By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

The Ocean Pines Association is seeking legal advice on whether to approve or deny the Aquatics Advisory Committee’s proposed “Sunset and Cocktails” event which would cater to adults.

The gathering, which would be held at the Yacht Club pool, would gear its entertainment towards adults, including the retiree, single, and older couple crowd. Children were barred from attending in the original concept plan.

Occasions like Sunsets and Cocktails have been presented to the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors a few times over the last couple of years but have been shot down for excluding children.

Ocean Pines’ legal counsel Bruce Bright’s original opinion maintained that discriminating against juveniles is illegal.

In response, the AAC amended the idea to allow children and families into the event.

As described by AAC Chair Gary Miller at the group’s Sept. 12 meeting, Sunset and Cocktails would take place at the Yacht Club pool on a weekday night during the summer.

It would offer hors d’oeuvres, alcoholic beverages, and music catered to the adult crowd. While kids would be allowed entry, the entertainment would lean towards adults.

The committee argued that its single, couples, and retiree event is like the weekly summer Family Fun Nights, where adults without young children are welcome,while the music and simple food, like hamburgers, hot dogs, and sodas, would discourage those who do not have kids from attending.

Similarly, Sunset and Cocktails would invite everyone, but the entertainment, like the more sophisticated bites and tunes, would make it so that families with kids would be dissuaded from participating.

Miller argued that Ocean Pines residents are interested in an adults-only space. The Yacht Club was once the community’s sole pool where children were not allowed. However, officials ruled in 2017 to allow the under-18 crowd.

“The Yacht Club pool was once adults-only,” Miller said. “We understand that we could not go back once it was changed, but many people miss that. This is a way of allowing a segment of the community that has no other specific events tailored to them to go out and enjoy an evening with similar people.”

The AAC gathered on Thursday, Oct. 10, but Bright’s recommendation had not yet been finalized. At the meeting, Miller asked OPA Board Vice President Rick Farr, who also acts as the liaison to the AAC, about the possibility of privately renting out the Yacht Club for the Sunset and Cocktails event if legal counsel rules against the occasion.

That way, the adult crowd may still have their evening, but it would be unaffiliated with OPA.

“I am thinking is, if [Bright] comes back and says OPA cannot do this, with the Sunset Cocktails, I am wondering if a small group of us got together to rent the Yacht Club for a private party, that we could then charge an entrance fee for the people that wanted to come but it would be a private party,”  Miller said.

Farr agreed to confer with operations and the appropriate officials regarding the possibility and report back to the committee.