Voters like way board handles OPA business

No big news is good news in the minds of Ocean Pines voters, who took a “no-changes” approach to this year’s Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors election.

Rather than make headlines by shaking up the board despite a strong challenge by Amy Peck, a majority of voters concluded this was not a time to replace the incumbent candidates when the work is getting done and the volume level of board discussions has remained moderate.

By reelecting Monica Rakowski, Steve Jacobs and Stuart Lakernick, voters endorsed a continuation of a board that has established itself as a body that prefers to avoid waves rather than make them.

One of the reasons — and maybe the biggest reason — for this board’s low-key approach to decision-making is that the OPA isn’t facing critical choices brought on by board misadventures or by haphazard management.

It has been handling problems in a straightforward manner when they arise instead of setting them aside and hoping, illogically, that trouble will somehow go away on its own.  Neither does this board suffer from public clashes of egos or intense personal dislike among its members.

This has been and looks as if it will continue to be a business-as-usual governing body. Naturally, it will make mistakes and members will disagree, but not so strenuously that the disagreement become a greater story than the problem that led to it.

As for the other matter on the ballot this year, the most notable aspect was not that voters approved a referendum that would allow the OPA to spend up to $3.4 million to help cover the cost of a new southside fire station, but that they did so by a 4-to-1 margin.

That leaves no about the public’s wishes in that regard. In addition, the Ocean Pines Volunteer Fire Company ought to feel good about where it stands with the public, after receiving that kind of support.