OCEAN CITY, Md.- As Ocean City bus drivers lower the buses for more passengers -- the number of drivers is low as well.
Mayor Rick Meehan says the resort town knew it would face a shortage after COVID -- but not this bad.
"What we didn't realize was the ultimate difficulty we were going to have," said Mayor Meehan.
Two years ago they had something like 130 drivers on the routes, 62 during COVID, but now only 42.
So an emergency meeting was called during Monday's town council meeting.
"We made a recommendation to the council that we raise the salary for those drivers that have CDL licenses with and able to transport passengers on the fixed route on Coastal Highway and for the Park and Ride, that we raise that salary to $19.87 an hour," said Mayor Meehan.
That is up from $15.60 an hour.
Milargros Gucman is a J-1 worker who was here in 2018. She's back this year and says she sees the effects of the driver shortage, especially at night.
"When we get out of work at 10-12 [a.m.] it's a little difficult to get a bus and when we finally get it, we have to stand up because we cannot sit because there are so many people, so many young people drinking-drunk and it's going to be worse," said Gucman.
The mayor says the raise ends October 17 and will be reassessed by the town to see if it's still necessary at that time.