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HUMPHREYS NAMED 2012 VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR

Lisa Capitelli, Ocean City Today
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(Feb. 22, 2013) Carolee Humphreys was recognized for her years of service and named the 2012 OC Recreation Boosters Volunteer of the Year last Wednesday at Northside Park on 125th Street.

“Carolee is one of a kind. She is a quiet, soft spoken person who has a heart of gold,” said Kate Gaddis, recreation superintendent for the Ocean City Recreation and Parks Department. “We are so fortunate to have her as a member of our Boosters organization for many reasons. Her smile brightens the room and although she is one little lady, she does the work of many.”

Humphreys has been a member of the OC Recreation Boosters for about 10 years; she’s currently serving as the organization’s vice president.

The Ocean City resident has worked on every Booster-related event, said President Reba Felty, from selling hot chocolate to St. Patrick’s soccer tournament T-shirts. She has also volunteered her time during youth holiday parties and summer concerts at Sunset Park, and helped out in the wine and beer tents during the Springfest and Sunfest celebrations.

“She puts in countless volunteer hours and is the kind of person who is always quietly helping out, never saying ‘no.’ She’s hardworking, devoted and her loyalty and love for others is unmatched,” Felty said. “Carolee is 73 years young, but to know her spirit and hard work you wouldn’t think her a day over 37.”

Humphreys first found out she was the recipient of the annual award during the Boosters’ appreciation party in late January.

She is a member of the Volunteer of the Year committee and found it unusual when the group was not discussing nominees. That was because they knew she would be the one receiving the award.

“They kept it a secret from me,” Humphreys said.

When Felty announced Humphreys was the 2012 Boosters Volunteer of the Year last month, she was shocked.

“I was just surprised and honored,” Humphreys said. “I enjoy doing things for the kids and giving back to the community. What’s most important is that we’re able to raise funds for the programs here.”

In addition to her work with the Recreation Boosters, Humphreys is a member of the Quota Club of Ocean City, the Montego Bay Association and was a past Ocean City Chamber ambassador.

Humphreys is the mother of three, grandmother of four, and great-grandmother of three.

She was presented with the Volunteer of the Year Award plaque last week and Ocean City Councilman Joe Mitrecic gave her a key to the city.

The OC Recreation Boosters, a nonprofit, independent group, has chosen a volunteer to receive the annual award for the past 14 years. The group works throughout the year to raise money to help offset the cost of recreation programs. The organization is always looking for additional volunteers.

During Wednesday’s ceremony, Mitrecic also read a proclamation from Mayor Rick Meehan, who was unable to attend, stating that February is Sportsmanship month in Ocean City.

Sportsmanship was again emphasized during the Ocean City Recreation and Parks Department’s winter boys’ and girls’ basketball and indoor soccer leagues. The department’s “Sportsmanship Counts!” campaign, now in its fourth year, focuses on five specific characteristics: respect, fairness, integrity, responsibility and perseverance.

Athletes chosen by their coaches and coordinators who exemplified good sportsmanship while participating in the basketball and indoor soccer leagues received certificates on Wednesday.

Sara Mitrecic, 13, a Stephen Decatur Middle School student, and coach Brian Shockley, were presented with the 2012 Mid-Atlantic Recreation and Parks Sports Alliance Good Sport Awards.

Ocean City Councilman Joe Mitrecic presents Carolee Humphreys, the 2012 OC Recreation Boosters Volunteer of the Year, with a key to the city during a ceremony last Wednesday at Northside Park on 125th Street.

Many summer employers will not evade health care mandate

Zach Hoopes
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(Feb. 22, 2013) Despite the federal government’s granting of a seasonal leniency for short-term employers, local agents say most of the resort area’s more sizeable businesses will still meet the dreaded “large employer” threshold under the national Affordable Care Act, which will put them into the “pay or play” system for health insurance provisions.

“We’re looking at their numbers, and they’re obviously over in June, July, and August, but they also have a lot of people on in May or September,” said local insurance agent Chris Keen. “A lot of places depend on the shoulder season and that’s what puts them over.”

Although the full effect of the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as “Obamacare,” won’t go into effect until January of 2014, the employment numbers used to determine what regulations apply to businesses will be drawn from 2013.

“You should be doing this calculation now,” Keen told local business representatives at last week’s Greater Ocean City Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting at the Carousel Hotel.

“2013 is the calculation year for whether or not you’re a ‘large employer,’ which means you’ll have to ‘pay or play’ when January of 2014 comes around.”

Together with Atlantic/Smith, Cropper & Deeley Vice President Chris Carroll, Keen, who owns West Ocean City’s Keen Insurance, has been working to help resort businesses hash out their 2014 insurance obligations in a new system that often has very slim margins.

“That’s one of the most unusual parts of this subsidy system and this law, is that there are a series of cliffs built into it,” Carroll said.

The first cliff comes with the determination of whether or not one is a “large employer” under the law’s definition. The ACA specifies such a business as one that has 51 or more full-time employees, or the equivalent in part-time employees.

A full-time employee is someone, according to the law, who is either salaried or a waged worker clocking 130 hours or more in a given month.

In the case of part-time employees, the law requires that all their hours in a month be added and divided by 120 to determine the number of full-time equivalent employees the business has in a given month.

Businesses that only go over 50 employees for four or less months will be exempt from the “large employer” classification. But given that most Ocean City businesses begin hiring in the spring and retain employees through September and October, they are sized out of the seasonal exemption.

For those who are “large employers,” the ACA institutes a so-called “pay or play” system, whereby businesses can either provide a qualifying health insurance plan, or pay an annual penalty of $2,000 per employee.

Although every employee counts for the purpose of calculating penalties to “large employers,” every employee does not have to be insured if said employer provides a health plan. Only those “reasonably expected” to work 30 or more hours per week must be offered insurance – and that insurance does not have to kick in for up to 90 days after employment, a grace period that eliminates short-term workers from the

“You don’t have to provide them insurance, but you do have to include them in the calculation,” Carroll said.

On the other hand, the ACA also stipulates that any health plans provided by employers must meet criteria of coverage and affordability by having premiums of no more than 9.5 percent of an employee’s annual household income, and being able to pay for at least 60 percent of average annual health costs.

In cases of employees on the edge, it may be cheaper to increase their pay so that their insurance costs stay below the 9.5 percent threshold, instead of not offering a plan and paying the penalty.

For those who do not have health insurance the ACA mandates the establishment of group health exchanges in order to pool the purchasing of insurance and bring premium costs down.

Such exchanges are organized by state, although some, such as Virginia, are defaulting to the federal government to administer their programs. But with a detailed, online insurance interface set to go live this fall, Maryland is “leading the country in insurance exchange programs,” Carroll said.

Under federal statute, anyone making up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level will have their insurance exchange purchase subsidized on a graded scale, limiting their costs to a certain percentage of their income. But this also presents another cliff, as those making more than 400 percent abruptly lose the subsidy, forcing them to pay full market rate in a climate where rates may have risen drastically.

Those making 133 percent or less of the poverty level will be eligible to go on Medicaid, and Maryland has elected to bump this level up to 138 percent. According to Carroll and Keen, this will put an additional 160,000 to 170,000 Marylanders on Medicaid beginning in 2014.

In order to control rate disparity between insurance demographic groups – particularly between the young and the old – Maryland had placed a three-to-one ratio cap on the lowest and highest rates offered on the exchange. But this is now proposed to be widened to five-to-one.

“The states don’t believe that the young and invincible are going to enroll in the exchange if their rates are that much higher,” Keen said.

COUNSELING CENTER OPENS

Lisa Capitelli, Ocean City Today
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(Feb. 22, 2013) Katherine Smith, Debra Dotson and Amy Ginnavan have known each other for about 10 years, and they have all worked together. The women had been counseling residents, but it wasn’t until recently that they decided to start their own business.

“It’s exciting to take everything we’ve learned and bring it together to benefit the community,” Dotson said. “We love the community and we’re excited to help strengthen individuals and families.”

They found two units in the Blue Heron Shopping Center on Route 50 in West Ocean City and started renovating the spaces in September. The trio opened their business, Seaside Counseling & Wellness Center, and began seeing clients in December.

With more than 30 years combined experience, Smith said, “We all have a different niche we like to focus on.”

“We complement each other nicely,” she said. “We’re all very passionate about what were doing.”

Individual, family and group counseling sessions are offered. They will also visit local schools to meet with students/clients during the day.

“It makes it easier on families if they can’t bring their kids here,” Smith said.

Added Dotson, “What I enjoy about our center is that we are … focused on clients’ strengths and building on those.”

Ginnavan said the women are trained to work with all age groups, from young children to senior citizens.

Community wellness classes and continuing education courses for social workers and other professionals will also be available. They plan to offer stress relief, nutrition and meditation classes, among others, as well as social media assistant for parents.

Once the weather gets warmer, the women would like to offer “walk and talk” therapy sessions, on the Boardwalk, beach, Assateague Island, or at any other outdoor location.

“I think people are more willing to open up [in that type of environment],” Smith said.

A grand-opening celebration is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 28, from 3-6 p.m. A ribbon cutting will take place at 4:30 p.m. All are invited to attend. Refreshments will be served.

For more information about Seaside Counseling & Wellness Center, call 410-213-7875 or visit www.seasidecounselingandwellness.com. Referrals are currently being accepted. The company works with all major insurance companies. A sliding scale is in place for those without insurance or who wish to self-pay.

Day, weekend and evening hours are available by appointment.

“Our mission is to be available when our clients need us,” Smith said.

Welcoming guests to Seaside Counseling & Wellness Center, located in the Blue Heron Shopping Center on Route 50 in West Ocean City, are business partners, from left, Amy Ginnavan, Katherine Smith and Debra Dotson.

City sees good and bad effects of economy, plan changes on retiree trusts

Zach Hoopes
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(Feb. 22,2013) With employee benefits having been a hot political topic over the past two years – and already acknowledged to be the key issue in the current contract negotiations between the city and its public safety unions – actuarial reports of the city’s retiree pension and health care funds for the final quarter of 2012 indicate that some of the anticipated benefits and drawbacks of recent plan changes may already be coming to fruition.

Consultants from Morgan Stanley, which manages the investment of the city’s employee benefits trust funds, presented the city’s Board of Pension Trustees with their quadrennial report this week, indicating a strong showing for the city’s investments over the past year.

The general employees’ fund gained 9.72 percent over the year, and the public safety employees’ fund 9.64 percent. The employee healthcare fund gained 8.91 percent, and gains for the current year are on target.

“The markets are really off to a great start and your portfolio is participating in that fully,” said Morgan Stanley’s Michael Holycross.

Since 1991, the city’s public safety employees have had a separate fund from the city’s general employees, due to the different retirement norms for public safety work. General employees pay five percent of their salary each week into the pension fund, with an identical match from the city. After 30 years of service, they become fully vested, meaning they will receive the maximum post-retirement benefit of 50 percent of their salary. Retiring earlier provides a somewhat lower payout.

For public safety employees, the vesting term is 25 years, and the benefit is 60 percent of salary, but they must contribute 8 percent of their pay while they work.

Despite this year’s excellent performance, none of the three plans have enough funding to fully cover their projected expenses in pension and insurance payouts – few municipal govern-

ments’ plans are fully funded.

Much of the reason for this is that the future value projections for the funds assume an investment return of 7.5 percent. While this was a normal – or even somewhat low – average rate at the time the plans were designed, the recent economic recession has reversed that dramatically.

Further, no new employees are paying into the funds, since they were controversially closed out two years ago in favor of individual 401(a) packages.

Even with this year’s excellent performances factored in, the average rate of gain over the past five years has only been 1.83 percent for the general employees’ fund, and 1.84 percent for the public safety fund.

The medical benefits fund has fared better, but only because it was conceived later; the Government Accounting Standards Board only began to require a separate retiree health benefits fund in 2009. As such, the health fund has made 7.4 percent since inception, but still only covers about 20 to 25 percent of its projected future costs.

Ocean City currently pays 80 percent of retiree health premiums, with the former employees themselves paying 20 percent. Spousal coverage is not offered.

In all cases, the city routinely bolsters its funds with additional capital, on top of what it normally pays in per employee paycheck, amortized over a period of 25 years to reach full funding.

This scenario may soon become more urgent, however, as the GASB has become more conservative in its recent rule revisions involving asset smoothing and gain assumptions.

Estimated gains or losses of the funds’ value are phased in over five-year periods, to keep the contributions levels from fluctuating wildly. But this also masks, according to the GASB, investment market drops that may not be fully accounted for by the time the fund money is needed to pay for retirements.

Additionally, with a long, slow economic recovery looming, investment return rate assumptions have been lowered from 7.5 to 7 percent, and may be required to drop further. With a large percentage of Ocean City’s workforce nearing retirement age, the city may be paying out of a pot whose paper value is overstated.

Fortunately, however, the city has already been able to reduce some of its medical liability through plan changes. Last spring, the council voted to introduce a high-deductible health plan — as opposed to more expansive PPO plans — that would also come with a city-incentivized Health Savings Account. It also decided to cap any increase to the city’s insurance premium contribution at three percent, to guard against the town taking the lion’s share of future rate increases.

“The reason why the costs are going down is because you made those plan changes for new hires,” Kay Moran of Bolton Partners, the city’s insurance advisor, told the trustees. “Instead of estimating based on market trend, you’re using a flat three percent, and that eliminates any potential fluctuation.”

The city’s premiums have also been going down, due to its insurers suffering fewer claims from town employees.

“There were a lot of reasons for that, mainly because we’ve been altering plan designs and we put in the high-deductible health plan,” Moran said.

At the same time, one of the arguments made by city officials and employees against the plan changes – that providing more individual and less group benefits would jeopardize employee retention – seems to also be occurring. While the number of current general employees eligible for post-employment benefits dropped by 30, the number of retirees using the plan did not correspondingly increase. In fact, it decreased by two.

“Which suggests,” Moran said. “that the older, longer service – and more expensive – employees stayed, and the younger employees were the ones that left.”

On the public safety side, active eligibility increased by 42 employees, and retirees by eight.

“So you added more public safety, and they’re under that new rule,” Moran said. “That increased your liability, but not as much as would’ve been if you hadn’t made that plan change.”

How are those wetsuits holding up? Spring is around the corner!

Brian Stoehr
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We are crossing the mid February point where spring is finally insight.  We have had a few teaser days that are making all of the anticipate the warmer weather to come.  I do have to tell you guys, I have surfed a few times in February WITHOUT a hood…  Crazy but true.  Hoping for a great spring with decent waves…

For all of you looking for wetsuits, this is a great time to buy!  Most of the shops have great deals on winter wetsuits and really all fullsuits.  I always have bought my suits for following year at the end of the winter season!  Make sure you stop in and check out the goods.  Support your local shop and check out there suits.

If you want my input on the suits i wear…  Ive been sporting the new Rip Curl Fireskin suits!  I love them.  The technology has come so far and makes winter (or cold water in general) surf a thing of the past.  They keep me warm as can be and they dry in no time at all.  Ive also seen great things from Hurley, Oniel and Xcel.

AND THE FINALISTS ARE…

Lisa Capitelli, Ocean City Today
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(Feb. 15, 2013) The dining public had until Feb. 5, to nominate a favorite restaurant, bar, tavern, chef, wine, beverage, craft brew program and food truck for the Restaurant Association of Maryland’s annual awards.

The votes have been tabulated and on Tuesday, the association revealed that six Ocean City businesses are finalists in several categories.

“I was thrilled when I found out the list of nominees. We are very fortunate to have so many award-winning restaurants and business leaders in our town,” said Susan L. Jones, executive director of the Ocean City Hotel-Motel-Restaurant Association.

Voting will begin Monday, Feb. 18, and end March 8. To cast a vote, visit www.marylandrestaurants.com.

The winners will be announced during the 59th annual Restaurant Association of Maryland’s awards gala, spon-

sored by McCormick and Company, on April 15, at Martin’s West in Baltimore.

Here are the Ocean City finalists:

n Favorite Restaurant: Captain’s Table

Captain’s Table Restaurant is located on the third floor of the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel on 15th Street, between the Boardwalk and Baltimore Avenue.

In 1956, Willye Conner Ludlam, the grandmother of Lauren Conner Taylor and her brother, Edmund Conner, opened the Santa Maria Hotel and on the first floor was the Captain’s Table Restaurant. The 15th Street hotel and restaurant were family run until both closed in the fall of 2004.

The original project included the restaurant and condominium complex. When home and condo sales began to drop, the course changed. The new project included the Captain’s Table and hotel. After being closed for nearly five years, the family owned and operated restaurant opened in the hotel in July 2009.

Taylor said she is “thrilled” Captain’s Table is one of five finalists for “Favorite Restaurant.”

“It’s nice to know our efforts to produce high quality food has been recognized and that people appreciate what we do,” she said. “It’s a huge honor because it’s statewide and just that we were nominated is tremendous.”

Taylor said customers enjoy the restaurant because it has a relaxed atmosphere and families feel comfortable there. There are also many choices for diners on the menu.

n Favorite Bar & Tavern: Dead Freddies Island Grill and Macky’s Bayside Bar & Grill

Macky’s Bayside will celebrate its 20th season in business on 54th Street when it reopens in late April.

Macky Stansell, who owns the restaurant on the bay with his wife, Pam, said “It’s always nice to be honored by customers and your peers.”

“Just to be chosen is an honor and speaks volumes for what our staff has done,” he said. “The location is good and the staff is the best in town. Food is also a big part of the experience, but service is very important.”

The Stansells take pride in the fact that the restaurant offers top-notch customer service.

The view is also a big reason people come to Macky’s, which sits on the bay. Patrons can enjoy lunch or dinner on the beach, in the dining room or bar area.

“The atmosphere is what it’s all about. It’s a wonderful place to be,” Stansell said.

Dead Freddies opened on 64th Street in May 2010. Managing partner Jay Bosley was pleasantly surprised by Dead Freddies making the finalist list.

“It’s a big honor for us to be recognized because we’re new to Ocean City. We appreciate being accepted by the community,” he said. “We have something for children of all ages. It’s not just about the bar scene, we have a playground for the kids and a great kid’s menu.”

Bosley said adults can come one day with their children and the next night enjoy music, cocktails and take in the sunset on the deck without the little ones.

As far as being nominated in the “Bar & Tavern” category, Bosley said customers like the variety of specialty drinks and other fun items offered.

n Chef of the Year: Travis Wright

Wright and his wife, Jody, opened The Shark Restaurant on 46th Street in Ocean City in May 2000. In February 2008, the eatery was relocated to Sunset Avenue in West Ocean City and named Shark of the Harbor.

In 2010, Wright was a finalist in the “Restaurateur of the Year” category.

Wright was also surprised to be named one of five finalists in the “Chef of the Year” category for the 2013 awards.

“We’re such a collaborative establishment that individual accolades, while nice, are really not usually on our radar,” he said. “I’ve worked in restaurants since I was in college. Becoming a chef was sort of a progression for me. I’ve always worked in and loved this industry and always appreciated fine food and restaurants. I guess you could say I became a chef because I like to eat well.”

Wright and his kitchen staff prepare food from scratch and he said they work hard to source locally and use organic and all-natural ingredients whenever possible.

“We take pride in serving the freshest seafood sourced largely from the boats docked right outside our back door,” he said. “I hope people can feel how much we care about serving our area the best we can and how lucky I feel everyday to be able to do what we do.”

n Restaurateur of the Year: Shawn Harman, Fish Tales; Wayne Odachowski, de Lazy Lizard

De Lazy Lizard, located on the bay at First Street, was the winner in the “Favorite New Restaurant” (open two years or less) category, last year. The Ocean City downtown hotspot opened June 28, 2010.

Odachowski considers his nomination for “Restaurateur of the Year” to be an honor.

“Owning and running a successful restaurant business is truly a team effort. I couldn’t have been nominated if it weren’t for the extraordinary effort of my business partner, Todd Hays, our loyal management team and our dedicated staff,” he said. “There have been great restaurant owners and managers that have been nominated and won this award in the past. This year is no exception. I am in great company with the other nominees.”

Odachowski said de Lazy Lizard’s loyal patrons enjoy the open, beach-feel venue and the child-friendly restaurant appeals to parents. Youngsters have the own play area and a menu specifically for them.

Fish Tales is a family-owned and operated restaurant on the bay at 22nd Street. In 2011, Fish Tales took home the top award in the “Favorite Bar & Tavern” category. The bayside hotspot will celebrate 18 years in business this summer.

Harman said there is something for all age groups at Fish Tales, which has a casual, laid back atmosphere. Customers can dine at tables in the sand or in the bar areas. There is also a playground for children.

To be a finalist for “Restaurateur of the Year,” Harman said, is “incredibly humbling.”

“The restaurant is my life. I end up getting the credit, but it’s not because of me the restaurant is successful, it’s the staff and my wife (Donna),” he said.

Restaurant Association of Maryland members, not the dining public, will choose the recipient of this award.

OC Experience promising in first outings

Zach Hoopes
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(Feb. 15, 2013) Despite initial fears of destination marketing Luddite-ism, or embracing the old style while eschewing the technological advances in marketing, the Town of Ocean City’s re-entry into the old-fashioned trade show circuit has produced high hopes that the resort could recover some of the visitor demographics it seems to have lost since the 2008 slump.

Although it was nearly sliced from the city’s marketing plan earlier this year, the OC Experience trade show booth – a project of local promoter Brad Hoffman and his company, Spark Productions – has recently completed the first two of its inaugural four-show season, which Hoffman says has been highly successful in getting back to the roots of tourism promotion.

“The most effective dynamic is being able to talk directly to people about their vacation,” Hoffman said, “and to tailor that conversation directly to the family in front of me, to build a long-term customer out of the relationship we just made.”

“We were there with our competition, with our competitor resorts, and we blew them out of the water.”

The project has already appeared at the Philadelphia Inquirer Travel Show, Jan. 26 and 27, as well as the Columbus (Ohio) Sports, Vacation, and Boat Show, Feb. 7 and 8, and is scheduled to be at the Baltimore Boat Show, Feb. 28 through March 3, as well as the Washington, D.C. Travel and Adventure Show, March 9 and 10.

The OC Experience is essentially a ramped-up, technologically-augmented version of the classic trade show kiosk. Not only are the usual flyers, magazines, and promotional tchotchkes disseminated, but visitors are also exposed to interactive video presentations – via Ipads and flat-screen TVs – that showcase the resort’s current attractions alongside nostalgic comparison footage of the classic American family vacation from the mid-20th century.

Even more crucial, however, is the active presence at the booth of Hoffman and his Spark business partners, Brian Stoehr and David Bafford. Admittedly “never afraid to talk,” Hoffman made a point of drawing potential customers in on a personal level. Most, he said, were families or couples who had come to the expos to look into vacation options for themselves, friends, and relatives.

“We really wanted to help people make their vacation decision right then,” Hoffman said. “We talked to them about what they wanted in their vacation, instead of just giving them a rack card.”

“A lot of our competitors don’t do it this way. They just sit behind a desk and hope someone talks to them.”

The project had first been pitched nearly two years ago, when Hoffman proposed a tractor-trailer that would travel to tourism conventions and trade shows around the county to promote the resort. The original price tax was upwards of a quarter of a million dollars, and the project remained somewhat bogged down for many months, undergoing a number of drastic cost-cutting revisions. Support for a limited iteration of the project was backed by City Council last March.

But at the Dec. 17th Mayor and City Council meeting, the city’s stance seemed to have changed significantly from the overt enthusiasm displayed in March. Tourism Director Donna Abbot suggested that, instead, the city take on only two shows and use pre-existing Rodney the Lifeguard marketing materials instead of Hoffman’s project.

As was revealed at the meeting, there appeared to be much confusion over who was responsible for developing a formal Memorandum of Understanding between the city and Spark, who exactly had the right to modify the show schedule, and how the project’s budget was to be made to fit that criteria.

The idea that the MOU was a conditional factor for the project only came up through “the fact that I was called back in here to give an update and was blindsided by another option,” Hoffman said at that meeting.

Briefly afterward, and agreement was reached that saw the project move forward with a further cut in cost, but with the elimination of in-town appearances that Hoffman had agreed to do without charging the city for Spark’s staffing.

“It was a tough process, but I’ve learned that, while it’s never easy, by refining it like that, you get the best possible product for everybody. I think we pared it down to mostly assets with little liability,” Hoffman said.

Even still, the Town of Ocean City has been reluctant to get back into trade show marketing since bowing out of the venue at the dawn of the internet age in the 1990s. Rapidly falling ad prices, and wider dissemination on the web, meant that the cost-per-view of mass media was a fraction of that associated with face-to-face marketing. Even after several scale-downs, the price tag for the OC Experience’s inaugural run is $70,000, although this includes the price of creating the booth itself, which can be reused in subsequent years at almost no cost.

However, Hoffman submitted, face-to-face selling still produces a more reliable result.

“The impressions are multi-pronged, and the connection is much deeper,” he said. “That’s a different kind of impression….you can never remove the face-to-face interaction, which is the way we marketed before ‘cost per click’ became king.”

Having a physical marketing presence also provides the city with much more reconnaissance than would be gained by just media ads – particularly in last weekend’s Columbus show, where Hoffman was surprised to find that many Ohio residents considered Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to be their primary beach destination, despite being a 12-hour drive from the greater Columbus area. Ocean City, Hoffman noted, is a mere nine-and-a-half.

Ocean City does little marketing west of Harrisburg, although some increased advertising in the Pittsburgh area is slated for this year. But based on what he heard at the Columbus show, Hoffman said that some of the more distant of the resort’s potential customers could also be its most reliable, given that their lack of proximity means they have to plan further ahead and are likely to stay longer than those coming from a shorter distance.

“That’s the customer we want. We want to build the six or seven day customer back up,” Hoffman said. “I really think we can rebuild our business in a way that we get that longer stay back, bring the families back – one family at a time, if we have to.”

“This concept, if continued and pushed forward – I could see it nurturing a whole new makeup in our vacation population,” Hoffman said.

Kuhn hopes sharing story will ease others’ pain

Lisa Capitelli, Ocean City Today
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(Feb. 15, 2013) Author Carolyn Outlaw Kuhn hopes she can help victims of abuse with her book, Suffering in Silence.

“In the beginning of the book, you see that an abuse occurred,” Kuhn said. “It has a huge impact on you and who you are as an adult. Even though it may not be in your thoughts, it can still lead to making poor decisions. It does impact who you are.”

Kuhn had just turned 13 when she was sexually abused by her stepfather. Keep in mind, she said, that this was in the 1960s, before many people had even heard the word “pedophile.” Her sister was abused by their biological father when she was 16.

As an adult, Kuhn’s second husband was physically abusive and she said she feared for her life.

According to Kuhn’s publishing company, Outskirts Press, the 100-page book is a “true story of a dysfunctional family’s painful journey in dealing with alcoholism, a family rape, a secretive incarceration, abandonment and abuse. Truly an inspirational book dealing with forgiveness, healing and inner peace.”

A portion of the proceeds of book sales will be donated to SOAR, Survivors of Abuse in Recovery, in memory of Kuhn’s sister, Helen Ann Moore, who died in 1984.

“My sister would have supported this book 100 percent,” Kuhn said. “It was therapeutic for me and I wanted to be able give back to the community.”

SOAR is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing mental health services to those affected by sexual abuse, regardless of their ability to pay.

The organization offers counseling, referral and education services to adult, adolescent and child survivors of sexual abuse and assault, their non-offending partners, and non-offending family members. SOAR also provides outreach programs to community organizations and businesses.

More than 1,000 adults, adolescents, children, and their families residing in Delaware and the surrounding counties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland utilize SOAR’s services annually, according to survivorsofabuse.org.

“One in three girls, by the time they’re 18, has suffered some form of sexual abuse,” Kuhn said. “Unfortunately for my sister, she was unable to get help. I was able to get help.”

Kuhn said she thought about writing the book for a number of years. It was her daughter who finally encouraged her to do it. The process took about a year and a half, but Kuhn said once she started writing, the words “just flowed.”

The Selbyville, Del. resident said her first book is not a strict autobiography, but similar to a memoir.

“It’s a very inspirational book,” she said. “My goal has always been to reach out and help others.”

Kuhn will sign copies of her book today, Friday, at High Stakes restaurant, on Route 54 in Fenwick Island, from 4-7 p.m. Books cost $10 and will be available for purchase.

“I’ve gotten a lot of positive comments,” Kuhn said. “People who have read it say they can’t put it down.”

Suffering in Silence can also be found online at Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com or www.outskirtspress.com/sufferinginsilence. E-book and Kindle downloads are also available.

For more information about the book or upcoming signing events, contact Kuhn at ckuhn913@yahoo.com.

Carolyn Outlaw Kuhn

Resort restaurants will mount fight against wage hike proposal

Zach Hoopes
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1

(Feb. 15, 2012) Opposition to a proposed increase of Maryland’s minimum wage – and an increase of the pay margin for tipped workers – continues to mount, with restaurateurs saying statistical evidence to the affirmative oversimplifies the reality on the ground.

“We’re going to be strongly opposed to that legislation,” said Melvin Thompson of the Maryland Restaurant Association. “These businesses are going to have added personnel costs that could force them to make some tough decisions.”

A proposal circulating through the Maryland General Assembly seeks to raise the state’s minimum wage from the current $7.25 per hour to $10 per hour by 2015. According to the bill’s backers, the increase will be phased in – but the result will be to raise the standard of living for the roughly 320,000 people in the state who live off an hourly minimum wage.

Such an infusion of disposable income would presume to be healthy for tourism and the recreation industry as a whole. But another element of the proposal could be extremely onerous, in particular, to the resort restaurant industry.

The bill would also seek to raise the percentage of pay for tipped workers from 50 to 70 percent. Under Maryland law, which is similar to that in most other U.S. states, workers who receive tips do not have to be paid a full share of the minimum wage. Currently, the must receive at least half, or $3.63 per hour.

But if the minimum wage is raised to $10, and the minimum portion for tipped workers to 70 percent, this almost doubles the rate to $7 per hour.

“It makes a $60,000 swing for us, and we’re a smaller place,” said Travis Wright, owner of West Ocean City’s Shark on the Harbor restaurant and current president of the Ocean City Hotel-Motel-Restaurant Association. “It’s just frightening.”

According to many business owners, the wage hike could have the opposite of its intended effect, at least for seasonal restaurants. Additional pay would be given to those who do not rely on it, such as seasonal wait staff, most of whom are students who do not live off their summer earnings per se, and make many times in tips what they are paid directly.

“The impact on the tipped employees is going to be nominal at best,” Wright said. “They make so much more than minimum wage based on the tips they declare … that they’re not going to see that money [from the wage increase]. It’s just going to be eaten up in taxes. It’s not going to do anything to raise their standard of living.”

A recent study in support of the hike from the Economic Policy Institute, however, indicates that 87 percent of workers affected by the wage increase are more than 20 years old, and that the average worker earns roughly 39 percent of his or her family’s income, numbers that the institute alleges “do not support the perception of minimum-wage workers as pri-

marily teenagers working for spending money.”

However, the figure does not separate tipped from non-tipped minimum wage workers, a relevant figure given that the margin increase to the former is considered the most onerous part of the proposal.

Conversely, an increased wage burden may force employers either to cut staff or pay for non-tipped employees, such as kitchen or management staff, more of whom are long-term, career employees who rely on that income more heavily.

Wright said that all of his non-tipped, back-of-the-house employees already make well over $10 per hour, meaning they would see no personal benefit from the hike.

“We’ve got really good year-round jobs to offer people,” Wright said. “If you raise the minimum wage to $10 per hour, it just makes the person who was already making $11 or $12 seem less important. The perceived value of people who are already making a fair wage goes down.”

According to Thompson, most restaurants operate on a profit margin of less than four percent. Given this shallow buffer, most establishments could not financially function by doing more business on lower dividends.

“That money has got to come from somewhere, and the only real way to do that would be raising prices to the consumer,” Wright said

Council inches forward to consensus on commissions

Zach Hoopes
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(Feb. 15, 2013) In a seemingly cathartic close to one of its last strategic planning sessions, the City Council took steps toward a consensus about the politically charged reinstatement of the body’s sub-committees and commissions, admitting that some mistakes had been made in the past and pledging that things would be done better this time around.

“This isn’t a re-creation of the old system. We’re developing something new,” said City Manager David Recor, of whose administration the strategic planning process is the key initiative.

“This is recognizing that the council has delegated work to a committee before it comes back to the committee as a whole,” said planning facilitator and professional municipal consultant Lyle Sumek.

“It has to be the chair [of the committee], the city manager, and the department head concerned working together to inform the council.”

Such an idyllic picture of cooperation, however, has not always been painted.

The dissolution of the council’s standing committees was the first action taken by the four-member majority that came to be in 2010 after Councilman Joe Mitrecic lost his re-election bid to Councilman Brent Ashley.

Mitrecic’s ouster allowed Ashley – along with Joe Hall, Margaret Pillas, and Jim Hall – to create a four-member voting bloc that openly bucked the previous administrative norms. The oft-called “new majority” developed a relationship of mutual antagonism with Dennis Dare, then the city manager, and Mayor Rick Meehan.

In November 2010, the victors’ first act was to dissolve the council’s commission system, whereby separate sub-committees of three council members heard reports from city staff or interested parties and presented the information back to the full council for any decision necessary. All reports were subsequently presented in open session, before the entire body.

Despite the removal of the dominant faction in the 2012 polls – in which Hall and Hall lost to Dare, now running as an elected official and not a paid executive, and a returning Mitrecic – the commission system has continued to be a symbol of political discontent.

The surviving members of the 2010 majority submit that the commission system reduces transparency by developing policy in ad-hoc legislative groups, some of whom became quasi-autonomous and politically factionalized, rather than before the empowered body.

But proponents of the system’s return argue that the additional input garnered makes for richer legislative action and that by forcing every issue before the whole council, the previous majority was simply trying to expand the scope of its political control by micro-managing.

During the planning session, however, a middle ground seemed to be apparent. Both sides voiced similar discontent with the way committee and commission matters had been presented in the past.

“[Commission matters] had already been voted on in committee and I had to put my hand up because I hadn’t even heard anything about it before,” Pillas said.

“Maybe what happened in the past is that the preliminary information from committee often didn’t come the whole way up the chain,” Dare said.

As a remedy, Mitrecic simply suggested that commission proposals be given more time, rather than being brought up, discussed, and recommended before those outside the commission had a way of knowing the issue existed.

“It felt [in the past] like I was reading a report on something that was already done … it was approved by committee, and then someone just made a motion,” Mitrecic said. “Sometimes, people need time to digest things.”

Going forward, he said, “we don’t discuss it right then and there,” when new ideas or concerns are brought up.

“Sometimes staff gets into that laxity… and sometimes members of council as well,” Mitrecic said.

At Sumek’s suggestion, a list of impending items will be distributed for every committee and commission. New matters would have to be formally listed, and “would have two avenues – either it goes back to the whole council for direction, or it goes through staff or the committee chair to be put on a future agenda,” Sumek said.

 

How to be a Valentine’s Day Hero from The Hardcore Foodie

Hardcore Foodie
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1

Ok guys, everyone knows that Valentine’s Day is for the ladies and that it can become an expensive proposition (no pun intended).  With that in mind, here are some basic ideas that take the focus away from “how much you spend” and back onto your significant other where it belongs in the first place.  First of all, call your wife and tell her you have dinner covered then Get A Card!  It does not matter whether it is romantic or funny; whichever fits your personality is fine, just remember to write something heartfelt and specific. Next pick-up a nice spring mixed flower arrangement.  It does not need to be roses and anyway everyone knows that florists jack-up the price on those just for any saps who think a dozen will get them some.  You can even get some nice arrangements at the grocery store now for around $10 per bunch.  Now, while you are in the grocery store pick up a pint of raspberries or strawberries, you will see the need for them very soon.  After that go to the wine and liquor store and buy a bottle of Italian Prosecco, an inexpensive sparkling wine, and a couple of miniatures of Chambord, a raspberry liquor.  Finally, order your wife’s favorite takeout (Italian, Chinese you make the call just not pizza!)  Now go home and put the flowers in a nice vase, set the table with the good silver and china and place the card at her setting.  Get your Champagne flutes (regular wine glasses will do in a pinch) and muddle a few of the raspberries in the bottom of each glass.  Add half a miniature of the Chambord into each glass and then fill with the Prosecco when you are ready to drink.  Also remember to put the takeout food on your good china, Do Not Eat Out Of The Box!  The rest of the evening is up to you, maybe rent that chick flick she has been dying to see and watch it with her (I know it’s tough but you can cowboy up and do it). You have just made a Valentine’s Day memory for her that cost you less than $100, kept you out of a restaurant on the what is known in the business as “Amateur Night”, and will show her how much you care.  Not too shabby if you ask me.

Shark on the Harbor

Hardcore Foodie
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Went to the Shark yesterday afternoon for a couple of beers and some apps.  Congrats to Travis and his kitchen staff, the Shrimp Dumplings and the Pork Potstickers were better than any available in Ocean City, Asian restaurant or not.  Also had the Crispy Fried Oysters, great as usual.  Keep up the good work!  For those who don’t know the Shark is the most innovative and daring restaurant in Ocean City and probably the Eastern Shore.

Burgers, Beers and a Room with a View

Hardcore Foodie
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5th Street Taphouse Bar & Grille
4507 Coastal Highway
Ocean City, Md 21842
443-664-2201
www.45taphouse.com

 

A “Burger and a Beer” is the quintessential American meal.  If you add a side of good, hot French Fries and maybe start the whole thing off with some Spicy Chicken Wings; well sir, you may just have the perfect American meal.  Now, it is not hard to find a place that offers all these things but, unfortunately, it is hard to find a place that does all of them right.  To our good fortune in Ocean City the 45th St. Taphouse is that place. Plus they have one of the more breath taking views of the Assawoman Bay in town.

 

The Taphouse is located in the 45th Street Shopping Center.  It has the warm inviting feel of all good bars and whether you sit at the bar or bar area, the main dining room or the outdoor deck bar you will be made welcome.  The inside is all exposed wood with wooden tables and chairs and plenty of wide screen TV’s to catch any sporting event you may want to watch.  The outdoor Tiki bar is large with a good number of stools.  The outdoor deck tables and chairs are metallic and anywhere is a great view of the Bay.

 

The servers are friendly and helpful, especially with the 36 beers on tap.  They will be glad to make suggestions to try to match your tastes with a new beer.  The service itself can be a little haphazard, especially during the busy summer months, so be prepared to wait for your meal if the dining rooms are full.  Also, like 99% of the restaurants in Ocean City, they have not mastered the art of knowing who gets what meal so be prepared for the auction when your food arrives.

 

The menu is a fairly common and straight forward one; it is the execution and the attention to detail by the kitchen that makes this Bar & Grille worth noting.  Now is a good time to explain that all the sauces at the Taphouse are made in-house and they all compliment their dishes very nicely. Some appetizers of note are the Fish and Chips, which are made from fresh, local Rockfish and crusted with the Taphouses homemade potato chips.  These are served with a spicy mango ketchup and an old bay tartar sauce.   The Crabby Balls are made with Jumbo Lump Crabmeat and have so little filler or binder that they have trouble staying together (may all our troubles be so tasty).  The Crabby Pretzels are Jumbo Lump Crab Imperial served over a Bavarian style pretzel, which is topped with cheese and placed under the broiler.  Every restaurant in Ocean City has a version of this appetizer but very few are as good.  The Chicken Wings are a section of their own and come in 5 different levels of heat and/or flavors.  As is the custom in Ocean City the wings are normally served on the “crispy” side but for those of us who prefer them still juicy they are more than happy to oblige.  The Taphouse serves nice meaty wings and the only thing to watch out for is that the heat levels are variable so when they say mild to medium or medium to hot be careful!

 

The Burgers are all served with either homemade Old Bay Chips or Fresh Fries, which can come plain or with parmesan cheese and fresh rosemary.  All three choices are yummy so go with whatever floats your boat.  My two favorite burgers are the Gnarmax which is their fresh burger patty served with fresh sliced jalapeno peppers, pepper jack cheese and house-made habanero mayonnaise.  The other burger of note is the Shark Biscuit which is two burger patties, bacon, cheddar cheese, and grilled onion topped with a fried egg and served with the habanero mayo.  An awesome creation; just make sure you request the egg to be sunny side up so that when you bite into the burger the yolk oozes out and mixes into the sandwich.

 

There are other sandwiches and entrees but I will honestly tell you I have not gotten past the Burger section of the menu.  I have dined with friends at the Taphouse and everyone has been very happy with the Guinness Stout Chili, The Best Ever BLT and the BBQ Chickenlicious sandwiches.  Also the Smoked Prime Rib dinner entrée sounds like something I will have to try someday.

 

Finally, some news of interest for the Taphouse, this season they will start serving breakfast with an emphasis on different types of Eggs Benedict.  Now, being a huge Eggs Benedict fan and having very few places in town where they are even attempted, I am looking forward to having a breakfast or two at the Taphouse.  So, make a stop at the Taphouse this summer and catch a beautiful sunset with a cold beer and a juicy burger with a date or some friends.  It is your right as a red-blooded American!

Changes to commercial striped bass fishing may benefit Lower Shore

Zach Hoopes
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(Feb. 8, 2013) Ostensibly, the title of Maryland’s State Fish was bestowed upon the striped bass due to its long-term popularity with Chesapeake Bay watermen. But its status may as well be because it has garnered more policy attention than any other scaly, ectothermic creature in the Old Line State.

One of the state’s biggest policy decisions this year will likely come not from the legislature, but from within the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, which is “right in the middle of making some drastic changes to this fishery,” according to Mike Luisi of the DNR’s fisheries service.

“We’ve been working with the industry for quite some time about the 2014 fishery,” Luisi said. “There are some tough decisions that will have to be made.”

The striped bass – also known as the rockfish – has a considerable history. In 1985, concerns over low breeding stocks caused federal and state governments to close all waters to striped bass fishing. But beginning in 1990, most states began to gradually re-open the species to harvesting by both recreational and commercial fishermen under the close watch of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the umbrella group that involves the natural resources divisions of most East Coast states.

The ASMFC also recommended that federal waters be slowly re-opened, but the idea was nixed due to concerns over the ability of government agencies to respond fast enough to the potentially rapid depletion of the population.

In order to regulate rockfish stocks, the ASMFC allocates each state an annual poundage of striped bass for commercial catch – this past year, Maryland’s was 1.7 million pounds. The Maryland DNR then divides this allotment up by month. When rockfish are taken, watermen tag them, and the tag numbers are reported to the state by the markets that sell them.

“It’s an accountability measure so that the fish they’re landing and taking to market can be traced back to them,” Luisi said. “If, say, by mid-January we see that the quota for that month is going to be caught, we shut down fishing for the month and start again in February.”

Fishermen are issued an excess of tags – more than enough for what they’ll likely catch. They tags are turned back in at the end of the year if unused. This is known as a derby system, since the incentive is that he who catches earlier is likely to be allowed to catch more overall.

“The mentality is that you go out and get them before everyone else can,” Luisi said.

Maryland only issues 1,231 licenses for commercial striped bass fishing, but not all of these request tags every year.

Since the tags are issued ahead of time, however, the danger of overfishing still exists. The DNR has no way of verifying that fish were not caught and tagged after any given monthly shut-down by boats “sneaking out.”

As such, the ASMFC is now asking states to only issue the exact number of tags needed to catch the state quota.

“In order to reduce the likelihood of taking more fish than is healthy, they’re asking us to reduce the number of tags based on the total quota,” Luisi said.

“Maryland was one of the only coastal states, regarding striped bass, that issued an unlimited number of tags,” said Gibby Dean of the Chesapeake Bay Commercial Fisherman’s Association, one of the industry groups the DNR is consulting with on the issue. “But the ASMFC said this year that Maryland could only issue so many tags, based on the [ASMFC’s] biometric system.”

“We would take the total pounds of fish we’re given and divide that by the average weight per fish, and that’s how many tags we’d give out,” Luisi explained, “so that there’d only be enough tags to catch the right number of fish.”

Doing so, however, presents a serious difficulty. With a finite number of physical tags, the tags would have to be taken away from some fishermen mid-season if it looked like they were catching less while others had already gone through their tags.

“It would be difficult, under a derby system, to maintain and allot a certain number of tags to the individuals that wish to participate,” Luisi said. “That’s a logistical nightmare, to try something like that.”

“This new tagging … is going to require us to completely adjust and shift the management of this fishery.”

Instead of the derby-style tag system, Luisi said that the likely alternative will be to design a per-permit fish quota, in which each active permit holder will receive a share of the annual catch limit. Shares could be bought, sold, and exchanged between permit holders.

“Each person in the fishery would have some sort of share ownership,” Luisi said. “This would be a different way of doing business for these guys.”

A similar apportioning system is already in place for one segment of the striped bass fishery – trawler vessels, many of which operate out of the Lower Eastern Shore. Hook-and-line operations, as well as winter gillnet ships, are in the derby.

“There are a lot of advantages to not having to operate in the derby mentality,” Luisi said. “They don’t have to fear that somebody else is going to catch the fish before they do.”

This is particularly relevant to the lower part of the bay and the oceanic fishery, given the migratory pattern of striped bass. Rockfish migrate north-south with the seasons, typically swimming through open ocean but stopping in bays and river estuaries along the way, particularly in the spring when they lay their eggs in fresh water. Young fish usually stay in these estuary areas until they reach adulthood, when they begin migrating through sea waters to find their own breeding grounds.

With fish migrating out of freshwater in the upper part of the bay, they are often caught in the more northern fisheries before they have a chance to swim out.

“Those guys [on the lower shore] can find it difficult to compete,” Luisi said. “They essentially have to sit there and wait and hope that the fish come down their way before the monthly quota gets caught.”

“From Dorchester county south, more people are in favor of an individual quota system,” Dean said. “Not all, but the majority. The way the regulations are set up now, and the migration of the fish, a lot of times the quotas are culled up before the lower bay fisherman can catch them.”

“This way, they can have their quota in hand and catch them whenever they want.”

The flip side, however, is that fishermen who are used to taking as much as they can, based on their skill and dedication, will likely see the change as a restriction of their haul, in deference to those who can buy up more quota.

“The guys that are used to just going out and engaging in the derby see the quota system as a reduction,” Luisi said. “In order to get the quota, they’ll have to come up with capital.”

Although the industry is still divided as to the best solution, Dean projected that it was highly unlikely that some sort of quota system would not be implemented.

Exactly how that quota would be apportioned throughout the 1,231 permits is still up in the air, Luisi said. It would be tempting to give a larger share to those who have caught more in the past – but given that quota could be traded, the state would essentially be granting leverage.

“Ultimately, the state is going to have to make the decision on the initial allocation of a quota, and the assigning of pounds to that permit will change the value of the permit,” Luisi said.

BOOMING BUSINESS at Plaza Tapatia

Lisa Capitelli, Ocean City Today
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A few weeks without their favorite eatery left loyal customers anxious. Now open in Pines, new Plaza Tapatia has seen steady flow of fans

 

(Feb. 8, 2013) As Armando Saldana walked out of the kitchen and through the bar area filled with patrons Tuesday evening, he stood in the doorway and peered into the dining room of the new Plaza Tapatia restaurant, where each table was occupied by diners, and he smiled.

“I feel very happy,” said Saldana, owner of the restaurant that opened its doors on Jan. 24 in the Pennington Commons, across from the South Gate. Since the grand-opening celebration on Jan. 30 – featuring a deejay and a mariachi band — customers have packed the restaurant every day.

Saldana has seen many familiar faces, as a number of the customers who dined at the West Ocean City restaurant on Route 50 have now come to Ocean Pines. First-time guests are also visiting the new restaurant.

“Every day we’re busy,” Saldana said. “People love it. Everybody is happy and excited.”

One satisfied customer Tuesday evening was Frank Exley of Ocean Pines. Eating the nacho supreme with beef, he said, “This is the best I’ve had in Ocean City and I’ve been here 17 years.”

“With his food, he’ll do fine here,” he added.

Exley also boasted about the $1.99 Corona bottle hap-py hour special as he took a sip.

Ocean Pines was Saldana’s ideal location initially to open a Mexican restaurant. Unfortunately, he could not find a prime spot in the com-

munity. He opened the first Plaza Tapatia in West Ocean City in 1997.

Since then, nine more have sprung up. There are two restaurants in Salisbury, and one in Easton, Cambridge, Pocomoke, Chestertown and Elkton. In Delaware, there is a Plaza Tapatia in Seaford and one in Bear.

Saldana said he plans to open another restaurant in Saint Michaels in a month or so.

In October, Saldana closed the West Ocean City eatery to relocate to Ocean Pines because the community has more year-round residents. He has already seen an increase in lunch business compared to the previous location.

At approximately 5,000 square feet, the new space is about twice as large as the previous building.

There is seating for 120 in the dining room and more than a dozen at the bar, while the old restaurant fit about 72 guests.

All of the kitchen equipment is new. Saldana is not only the owner, but he can cook and tend bar — he trained his employees — and he is a carpenter, as well. He built all of the tables and booths in the new restaurant. He constructed the bars at some of the other Plaza Tapatia restaurants.

The authentic Mexican establishment features more than 140 dishes. Saldana said customers have tried everything, but the most popular is No. 106 Fajitas for Two. His favorites are the chicken fajita and pork chops (chuletas rojas).

“It’s good food at an affordable price,” he said.

Happy hour is Monday through Thursday, 4-7, p.m., featuring $1.75 domestic 12-ounce drafts (32 ounces for $3), $1.99 Corona and Tecate bottles and 12-ounce margaritas on the rocks for $2.25 and $2.50 frozen lime margaritas. Lunch and dinner specials also offered.

The Manklin Creek Road restaurant opens at 11 a.m., Monday through Friday, and at noon Saturday and Sunday.

A mariachi band will perform about once a month, Saldana said. The next performance is scheduled for Feb. 27, from 6-9 p.m.

 

Plaza Tapatia owner Armando Saldana stands in the crowded dining room of his new restaurant Tuesday night, in the Pennington Commons, across from the Ocean Pines South Gate.

Technology, insurance costs drive tight Worcester school budget

Zach Hoopes
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0

(Feb. 8, 2013) Preliminary budget data from the Worcester County school system indicates that the county will likely be holding the line on education funding, although the system continues to see a number of new costs, as well as savings, from the drive to implement new technology in schools.

Based on the latest estimates of current expenditures, the county schools’ Chief Financial Officer, Vince Tolbert, told the Board of Education this week that he expects the budget for the 2014 fiscal year, which begins this July, to be $1,150,315 higher than FY13.

For the current fiscal year, the schools are presently allotted $92,167,401. This includes, however, a mid-year appropriation of $300,000 granted by the county after the state declined to renew its funding for Worcester’s after-school programs.

“What we’re trying to do is align our actual expenditures from last year with what we’re asking for this year,” Tolbert said.

Although quasi-independent from the rest of the county government, Worcester’s school system receives about 80 percent of its revenue from appropriations by the Worcester County Commissioners, who have final authority over its budget.

Under Maryland law, however, county governments must contribute the same amount of money per-student to their schools each year to cover teaching costs and in-classroom expenditures. This policy is known as the “Maintenance of Effort” formula, and counties face steep cuts in state funding if they go below the established MOE level. With a marginal increase in enrollment, the county is expected to give a minimum of $23,186 more this year, according to Tolbert.

However, the MOE formula does not figure in operational costs outside of the classroom. Although most of these costs are stable, one – the price of employee health insurance – has always been a major worry for school finance. In the coming year, Tolbert expects these costs to rise $574,000, consisting of the majority of his projected cost increase for FY14.

Further, the single line item that takes up nearly half of the schools’ operating costs – teacher salaries, roughly $39 million – is not yet set in stone, given that contract negotiations with the Worcester County Teachers’ Association are still ongoing.

The remainder of the current projected increase for next year’s expenditures comes from technology costs, including the installation of broadband service, upgrading “cloud” server computing for teaching and testing, and implementing new finance and payroll software.

Although they come with up-front costs, technology also has back-end savings, which Tolbert projected to be $153,895 in reduced costs for textbooks and classroom consumables.

“Whereas we were buying more textbooks and materials, teachers can now go on the cloud and download that,” Tolbert said.

Although broadband service is most important, at least initially, to transmit state standardized testing data, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jerry Wilson noted that “the more we expand the use of technology, the more we’ll see the use of that broadband.”

Board member Donnie Shockley asked why no more money was being put towards the installation of “SMART Board” technology – essentially a computer-linked, interactive whiteboard – in the district’s classrooms, a technology initiative that Worcester’s schools began some years ago.

While the boards are now universal in elementary schools, and are also in some renovated rooms in secondary schools, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Dr. John Gaddis said he would prefer to hold out.

“By the time we’ll do that [have the boards in every room], there’ll be a new technology,” Gaddis said. “You’ll be moving to a system where you’ll have devices in students hands, instead of something they look at in the front of the room, and I’d rather take the money towards that.”

The schools are also planning to ask the county for $100,000 each for two capital improvement initiatives.

One would potentially involve structural changes made on behalf of school safety, such as the installation of buzzer doors or other security measures. Further recommendations in this regard, compiled from audits performed by school committees and local law enforcement agencies, are likely to be presented to the board later this month.

The other would a feasibility study for the expected renovation or reconstruction of Showell Elementary School, which has been identified as the next target for major capital improvement.

“It’s essentially a physical of the school,” said district facilities head Joe Price. “It’ll allow us to determine whether it would be worth it to renovate or build anew.”

Pocomoke High School recently completed major renovations, and the same will be done to Snow Hill High School later this year. County and state funding recently became available for the $41 million project after several years of delay.

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