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NOVEMBER 14, 2014
SERVING NORTHERN WORCESTER COUNTY
INSIDE
BAD OYSTER? Dispute over South Point aquaculture plan is one big multifaceted dispute. Page 15
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Fall events pile up on each other
Start date debate on for 2015
Sunfest, OCtoberfest, Bikefest and H20 too
School opening day will be subject of bills
By Zack Hoopes Staff Writer (Nov. 14, 2014) Get ready for a full fall of ’15. The city council approved a tentative schedule of city-run special events for the 2015 and 2016 seasons this week, revealing that the fall shoulder season is becoming almost as much of a special event squeeze as June has been for the past several years. Fall of 2015 will include two new city-backed events, according to city Special Events Director Frank Miller. Not only that, but the calendar of publicly-operated events must also be carefully tuned around the anticipated dates of the city’s major private events - and even though it does not take place in town, 2015’s pivotal blackout date is shaping up to be the H2O International. According to Miller, the city will be expanding and supporting the 2015 iteration of OCtoberfest, a series of Halloween-oriented events that has, until now, been privately organized through local outfit T.E.A.M. Productions, but heavily subsidized via the city-backed Tourism Advisory Board. “What we are doing as a town is starting up an official event, hopefully keeping the name OCtoberfest,” Miller said. Next year’s festival could include a number of additional features, such as a Boardwalk haunted house. “The town has expressed an interest in what our origiSee GROWTH Page 5
ZACK HOOPES/OCEAN CITY TODAY
WINTER FESTIVAL The Wicomico Street Winter Festival, organized by the Ocean City Downtown Association, took place last Saturday evening with games and visits with Santa for children, as well as vendors, music by Tranzfusion, and a pool tournament at the streets’ bars.
Schools to get private help New organization will help students move ahead in technology
By Brian Gilliland Staff Writer (Nov. 14, 2014) There’s more than one way to boost funding for education and there’s more than one reason to do it. But the newly formed Worcester County Education Foundation has a singular purpose: raise money to help county public school students thrive in the digital age. Debuting Tuesday morning in the Stephen Decatur High School cafeteria before an audience of business leaders, executives and politicians, the foundation and its developers issued a plea to the private sector to join the effort to fill the gaps left by government funding. “I’m not complaining about
state aid. We’re the second lowest in the state and there are good reasons for that, but when it comes to our operating budget that’s not a place we can go to, to look for funding,” Dr. Jerry Wilson, superintendent of schools, said. Even though Maryland
‘…when it comes to our operating budget that’s not a place we can go to, to look for funding.’ Dr. Jerry Wilson, superintendent of schools public schools consistently rank at or near the top of the “best public school” lists in the country, Worcester County doesn’t have enough money to supply all students with the computer technology in gen-
eral use today and then teaching them how to use it. “When we speak of a digital conversion, we speak of replacing paper-dependent learning environments with 1:1 technology-rich environments. This supports each one of our strategic goals,” Wilson said. The foundation’s aim is to achieve a one-to-one ratio between students and computer equipment: every elementary school student would have access to a touch-screen device, every middle school student would have a touch/type hybrid, and every high school student would have a laptop. Otherwise, Assistant Superintendent of Schools Lou Taylor said, these students will be lost when they enter the working and higher academic worlds, where computer and digital savvy is a given. See TAX Page 4
By Zack Hoopes Staff Writer (Nov. 14, 2014) If it’s not too early to start thinking about Christmas – and it’s not, according to K-Mart – then it’s not too early to start thinking about the 2016 legislative session in Annapolis. Among a number of potential hot topics for the 2016 Maryland General Assembly, the one most critical to the resort area stands to be the anticipated bill to enact a statewide post-Labor Day school start date. The only hitch to the plan is last week’s overturn in the state’s leadership, which saw Democrat Anthony Brown – currently the lieutenant governor to Gov. Martin O’Malley – lose the governor’s race to Republican businessman Larry Hogan. “At one point, we had hoped the school start date would be an administrative bill to put in by O’Malley, but that didn’t happen this year,” said Greg Shockley, a Boardwalk businessman and member of the state’s task force on a post-Labor Day start date. The task force was formed by legislation introduced in the State Senate by Jim Mathias (D, Somerset/Worcester/Wicom ico) and in the House of Delegates by Delegate Anne Healey (D, Prince George’s). O’Malley had supported the effort, but the final study and recommendation by the task force was not complete in time for the legislative sesSee ELECTION Page 6