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Ocean City has no trouble attracting tourists, shoppers, diners, beachgoers, Boardwalk strollers or home buyers. But getting enough workers for seasonal jobs on the Boardwalk, downtown or anywhere else in “America’s Greatest Family Resort” is another story. COVID, stimulus checks and extensions to unemployment coupled with a desire after a tough year to “chill out” on the boards, beach or somewhere else are theories for the lackluster start to filling up jobs for amusements, shops and restaurants.

Isabella Felten’s expression said it all when she got off of a fishing boat Sunday afternoon. She smiled as she held not only a nice size flounder, but the first fish she had ever caught. “I had so much fun. I caught seven fish. I never caught a fish before today,” the 19-year-old from West Cape May said. She and her mother, Libby Felten, were among 85 people, some of whom have physical, mental or learning disabilities or financial difficulties, for a fishing trip courtesy of the Ocean City Yacht Club and the Ocean City Marlin & Tuna Club.

A renovation project that would improve and update the second floor of the Ocean City Free Public Library has been on hold for a couple of years, while officials seek grant money to help fund the project. The first grant proposal submitted by the city through the Library Bond Construction Act was not approved back in December of 2020. But both library officials and the city are hopeful the second application submitted this past week will prove fruitful.

More of the popular mobility mats will be coming to Ocean City's beaches this summer. But there will be a slight delay in getting some of them because they are on back order, City Business Administrator George Savastano said. “We are running low on mats. We have them on back order, so we are going to be getting more,” he said in a report to City Council.

The Planning Board on Wednesday approved a resolution that would eliminate senior citizen housing as a conditional use in the Boardwalk zone. In a unanimous vote, board members agreed with City Council that senior housing does not belong in the Boardwalk's recreation area. The matter will be sent back to City Council for a final vote on June 24.

There’s some record-breaking news going on in Ocean City and it isn’t the heat. Vacationers are buying up beach tags as quickly as the city can sell them. Officials are predicting a banner summer, as long as the weather stays great. “The final numbers for preseason beach tag sales are in, and they’re at record pace,” Ocean City Public Information Officer Doug Bergen said Tuesday.

Mark Soifer, the public relations genius who created many of the wacky, crazy and fun family-oriented events that keep visitors coming back to Ocean City through the generations, died over the weekend at the age of 89. Soifer, who lived in Vineland, retired in 2016 after 45 years in his role as public relations director for Ocean City, but many of the activities he created continue to delight visitors and residents alike at the shore town.

A sun-splashed sky and blazing temperatures, on a weekend no less, gave day-trippers and vacationers a great excuse to hit the boards and the beaches in Ocean City on Sunday.

Author and evangelical apologist Josh McDowell took a contrarian view. He learned the most about Christianity and believing through not believing and trying to discredit the Christian faith when he was a young man. “I think I learned more by refuting the Bible. I never knew until I set out to refute it,” McDowell told a crowd at the Ocean City Tabernacle on Saturday. Fast forward 57 years. The now 81-year-old McDowell is a best-selling author and co-author of 148 books on Christianity, including “More Than a Carpenter” and “New Evidence That Demands a Verdict.”

After a successful event that brought local bicyclists together in a safe venue, the local mother who organized it has plans for a permanent location. “The kids in theater have a theater club. The skaters have their skate park,” Sarah Gaddy, the married Ocean City mom of five who made the May 12 bike event possible, said Thursday. “Now we're going to have a bike zone.” She is inviting the public to a meeting at the Ocean City Tabernacle on Monday, June 7 at 6 p.m. to discuss some specifics about creating a bike zone on the Tabernacle grounds.