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JUNE 19, 2025
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BERLIN • NORTH WORCESTER COUNTY• OCEAN PINES
PHOTO COURTESY OF BRICE STUMP
MILESTONE REUNION On Wednesday, June 11, Stephen Decatur High School’s Class of 1955 celebrated 70 years since graduation with a reunion at the Berlin Beer Company. The group represented the first graduating class from the new Stephen Decatur High School, which was founded in 1954. The school’s creation combined the “island kids” at Ocean City High School with the inland group from Buckingham High School in Berlin. Nineteen members of the graduating class attended. The 40 members of the 69-person class who are deceased were recognized. Pictured, front from left, are Helen Mae Ellis Chamblin, Helen Rounds Tinsman, Joyce Davis Davis and Virginia Hudson Pepper; middle, Gloria Truitt Nolan, Betsy Barrett Ludlam, Nancy Davis Owens, Joanne Quillen Jackson, Fay Collins Wooten, Roy Watson and Norma Wainwright Rickards; and, back, Mary Dean Rouchard, Clifford Dypsky, Dale Cathell, Bob Murray, Jane Disharoon Bunting and Bob Gray.
Planning commission backs park parcel’s zoning change Redevelopment of property by Gillises hinges on ability to create mixed-use project By Tara Fischer Staff Writer (June 19, 2025) Citing a change in the neighborhood’s character and a previous zoning designation mistake, Berlin’s Planning Commission is recommending rezoning parcel 57 at Heron Park from R-1, residential, to B-2, shopping and retail. The reclassification, approved by the commission last Wednesday, will allow for the space’s redevelopment providing the Town Council agrees. The designation will pave the way
for Palmer and Sandy Gillis of Coastal Ventures Properties (CVP) to rehab the former poultry processing plant building for commercial use. CVP entered into a contract to purchase parcel 57 from the Town of Berlin in April. The property is the former site of the old Tyson Foods poultry processing plant, which is now non-operational. The arrangement’s conditions include the rezoning request. If parcel 57 remains R-1, the attorney for the Gillises, Mark Cropper, said the agreement will not close, and the project will not go forward. However, the town’s planning commission is recommending the reSee COMMISSION Page 6
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Candidate forum June 27 Four candidates vying for three open seats on board By Tara Fischer Staff Writer (June 19, 2025) Candidates for the Ocean Pines Association’s Board of Directors election will have the opportunity to appeal to voters later this month, during a question-and-answer forum. OPA’s Elections Committee will
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host its annual candidate forum on Friday, June 27, beginning at 5 p.m. in the Clubhouse Meeting Room at 100 Clubhouse Drive. Residents are encouraged to send their inquiries for the four campaigners at elections@oceanpines.org. Questions will be added to the list and may be asked during the panel. Running for the three open seats in the 2025 election, in ballot order, See CANDIDATES Page 12
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