Sports
A&E
Fun
IR girls’ lacrosse wins in dramatic fashion
America’s Best Restaurants pays Porto a visit
Resort area treated to Easter celebration events
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APRIL 25, 2025
THE LOCAL VOICE OF YOUR COMMUNITY.
Volume 22, Issue 17
FREE
Sandpipers scour the shore at sunrise
Special to the Coastal Point • Maryfrances Berger
A bind of sandpipers forages for breakfast at sunrise in Bethany Beach. The presence of the shorebird is a sign that spring has arrived to our resort area.
There’s no trick, just a treat: Cops & Goblins is here to stay By Susan Canfora Staff Reporter Ocean View Police Department Sgt. Mark Burton had good news this week. “Cops & Goblins is a go for 2025. It’s all taken care of,” he said, thanks to about $15,000 raised at the FOP Lodge No. 16 Golf Tournament on April 14 to help pay for the annual Halloween event in Ocean View. The Town has another $15,000 budgeted to see that the festival — costing about $25,000 each year — continues and that guests are treated to free pizza, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, soft drinks, bottled water, bags of potato chips, ice cream and flavored ice. Ocean View Mayor John Reddington was as upbeat, telling the Coastal Point, “There is no danger of Cops & Goblins going away.”
This year, it will be from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 25, at John West Park, or in the event of rain, on Sunday, Oct. 26. “And it won’t end in the future,” the mayor said. “A number of things are happening — one of which, we are going to apply for a state grant for the future. If it comes through, then it won’t cost the taxpayers a penny. We’re hoping that does go through, but this golf tournament has also shown us that there is a lot of support out there to make Cops & Goblins happen, so there is no danger of it going away. Everybody knows about it and everybody loves it. “When I got up there at the golf tournament to talk about what a great job everyone was doing, I said, ‘Is there anybody who doesn’t know about Cops & Goblins?’ and there was silence. I love it, just like everybody else does. It’s a lot of fun. And it’s fantastic they made that much money at the
golf tournament. I know a lot of work went into making it successful,” the mayor said. “We had an incredible time,” Burton said, adding that another 30 people who didn’t play golf came to the dinner later that day. “It was a great event. Everyone had a good time, and I am very grateful for the sponsors, the donors, the volunteers. I had a lot of help,” he said. “I couldn’t have done it without them. We are over-the-moon thankful.This will be our 10th anniversary of Cops & Goblins. I hope we don’t ever have to utter the words that it isn’t going to continue.” At the Ocean View Town Council meeting on Jan. 14, Reddington had expressed concerns about increasing costs to the Town, telling Ocean View Police Chief Kenneth McLaughin, “Chief, I’m sorry. I know it’s a big event and it’s well-attended, but it’s been going up and up and up. We
don’t have that many kids who live in Ocean View. It’s really for the kids who don’t live around here. It brings attention to the town. I think it’s kind of excessive,” Reddington said. At that meeting,Town Manager Carol Houck said she and McLaughlin had discussed it and “thought we might be able to launch a fundraising campaign and ask for money from vendors the Town purchases from, the community, businesses, and try to raise $8,000 to $10,000. We are committed to trying to do more fundraising. If any of our events are going to get money, it’s going to be Cops & Goblins. People just really love it,” Houck said. At that meeting, McLaughlin said the event is the police department’s biggest example of public outreach. “It’s one of the largest fall events in the area.This is a lot of work for the staff, but we get a lot out of it,” McLauglin said.