Donald Wittkowski

Time is running out for the antiquated scoreboard at Ocean City High School’s Carey Stadium. The city is expediting plans to replace it with a new high-tech scoreboard that will include features allowing it to be used not just for sports, but also for concerts, movies and other special events. The estimated cost is $2 million.

Beach tags are going to be more expensive in Ocean City for the 2023 summer tourism season. Voting 7-0 at a meeting Thursday night, City Council approved an across-the-board price increase for seasonal, weekly and daily beach tags as part of plans to raise more revenue to maintain the resort’s sprawling seven-mile shoreline.

Shore Medical Center in Somers Point is nationally recognized as a Primary Stroke Center, including 24-hour neurology and neurosurgery care and an emergency staff specially trained in the treatment of stroke patients. At the same time, Shore is looking to enlist other “superheroes” who can recognize the symptoms of stroke and quickly take action to have stroke victims rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment. Surprisingly, those heroes are children.

Visitors walking up the stairs to the second floor of Ocean City's U.S. Life-Saving Station museum are in store for a pleasant surprise. They are greeted by “Charlie,” a mannequin who is sitting on one of the beds in what is an authentic re-creation of the bunk room that served as the spartan sleeping quarters for the “surf men” who worked at the station in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Charlie isn’t much for conversation, but he is one of the centerpieces of much-awaited renovations to the second floor that were in full view to the public Saturday during the museum’s open house for the New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge tour.

A small fire caused by a faulty computer broke out at the Ocean City Public Safety Building on Thursday night. Police Chief Jay Prettyman said the fire was contained to an office on the second floor. There was only a minor amount of damage, but a lot of smoke, he said.

The cost of going to the beach in Ocean City during the summer is on its way up. By a 7-0 vote, City Council introduced an ordinance Thursday night to increase the price for seasonal, weekly and daily beach tags starting in 2023. A public hearing and final vote on the proposal are scheduled for the Oct. 20 Council meeting.

Rebecca Kleinert and Debbie Abt looked in amazement at what appeared to be a vast white wall stretching along the beach between Fifth and Sixth streets. Actually, this “wall” was the remnant of sand dunes partially washed away by the raging ocean during the four-day coastal storm that finally made its long-overdue departure Wednesday – after pummeling the shore with drenching rains, gusty winds and flooding.

On the same day that Ocean City’s beaches continued to take a pounding from a lingering coastal storm, a federal agency announced a new contract to restore the shoreline with more than 1 million cubic yards of fresh sand. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $21.5 million contract Monday to pump 1.2 million cubic yards of sand on the beaches from 14th Street to the Seaview Road jetty – an area encompassing the northern end and downtown parts of the island.

An auto theft ring that has been targeting luxury cars and SUVs at the Jersey Shore hit Ocean City this week, prompting police to urge homeowners to lock their vehicles at night and remove the key fobs.

Ocean City plans to step up its fight against a proposed offshore wind energy farm during two upcoming public hearings that will represent a crucial regulatory showdown with the project’s developer. The city has intensified its criticism of plans by developer Orsted, a Danish energy company, to run a transmission line under Ocean City’s streets to connect the offshore wind turbines to the land-based power grid at the former B.L. England Generating Station in Marmora. Speaking during a City Council meeting Thursday night, City Business Administrator George Savastano outlined a strategy to attack Orsted’s proposal on several fronts during public hearings on Sept. 29 and Oct. 3.