The last item on the Worcester County Commissioners meeting agenda on 12/7/2004 was a discussion of the Pennington Commons sewage service. The developer wants an immediate decision on whether the county will allow the subdivision to hook into the Ocean Pines system.

Interestingly, nearly everyone had left when this discussion took place yet it was perhaps the most important of the day for Ocean Pines. The heart of the problem is that the county has not received any approval from the Maryland Department of Environment to increase the capacity of the OP plant.

County attorney Ed Hammond pointed out the commissioners can hook up Pennington Commons to Ocean Pines whether the state approves a capacity increase or not. Of course the problem is the commissioners promised some time ago not to bring in new areas unless there was capacity available above what is needed for Ocean Pines.

Anyone watching all the proceedings of the day could only come to the conclusion a 4-3 majority of commissioners are not particularly interested in any prior promises. The three commissioners looking out for Ocean Pines are Sonny Bloxom, Judy Boggs, and Virgil Shockley. The other four commissioners are intent on expanding the Ocean Pines service area for new development, even in the face of unanimous opposition by the county Comprehensive Planning Committee and environmental groups.