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DECEMBER 19, 2014
SERVING NORTHERN WORCESTER COUNTY
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City taps team for upcoming police union negotiation
PHOTO COURTESY ED SEREMBUS
TUNNEL VISION Ed Serembus took this photo around sunset, Dec. 10 on 47th Street. Serembus was bodyboarding with a GoPro camera attached to a mouth piece. "The wind was blowing 25 mph hard offshore all day which made for big, cold, treacherous barrels," he said.
Worker rescued from wastewater pump shaft
By Josh Davis Staff Writer (Dec. 19, 2014) Rescue crews from multiple agencies staged a difficult rescue in Ocean Pines on Wednesday, pulling county wastewater employee James Bailey from a pump shaft after what was apparently an accidental fall. At approximately 8:30 a.m., Bailey fell down the 20-foot shaft roughly three-tofour feet in width near the intersection of Ocean Parkway and Tanglewood Court. He had been working on the wastewater station behind Harbor Village.
Steve Grunewald, 1st assistant chief of the Ocean Pines Fire Department, said a call for help, coming from an unknown source, came at 8:39 a.m. Within minutes, the Ocean Pines and Showell fire departments, as well as Worcester County Risk Management and Worcester County Emergency Services, arrived on the scene. Three firefighters, using an aerial tower truck, made their way down into the hole to rescue the victim. “Each individual had to be put in a full-body harness, and we used our
tower truck to create a lifting system,” Grunewald said. “They were actually lowered down into the hole. The victim was secured and then brought up using the same harness system.” Grunewald said the rescue efforts lasted about an hour and that Bailey was conscious and responsive. He was treated at the scene for undisclosed injuries and airlifted to the University Of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore at approximately 9:30. The current condition of the victim is unknown.
By Zack Hoopes Staff Writer (Dec. 19, 2014) If the city’s payroll were the NFL, this week would’ve been draft season – just much less entertaining. The Town of Ocean City has set its negotiating team for the 2015 union contract with the Fraternal Order of Police, a process that is like to have a major impact on the city’s overall payroll for the duration of the agreement. The last FOP contract, negotiated in 2013, was a two-year agreement that will expire at the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2015. During Monday’s closed session, the City Council selected members Lloyd Martin, Doug Cymek, and Wayne Hartman to represent itself in the negotiations. The committee also includes, by default, the mayor, city solicitor, human resources director, finance administrator, and city manager. The team also includes two members of the Ocean City Police Department’s management staff, Capt. Mike Colbert and Lt. Elton Harmon. Under the city’s charter, which was amended in 2002 to allow for collective bargaining in the OCPD, the city and the FOP may go to binding arbitration if they cannot broker an agreement by March 1 of the year concerned. This option has never been exercised, although negotiations frequently See SALARY Page 5
Tempers flare as liquor board hikes retail prices Beleaguered department struggling to break even
By Brian Gilliland Staff Writer (Dec. 19, 2014) County commissioners past and present crossed swords over a proposed rate increase in retail pricing at the Worcester County Liquor Control Board stores.
Holiday s! Special
“In our situation we need to increase revenue or cut expenses. We’ve made seven cuts in administration and the warehouse. We’ve made all the cuts. We need to generate more revenue,” Robert “Bobby” Cowger Jr. told the commissioners during their regular Tuesday meeting. Effective immediately, all 1.75-liter products will increase in price by one
dollar. All bottles of wine will increase in price by $.50. On Jan. 1, all products 50 ml in volume or greater will increase in price by $.50, and the “split case” charge for licensees will increase from $.50 per bottle to $.75 per bottle. Cowger told the commissioners even these increases will allow the county’s stores to remain competitive, and reported wholesalers generally charge
$1.39 to $1.49 in split case charges. Commissioners’ Board President M. Jim Bunting said he knew that some commissioners felt the increases were merely a “Band-Aid” for a failing or obsolete department but felt the increases could help the stores find their footing after years of struggling. “I don’t think the county should be See COUNTY Page 3
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