By Dolores E. Pike

"We are building a community center. I want to make sure everyone understands that," said Ocean Pines Director Dan Stachurski as he opened the Ocean Pines Association's (OPA) first town meeting of several scheduled to be held by the current board. He stated that the purpose of the Saturday morning meeting, attended by approximately 50 people, was to bring residents up to date on the status of the new community center.

"We need to build the new building as the population continues to grow," said Mr. Stachurski who then quoted the ever-popular "demoflush statistics" that credited Ocean Pines with 21,000 occupants in July 2003 and with 23,000 occupants in July 2006.

The final set of drawings for the community center is in the hands of the county's Technical Review Committee (TRC) and Mr. Stachurski reported that there are no major issues in the way of getting a site plan. The proposed building's exterior materials will mostly be in conformance with the nearby library and post office.

According to Mr. Stachurski it is expected that the building permits will be in hand in January 2007. Given that Mervin L. Blades Construction Company has 365 days in which to finish construction under the terms of the contract this means that the new community center should be completed in January 2008.

Mr. Stachurski sounded fairly confident that the OPA will be able, through the sale of various assets, to finance the $5.4 million price tag that the new center commands. Richardson Auctions is already under contract to handle the sale of the OPA's 2.78 acres on Route 589 and surveying is currently underway. Mr. Stachurski expects the sale of the commercial property to be complete by the end of December, putting approximately 50 percent of the monies in the bank to finance the cost of the community center.

As for the sale of the 19 lots within Ocean Pines owned by the OPA, he has been advised that lots may fetch a higher price if the board waits until spring 2007 to put the lots on the market. Mr. Stachurski indicated that a storm water study is being done in order to determine if certain lots should not be sold due to drainage considerations.

Throughout Mr. Stachurski's report the floor was open to comments and questions which brought forth some of the following:

Marti Jacobs asked about the feasibility of using solar energy for the new building. Mr. Stacharski said it is not in the current design but that it can be incorporated at any time because the building is easily modifiable over time.

In response to a question about what the actual cost of the new community center includes, Mr. Stachurski quoted from the Community Center Status Report he presented in an open forum on October 18. He also noted that in addition to the Blades company, SPN, Inc. has been hired as construction managers. This latter company is well-known for overseeing construction work in Worcester County.

Director Heather Cook noted that a letter is being drafted by OPA General Manager Tom Olson to be sent out shortly to the 90 plus organizations of Ocean Pines, inviting them to be a part of the new community center with personalized donations. She speculated the possibility of a "donations wall" honoring the names of the organizations.

Dick Jacobs said that three years ago when he did a space requirements study of all the organizations of Ocean Pines he received a "high level of support" for the construction of a new community center. He did a follow up study about a year ago and there is still a large percentage of organizations very much in favor of building a new community center.

As noted in a letter handed out at the meeting on Saturday, the directors plan to schedule an official ground breaking as soon as possible.