FAMILY FARMING: Proposed
PHASE 2: City Council gave its OK this
bill aims to preserve Worcester County farming. Public hearing will likely be held in February PAGE 12
week to preliminary design plans for Phase 2 of a convention center expansion: a larger theater and performance space PAGE 6
INSIDE THIS ISSUE: BUSINESS . . . . . . . . . 46 CLASSIFIED . . . . . . . . 68 ENTERTAINMENT . . . . 53 LEGALS . . . . . . . . . . . 62
LIFESTYLE . . . . . . . . . 49 OPINION . . . . . . . . . . 20 OUT&ABOUT . . . . . . . . 59 SPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . 39
FROM OUR STAFF TO OUR READERS: HAVE SAFE AND HAPPY HOLIDAY!
Ocean City Today WWW.OCEANCITYTODAY.NET
DECEMBER 21, 2012
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CITYCOULDBACKOUTOFTRADE BOOTH AGREEMENT Row erupts after cost, scheduling confusion threaten to have city scrap ‘OC Experience’ ZACK HOOPES ■ Staff Writer (Dec. 21, 2012) City staff may be under the gun this holiday season to hammer out a formal memorandum of understanding with a local promoter whose trade show production was on
the verge of being cancelled this week, following some disagreement about what exactly the council was expecting out of the arrangement. Brad Hoffman, head of local event marketing firm Spark Productions, told the City Council this week that he had devoted consid-
erable time and resources to the “Ocean City Experience” project after his proposal garnered unanimous support in Brad Hoffman March, “just like any vote of confidence given by this council.” “I feel it’s very disingenuous in many ways and on many levels, when that was not the intent of
council [to support the project],” Hoffman said. The project had first been pitched nearly two years ago, when Hoffman proposed a tractor-trailer that would travel to tourism conventions and trade shows around the country to promote the resort. The original price tag was upwards of a quarter of a million dollars, and the project remained bogged down for many months.
A second proposal in February of this year by Hoffman offered an elaborate trade show booth — sans vehicle — with extensive photo and video features, at a reduced price tag of roughly $180,000. The council instructed Hoffman to work with the city’s Tourism Department, the Tourism Advisory Board and the resort’s advertising agency, MGH, to complete the design. See HOFFMAN on Page 10
CHRISTMAS SPIRIT ALIVE AT WORCESTER PREP
First-grade “angels” in Cathy Auxer’s and Cheryl Marshall’s classes at Worcester Preparatory School sing holiday songs during the school’s annual Christmas concert. Completing the Nativity scene are students from Alayne Shockley’s and Kim Law’s fifth-grade classes. See more holiday photos from Worcester County schools on Pages 28-29.
Councilman Dennis Dare, far right, works intently during Monday’s strategic planning session at the convention center. Following conference sessions with city staff earlier this month, planning consultant Lyle Sumek and City Manager David Recor sat down with the City Council for two daylong sessions this week to fine-tune the long-term mission statements and goals. Council President Lloyd Martin is pictured in background. See full story on Page 16.
OCEAN CITY TODAY/ZACK HOOPES
STRATEGIC PLAN
Federal judge rules in favor of Hudson family NANCY POWELL ■ Staff Writer (Dec. 21, 2012) It’s a very Merry Christmas for Alan and Kristin Hudson and their many supporters because it means their farm life may continue. After months, even years of tribulations resulting from a lawsuit filed by environmentalists who alleged that chickens on the Hudson farm near Berlin were polluting the water, a fed-
eral judge has ruled in favor of the Hudsons and, indeed, the way of life of farms all over the Eastern Shore and elsewhere. After more than two weeks of testimony in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, testimony concluded Oct. 24. In the court’s ruling issued Dec. 20, Forth District Judge William Nickerson wrote that the Waterkeeper Alliance “has failed to meet the burden of esSee JUDGE on Page 31