January 2018
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The Board of Directors on Jan. 12 awarded a contract to Davis, Bowen and Friedel of Salisbury to draft final construction drawings for the renovation of the Country Club’s second floor. Once construction drawings are complete, the Ocean Pines Association will be able to post a request for proposals from builders for the second floor renovation and submit applications for county permits. There is a hope that the work can be completed by this summer, in time for some 50th anniversary-related events, perhaps for a golf tournament scheduled for June 30.
THE OCEAN PINES JOURNAL OF NEWS & COMMENTARY COVER STORY
Draft FY ‘19 budget calls for $60 lot assessment increase
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Most amenity fees remain the same; Bailey proposes to restablish deficit recovery reserve but cuts supplemental replacement reserve revenue
By TOM STAUSS Publisher eneral Manager John Bailey has proposed a $12 million Ocean Pines Association operating budget for 2018-19 that calls for a $60 increase in the base lot assessment and no change in amenity rates except for a return to 2016 fees and privileges for pickleball and a modest increase in boat slip rates at OPA-operated marinas. The draft budget also calls for the final elimnation of a controversial supplemental reserve funding stream that cost property owners $727,000 last year, contrasted with the resurrection of a previously abolished deficit recovery reserve that would cost property owners $33 of the proposed $60 assessment increase. That’s the equivalent of just less than $279,000 in assessments. The $33 “deficit recovery” component of the proposed assessment increase, designed to offset roughly $1.4 million in operational losses in the current and previous fiscal years, would remain in place for five years, prompting early critics to say
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Abi’s DINER
it amounts to a special assessment and resembles the much criticized “five-year funding plan” for reserves established in 2010 and which, in 2018-19, can be said finally to no longer in exist in name or residual funding. The proposed 2018-19 budget also would eliminate the experimental $250 fee currently charged those who neither own property nor live in Ocean Pines, so-called “associate” members who abandoned the OPA amenities in droves this year. Under Bailey’s draft proposal, these associate members will be able to purchase memberships without what amounted to a $250 entry fee, albeit at somewhat higher rates than property owners and residents will pay. In a proposal that has aroused considerable discussion the during the budget review process currently under way, Bailey also has taken off the rose-colored glasses worn by some of his predecessors and has projected a hefty $338,000 loss in Yacht Club operations next year. He currently is projecting a $452,000 loss
Engineering contract for Country Club’s second floor awarded
Bailey confirms Yacht Club closure likely before mold
for this amenity in the current fiscal year, so the projected loss next year would actually be a year-overyear improvement. The $338,000 projected loss represents just John Bailey under $40 in the annual base lot assessment. While Bailey told the Progress recently that he might propose some sort of out-sourcing management solution for the OPA’s premier restaurant and bar venue, his draft budget assumes year-around inhouse operations again next year, which more or less guarantees operational losses, if past is prologue. Surpluses historically generated during the summer months are dissipated in red ink that generally starts in November and carries through until the end of the fiscal year in April. The difference this To Page 25
Confirming to some degree speculation that odds favored closing of the Ocean Pines Association’s premier dining amenity early in the new year, even before the discovery of a mold problem that is much worse than an early diagnosis and fix, Ocean Pines Association General Manager nontheless said the issue is real and in urgent need of remediation.
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GM agrees projected $338,000 loss at YC next year can be cut
General Manager John Bailey, in a wide-ranging discussion with the Budget and Finance Advisory Committee Jan. 12, said his proposed food and beverage budget for the Ocean Pines Yacht Club and other restaurant venues is in a “state of flux” and that the projected $338,000 loss in the amenity next year can be reduced.
~ Page 21
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