions of the closed session from which the public was excluded in violation of the act,’” Gisriel said. “I would ask that you provide that, and I also would like to raise the question, do you intend to release that information?” “I have to work with my legal counsel,” Council President Lloyd Martin JOSH KIM/OCEAN CITY TODAY
Ocean City resident, and former councilman, Vince Gisriel criticized the council for going into closed session to discuss the Maryland Open Meetings Act Compliance Board’s recent unflattering opinion about the council’s pier franchise renewal procedures.
replied. Gisriel pressed Martin again on whether the council would release the information, but Martin repeated that he would work with the resort’s legal
counsel. “With all due respect, Mr. President, that’s a non-answer as far as I am concerned,” Gisriel said before leaving the table.
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Ocean City Today
Split vote delays fireworks display Continued from Page 1 Martin, Dennis Dare, Tony DeLuca and Mary Knight preferred delaying the show. Potential delay dates were the first three weeks in August, preferably in conjunction with the OC Air Show, or Labor Day weekend. “We don’t know where we’re going to be with covid-19, and hopefully we’re going to be better, and everything needs to be right, by Labor Day,” Martin said. “I like the Labor Day dates, that’s my personal opinion.” Knight said while the fireworks display may be delayed, Ocean City still had plenty of activities to offer during that weekend. “We still have the sun, we have more open air restaurants than we’ve ever had before, that Monday we’re going to have a drive-in movie … that Friday we
have movies on the beach — there’s so many other things you can enjoy [during] your celebration here in Ocean City, without having fireworks,” Knight said. Nonetheless, James expressed his dissatisfaction, and questioned the nature of the decision, as well. “I think we need good news, I think we need something to celebrate and I think we need to make up our mind whether we’re open or we’re closed — we can’t be half in, half out,” James said. “The Boardwalk is open, the beach is open, the parks are open. I don’t understand why we can’t have fireworks. They can be viewed miles away.” James also said that, as of June 10, the state had lifted restrictions on public, outdoor mass gatherings. “I don’t agree with this, I don’t agree with the way it was handled,” James said. “I don’t know who made the deci-
sion, or how we got to this, but I thought we were moving forward with Fourth of July fireworks, and then we would discuss it at this meeting, but it sounds like the decision was made well before we were made aware of this last week.” City Special Events Director Frank Miller said the postponement decision had not been made ahead of time — only a recommendation to do so. In a previous interview with Ocean City Today, Miller said two variables played into the delay recommendation: July 4 falling on a Saturday and the cancelation of neighboring fireworks displays. “We would automatically end up with a larger crowd just because of the day of the week the Fourth of July is celebrated on,” Miller said at the time. “The second thing is since there are no other fireworks display happening on
JUNE 26, 2020 the Fourth of July on the Eastern Shore, we would end up drawing even more of a mass crowd for it.” While social gathering limitations have been whited out from Gov. Larry Hogan’s reopening plan as James said, mass gatherings are still frowned upon by national and local health experts. “When we made the recommendation to postpone, and that was brought in front of council, and the decision had come down from Monday that it was being postponed, we sat down with Jessica Waters, the interim director of tourism, and discussed options,” Miller said. He said Waters had come up with the idea to have the display during OC Air Show weekend, which draws hundreds-of-thousands of people to the resort. “If we chose to push forward with fireworks on the Fourth of July, there were a lot of risks, which is why we recommended the postponement,” Miller said. “When we hit August, we’re hopeful that we’re going to be moving into another phase of recovery … and that larger gathering size would be a little more acceptable by not only by the health department and by the governor, but also by the general public and the media.” Miller said the OC Air Show was likely to be held in August, and the organizers had gone to great lengths to implement health department directives and social distancing measures. Other marketable opportunities in August included the White Marlin Open weekend and the ArtX weekend. “For Labor Day weekend, you should look at that as the new July 4, because what we’re hearing from the fireworks company that we are contracted with is the floodgates have opened on the calls, and Labor Day is a very popular time now to redo July 4 fireworks,” Miller said. DeLuca recommended the council wait on making a decision so that more information, particularly where the state stood in the recovery process, could be obtained. James reiterated his stance, and said the displays would lose their meaning if held in August or another date. Mayor Rick Meehan, who was not included in the poll, backed the postponement. “I did send an email asking the [Worcester County] Health Department, [county health officer] Rebecca Jones, what their opinion is, was, about having the fireworks, and her reply was, ‘I would not be supportive of, and strongly encourage, them not to hold fireworks this year. We are still in a declared state of emergency,’ and she was very clear about that.” Meehan added, “I also look at the covid-19 virus, [and] you know, for some reason sometimes everybody feels like Ocean City is a covid-free zone, and it’s not, and I think we all have to be cognizant of it … we can’t forget about it and we have to make sure that we remain vigilant and try to do everything we can to not only protect our visitors, but our residents and our employees.”
JUNE 26, 2020
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Ocean City Today
New set of commercials to go on air July 1 By Josh Kim Staff Writer (June 26, 2020) Ocean City will launch phase three of its “Welcome Back” campaign next week with a new set of commercials called “Favorite Things,” which, as implied, will focus on the activities visitors enjoy doing the most in the resort. Commercials will begin airing on July 1 and run until September on television and digital outlets, such as social media. “’Favorite Things’ really was meant for a time when everything was back open — amusements, arcades, [etc.], and really it focuses in on what are the favorite things you’re going to do when you come back to Ocean City? What’s the first thing you’re going to do?” interim Tourism Director Jessica Waters said. Originally, the city had a marketing campaign called the “Fun Family” ready to roll this summer, but the advent of covid-19 led the tourism department to conclude that running the advertisements with the pandemic in full swing would be inappropriate. Instead, the department worked with the resort’s marketing agency, MGH, to produce a new series of commercials, re: the “Welcome Back” campaign, that would match Gov. Larry Hogan’s reopening phases. The campaign began with the “Open Arms” commercials, which reminded viewers that Ocean City would always be their happy place, but now was not the time to return. As Hogan began to ease restrictions, the city pushed out the “It’s Time” commercials on its Instagram page, which encouraged the gradual return of visitors to the resort. Finally, as the state has moved fully into phase two of Hogan’s reopening plan, comes the latest set of commercials.
“We’ve all been cooped up for so long,” Waters said. “It [the commercials] really focuses in on all of the fun things we didn’t get to do for the several months of quarantine.” The major theme of each set of commercials has been nostalgia — reminding people of the good times here in Ocean City, as the world wades through uncharted waters. “The last couple of months have been emotional for everyone, and I think each commercial that we’ve run … really focused in on people’s heartstrings and focusing in on what people were feeling during this pandemic and what recovery emotions they’re experiencing,” Waters said. “I think you’ll see that in “Favorite Things,” because again I think after coming out of several months of not seeing your family, not seeJessica Waters ing your friends and not being able to do certain things that you love, “Favorite Things” really celebrates all of the things we love about Ocean City, and doing that with the people you love the most.” In terms of balancing both drawing crowds to Ocean City and ensuring the resort doesn’t become a coronavirus hotspot, Waters, as have resort officials, emphasized the importance of personal responsibility and stressed that guests must be cognizant of their comfort levels and exercise caution. “We really feel like 2020 … any kind of travel will depend on how comfortable you are,” she said. “Every different person and every different family has a different comfort level. Maybe some people won’t want to go out to dinner as often or maybe won’t feel as comfortable going onto the
Home is wherre your
Boardwalk on a crowded night.” However, Waters highlighted steps the community has taken to create a safer environment, particularly the local business community and how it has adapted during the pandemic. One popular example has been waterfront restaurant Fish Tales on 22nd Street, which is using tube tables to ensure customers are socially distanced. Last Sunday, the city’s Sundaes in the Park and Fireworks event at Northside Park on 125th Street used large circles to separate groups listening to the live entertainment. Additionally, many of the activities available in Ocean City are naturally self-isolated or require minimal contact, Waters said, such as paddle boarding, Jetskiing and walking in the park.
“There’s a lot of ways to travel responsibly,” Waters said. “We usually put out an event sheet, but this year we edited it a little bit to promote some of the things you can do in Ocean City to social distance. That’s a unique thing in terms of visiting Ocean City is that there’s so many things you can do here to be outside and to experience the beach and nature, but also social distance.” Nevertheless, Ocean City is not immune to national trends. As states have reopened, at least seven — Arizona, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas — have seen record infection rates. Maryland’s metrics have trended downward or flat for several weeks now, and the state’s positivity rate — See NOSTALGIA Page 6
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JUNE 26, 2020
Businesses strained by demand and no staff By Josh Kim Staff Writer (June 26, 2020) Appearing before the City Council on behalf of the local business community on Tuesday, Susan Jones, Ocean City HotelMotel-Restaurant Association executive director, updated the council on the business community’s perspective on covid-19, and expressed the tourism industry’s desire to work with local government to mend the resort’s tarnished image. “You guys always hear from the residents, and I wanted to share with you a little bit of the perspective from the businesses in what’s going on with covid-19,” Jones said, during the council’ work session. Jones said pent up demand for travel resulted in a strong flow of visitors to the resort, which has had
some negative consequences. “The pent-up demand, what it’s doing, is it is really causing a strain on relations,” Jones said. “A lot of the businesses are now seeing the public being totally over covid-19 and not wanting to follow any of the rules, so then we have business employees who are really starting to feel that their safety is at Susan Jones stake.” She then discussed staffing, which has haunted business owners since the very beginning of the pandemic. “We have members who are closing early because they don’t have enough staff, and that is largely because the J-1 program has just been
killed last night with the president’s [Donald Trump] announcement — so we’re really having a huge crisis with staff,” Jones said. Trump suspended international work visas Monday night, and the move is projected to bar more than 520,000 foreign workers from entering the country this summer. Hoteliers are also struggling to keep up, as many are shutting down rooms for three days after guests leave so they can properly clean and sanitize them. Additionally, while many hotels are seeing full bookings, many others are still at 60 percent capacity because of the staffing shortages. “All in all, it’s been a really stressful time for, not only for city residents and government, but also a stressful time for businesses,” Jones said.
This was due in part to recent negative social media attention given to a string of violent and disorderly acts. “[It] has really driven a lot of people away from liking Ocean City, and we are very fearful, as a community of business owners that rely on tourism for our very livelihoods, we are concerned that the July and August cancelations that we are seeing are really going to damage long-term visitation and future visitation into Ocean City,” Jones said. The tourism association held a meeting with Mayor Rick Meehan last Friday to discuss these concerns, Jones said, and she emphasized that the business community sought to collaborate with the mayor and council in finding solutions — particularly in developing a crisis management plan for the resort’s social media platforms. Before the meeting, she gave the council the name of a firm it could work with in developing a crisis management plan. Councilman Mark Paddack asked whether the resort’s marketing firm, MGH, had a crisis management component, and City Manager Doug Miller said it did, but he would have to look at Jones’ proposal to see if it supplemented what the city already had. “We’re here to work with you, we want to be partners with the government, we want to make sure that we do everything we can to protect Ocean City’s reputation, and if that means changes in the way we do business then we understand that,” Jones said.
Nostalgia major theme for ads Continued from Page 5 the number of covid-19 tests that come back positive — is at 5.06 percent. The World Health Organization recommends states reopen after 14 days at a 5 percent or lower positivity rate. The state has 65,007 confirmed cases of covid-19, 418,528 negative tests results, 561 hospitalizations and 2,963 confirmed deaths, as of Wednesday morning. Optimistic metrics notwithstanding, as Hogan and his administration officials have said, the novel coronavirus pandemic is not over, and Waters said the city is well aware of that fact. “As we continue to reopen, we’re certainly all relieved we can resume a lot of our normal behaviors, but I think it is important to know that we still very much have the coronavirus on our radar and we’re continuing to be responsible to protect our visitors and our residents,” Waters said.
JUNE 26, 2020
Ocean City Today
PAGE 7
Arcades, gyms and casinos open for business in state By Elizabeth Bonin Staff Writer (June 26, 2020) Arcades, gyms and casinos had a re-opening last weekend that was grand, considering those businesses had been closed since March because of the state’s covid-19 outbreak. Jerry Greenspan, owner of Fun City and managing partner with Sportland, said that opening weekend went well, especially since the staff isn’t as seasoned. Part of this is because the Boardwalk arcades have no returning international student workers, whose J1 visas either weren’t or will not be processed because of federal mandates and a presidential directive. “We have core managers, but we have a lot of new people working with us, which added a new stress level to the operation,” Greenspan said. “We had to do a lot of training within a one-day period because of not knowing when we were going to open.” He said that it will take a few more weeks for the new technicians and redemption clerks to feel fully trained. “We put up signs asking people to be patient and understand that we’re understaffed,” Greenspan said. “Most people were really nice this weekend.” He explained that since the games hadn’t been on for months, they had some glitches that normally would’ve been caught by now. Greenspan said the number of people in the arcades is less than last summer. He attributed a large part of that to the cancellations of nearly all summer events in Ocean City and at the convention center. As for the visitors who did come, most of them were respectful of the social distancing and mask guidelines that are also observed by the staff, Greenspan said. “All service techs and redemption people wear masks,” Greenspan said. “We have sneeze guards and constantly disinfect our hands, going around and disinfecting equipment, also fogging the arcade every morning before we open.”
The “fog” is a disinfectant spray to kill germs. It is sprayed twice a day in the arcade. Coastal Fitness on 115th Street and Atlantic Health and Fitness Center in Ocean Pines took approaches similar to those employed by the arcades, posting signs to remind people to social distance, spacing out machines and constantly cleaning equipment. Jayna Griffith, general manager, said that Coastal Fitness took the added measure of establishing the gym’s own contact tracing. “When a guest or member comes in, it’s very important for us to log their temperature and who came in at what time, so if anybody does come down with covid, we can trace exactly who was in the gym at that time,” Griffith said. The gym is also asking guests to wipe down the machines before and after using them. “If they [members] see that somebody else is not, they need to tell the front desk and the front desk will need to then enforce it — go to that member or guest and let them know what they need to do and remind them,” Griffith said. Gym goers can choose to wear a mask — Griffith said that most did not. The gym is also purchasing more touchless items, such as automatic hand sanitizer dispensers, and an air purifier that kills germs. She added that opening on Saturday was stressful, as not everything went according to plan, but fun. Griffith said with so many people coming in, the front desk was overcrowded and socially distancing was impossible. As a result, the gym now has one person at the desk and one person at the front to take temperatures. She said about 100 people came through on opening day. “It was a normal Saturday in summer,” Griffith said. “The only difference I had seen is our older population members have been cancelling and not coming in.” Atlantic Health and Fitness Center See EQUIPMENT Page 8
ELIZABETH BONIN/OCEAN CITY TODAY
Ocean Downs Casino is operating at half capacity to help mitigate the spread of coronavirus.
ELIZABETH BONIN/OCEAN CITY TODAY
Jerry Greenspan, owner of Fun City and managing partner with Sportland on the Boardwalk, said that the arcades spray a “fog” to disinfect the area twice a day.