Donald Wittkowski

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.

Work will soon get underway on the next phase of renovations for a formerly drab Ocean City housing complex that is getting its first major makeover since it was built in the 1960s. The $1.1 million interior renovation at Bayview Manor will include a facelift for the lobby, community room, bathrooms, laundry room, maintenance room, office and conference room.

Pedestrians doing some shopping or having lunch in downtown Ocean City may notice a drone hovering around the landmark former Crown Bank building at the corner of Eighth Street and Asbury Avenue. The drone, owned by the city, is being used by an engineering consultant to check the structural condition of the exterior and windows of the six-story tower that was built in 1925. The engineering assessment is a prelude to the city’s possible purchase of the privately owned building out of bankruptcy.

Have you ever seen a plane simply pause in midair, as if momentarily frozen in time? Pilot David Windmiller somehow made his single-engine aerobatic plane hang motionless for a few seconds at the apex of a climb – hovering above the ocean as the crowds at the Ocean City Boardwalk Aerobatic Show peered into the sky in disbelief. Windmiller and other pilots who performed at the air show Sunday afternoon also treated the thousands of spectators who lined the beaches and Boardwalk to an assortment of gravity defying rolls, loops and flips.

As if on cue, the crowds at the Ocean City Airport Festival gazed overhead at 12 p.m. Saturday, using their hands to shield their eyes from the intense afternoon sunlight. Thousands of feet above the spectators, what first appeared to be tiny dots in the sky were actually the billowing parachutes of skydivers who were whirling around in circles as they descended toward earth.

Unlike some of the summer tourists who visit the shore, the fish don’t suddenly leave after the Labor Day weekend. Michael Doebley, of Mighty Heron Charters, notes that the fishing is great through the fall and can last up until the Christmas season. Mighty Heron Charters is offering affordable trips this fall to take advantage of the stellar fishing.