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Vol. 9, No. 5
August-Early September 2013
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cean Pines will continue its 45th Anniversary celebration throughout August, with many of the events showcasing OPA amenities. A ribbon-cutting for the new Yacht Club pool is scheduled for 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 8, part of a poolside luau buffet from 4-7 p.m. at $15 per person. Also at at the Yacht Club this day is a reggae dance party, featuring Kaleb Brown, from 5-9 p.m. The festivities continue on Friday, Aug. 16, with a special offer for residents and guests to play Ocean Pines’ Robert Trent Jones golf course at the special rate of $45 for two, with cart. The Tern Grill will be serving 45 cent drafts, and Charles’ fried chicken dinners will be available for dine-in or take out at $4.50 starting at noon. Complimentary range balls will be available throughout the day. On Tuesday, Aug. 20, all Ocean Pines pools will be open free of charge when they open at 10 a.m. Shaun Hopper will be performing at the Yacht Club Pool from 4-7 p.m. and Bryan Clark will be doing a dinner and show upstairs at 6 p.m. On Thursday, Aug. 22, from 6:308:30 p.m., the Delmarva Chorus will perform songs from the 60’s in a free concert in White Horse Park with the Overtime Band, Kiwanis hot dogs and beverages, a bounce house for the kids and 45 cent root beer floats to celebrate the anniversary. On Friday, Aug. 23, the Beach Club will host a Jamaican Beach Party with live reggae music and food and drink specials. The celebration continues Sunday, Aug. 25, as the Ocean Pines Area Chamber hosts a classic car show from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Veteran’s Memorial Park. The classic cars will parade through Ocean Pines starting from White Horse Park at 10 a.m. The festivities conclude on Aug. 25 with a block party at the Ocean Pines tennis complex on Manklin Creek Road from 4-7 p.m. Events include a round-robin tennis tournament and platform tennis members will be on hand to demonstrate their sport. Volunteers will be grilling out and hosting a social happy hour in the clubhouse with music and refreshments.
THE OCEAN PINES JOURNAL OF NEWS & COMMENTARY COVER STORY
AN ELECTORAL BOOST FOR THOMPSON? Collins, Cordwell, Terry capture Board of Directors seats By TOM STAUSS Publisher ack Collins, Bill Cordwell and incumbent Ocean Pines Association President Tom Terry were the top three vote-getters in this summer’s election for the OPA board of directors. The results of the balloting were announced near the end of the annual meeting of the association held Aug. 10 in the Ocean Pines Community Center. The winning tallies were Collins, 2,257 votes; Cordwell, 1,719 votes; and Terry, 1,712 votes. Coming in a non-too-distant fourth place was Roland Langevin with 1,636 votes, 76 votes behind Terry. Langevin ran as the candidate most identified with wanting to terminate the employment contract of OPA General Manager
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Collins
Cordwell
Terry
Bob Thompson, so Langevin’s defeat, together with the victory of Cordwell, generally thought to be a strong Thompson ally, would tend to fortify the general manager’s position going forward. The fifth and six place finishers in the contest were former director Les Purcell with 1,174 votes and incumbent Director Ray Unger with 1,122 votes. Unger’s loss continues the general trend in recent years of incumbent
directors losing their reelection bids. Terry’s victory this year stands out as somewhat of an anomaly, but probably reflects the fact that he’s been able, as OPA president for the past three years, to articulate a plan for addressing Ocean Pines’ overarching need to maintain or replace its aging infrastructure. Collins and Cordwell replace retiring directors Unger and Dave Stevens, a frequent Thompson critic, who has served six years on the board. Collins is a retired banker and Cordwell served in law enforcement. Of the 7,484 ballots sent out to property owners, 3,535 were cast. Of those, 3,516 ballots were counted by Scantron and 19 were counted manually. There were 45 ballots rejected by the Elections Committee.
Annual Audit: OPA loses $444,806 for Fiscal Year 2013/Page 32
New Yacht Club pool opens OPA Aquatics staff was on hand Aug. 8 to meet and greet visitors to the new Yacht Club pool. It opened for swimming the following day, and a ribbon-cutting to officially mark the occasion was scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 10. For details, see article on Page 8.