Ocean City Today

Page 1

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

LITTLE LIFEGUARDS:

MANSLAUGHTER: The 26-year-

Ocean City Beach Patrol academy offers youth opportunity to experience daily lifeguard duties PAGE 49

old man charged in the October death of former 707 Bar owner Carey Flynn was charged with manslaughter this week PAGE 3

BUSINESS . . . . . . . . . 43 CLASSIFIED . . . . . . . . 69 ENTERTAINMENT . . . . 53 LEGALS . . . . . . . . . . . 75

LIFESTYLE . . . . . . . . . 49 OPINION . . . . . . . . . . 20 OUT&ABOUT . . . . . . . . 61 SPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . 40

DESPITE RULES CHANGE, COUNTY STUDENTS STILL TOPS…PAGE 14

Ocean City Today WWW.OCEANCITYTODAY.NET

JULY 13, 2012

FREE

STRIKING CIRCUMSTANCES

PHOTO COURTESY MARK HUEY

Professional bodyboarder Brian Stoehr of Ocean City shows one of the techniques that can be accomplished on the longer “beater” style boards.

PHOTO COURTESY MICK CHESTER

Perched atop the Ocean City Fire Department headquarters on 15th Street, firefighter/EMT Mick Chester captures the full fury of an early Monday thunderstorm that dumped rain and sent crackling lightning down to the beach area.

ELECTION SWITCH QUESTIONED Council debates whether date change was made to benefit Dare candidacy ZACK HOOPES ■ Staff Writer (July 13, 2012) The shift of Ocean City’s municipal election to coincide with the federal date appears to be a done deal as of Tuesday afternoon, despite heated allegations that the date change was affected to help ousted City Manager Dennis Dare run for City Council. Although the move itself was approved last week and will involve simply switching the date of the city’s contest, not merging the municipal ballot with the larger state- and county-run poll,

there was one more matter to attend to at the council’s work session Tuesday. City Solicitor Guy Ayres presented the council with a second charter amendment that would also change the date of the organizational meeting for newly elected officials to the week after the new November date, instead of the week following the old October date. Last week, a vote to move the election date passed 5-2, with the majority of council citing voter demand as the reason. Joe Hall and Brent Ashley opposed the measure, although Hall had long

Dennis Dare

supported a similar election modification, while the rest of the council did not. He said last week that he would only support the change if it involved a full ballot merger, citing concerns that two separate polling places would cause more voter confusion and fail to save the city money. Although the council con-

sidered the merger possibility, the complexity of that procedure made it questionable whether the change could be accomplished in time for the fall election. But when Tuesday’s discussion turned to this latest charter amendment, Council President Jim Hall made clear that he believes that political strategy was involved. “It’s pretty obvious to me now that the date of the election was changed to help one candidate run for council,” he said. Hall was referring to reports that Dare is considering seeking a council seat this season. Dare was forced into retirement last fall by a See MOTIVES on Page 8

Boarders bristle at enforcement of lengthrestrictions ZACK HOOPES ■ Staff Writer (July 13, 2012) A public furor erupted this week over what appears to be sudden enforcement of a previously unknown clause in the Ocean City Code that prohibits bodyboards over 42 inches in length from being used between 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. during the summer. “I’ve raised four kids here and I’ve seen them [the city government] slowly take everything away. They’re driving local kids away from their activities,” said Lee Gerachis, owner of Malibu’s Surf Shop on the Boardwalk at Eighth Street. Gerachis began warning others of the enforcement earlier this week via Facebook and through his daily radio surf reports. “They’ve just decided all the sudden to do this,” Gerachis said. “My impression is that someone was probably hit by a kid on a bigger board and complained, and this is the immediate reaction.” “It puts the beach patrol in a weird position, because they don’t want to enforce this. We have a good relationship with them and See COUNCIL on Page 19


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