Ocean Pines Board of Director member Cheryl Jacobs has a good point: an elections committee gathered for the sole purpose of counting ballots does not constitute a meeting in any legal sense. The committee isn’t empowered to take any action other than to assure ballots are valid and to count them. It does nothing beyond… Read more »

Ocean Pines residents rest easy — the community is not collapsing into a black hole of despair and destruction. Yet, to listen to the comments of some of the candidates for the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors, one might easily come to that conclusion. Contrary to what people might think, or say, Ocean Pines… Read more »

As turbulent and divisive as the national circumstance is these days, it’s nice to see a healthy appreciation of silliness still exists. That would be in reference to, of course, the idea that goats — they’re not just for lawn maintenance anymore — could be a vital ingredient in the economic resurgence of the Town… Read more »

For all the discussion of how to create a comprehensive plan for the Ocean Pines Association, the critical point that most people seem to miss is that the homeowners association doesn’t need one. Maybe OPA officials are just using the wrong label for what they really want, which would be a decision-guiding vision statement that… Read more »

Fifty years of helping people is a rare thing, even among the largest of organizations, but when it’s the smallest of enterprises that itself depends on the public for help, it’s exceptional. That’s why praise for the Church Mouse Thrift Shop at a short ceremony marking its half-century of service last week in Berlin was… Read more »

Now that election season has begun in Ocean Pines, candidates, their supporters and their detractors should be aware of how the letters to the editor policies work at this paper. Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue, but a number of people over the years have been irked when the letters they sent for publication inexplicably… Read more »

Ellie Black, the Snow Hill fourth grader whose Little Library project at Byrd Park has been vandalized repeatedly, is learning a valuable lesson: some people take pride in being mean and stupid. Ellies’s Little Library is a small outdoors installation that holds a few books that anyone can borrow and return. It’s a kind and… Read more »

Things happen. Or, to put it another way, the road to free Wi-Fi in Snow Hill has been paved, but remains a few weeks away from handling traffic. Frustrating as it may be, the delay in the installation of the required equipment isn’t Comcast’s fault. It could hardly anticipate the surge it would see in… Read more »

Twelve candidates? That could happen in the Ocean Pines board election this year, according to sources familiar with the candidate vetting process. That many candidates vying for just three seats should give property owners the opportunity to do what’s best for the community, assuming that no axe grinding or personal agendas get in the way…. Read more »

Trying to analyze the reasons behind the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors’ vote on General Manager Bob Thompson’s contract extension is an exercise in befuddlement. As his contract was up for renewal, Thompson asked that it be extended for another three years, but without the generous bonus clause that could bring him anywhere between… Read more »