mvitale

The Ocean City Community Center featured plenty of festive spirit and loads of activities for families to enjoy Sunday during its annual Holiday Festival. There was a very jolly Santa, a happy Mrs. Claus, elves, an animated stilt walker, carolers dressed in Victorian-era clothing, crafts, a singer who serenaded guests who awaited photos with Santa and plenty of sugary snacks to nibble. Adult Librarian Julie Howard, who, along with Assistant Library Director Kathryn Brown, are in charge of the event each year...

Rain couldn’t keep Santa from making an early appearance in Ocean City Friday night at the city’s annual Christmas Parade. Santa waved at children as he rode in a horse-drawn carriage. Spectators lined Asbury Avenue for the festivities, which stretched from Sixth Street to 11th Street.

Sexually explicit material available to fourth grade students in a health class at the Ocean City Intermediate School has prompted a local mother to take her concerns to the Board of Education. School officials said that they are aware of the incident and that they have discussed it with the teacher and Intermediate School Principal Michael Mattina to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

There’s one sure way to get into the spirit of the holiday – decorate the exterior of your home. Just dive in, untangle those lights and display your own style and shine a bright light on your residence, while enjoying some friendly competition. Yes, registration is now open for Ocean City’s annual Holiday House Decorating Contest. The deadline to sign up is at noon on Wednesday, Dec. 13. Judging will take place Thursday, Dec. 14, and Friday, Dec. 15, between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Details follow on how to register your home for the contest and to vote online for your favorite decorated house.

For anyone who loves old Ocean City homes, there’s a special surprise coming – a Holiday Historic Home Tour, which will feature some of the extraordinary residences and businesses in town. On Saturday, Dec. 9, anyone interested in the decorated house tour may head to the Scarborough Inn, which is located at 720 Ocean Avenue, to pick up a free wristband. The wristbands are required to enter private homes on the tour, which runs from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Get ready to be wowed by school choirs from Cape and Atlantic Counties in the “Christmas Chorale,” which begins airing on Saturday. The show will feature 11 local school choirs singing holiday favorites. All performances from the show will be available on YouTube to enjoy throughout the holiday season. They can also be viewed on Facebook or by scanning a QR code. Over the years, thousands of school choirs from grades third through 12th have had the opportunity to perform in a holiday tradition that is entering its 41st year, show producer Martin Fiedler, of Just Right TV Productions, said in an interview Monday.

Ocean City has an ambitious dredging program for the back bays and lagoons to maintain the waterways so that sediment-choked channels remain a thing of the past. Under the city administration’s multiyear, multimillion-dollar dredging program, waterways are cleared of silt and mud when needed, so that boaters, swimmers and homeowners alike can enjoy the bay. During its Nov. 22 meeting, City Council approved a resolution to hire ACT Engineers Inc. for a professional services contract for construction management and construction inspection services for Ocean City's next round of dredging.

Following a scary e-bike accident involving his son, Ocean City Councilman Tony Polcini is calling for stricter enforcement of helmet laws. On Nov. 17, Polcini's son, JD, who is a sophomore at Ocean City High School, was riding his e-bike to school, when he wiped out going around a sharp turn near the Post Office at Ninth Street and Ocean Avenue.

Ocean City’s version of Black Friday, called “Our Miracle on Asbury Avenue,” transformed the town into a scene reminiscent of a Christmas movie set, complete with a Santa's Mailbox on the corner, elves and Santa in Mark Soifer Park and plenty of holiday cheer. The holiday shopping event spanned Sixth Street to 14th Street. In the evening, carolers sang on City Hall steps, to name just one of the many activities that built up to the evening's crescendo. The event was capped off when Santa Claus emerged from the rooftop of City Hall and with the help of an Ocean City Fire Department ladder truck, he lit the Christmas tree.

They’re called “rolling billboards,” and they serve as a strong reminder that drunk driving kills and it is vital to have a designated driver. They are HERO-wrapped patrol cars. The John R. Elliott HERO Campaign for Designated Drivers kicked off in Somers Point Wednesday afternoon, during one of the busiest travel days of the year, to unveil a newly HERO-wrapped Somers Point patrol car and a Northfield police car and to announce a new initiative partnering with local bars and taverns.