By Elizabeth Bonin, Staff Writer

(March 12, 2020) Representatives of Pocomoke City, Snow Hill, Berlin and Ocean Pines banded together to request increased funding for fire and emergency medical services in their towns, as well as for Ocean City, during the Worcester County Commissioners meeting last Tuesday in Snow Hill.

Berlin Mayor Gee Williams, speaking for the mayors of the other municipalities, introduced a second request — that commissioners create a task force to address the issue in depth.

Berlin Mayor Gee Williams

“Each of our towns is responsible for providing EMS services, vehicles and equipment, not only in our towns, but also to coverage areas beyond our borders,” Williams said. “In Worcester County, the funding and equity of EMS services is becoming a crisis, regardless the size of our communities, incorporated or not.”

He asked that commissioners invite representatives from all four municipalities and county fire companies to participate in the task force.

“In the past, when funding for EMS services for Worcester County has been discussed and determined, none of our four municipalities have been invited to the table,” Williams said. “This can no longer be the case. We’re all in this together and we’re all making substantial contributions to this service.”

County Commissioner Joseph Mitrecic said the requests would be reviewed in a work session and that commissioners will consider creating a task force.

Each mayor also came forth with their town’s budget requests.

Williams said even after instituting Berlin’s largest property tax increase, an 18 percent boost, and an increase in water and wastewater utility rates, the town still struggles to fund fire and emergency medical services.

The town’s annual grant to the Berlin Fire Company for FY20 is $540,500 in comparison to $605,000 last year. Williams said this was a result of decreasing all Berlin expenses by 10 percent.

Berlin spends $2.3 million, or 38 percent, of its $6.1 million general fund on police, fire and emergency medical services. Williams asked the commissioners to increase their annual grant from $465,000 to $480,000 for the FY21 budget.

This would increase the county contribution by $15,000 or 3.2 percent of its current contribution.

“The demands on our budget have accelerated in recent years as we spent much money and time to work with the Berlin Fire Company to help them meet greatly increased costs in providing emergency medical services to the citizens and property owners of Berlin,” Williams said.

He added that Berlin needs to add three to four paid, year-round emergency medical services personnel.

Doug Parks, president of the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors, requested a public safety grant of $525,000, explaining that the Ocean Pines Police Department has been down by as many as three officers throughout the year.

“One of the funding needs is to make sure we can not only hire, but maintain police force and staffing to meet the needs of Ocean Pines,” Parks said.

He also requested $100,000 for roads and bridges, pointing out that some of the infrastructure is over 50-years old.

Jeremy Mason, interim city manager for Pocomoke City, requested $465,000 for an FY21 unrestricted grant, the same the town received the past two years.

He also asked for whatever the county can contribute to help pay for repairing and replacing lift stations and the water system, as it could cost up to $1 million.

Snow Hill Mayor Gary Weber requested $500,000 in unrestricted grant funding, $200,000 in lieu of taxes, $100,000 for the Purnell Street sewer improvement project and $110,000 for a restricted fire grant.

Both Weber and Mason requested $42,854 in an unrestricted grant to reflect 10 percent of the table game revenue from Ocean Downs Casino in Berlin.

Ocean City’s budget request was postponed to March 17, since resort officials were in Annapolis.