410-641-6029
Vol. 9, No. 3
June-Early July 2013
www.issuu.com/oceanpinesprogress
THE OCEAN PINES JOURNAL OF NEWS & COMMENTARY COVER STORY
OPA revamps Fourth of July special events
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he Ocean Pines Recreation and Parks Department recently announced a revamped schedule for Ocean Pines’ Fourth of July Celebration. The day will now begin at 8 a.m. with the Freedom 5k race. At 10 a.m., the Sports Core Pool and the South Gate lawn surrounding the Worcester County’s Veteran Memorial Park will host “All American Day” festivities. The OPA will light up the night sky with fireworks over Showell Park just after dark. Participants in the OPAsponsored Freedom 5K Run will race around the South Gate Pond, travel up Manklin Creek Road, and then return to the finish line at the Veterans Memorial. Ocean Pines Recreation and Parks has partnered with local professional race design team OCtriRunning that will use computer chip timing techniques to clock all of the runners accurately. To Page 12
Thompson recants earlier version of pool dumping policy Last November, after Hurricane Sandy apparently delivered a fatal blow to the Yacht Club swimming pool by upending one section of it, Ocean Pines Association General Manager Bob Thompson told the board of directors that the pool had not been filled with water prior to the storm consistent with OPA policy of dumping pools at season’s end, which he said was driven by safety concerns. By the general manager’s town meeting on May 22, though, Thompson’s version of what had happened at the Yacht Club pool prior to the storm had changed significantly. ~ Page 8
The Ocean Pines Association board of directors has approved a color scheme for the new Ocean Pines Yacht Club, based on informal polling at recent community meetings. The blue roof option won with overwhelming support of those polled.
PROJECT UPDATE
Gasoline sales resume at Yacht Club marina, new pool construction begins By TOM STAUSS Publisher espite expressions of concern among some Ocean Pines directors that major construction projects are falling behind schedule, and that Ocean Pines Association President Bob Thompson has been too optimistic in his projections about when the new Yacht Club pool in particular will be available for use, June arrived with what can only be described as “good news” on the Ocean Pines project front. While the board of directors’ meeting on May 25 was dominated by discussion of timelines and misplaced optimism by the general manager, within a week much of that was erased. While the new Yacht Club pool still might not be open for use this summer – the fact is, no one really knows and projections are, at best, guesses – at least construction has begun, made possible by the issuance of a permit by the Maryland Department of
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the Environment the last week of May. Probably the best news on the project front was the announcement on Wednesday, June 6, that fuel sales at the Ocean Pines marina complex had resumed, sooner than critics ever thought possible given difficulties described by Thompson during the May 25 board meeting. Previous reports that permit challenges had delayed relocation of the gasoline tanks at the marina site proved to be somewhat misleading. While there were some problems on that front earlier, by late May another challenge had emerged, the failure of a key subcontractor to show up to complete the work it had been hired by Harkins Construction, the project contractor, to do. Thompson told the board that Harkins terminated the subcontractors’ contract and hired a replacement company, which quickly jumped on the tank relocation phase, relocating the tanks and demolishing the old tank structure.
The tanks were refilled with the OPA’s sought-after non-ethanol gasoline by the end of May, leaving final piping and electrical work to be finished in early June. A new marina building went up on Monday, June 3, and, almost miraculously, gasoline was flowing the following Wednesday. The Yacht Club pool permits were issued early in the last week of May. Parrish Pools, the pool subcontractor working under the supervision of Harkins, arrived on site on the last Thursday of the month, immediately beginning excavation of the new pool. The OPA’s Web site is inviting residents to visit the Yacht Club to watch the work as it progresses. Somewhat amusingly, the Web site declares the hole as something that patrons might want to check out when they stop in for lunch and dinner. As Parrish proceeds to work on its part of the project, Harkins crews began To Page 18