OCEAN CITY, Md.- Following Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan's release on Friday of his "Roadmap to Recovery," which marks how the state will reopen after the COVID-19 pandemic, the town of Ocean City is using the governor's roadmap as its guide for the summer season.
In a four-page memo to the Ocean City mayor and council dated April 27 ahead of the their Tuesday work session, City Manager Doug Miller said that based on what is known and "admittedly based on what we hope for there will be a season in 2020 even if different from what we have known in the past. We do intend to offer our normal summer services even if some are altered."
The memo described Hogan's "Roadmap to Recovery" as being helpful in defining the state’s criteria to bring back private and public services and businesses.
As such the memo took the governor's document and applied its stages for reopening to the resort town as follows:
• Pre-stage: This is the current stage as of this date. The governor has a stay at home order and has restricted all non-essential travel. Non-resident property owners and visitors cannot legally travel to Ocean City.
• Stage 1; Low Risk: The governor’s travel restriction is lifted. Small shops and businesses can reopen, recreational boating, fishing golf and tennis can resume, outdoor fitness can
resume. It is our hope that we will be at Stage 1 in late May or early June.
• Stage 2; Medium Risk: Some social gatherings will be allowed, indoor gyms and fitness classes can begin, churches can again have services, restaurants and bars can open with restrictions. It is our hope that we will be at Stage 2 by late June or early July.
• Stage 3; High Risk: To get to this stage there must be a COVID 19 vaccine or treatment. That is a long way off so we don’t see us at Stage 3 this Season. Until we get to Stage 3 large social gatherings will not be allowed, high capacity bars and restaurants will not be allowed to open, entertainment venues will not be allowed to operate. For the summer of 2020 some of the private and public planned events will have to be altered or
canceled.
The memo also outlined certain "Assumptions":
1. The COVID 19 Virus will be with us through the summer of 2020 and possibly into the summer of 2021. A vaccine is not predicted to be available for another 12 to 18 months.
2. We will have to take enhanced precautions to protect our employees and guests.
3. There will be a beach season for the summer of 2020 which will require the services that we traditionally offer.
4. We need to field our various teams for our summer services and thus have to make employment offers now. In some cases these summer employees must secure summer housing which must be done soon.
5. Our best guess on our private partners opening up are as follows:
a. Staffing will be a major issue. J-1 Students will not arrive until June at best. This will impact our private partners in how quickly they can operate and if they can operate at full capacity.
b. HMRA (Hotel-Motel-Restaurant Association) has a working group that has set guidelines on opening up for both their hotel membership and for their restaurant membership. They speak to a staggered opening. They are the subject matter experts in their industries and we will use their work as our guidance on how they will phase in.
c. Our private partners in the restaurant sector will probably have to deal with a gradual resumption of services due to state requirements.
d. Bars may not be open until mid to late summer, if at all. This is an important determinant as to how we operate our transit system.
6. Our best guess on spring and summer visitors are as follows:
a. Our non-resident property owners will enthusiastically return to Ocean City once the state travel restrictions are lifted. They will not be dissuaded by the reduced availability of restaurant services and will be able to bring their own food or use the carry-out services of the restaurants that offer such services. We predict that most will visit Ocean City for Memorial Day as they traditionally do.
b. May and June hotel reservations will be less than typical years because the restaurants will only offer partial service. Hopefully in July, August and September the restaurants will operate at near normal levels.
c. We will have no conventions until July.
d. All May and most June private and public events are canceled.
e. Senior Week(s) will only have marginal attendance.
f. Our hope is that July 4th will be the new Memorial Day and that the July, August, September portion of the season will resemble typical seasons.
Summer Services
1. Beach Patrol.
• Starts Memorial Day Weekend
• The Beach Patrol has had difficulty testing for new SRT’s. But we have a good number of returning personnel and Captain Arbin believes that he can have as many stands on the beach on Memorial Day as he had last year.
• The OCBP will combine academies in mid to late June and those graduated will be ready for the stands in July.
• Note; this is one group of employees that has a high percentage that needs to secure summer housing.
2. Police Seasonal Officers and Public Safety Aids (PSA’s)
• Starts early to mid-June
• Recruiting for these part time positions has been impacted by COVID 19. In addition, getting our candidates trained/certified will be a challenge. We feel that we will have a strong compliment of trained Seasonal’s and PSA’s in June.
• Note; this is one group of employees that has a high percentage that needs to secure summer housing.
3. Comfort Stations
• Starts Memorial Day Weekend
• Due to concerns about employee safety, we will not have attendants stationed inside the Comfort Stations as we have done in years past.
• We will look at alternate operations such as will posting each station with an “Enter at Your Own Risk” sign on each facility and then cleaning the facilities in a rotation several times per day.
• We may need attendants outside to limit the number of persons who can use the facility at any one time, or take some toilets out of service to limit usage at any one time. This will be further addressed by Public Works staff. .
4. Inlet Parking Lot
• Opened with the requirement to pay once the Beach and Boardwalk restrictions are lifted.
• The Parking Ambassador program will need to be evaluated, and/or combined with a Cleaning Strike Team person.
5. Street and Lot Parking
• Requirement to pay once the Beach and Boardwalk restrictions are lifted.
6. Beach Cleaning and Beach Trash Removal
• Starts Memorial Day Weekend
7. Boardwalk Cleaning
• Starts Memorial Day Weekend
8. Tram Service
• Starts Memorial Day Weekend
• There will be no distancing requirements for patrons on the Trams; they will use this amusement at their own risk.
• Additional safety measures will be added for employees.
• Deployment will be based on demand.
• The Mayor and Council will need to look at simplifying our Tram Service payment options to reduce interaction with the public. All of the punch cards would be eliminated and we would only accept direct payment.
9. Transit
• Currently buses are deployed on a winter schedule (40 minute headways).
• As demand increases we will offer a hybrid spring schedule. We envision a 20 minute headway.
• Masks will be required for all persons riding the bus throughout the summer.
• As long as bars are not open, bus service will end at 11:30 PM.
• The Mayor and Council may want to further discuss our service to the Park and Ride lot in West Ocean City and the related fees.
10. Recreation Camps
• If we are at Stage 2 by July we will be able to offer our typical camp programs.
• At Stage 1 we will open our playgrounds.
• At Stage 1 we will open Eagles Landing and the tennis center.
11. Special Events
• We will need to be at Stage 2 to begin offering most of our special events.
• The Special Events staff is busily and creatively looking at ways to keep most of our events by making them compliant with state guidelines.
