April 2020
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THE OCEAN PINES JOURNAL OF NEWS & COMMENTARY
COVER STORY
IT BEGINS!
Three already in the race for two seats on OPA board Dr. Stuart Lakernick announces candidacy By SUSAN CANFORA Contributing Writer
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iving in O c e a n Pines, Stuart Lakernick mused, is like cruising on a luxury liner. “You can get as active as you want. You can Stuart get involved in Lakernick so many activities or you can just sit around and read all day. We have a home in Ocean Pines and we’re here more and more. We’re thinking of retiring here,” said the 62-year-old Philadelphia native, who has announced his candidacy to the Ocean Pines Board of Directors. To Page 26
Parks, Horn seek new terms By TOM STAUSS Publisher urprising no one who watched the April 1 Board of Directors meeting, President Doug Parks and Secretary Colette Horn both confirmed that they are running for reelection to the board this summer. To avoid the appearance or actuality of a conflict of interest, both resigned from positions that are involved in Doug Parks election processes within the Ocean Pines Association. Parks vacated his position as liaison to the Search Committee, which has no members according to the OPA Website. He failed to find anyone interested in volunteering for the committee despite making verbal appeals for members in public pronouncements beginning in January. He made similar appeals last year to no avail. A prominent Parks critic, former OPA director Slobodan Trendic, said he was able to populate the committee simply by calling friends and neighbors when he served on the Colette Horn board. Trendic has suggested that Parks didn’t try very hard to reinvigorate the committee. Parks has been replaced as liaison to the committee by Director and OPA Treasurer Larry Perrone. Horn has resigned as OPA secretary and was replaced by Director Camilla Rogers in a unanimous vote of the board April 1. The OPA secretary submits a list of certified candidates to the Elections Committee by June 1, after supervising the certification process conducted by Executive Secrtary Michelle Bennett and Membership and Assessment Supervisor Ruth Ann Meyer. The latter determines whether a candidate is current with lot assessments and has no outstanding violations of OPA restrictive covenants or Architectural Review Committee guidelines. Two years ago, Horn made the controversial determination that the To Page 25
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Sen. Carozza ‘very optimistic’ that Greater Ocean City will be open for business this summer Page 6
OPA files for employee protect loan from SBA The Ocean Pines Association has filed an application for a government employee protection loan through the Bank of Ocean City, General Manager John Viola has confirmed, but just how much assistance might be forthcoming is unknown, he and others have told the Progress. Indeed the loan application didn’t even include a requested loan amount, and that’s not considered unusual in the Congressionally-approved program that local banks are helping the federal Small Business Administration to administer. ~Page 5
Board approves 90-day extenion for paying assessments While pleading with Ocean Pines Association members to still pay by the original May 1 deadline if they can, the Board of Directors has extended the due date for annual property assessments until Aug. 1, 2020. In a 6-1 vote, the Board approved the 90-day extension during its April 1 monthly meeting, debating the impact the length any extension of time for payment of dues by property owners would have on the OPA’s finances. ~ Page 7
Yacht Club has one for the ages on Easter Sunday How the managers of the Matt Ortt Companies managed to prepare and deliver 281 family dinners of turkey, ham and fixins to residents of Ocean Pines on Easter Sunday is a tale for the ages. “The key to pulling it off was on-line ordering in advance, with some orders a week before,” MOC partner Ralph DeAngelus told the Progress in a April 14 telephone interview. “So we had a really good idea of how much food we needed to order.” ~Page 16