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AUGUST 25, 2023
JEEP WEEK
UNDERWAY NOW
Annual event offers array of activities, displays for enthusiasts in town from all over – Page 23
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HUNTER HINE/OCEAN CITY TODAY
The dredge Murden makes her way through the Ocean City Inlet Tuesday. The Army Corps of Engineers scheduled the split-hull vessel to work on the channel from Aug. 19-30.
entry Carozza: We have regrouped Unlawful ends in beating
By Hunter Hine Staff Writer (Aug. 25, 2023) Sen. Mary Beth Carozza (R-38) took federal, state and county officials on a boat ride through the Ocean City Inlet last Thursday in an effort to draw attention to the channel’s worsening shoaling problems. “We had a representative from the (state) Senate president’s office on the boat, the governor’s cabinet, the Department of Natural Resources, who understand that the Army Corps is going to need to be pressed,” Carozza said. In March, the Army Corps of Engineers had to abandon a major inlet restoration project after a cost-benefit analysis failed to hit a number that would permit the authorization of the
$16 million expenditure the project would require. Models of the proposed improvements showed it would only reduce the need for continued dredging by 50 percent, according to a March letter from the corps. “The bottom line is the U.S. Army Corps’s response for notification in March is completely unacceptable … we have regrouped and are having all of our partners working together elevating this at every level,” Carozza said. Jayne Bunting Kendall, co-owner of the Angler restaurant on Talbot Street with her sister, Julie Bunting Smith, used the restaurant’s Angler headboat to carry the party to the scene. The ride took officials to the area
between buoy’s 11 and 12, near the north tip of Assateague and Sunset Marina. They were joined by local stakeholders who depend on the inlet’s navigability for business, including Jim Motsko, founder and codirector of the White Marlin Open, John Duffie, a local custom boat builder, Sonny Gwin, an Ocean City lobsterman, and Mark Cropper, a local attorney who was representing the Ocean City Marlin Club. The business owners made presentations on how a shallow and dangerous inlet could hurt their industries if potential visitors move on to safer, clearer inlets in other states along the East Coast for water recreation, and if commercial fishing operations do the same, Carozza said. See TOUR Page 6
by 70-year-old By Remy Andersen Staff Writer (Aug. 25, 2 0 2 3 ) Austin Paul Eby, a 24year-old from BaltiMark Wadden more, got much more than he bargained for when he walked into an unlocked condominium unit early last Wednesday morning. He got a whipping, according to the conSee CONDO Page 10