MARCH 27, 2025
BERLIN • NORTH WORCESTER COUNTY• OCEAN PINES
FREE
TARA FISCHER/BAYSIDE GAZETTE
MORNING HIGHLIGHT The reward for an early-morning exerciser last weekend was this sunrise seen from The Point neighborhood in Ocean Pines.
OPA balks at utility fee plan Ocean Pines didn’t cause Enterprise Fund problem, but would help pay for it By Tara Fischer Staff Writer (March 27, 2025) Ocean Pines residents could experience a significant increase in fees if a proposed water and wastewater budget presented at a Worcester County Commissioners meeting last week is passed. The fiscal year 2026 Water/ Wastewater Enterprise Funds budget was presented at a meeting of the Worcester County Commissioners on March 18. If implemented, the proposed plan to make up a $2.1 million deficit for fiscal year 2026 may raise Ocean Pines ratepayers' – and those in the other 10 services areas – quar-
terly bills by an estimated $32 despite the community’s mere $116,699 share of the losses. However, as Ocean Pines boasts 10,000 of the 18,000 utility users countywide, making it the largest service area, the fee bump should come to only $1 to $3, Worcester County Commissioner Chip Bertino said. Bertino and Commissioner Jim Bunting oppose the plan. The pair argue the outline, which equally charges all 11 service areas, will unfairly impact Ocean Pines ratepayers, given their low contribution to the deficit. For context, Riddle Farm’s enterprise fund shortfall comes to a little over $1 million. This equality model could be used to pay back a looming $6 million loan to address budgetary shortfalls
within the combined water/wastewater enterprise service areas, increasing Ocean Pines residents’ bills even further despite the community’s minimal impact on the funding insufficiencies. Furthermore, county code prohibits the proposed budget move, according to Bertino. The current code requires the debt of each service area be the responsibility of that individual service area. Each enterprise fund should be self-sustaining with income equaling expenses. “By county code, we should not be paying for another district’s shortcomings,” Bertino said. “What was presented is contrary to what our current code is. As with so many other things, the commissioners can decide to change the county code and tweak See OP Page 6
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County seeks clean cure for mixed-up mess By Brian Shane Staff Writer (March 28, 2025) Worcester County officials have proposed raising water and sewer rates as a possible solution to balancing the county’s water and sewer district budgets, which have run at a deficit for years, relying on comingled reserve funds to cover losses. The operational deficit, affecting seven of the county’s 11 independent sanitary sewer districts, was only discovered last fall by county leadership, who now find themselves in a “fundSee COUNTY Page 3
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