By Greg Ellison

(March 4, 2021) The Ocean Pines Budget and Finance Committee discussed current and pending capital projects, in addition to examining the current fiscal picture, during its meeting last Wednesday.

General Manager John Viola updated members on the status of a Worcester County proposal to irrigate the Ocean Pines Golf Course with treated wastewater effluent.

“Last year, Worcester County funded an outside independent firm for a study,” he said.

Viola said Worcester Assistant Public Works Director John Ross recently brought both Director of Golf John Malinowski and Superintendent Justin Hartshorne up to date on the feasibility study.

“The firm met with Malinowski and Justin a couple weeks ago,” he said.

Hartshorne has past experience using spray effluent when employed at the Glen Riddle Golf Club.

“He has gone through the process and said it was similar,” Viola said.

Treated effluent is being used for spray irrigation purposes at nearly three-dozen facilities across the state, nine of which are golf courses, with three located in Worcester County, including Glen Riddle, Eagle’s Landing and Lighthouse Sound.

“By spring they should have plans set,” he said. “We’re in favor of this thing.”

Although the proposal would still require board approval, Viola said initial discussions have proposed executing required upgrades to related infrastructure in stages to minimize course disruptions.

Committee member John O’Connor asked how the association would benefit.

“Do we really need it?” he said.

Viola suggested another town hall question-and-answer session, similar to one held last March with Ross and Worcester Public Works Director John Tustin, might be in order.

“When that treatment plant takes water and distributes it over land, that’s another filtering process,” he said. “Environmental groups and studies favor this from what I’ve heard.”

“Highly treated effluent” is defined as water meeting current Maryland Department of the Environment bay restoration standards.

Viola said the proposal would also require updating the golf course irrigation system, sections of which date back half a century.

“The bulk of that system somehow, someway is going to be needed to be replaced,” he said. “If we’re committing to taking this water, we can’t have the system breaking down.”

Viola said preliminary studies have confirmed the current system would be insufficient to handle the effluent pressure required for spray irrigation purposes.

Because of the absence of any cost figures, Viola proposed scheduling a committee meeting with Ross and Malinowski.

“The county came to us,” he said. “This is them doing it, not us.”

Turning to more technical matters, Viola said OPA staff continues to experience some small problems with implementing Northstar IT software, which the board originally approved purchasing in Jan. 2019.

Because of an issue with information retention, the Northstar point of sale system was pulled from the Clubhouse Bar and Grille just over a month ago.

Viola said Matt Ortt Companies CEO Ralph DeAngelus was able to revert to previously employed software in short order.

“That’s a very viable system and one he’s happy with it’s just not integrated,” he said.

Viola said DeAngelus is working with IT Manager Steve Grabowski to test the Northstar POS system for future implementation.

On a brighter note, recent feedback from other department heads regarding the Northstar software has been positive, Viola said.

“They said there was progress [but] it continues to be painful,” he said. “They are telling me, the department heads, that it is better than it was months ago.”

Director of Finance and Operational Logistics Steve Phillips said full implementation is more than half complete.

Committee Chairman Dick Keiling proposed a separate committee meeting to delve deeper into the matter.

“It would be good to look at the big ticket items causing issues and projected cost going forward,” he said.

Board Liaison Doug Parks asked to be involved in the upcoming special session.

As for the association’s financial circumstances, Phillips said the association closed January with slight budget surplus of just over $1,200 for a year-to-date favorability of roughly $1.14 million.

“We were about as close to flat as you could be,” he said.

Through January, the OPA FY20-21 budget reflects revenue over projections of about $229,000 with expenses under estimates by more than $916,000.

“Of course, that [factors in] approximately $1.3 million in PPP funding and other revenues related to CARES Act funding,” he said.

Phillips said public works and general maintenance costs returned to previous positive trends for January.

“We had the $250,000 transfer last month for pipes that got approved this month,” he said. “We had the big unfavorable last month but we reverted back to the favorable trend with timing of the repair maintenance.”

General administration closed January about $30,000 unfavorable for the month.

“The biggest hit was legal expenses,” he said.

Included in that figure is $25,000 earmarked for a pending referendum vote following the recent settlement reached between the OPA and former Director Slobodan Trendic regarding unauthorized board spending limits.

That was a starting point and we’ll fine-tune it,” he said. “It might be conservative but I don’t think we have a good handle on what the total costs are.”

On one last matter involving the golf course, Viola said a recent suggestion from Director Tom Janasek to begin marketing the Ocean Pines Golf Course video simulator purchased last year gained quick traction.

“On Saturday, one of the board members asked me about the launch monitor,” he said.

During the board meeting on Feb. 20, Janasek noted other courses in the region have turned profits with video simulators, especially during offseason months.

The roughly $20,000 piece of equipment was introduced at the Ocean Pines Golf Clubhouse in the wake of coronavirus last spring, which initially hampered its use.

“I didn’t think we should have people in there,” he said.

After learning other area golf courses are generating revenue with video simulators, Viola and Malinowski sent an email on Monday to association members highlighting the recent addition.

“He immediately got two people to sign up for [club] fittings this week,” he said.

Additionally, the launch monitor can be used for instruction.

“John has embraced that and he’s going to do lessons,” he said.

The aim now is to generate sufficient revenue to offset equipment costs.

“We want to grow it right now with the fittings, lessons and whatever else he can do in there,” he said.