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ASSISTANCE SOUGHT Local organizations ask for food, toys and clothing for those in need this holiday season – Page 41
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DECEMBER 12, 2014
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Arts center trades sound of hammers for sound of music Construction at convention center finishes ahead of Saturday’s inaugural show
ZACK HOOPES/OCEAN CITY TODAY
The newly-built Ocean City Performing Arts Center, located inside the Roland E. Powell Convention Center on 40th Street, gets its finishing touches earlier this week.
By Zack Hoopes Staff Writer (Dec. 12, 2014) Even if you’d been hiding under a rock for the past year and had no idea that major construction was happening inside the convention center, the smell would still tip you off. With less than a week to go before the first headline show on Saturday, Dec. 13, the distinct scent of new construction hung heavy in the Ocean City Performing Arts Center. “I’m excited for people to finally see the finished product,” Mayor Rick Meehan said as he led the media on a preview tour of the facility. “They’re not going to have anticipated the scope of what we’ve done here. It’s
impressive.” Early this week, crews were still working on the finishing details of the space — painting railings, varnishing floors and vacuuming the carpets — in anticipation of Saturday’s inaugural performance of The Texas Tenors. It’s the small details, Meehan said, that make the difference. “This is what sets you apart from the competition,” he said. “The little things are what make it a professional-grade space.” Even a question about the seats begs an invitation to try them out. They’re the kind you could sit in for a three-hour performance without your rear going totally numb. And the folding bottoms don’t slap when you get up. At 15,000 square feet, 1,216 seats, and more than 50 feet of ceiling headroom, the Performing Arts Center is a cavernous space, at least by Ocean City’s See ARTS Page 4
SHA fields options for highway weight watch State proposing traffic equivalent of lap-band surgery as fix for bus, bike, pedestrian safety concerns
By Zack Hoopes Staff Writer (Dec. 12, 2014) Much like the proverbial 10 pounds of sand in a five-pound bucket, there’s only so much road you can fit in so much right-of-way. For the next several months, there are likely to be a number of opinions on what exactly that combination should be in Ocean City. The State Highway Administration presented the City Council this week with the next phase of conceptual design for improvements on Coastal Highway, specifically the “road diet” initiative that has been floated to reduce pedestrian accidents following the problematic summer of 2012. “What we’re showing here is a reduction of one lane [northbound and southbound],” said SHA Traffic Engineer John Webster. “There are a number of options we can go with. Maybe we make the outermost lane a shared bus and car lane, or bus only. The bike lane could also be a pocket lane, or up against the curb.”
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In short, the idea of a road diet would be to pull one southbound and one northbound lane out of Coastal Highway from the Convention Center to the Route 90 Bridge. This would create extra space needed to widen the sidewalks and build a proper bicycle lane. The project would also include some type of renovation to the median strip itself to discourage pedestrians from crossing outside of designated crosswalks. The stretch of Coastal Highway being looked at for the road diet renovations was chosen due to its high number of pedestrian accidents. The summer of 2012 raised considerable concern about pedestrian safety in the resort, with several major incidents including two deaths. From January 2008, when the SHA began collecting data, through the end of August 2012, the stretch of highway between the Convention Center and the Route 90 interchange saw 47 pedestrians hit. The SHA’s subsequent survey, Webster said, revealed that 27 percent of pedestrians typically cross mid-block, despite the public awareness campaigns sponsored by the Town of Ocean See LANE Page 5
RENDERING COURTESY STATE HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION
The state’s option for a bicycle “pocket lane” to the left of the right turn lane got a generally unfavorable reception from city officials this week.
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