Forensic audits look to reduce level of risk The upcoming forensic audit of Worcester County Public Schools’ financial management and records appears to have arisen from the discovery that a trusted employee may have embezzled $118,000 over a period of years. Even so, the granular-level examination of financial procedures and practices the school administration has… Read more »
Opinion
Letter To The Editor: South Gate bridge full of charm
South Gate bridge full of charm Editor: My wife and I retired to Ocean Pines 10 years ago. We made 6 trips up from Georgia and looked at dozens of houses in Maryland and Delaware. The bridge and gatehouse told us we were entering a different kind of community. Even the directions to get here… Read more »
06/04/2026 Bayside Editorial: OP police pay study findings predictable
OP police pay study findings predictable Rare would be any commissioned study of employee or executive pay that comes back saying, “No action warranted.” It often seems that consultants are hired to provide evidence that justifies what the client has already decided to do. In other words, any governing authority would have a difficult time… Read more »
05/28/2026 Bayside Editorial: Keeping community high schools separate
Keeping community high schools separate The subject comes up from time to time just as it did recently during county government deliberations: why must Snow Hill and Pocomoke City continue to have separate high schools, when the combined student body of both schools would be about half of Stephen Decatur’s? The answer to anyone who’s… Read more »
Letter To The Editor: OP bridge no longer serves its purpose
OP bridge no longer serves its purpose Editor, North Gate Bridge was, in the beginning, “iconic” – the gatehouse, the spherical lamps, the new wood. That is no longer so. Having lived here for 25 years, I have watched the bridge deteriorate: Gone is the gatehouse (most likely due to lack of use or rot),… Read more »
05/21/2026 Bayside Editorial: Show some respect before lighting up grill
Show some respect before lighting up grill Memorial Day marks the unofficial beginning of summer, mostly because the Uniform Holiday Act of 1968 led to the creation of the federally declared three-day holiday weekend in 1971. The other Memorial Day, the real one which since 1868 had been celebrated on May 30 before the act… Read more »
05/14/2026 Bayside Editorial: Mayor, council look for budget control
Mayor, council look for budget control Berlin’s government wasted an hour Monday night retracing steps taken a couple of weeks ago by the Town Council to eliminate the large gap between revenue and expenses. Rather than moving on to actual new or unfinished business Monday, council members found themselves having to return to ground they… Read more »
05/07/2026 Bayside Editorial: Berlin must deal with lead pipes issue now
Berlin must deal with lead pipes issue now It’s not a now-or-never proposition, but it’s close enough for Berlin town officials, who really don’t have a choice but to continue their pursuit of its water line replacement project along Williams Street. This is even though the project’s $1.9 million cost to remove and replace lead… Read more »
04/30/2026 Bayside Editorial: Room tax set aside symbolic gesture
Room tax set aside symbolic gesture With the Town of Berlin facing $1 million in repairs and maintenance of the publicly available parking areas, it’s easy to favor taking a 10% slice of the room tax proceeds to help pay for it. The problem, of course, is this is more of a symbolic gesture than… Read more »
04/23/2026 Bayside Editorial: Berlin tax increase hardly guaranteed
Berlin tax increase hardly guaranteed Berlin Mayor Zack Tyndall’s proposal to add 1.25 cents to the town’s property tax rate suggests the town’s finances, constrained as they are by the slow-to-moderate growth of its assessable base, are headed toward red ink territory without an increase in revenue. That would be so … but only if… Read more »