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JULY 1, 2016
SERVING NORTHERN WORCESTER COUNTY
FOURTH FUN
Big bang of a holiday and here’s where it’s happening – Page 70
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IAFF contract in effect, but talks ongoing As new fiscal year begins, city’s final offer stands, but some wiggle room remains
STEWART DOBSON/OCEAN CITY TODAY
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A dozen Public Works Department employees hustle to repair a broken water main under Coastal Highway at 44th Street late Tuesday afternoon, after the rupture and the department’s response to it forced the closure of all but the bus lane on parts of the highway. Altogether, digging down through the roadbed, locating the problem, installing a stainless steel clamp on the cracked portion of the eight-inch main and backfilling the hole took less than four hours.
Now, your weekend weather: it’s all good Monday evening’s a little iffy, but that could change, as coastal systems often do
By Brian Gilliland Associate Editor (July 1, 2016) Bookended, at this point, by fleeting chances of scattered
or isolated thunderstorms or showers, this weekend is shaping up to be mostly perfect beach weather, according to two Baltimore-area meteorologists. WJZ Meteorologist Chelsea Ingram and WBAL Morning Meteorologist Ava Marie agree the chances of a holiday heat wave are pretty much
zero, but will instead feature seasonable weather with highs in the low 80s to high 70s. With the jet stream sitting just south of the lower shore, it paves the way for a cold front to move in and throw some storms through the area — just how fast that cold front approaches is going to make the difference. See JULY Page 15
By Katie Tabeling Staff Writer (July 1, 2016) Starting today, Ocean City government’s “best and final offer” converts into the official three-year contract with the local firefighters’ union under contentious terms. “We’re in unchartered waters,” Ryan Whittington, the president of the Chapter 4269 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said this week. “The firefighters and paramedics Union still are going to continue pushing for moving forward in the referendum aspects that we curwith its rently have.” In mid-February, petition negotiations between – Page 3 the union and city officials broke down over moving firefighters and paramedics from the long-standing shift schedule of 24 hours on-duty, followed by 72 hours off-duty to 12-hour shifts. On March 1, Mayor Rick Meehan announced that the city would proceed with the offer that was still on the table. According to the contract, employees hired after June 30, 2013 are scheduled to work four-week cycles of any shift combination to equal a See SCHEDULE Page 3
Law enforcement seeks cyber weapon in heroin wars Cloud-based system will help police pull information off smartphones
By Greg Ellison Staff Writer (July 1, 2016) In their efforts to combat the sale of illicit substances, the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Enforcement Team is looking to buy the latest in cloud-based software and associated hardware to enable cell phone data extraction.
The sheriff’s office anticipates making the purchase with yet-to-be-approved grant funding applied for on June 14 from the Governors Office of Crime Patrol and Prevention. The Criminal Enforcement Team also is aiming to add a heroin coordinator staff position to provide analytic support for drug investigations. For this latest addition to the war on drugs in Worcester County, the commissioners applied for one-year funding through a state grant totaling just over $70,000, and a recently approved in-kind
county match of more than $5,700. The funding request allocates about $16,000 for the purchase of computer equipment and licensing fees to assist, and in some cases, further investigations. Sgt. Nate Passwaters, who is the fiscal officer for the grant funding, provided details about the technology upgrades, beginning with the Cellebrite Cloud Analyzer. “We have a piece of equipment, its software based, it’s called the Cellebrite extraction device,” he said. See COURT Page 6