Wood Duck Park - DejaVu All Over Again
Commentary by Joe Reynolds

The OPA Board is again wrestling with use of Wood Duck Park. About 15 individuals made public comment at the 5/18/2005 OPA board meeting in regard to the latest proposals for development of the park and/or simply opening the pedestrian access easements into the park. A majority of those commenting were from Wood Duck I and opposed any attempt by the board to open easements or do any development.

Director Skip Carey made a motion, seconded by Tom Sandusky, that the park be left exactly as-is. The motion failed on a tie vote, with Heather Cook and Mark Venit voting against, and Dan Stachurski abstaining. Coleburn and Duffy were absent. It should be noted that after the meeting Sandusky said he would favor opening the pedestrian access easements, but not development of the park.

Venit then made a proposal, seconded by Cook to proceed with opening pedestrian access paths on some sort of schedule, having the park surveyed to determine exact boundaries and locations of easements, and further consultation with people in Wood Duck and throughout the Pines as to any actual development.

Dan Stachurski offered an amendment to Venit's motion, essentially calling for OPA to develop some sort of plan and present to the community before doing anything. That motion passed with Skip Carey as the lone NO vote. The motion contained no time schedule.

Here's the somewhat interesting part of what amounts to a trip down Memory Lane in regard to Wood Duck Park.

This issue last surfaced back in 1989. It was reported on in the Ocean Pines Independent in the October/November 1989 edition and the December 1989 edition.

A cartoon appeared in the October/November 1989 edition (shown below) as well as an editorial by Tom Stauss above the cartoon.

Stauss began with this: ""There may be virtue buried somewhere in the demands of Wood Duck Isle I residents concerning the controversial park in their neighborhood, but it is difficult to find it given the manner in which the demands are made. The 'all or nothing' approach is a bit hard to take, as was the thoughtless assertion that those petition-signing folks are deserving of special dispensation in rough proportion to the assessed valuation of their property.

"They are not. The park in question is an association asset, like all other parks in Ocean Pines, and hence the association board of directors needs to be cognizant of the interests of all property owners and residents in determining the best uses of that park."

Fast forward to the Mid May 2005 edition of the Ocean Pines Progress where Publisher Tom Stauss writes about the current Wood Duck controversy and says, "Newspaper accounts in October and December of 1989 by reporter M.J. Thomas ...... reported the controversy and its resolution, but then the issue simply disappeared from newspaper headlines."

Going back to the December 1989 column by M.J. Thomas referenced by Stauss, the reporter noted several items in the "resolution" of the issue, among them, "developing four pedestrian easements for access to the park area..." The same column attributes Wood Duck resident Barry Hallowell with saying the residents seem to be satisfied with the compromise.

Today that 1989 columnist's name is Jackie Carey, wife of Skip Carey who introduced the motion this morning to leave Wood Duck Park as-is - still without those four pedestrian access easements presumably acceptable back in 1989.

Wood Duck Park is a classic example of DejaVu all over again.