Local history - On-Line Newspaper Archives of Ocean City

Tiie Sentinel-Ledger
opinions
A gesture
missed
While trimming other departments' budgets,
City Council members had a chance last week to
trim their own. They didn't.
Councilman Nickolas "Chick" Trofa made the
motion to cut City Council's token $5.000-a-year
salary by W percent or WO, Twfa made Uw
same motion last year, but not one of his
colleagues backed hint. This year Councilman
Mark Videtto lent his support, SUB the motion
was defeated; 3-8.
The cut, although paltry, would have sent a
message to the department heads who are submitting
their budgets. C% Council te serious
about keeping down the tax rate.
If Council member* were to approve toe
municipal budget handed them By th« administration
this year, tee tax rate could increase
by ? to 9 cento, depending on the final
revenue tally due this week. That doesn't count
the yet-undecided school and county rates.
Opposing the salary cut proposal was Councilman
Gary Jessel who said the decrease would
discourage lower Income citizens from seeking
public office.
Council members say it costs them well above
their compensation to serve on the governing
body, and that may be. For whatever reason one
decides to run for Council, it certainly Isn't for
the money,
A 1800 decrease in compensation certainly
wouldn't prevent anyone, rich or poor, from runnftjg
for office and possibly serving his or her
cUy.
And cut in Council's own pay would very nicely
hive set the tone for budget season '88,
Thursday, January 21,
Seeing in
the new year
Section 2, page a
away from home
There is m eerie l
about spending New Yeart
ere in « »mplttiiy strange
surrounding; an almost
utreal quality because there
Is no common point of
tfftrwoi.
Such is the feeling of this old
damdlgger when he Is over
BOO miles from barrier Island
dft
in witt dew friends in a tiny
hwnlet called Garden City,
5,0. /
As a matter of actual fad, It
was a very diU|httul
evening; an evening where
everyone was comfortable
with everyone else and no one
felt they had to prove
anything. Our hostess had a
radio station on that would
ring the chimes of anyone who
appreciated Benny Goodman,
Tommy Demy, Larry
Clinton, Glenn Miller, Woody
Herman, etc. The conversation
was Intelligent and
the atmosphere warm; the
food Ught and tasty and the
surroundings my.
TWa area of South Carolina
is MM for Its friendliness
and, though I have never
doobted tt on praviom vtstts,
ft was only too apparent
again.
Radio station WJYB vm
Inspired on New Year's en,
for they played Just about
every standard that we
wrinkles would ewtom and
with TO commercial ore*k for
the entire evening. It was
peat!
We arrived In Myrtle Beach
shortly before the Brat of the
yew and tally wpected to
spend New Y«rt eve with
our dear friends the Haspels,
curled up In our digs at the
Surf Rider on the bMch. Not
Mutual dear Wends, Janet \ I
Orbeck and Bite VUra. |
invited us to their home In
Garden City and, to make the
soiree Just about complete,
almost everyone present at
fee affair vrtB a transplanted
New Jeraeyite.
1 sincerely hope that your
welcoming of the year l«S
was every bit as pleasant as
Glnny and mine and that your
year will be happy and
healthy one.
Historic preservation little more than lip service in Ocean City
By RICHARD BENNER dftlrns they have no record of
: Many thanks tor your
editorial (The em of our
such a survey.
Further, what could such a
list contain U there U no
S ^.i^JKA "BMMlvi^w «f the m
provisions for preserving
Ufal history tn the proposed
mfiter plan,
Mihough t am personally
teis than pleased with the
provisions of tin plan In
general, w well u the criteria
used to establish Its
provisions, It Is encouraging
to read that Ton Thomas
(the clty'B contracted plan,
nar) recommends an Inventory
of historic homes.
St la something ot a disgrace
Mat one with little knowledge
or, local history felt • need to
make this recommendation
and was able to cite structures
which exist end some
which do not. tt Is unfortunate
mt no such Inventory seems
Wexlflt.
It Is even more unfortunate
that the city planner expressed
doubt that such a list
Would ever tie complied.
But consider the following,
On the 24th day of January
0BO, Ordinance No. MO was
Mtsed by City Council and
ngned by thin Council
Weildent WWiam Wsodi and
Mayor Chester Wlmberg.
this ordinance established
The Ocean City Historic
Commission with seven ap-
(tolnted members.
; It states, "It shall be the
duty of the Commission to
iuwsy the city of Ocean City
and determine, with the
itanee of the archlUct
purmiaitt to section
C) above, those structures
enfial a a
district" and the criterion la
"the height of the gingerbread
era which almost enttnty
passed over Ocean City
due to Its early rtatdmtl* less
flamboyant tastes."
Uilng the Victorian
gingerbread era as the sole
and other architectural styles
reflecting the growth ot the.
city to an arbitrary date of
UN (within the limits of
federal and state guidelines),
many more structures would
be Included spanning the
Wand from at feast Atlantic
Boulevard to 18th Street with
groupings o» houses scattered
aty's history and development.
The wholesale destruction
of many of this city's land*
marks can hi stopped.
Enabling legislation does
exist which allows local
governing bodies to enact
legislation to control the
demolition or alteration ot
At least the street end has
not been sold to developers, as
was 5th Street and public land
now occupied by Ocean
Colony.
And what have we lost by
giving Uttle more than Up
service to historic preservation?
, _ ,Hhow:
large, ornate
appreciation of anything
other than profit margins
have filled both fresh and
saltwater wetlands from 17th
Street to 59th Street.
The have erected buildings
»e^thiattc| m ^mmmamm^ m*^ y i& - without regard to ar-
reduce the Urt to manageable be on tt» Fe&Ml tUJgWyy, kUM, tetea, P«^a, Mom chltectural conformity or
proportions. Under tWs ex- Early In 1987 Cape May for sunshine and air flow from
As a developing city approaching the turn of the century...this city
contains numerous examples of several periods of architecture |f
the beauty of the bay,
especially at sunset, we are
now treated to a not-to-
Dleasant view of the back
door-parking area of
In such a manner that airflow And Dr. Corson's
Is seriously curtailed or magnificent house and ofllce?
diverted. A parking tot,
Large square "bedroom If you want to see the bay
containers" are built next to you almoBthave to goto one ot
criterion—and evidence such panded criteria, or «ven enacted such legislation ocean to bay, our unique compatabUlty or Influence to
as early photographs which under the gingerbread (Ordinance No. 784) and atcharacter!
and) wont of all, a the existing structures often
an as readily available as criterion, II no massive taut one member of our City sense of pride in our com- In the hop* that It will con-
Harold LM*l history - a portion exists, thin most Council and the Historic munity as a whole. vince the cottage owner to
cursory list might Include » certainly a significant portion Commission was made aware But we have certainly aiU.
to 30 structureii on Wesley does.
of this fact by this writer. Yet gained in land value., Lots And we, as well as the city
Avenue between 2nd and 10th And one should remember, demolition for the period from which sold for »4M In 18M sell administration, have allowed
streets, a greater number on compared to the massive September ill? through for nearly 1,000 times that tt to happen by not voicing our
Central Avenue between Srd number of structures now on December 1967 averaged over much today. However, that opposition unless IWiappened
and Mth streets, • large the Island, the number In 18M one structure every other day tact has Uttle to do with tn our back yard. .
number of commercial « 1911 or MO Is relatively without a single recom* preserving the old.
3. Conver's shop Is now a
buildings on Asbury Avenue small
menuatlon or review by the tn an effort to reap the parking lot as U A. Scull's
ai well BJ many residential Ai the Commission Mlstorlc Commission. financial windfalls of the "Thtatft Cottage" and H.
bulldlngi on the HUM avenue, recogniied In the minutes of To paraphrase one city higher land prices, both local Stalnton's residence.
t smaller number on Mian their netung of 1 May I960, official! 99 percent of Ocean and out-of-town developers Instead of Hogates and
Avenue and Atlantic Avenue "lor a butting to be con- City's bulfdable land is with Uttle understanding or Chris's with public access to
within the same general area, sidered as historical - the already developed The old
and a good number of similar exterior architectural must be torn down to make
residences on the numbered features are the primary way for the new. That's the
streets.
oonstderatl