OCEAN PINES — Marty Clarke is ready and willing to serve on the Ocean Pines board of directors for a second time.

He compared his reason for being a candidate to the little Dutch boy.

“Because when the little Dutch boy removes his finger from the dyke, it continues to leak,” Clarke said of unresolved issues in Ocean Pines, especially the future of the Yacht Club.

“We have to fix the Yacht Club,” Clarke said. “We can’t let it fall down. And we should lock the door Sept. 15. Since they started opening it year round in 1989, it has never made a dollar in the winter.”

Clarke, an Ocean Pines property owner since 1977 and a full time resident since 1992, is a developer and builder whose business has been centered in Ocean Pines since 1986.  He was a member of the board of directors from 2007-2010.

“The Ocean Pines board is made up of dedicated members, but unfortunately, they see problems of Ocean Pines with their own eyes and do not step back and look at it with the eyes of the membership,” Clarke said Tuesday afternoon.

Another issue for Clarke is that “20 percent of the sitting directors live in The Pointe, which if off the skew of what Ocean Pines is all about. It is not representative of Ocean Pines. The Pointe is only 3.5 percent of Ocean Pines.” 

If elected, Clarke would work to reduce assessments by promoting a zero-based budget and sound business practices at amenities and he would push to immediately initiate long-deferred maintenance of the communty’s facilities. 

He assumes that the proposed referendum for a new Yacht Club will fail and he believes it should fail. The long-deferred maintenance would include repairs and maintenance of that facility. 

 “Any of our business amenities unable to at least break even should be closed at leased out to a third party,” Clarke said. 

He has served on the Ocean Pines Clubs Advisory Committee, the Ocean Pines Budget and Finance Advisory Committee,  the Worcester County Wastewater Task Force,  the Ocean Pines Marina Group and STOP (Stop Taxing Ocean Pines). 

Clarke is a member of John Neumann Catholic Church, the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and  the Cambridge Yacht Club.