Clarke says he’ll run for OPA board if health allows
March 2017
Former Ocean Pines Association Director Martin D. “Marty” Clarke recently said he would be running for the Board of Directors this summer if the current board adopted the 2017-18 budget that, as it turned out, was approved without any of the changes that Clarke had urged the board to make. Since then, he’s giving himself some wiggle room. He said he still is planning to run for the board if his health permits. “I want to be sure I’m in fine health before I make a final decision,” he said.
COVER STORY
COURSE CORRECTION In-house management returns to Ocean Pines golf amenity
Board approves $11.8 million 2017-18 budget
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THE OCEAN PINES JOURNAL OF NEWS & COMMENTARY
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The Board of Directors during an anti-climactic Feb. 25 meeting approved a balanced $11.813 million budget for 2017-18 that kept the base assessment at $921 and the rate paid by most waterfront property owners at $1,386, called for $1.82 million in capital spending not including bulkhead repairs and replacement, and adjusted fees for golf and the Beach Club. The vote approving the budget was 5-2, with Directors Tom Herrick, Brett Hill, Cheryl Jacobs, Brett Hill and Dave Stevens in favor. Voting against were Slobodan Trendic and Doug Parks, the latter of whom is expected to be running for re-election this summer.
www.issuu.com/oceanpinesprogress
Acting general manager hires new course maintenance superintendent, but OPA and Director of Golf John Malinowski and OPA reach new employment agreement By TOM STAUSS Publisher fter almost six years of contract management of the Ocean Pines 18-hole Robert Trent Jones golf amenity, the Ocean Pines Association has made a sharp course correction, returning to in-house management under the direct supervision of Acting General Manager Brett Hill. The Board of Directors made the decision to return to inhouse management in February after a series of closed meetings of which the announced purpose of the executive session was discussion of the golf management contract with Landscapes Unlimited, a company based in Lincoln, Neb., with a presence in the mid-Atlantic region. LU has actively directed
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golf course operations since May of 2015. Prior to that, Billy Casper Golf managed the course for roughly four years. Golf operations have been a perennial political issue in Ocean Pines throughout the BCG and LU tenures. LU was hired by the OPA despite sharp differences among the directors about the wisdom of terminating the BCG contract. After LU was hired and in place, it endured rocky relations with then-general manager Bob Thompson and a board majority during the 2015-16 board term. “They were treated unfairly by the old board,” OPA Director and Vice-President Dave Stevens told the Progress recently. Former OPA President Pat Renaud, an LU critic in To Page 27
Trendic, Supik swap competing views on lower assessments
During discussion prior to a Board of Directors’ vote Feb. 25 on the 2017-18 Ocean Pines Association budget, some directors expressed varying misgivings about the document. Slobodon Trendic offered a comprehensive indictment of the budget in explanation for why he voted against it. He was countered by Director Pat Supik, the OPA treasurer, who didn’t so much endorse the budget as offer a critique of Trendic’s desire to cut it.
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A view of the Ocean Pines Country Club from the ninth hole tee box.
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