JOSH DAVIS/BAYSIDE GAZETTE
Ocean Pines Police Chief David Massey on Tuesday offers a tour of the police headquarters said to be both cramped and a safety hazard for workers and visitors.

By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(Jan. 17, 2019) In a trio of unanimous votes, the Ocean Pines Board on Tuesday agreed to expedite plans to expand the community police station, while also further complicating a convoluted situation at the golf and country club.

For the police station, Director Frank Daly proposed directing General Manager John Bailey to contact a minimum of three firms to design and build an expansion. Daly said the goal was to “fast track the design of a police department expansion” and to begin construction during the first quarter of this year.

He said the current facility fails to provide adequate space for police and is unsafe.

“As both a homeowner and board member, it is absolutely deplorable,” Daly said of the current facility. “It is a safety issue for the officers, it’s a safety issue for victims, it’s a safety issue for suspects. It needs to be corrected and it needs to be corrected now.”

Director Slobodan Trendic said if any part of the project were to be funded by new capital it would hurt the bottom line and questioned the wisdom of proceeding while the association is working to erase the remainder of a $1.6 million deficit.

Part of the project would be new capital and part would be paid by replacement reserves, according to Director Ted Moroney, but the new capital portion would almost certainly be spent during the next fiscal year and could be accounted for in that budget.

“The reality is, by the time you get an RFP out, you get the RFP back, and you go through the thing and vote on it, we won’t be starting the new portion of the construction [until] early into next year,” Moroney said.

The directors voted 7-0 to proceed with the project.

After the meeting, Police Chief David Massey said the expansion is sorely needed. He said the station, built in 1985, was poorly designed and created safety hazards for his officers.

According to Massey, a criminal justice consultant in 2016 recommended a 5,300-square-foot facility to meet the needs of the department. The current quarters are about 1,700 square feet and house 16 officers.

He said the station is the smallest police quarters in Worcester County, despite the community having the largest residential population.

“And also, it’s a recruitment thing. Imagine comparing yourself, go to Berlin, you walk in that station, and then you come here and look at this,” he said. “It’s just a way of keeping our officers here by having a good work facility.”

Exactly what to do with the country club, meanwhile, remains like a golf ball suspended in flight.

Association Vice President Steve Tuttle said the low bid to renovate the second floor is more than $1.3 million. He said with additional costs to bring the first floor up to code and factoring in a 10 percent contingency, the total cost would be just under $2 million.

Citing a 2016 Becker Morgan Group report that updated a 2011 report, Tuttle said the building is in serious disrepair, has mechanical and electrical systems that require total replacement and plumbing systems that need significant work.

He recommended replacing the building with a smaller, more energy-efficient structure “that will meet the needs of the golf program and provide community space for years to come.”

Tuttle said the cost for a new 7,000-square foot building, roughly half the size of the current one, would be just over $1.5 million, based on an estimate provided by Gillis Gilkerson.

Association President Doug Parks said there is “a general concern that we haven’t done our due diligence with respect to getting two additional competitive bids for full replacement.”

“It’s probably worthwhile to at least entertain the idea of rethinking our approach and looking at the possibility of getting a couple of other bids for a full replacement,” Parks said.

Trendic provided yet another option, which was apparently proposed during budget hearings that morning by builder Marvin Steen.

“We happened to benefit this morning from one of our long-term residents that’s well known in the community, Mr. Marvin Steen came and addressed the board this morning in a work session, and one of the things we got out of that comment from him is a concept of a modest renovation,” Trendic said.

He said a “modest renovation” would bring the building up to code “and do it in a way that’s financially economical.”

“By going with a modest renovation, we would basically be able to maintain 14,000 square-feet [of] multipurpose space, and that’s really the number that we have not been provided and have not had the privilege to benefit from,” Trendic said.

Both Parks and Tuttle said Steen’s numbers were around $1.2 million.

“At the end of the day, we’d invest $1.2 [million] in arguably a still 45-year-old building,” Parks said.

Parks said the association had already spent several years planning and pricing for renovations.

Moroney said if Steen was going to be involved at all, the board had better go out and seek additional bids on a similar scope of work.

“How do we know that Gillis wouldn’t bid that better? How do we know that Harkins wouldn’t bid that better?” he asked. “You can’t … give him a $1.2 million job without bidding out.”

Instead, he proposed a timeline for the board to review the problems of the building again at a Jan. 26 special meeting at the site, and then issue bid requests based on both the Steen scope and a new 7,000-square-foot building on Feb. 4.

“The RFP is due on March 15th, analyzed a week later on March 22, and the board is prepared to make a decision going forward at that point,” Moroney said. “That brings us to closure, meets all of the bylaw requirements for three bids, gives us the design/build renovation, the design/build new, and the traditional renovation [costs] that we’ve already bid.”

Trendic said he wanted to see a business plan for golf before doing anything, while Daly invoked the process of rebuilding the yacht club as a warning sign.

“I don’t think anybody in this room wants to go through with any new construction project [like] what we went through with the yacht club,” he said.

Daly and several others also mentioned the possibility of a referendum. At the same time, he said he wanted to see something done – and soon.

“I don’t care if we go left, I don’t care if we go right, I don’t care if we move forward, but I don’t want to march in place like we have since 2013 and do nothing,” Daly said.

Director Esther Diller said the board had “beaten the crap out of this” issue. Diller said she supported both a referendum and the Moroney timeline.

After nearly an hour of debate, Daly proposed a friendly amendment to Tuttle’s original motion, to seek at least three bids with a guaranteed maximum price for a new, 7,000 square-foot building.

Votes to approve the amendment and the original motion as amended were each 7-0.