Donald Wittkowski

Kris Luckenbach was surprised by how far his bare feet sank into the powdery sand that now covers Ocean City’s beaches like a thick, white blanket. “I feel like I’m sinking in. I guess it’s gotten a lot softer,” he said. Luckenbach, of Egg Harbor Township, discovered Ocean City’s deeper and wider shoreline when he stepped out on the beach at Fifth Street on Wednesday to shoot some video...

It’s as though a cataclysmic storm has wiped out an entire section of the Ocean City Boardwalk, leaving a gaping hole between 11th and 12th streets and exposing the virgin sand underneath. “How bare it looks,” Nick Tassiello exclaimed while gazing at the empty space. “What would you do without the Boardwalk?” Tassiello, 55, of Sicklerville, Camden County, decided to take a trip to the shore Tuesday to bask in the mild weather. While strolling on the Boardwalk, he was surprised to see that a portion of it is gone...

Ocean City’s Board of Education honored nearly 20 of the school district’s outstanding students, including some who achieved perfect scores on standardized state tests for English, mathematics and science. During the school board meeting Tuesday night, all of the students were given certificates recognizing their academic excellence. The board members shook hands with each student while offering their congratulations...

When Jim Smith was hired as a rookie firefighter 23 years ago, he had absolutely no dreams then of one day becoming fire chief. Joe Berenato started as a seasonal worker with the Public Works Department in 1990, taking a job as a carpenter. Both men recalled those humble beginnings to their careers in Ocean City on Thursday night when they were elevated to the top positions in their departments...

The gas-to-grass transformation that will turn Ocean City’s main corridor into a more inviting gateway is finally underway. The redevelopment strategy calls for converting three former gas station sites along the Ninth Street artery into green space. Construction work on the first park has begun, months after the blighted old BP gas station that once stood there was torn down. A decorative brick wall and metal fence have been added as the first part of the property’s makeover into a quaint park...

Usually, the only white stuff found on the Ocean City Boardwalk is the beach sand that flakes off the feet of summer sunbathers while they are rushing to grab some ice cream or a slice of pizza. But on Sunday, Boardwalk strollers navigated through slippery patches of slushy snow left over from Saturday’s storm that turned the city into a winter wonderland...

Ed Wismer’s striking oil painting of the legendary Sindia gives you the sensation of being there on that fateful day in 1901, when the four-masted ship ran aground in Ocean City. It’s as if you can hear the ship’s sails flapping in the howling winds, feel the spray of the angry ocean on your face and see the crew members as they frantically tried to save the Sindia in its death throes...

Rita Mae Brown, social activist and bestselling author of more than 50 books, believes that even ordinary people can become “elite” simply by doing one thing – reading. In wide-ranging and occasionally humorous remarks that touched on politics, the media, popular culture and gay rights, Brown urged a roomful of her fans Thursday night to emulate some of the world’s most accomplished leaders by picking up a good book...

Ptl. Brian Teeney was on the lookout for drivers talking on the cellphone, and it didn’t take long before he spotted one on Wednesday morning. Teeney had his Ocean City Police Department SUV parked on the shoulder of the intersection of 14th Street and Bay Avenue for just a few minutes when a man in a black pickup truck drove by with a cellphone held up to his ear...

A steady stream of people entering the lobby of the Port-O-Call Hotel on Tuesday night kept handing bags of toys and other gifts to Beth Pruzinsky. Pruzinsky, in turn, would stack the gifts on a pile of hundreds of toys that was growing higher and higher with each minute...