It’s a new year and another 12 months to keep on keeping on, as the saying goes, although most people aspire to do much more than merely get through another annual cycle.

In Ocean Pines, for instance, many of the projects being worked on in the past year will pick up steam in the year ahead, beginning with work on the long-awaited South Station of the Ocean Pines Volunteer Fire Department.

With the Ocean Pines Association and the fire department working together on this major undertaking, members should see some significant progress in the months ahead.

Progress will also be seen in the OPA’s ambitious golf course irrigation project, which seeks to replace a system that, at 50 years old, saw its best days long ago. The work being done this year is just the first phase of a multi-year overhaul, although the plan is to wrap up this early stage in time to open the course for play this season.

Meanwhile, in Berlin, the town will continue its constant quest to improve with help from the state, which came through with a grant of $50,000 to continue the Berlin Commercial Façade Grant Program.

The program provides matching funds to downtown property and business owners to improve the exterior of their buildings and enhance the overall streetscape.

The grants will cover up to 50% of the total project cost, with a maximum award of $10,000.

Perhaps the most significant work ahead for the mayor and town council will involve the town’s recently adopted design guidelines for commercial buildings. Borrowed as they were from Worcester County’s design playbook, the guidelines will have to be adapted to reflect Berlin’s specific circumstances.

When that will happen depends on when the town clears its biggest planning hurdle this year — hiring a new planning director.

Obviously, it has its hands full, as does Ocean Pines, and getting everything done in both communities will involve more than resolving to keep on keeping on.