4/4/2007

Opinions on new Community Center vary
By Dolores E. Pike

An issue extremely important to all Ocean Pines residents is before the community once again and that is the vote on the new Community Center.  So much has been written already about this subject that readers will probably smack their foreheads and say, "Oh no, not another referendum article." But it seemed time to talk with the man or woman in the street, at church, at the market or at the recycle lot as well as with one or two on the telephone.  Admittedly not many residents could be contacted in the short time allotted to make the deadline of Wednesday's paper.  The Easter holiday was fast approaching and many folks were going out of town or getting ready for family coming into town.  But the objective never was to contact great numbers of people as it was to get some opinions from people not perceived to be in the mainstream.

Therefore The Courier tried to select people not already firmly entrenched in the brouhaha as being in favor or against the construction of a new Community Center. This included people such as those who had written pro or con letters to the editor, those who had dusted off their "No" signs, affixing them on the front lawns once again, and those who have such forceful opinions that anyone within earshot will be treated to an unsolicited earful.  In fact while The Courier was quietly speaking with a woman in the supermarket, a nearby customer felt it his duty to interrupt the conversation with his x-rated opinion of the board along with a wrap up of the full background of the eternal quest for a new Community Center.

All the people questioned had voted in both the 2001 and 2005 referendums and had lived in Ocean Pines anywhere from nine to 25 years.  Most were in favor of a new Community Center but felt the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors had mishandled the situation between the close of the 2005 referendum up to the present.  As to whether those interviewed will attend the public meeting on Saturday April 14 most will not, including one resident who finds heated confrontational situations uncomfortable.

"We have a very old Community Center that needs to be replaced.  The board could have handled this better, been more truthful.  They had a cost on an empty building that was not completed," said John Henglein.

Jane Mangels who is also in favor of building a new center said, "I don't use it a whole lot but attend church services there in the summer," adding that Ocean Pines missed the boat in '01 when the Center was turned down.

Though Dominick Brunori no longer lives in Ocean Pines he has voting privilege via the lots he owns. He is against the new Center because he feels the cost is out of control.  "We don't need a Taj Mahal," he said adding that the board has not listened to the people.  "The board needs to listen to the people who work for a living and cannot be at meetings because of their work or children's needs."

During the course of the brief interviews some residents were concerned that by allowing The Courier to use their names it would "put them at odds with their neighbors." And that, to this reporter, became the saddest statement of the day on a community that has prided itself on being a friendly place to live.


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