County To Continue STEM Internship Program

SNOW HILL — Federal funding may have been lost for the popular STEP-UP and Reach for the Stars program but Worcester County students will still have a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, (STEM) enrichment program this summer.

Through the Office of Economic Development, a local version of STEP-UP exclusively for Worcester has been created that will “closely mirror” the original program, according to Bill Badger, director of economic development.

The new program will be managed by Fawn and Ryan Mete and will include both a day camp and an internship program, similar to what STEP-UP offered when it had federal funding. There will be three different options for camps, all of which cover two weeks and will include field trips to NASA Wallops Island and a STEM tour visiting related businesses in Worcester. Two of the options would cover about 40 students while the other would only reach 20 but would provide a more in-depth experience. The camp will be for middle school students.

Also included in the new program will be a six-week paid summer internship sponsored by both the county and local businesses. According to Faye Mete, the internships will be a “pipeline for STEM-related businesses in Worcester County” that will allow interested students a chance to use the STEM tools they’re being taught in school in a real world setting.

“It keeps the integrity of the program and it keeps the academic rigor of the program,” Faye Mete said of the new proposal. The internships would be for high school students, she added.

Badger informed the commission that the new idea was drafted with input from Brenda Dingwall, the Worcester County Woman of the Year and the founder of both original programs at Wallops. Badger urged the commissioners to act quickly.

“I can tell you that we’re already late; we should have started in February,” he said. “So there is a sense of urgency that we need to get started sooner versus later if we’re going to have a program this summer for STEP-UP and Reach for the Stars.”

Commissioner Judy Boggs was onboard, saying that if the program is stalled for even one year it would be difficult to get it running again.

“I support this because it is so essential we do not let this important project drop,” she said.

The commission agreed unanimously, and $77,000 that was set aside for STEP-UP before federal funding was lost will be used to cover the program.

Worcester Commissioners Reject Tier Mapping

SNOW HILL — Months after a technical deadline for action passed, the Worcester County Commission has finally decided in a 6-1 vote to reject tier mapping for the county.

The commissioners unanimously agreed that the legislation represented by Senate Bill 236 was an overreach by the state and an attempt to wrest planning control from local governments.

The specter of tier mapping has haunted Worcester for most of a year, with Jan. 1, 2012 the technical deadline to adopt a map. However, there is no penalty for adopting after that date. It wasn’t until this week and a final public hearing that the commissioners officially voted not to adopt the so-called “septic bill.”

“This was an easy decision for me,” said Commissioner Virgil Shockley. “I had no intention of ever voting for it.”

According to Shockley, the bill is another in a long line of legislation aimed at performing a snatch and grab on county’s autonomy.

“I have sat here since 1998 and I have watched the state, one law at a time, take away our rights,” he said.
The new legislation requires the county to map land into one of four tiers, each of which would have specific restrictions regarding whether major subdivisions can be built on encompassed properties on septic or if they would require sewer. Because Worcester did not adopt any tiers, no major subdivisions on septic systems will be allowed in the county.

But it is better to reject the state’s influence and deal with the consequences than appease and steadily lose ground, said Shockley. His thinking fell in line with the majority of public comments.

“They’re attacking private property rights as if they were building a four-lane road,” said Delegate Mike McDermott.

An energized McDermott didn’t try to temper his criticism of the political culture in Annapolis and accused state legislators of trying to hijack control of Worcester and every other county in Maryland.

“How we grow and whether or not we grow should rest with this body politic and not another,” he said. “And quite frankly it shouldn’t just rest with planning and zoning.”

Resident Laura Dover warned of the slippery slope she saw in front of the commission. If they allow Annapolis to dictate how the county controls development in this case, he commissioners should plan on surrendering that authority forever.

“If you cede that right to the state, it will not be returned,” she said.

Other comments took an even starker tone and warned the commissioners that their vote on tier mapping would be remembered when the next election came along. Resident Kelly Kennett chastised the commission for what she perceived was a lack of outreach in contacting property owners to explain how the bill would impact them.

“Let’s look at what you guys are really doing. This is pathetic representation,” she said, adding that a series of “poorly-attended” public information sessions focused on the bill were insufficient.  

Resident Curtis Andrews singled out Commission President Bud Church on his record.

“Mr. Church you say you’re a champion of property rights. I personally haven’t seen it,” said Andrews.

Talk of legal action by Worcester or a group of counties seeking nullification of the septic bill were also flirted with, though County Attorney Sonny Bloxom made it clear such a lawsuit would be costly to Worcester without much chance of success.

“We have a very liberal court system,” said Bloxom. “There’s no way the court system is going to overturn the legislation in this case.”

The legislation and the tiers did have some supporters in the room, though it would be fair to say they were at best reluctant.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever been as conflicted representing clients on an issue as today,” said attorney Mark Cropper. “I really feel like the choice given to my clients is the lesser of two evils: to map or not to map, between a rock and a hard place.”

Representing a cluster of landowners in the county, Cropper viewed the tier mapping as “unnecessary, unwarranted, unreasonable but at this point unavoidable.” While he suggested the commission adopt the tier maps, he also asked that they consider the burden placed on landowners, especially those with large tracts of property, when next reviewing Worcester’s Comprehensive Plan.

“At some point you need to stop doing ‘to’ landowners and start doing ‘for’ landowners,” he said.

Issues such as extending public sewer to facilitate more major subdivisions should be on the council’s radar, added Cropper.

That attitude of compromise, however, is exactly what the state is hoping for, according to McDermott.

“What I heard coming from Mr. Cropper was basically a white flag that’s saying it’s over, we surrender, we’re trying to salvage what little property rights we have left to develop,” he said. “And you know as well as I do that if a county isn’t developing, if we aren’t growing, we’re dying.”

Six of the seven commissioners took the same line with Commissioner Jim Bunting worrying that Worcester is headed down a road where county leaders will just be figureheads or puppets for Annapolis.

“We have to stand up to that,” agreed Commissioner Merrill Lockfaw.

Commissioner Jim Purnell remarked that “we are stepchildren” in Worcester in terms of how the state treats the county.

“We need to send a strong message to the state of Maryland that this is our county. This is our home and we’ll fight to keep it the way we think it should be,” he said.

Commissioner Judy Boggs was the lone voice in favor of adopting the tier maps. However, she agreed that the state was making a power grab but felt that adopting the tiers and pursuing a density waiver that would loosen at least some of the regulations in Tier IV zones was the most realistic option.

While Church admitted to being on the fence until the last moment, he eventually voted with the majority of the commissioners not to adopt the tiers, promising landowners that the county will look to follow Cropper’s advice and be more accommodating in the future with things like sewer.

The final vote was 6-1 against adopting the bill with Boggs opposed.

Worcester Expects End To Financial Slump Soon

SNOW HILL — There might be a light at the end of the tunnel — recent projections by Worcester County predict that stuttering revenue estimates could begin once again to climb by fiscal year 2015, a year earlier than anticipated. However, whether that jump is the beginnings of a trend or just a flash in the pan is unclear.

“It appears we have reached the bottom of the trough,” Finance Officer Harold Higgins told the Worcester County Commissioners this week.

In detailing revenue projections, Higgins reported that the county is expected to see another revenue dip in fiscal year 2014, which is consistent with the last five years since the national recession began. Though there have been a few minor boosts from year to year during that period, overall revenue has fallen steadily from $186.1 million in fiscal year 2009 to $165.9 in fiscal year 2013, the current fiscal year. The county’s assessable tax base has also shrunk across the board.

From fiscal year 2014 to fiscal 2015, however, a $2,939,319 revenue increase is being anticipated, with overall revenue estimated at $166,758,162 in fiscal year 2014 up to $169,697,481 in fiscal year 2015. There are three reasons for the climb, according to Higgins.

Building permit activity is up in both the county at large and Ocean City so the assessable base is likely to increase. Indicators also point to those assessment values beginning to rise due to a generally improving housing market where they had been declining for several years. Finally, the assessment map has been updated putting roughly 5,000 properties on a different assessment cycle meaning they will be reviewed a year earlier.

“It appears again that we’ve reached the bottom of that trough a year earlier than we had anticipated,” said Higgins. “Even though revenue projections are better, we still feel there’s a need and we will use budget stabilizations as required for FY14 and FY15.”

Higgins admitted that the county will likely use most of the available stabilization funds in the next few years. Even with revenue projected to increase, there are still a lot of expenditures, including new items like increased school security.

“Again, we’re seeing pressures on the expenditures side,” he said.

For example, the new projections show about $853,000 in unexpected revenue for the current budget year. With things like school security costs and employee raises still unknowns, Higgins currently predicts a multi-million dollar shortfall for the budget. 
“So right now I think we’re safe to say that we’re about $7 million short,” he said.

Another point Higgins made is that it’s still too early to say for sure what revenue will do after fiscal year 2015. While the expected increases might be the start of a trend, Higgins wasn’t willing to forecast any further.

“There’s nothing historically that tells me what could happen,” he explained.

All things considered the increased revenue projections are good news. When questioned on how accurate the figures will be, Higgins told the commission that his office had “received numbers that were even significantly better than what we’re showing you.”

Commission President Bud Church thanked Higgins for the estimates and said he was willing to take the numbers at face value.

“I have a lot of confidence in you and your staff because you’ve been on the mark almost every single year,” said Church.

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Restaurateur Eyes OC Cheesesteak Bragging Rights

OCEAN CITY – A longtime local is looking to join the local competition for the best cheesesteak on the beach title with his new business adventure, Supremo Cheesesteaks.

Owner Ira Mensh is aiming to have Supremo Cheesesteaks, located on 117th Street and Coastal Highway, open by Monday, April 22.

After college, Mensch opened and operated OC Clothing for 15 years and ended up with four locations in Ocean City and two in Baltimore.

In 1995, Mensh started a new chapter in his life and headed into the restaurant business with a food concession in the 94th St. Mall called Top Dog. Next, he moved to Westminster Md., where he opened a large restaurant called Bear Creek Inn. When Mensh returned to Ocean City, he opened Jackson Chicken in West Ocean City that specialized in rotisserie chicken.

Following his stint in the food business, Mensch decided to transfer his focus to Ocean City’s real estate industry where he eventually came across the opportunity to take the location on 117th Street, formerly Brianna’s Bananas Cafe, and is converting it into Supremo Cheesesteaks.

“I am in the food business again,” Mensh said. “The past is the past. The future is now.”

Mensh claims to be the “soup Nazi of cheesesteaks” as he is out to have the best cheesesteaks in town using only the best ingredients. He chose to call his restaurant Supremo Cheesesteaks after looking for a definition that will make his hoagies the greatest, and came across “supremo”, which means one or an organization that is highest in authority or command.

“It’s not a cheesesteak unless it’s a Supremo cheesesteak,” Mensh said.

Whether it’s the rib eye steak, chicken steak, the all-fresh veggies, locally baked bread, hand-cut Idaho potatoes cooked in pure peanut oil, fresh garden salads or thick shakes, every effort will be made to ensure that customers get superior products.

“What I have found is if you have a niche and you can do it the best, people will come,” Mensch said of choosing the restaurant to focus on cheesesteaks.

Starting out, Supremo Cheesesteaks menu has six options when it comes to how a rib eye or chicken cheesesteak is done. All cheesesteaks have the option to have American, provolone or cheese whiz. Next, the diners have to choose whether they want to stick to the traditional cheesesteak with fried onions or add sauté peppers, sauté mushrooms, lettuce and tomato. For the veggie lovers, a veggie hoagie is available with grilled peppers, onions, mushrooms, lettuce, tomatoes and a choice of cheese.

Mensch plans to offer a daily special to add variety to the menu, such as roasted pork, roasted turkey and meatballs.

“I am going to streamline for my soft opening until I get the feel for the town and what they want to do,” he said. “I am not set in stone … I am still kind of testing it out.”

Mensh has been in the process of transforming the café into a sandwich shop with a new grill behind the front counter that will welcome customers with sizzling steaks. There is indoor seating and outdoor seating out back on the bay.

“It’s the best waterfront dining dive around,” Mensch said.

As Mensh joins the local cheesesteak competition, he believes it is his ingredients that will set Supremo Cheesesteaks apart.

“You will be getting more products for your money,” he added. “Competition is good. It raises the scale.”

Supremo Cheesesteaks will open at 11 a.m. for the lunch crowd and will remain open as long as customers keep coming in to please the late night crowd.

New Endeavor Aims To Enrich Youth’s Tech Skills

OCEAN CITY — With more and more jobs everyday relying on computer literacy, Digital Youth Experience (DYE) Director Eric Belardo is looking to teach students everything from game development to security programing with the hopes of bringing “family-supporting jobs” to Worcester County.

Starting with a modest space and a lot of ambition, DYE is attempting to become something unique on the Eastern Shore: a technology-based business that first trains students in everything from programming to marketing and then recycles those same students by offering them jobs. Those jobs should be sustainable in the long term, said Belardo, and though they just had their first student orientation last week the DYE crew plan to be moving at full-tilt by next year.

“I am hoping within one year we have an active development environment where we have at least anywhere from 10 to 25 developers and hopefully about 60 students,” Belardo said. “Within two years, I would like to have a core of anywhere from 50 to 100 developers working on a major software release title.”

DYE will focus on three different learning “tracks” that will cover the most sought after skills in the current marketplace, according to Belardo.

“So we have a programing track, a securities track, and a robotics track,” he said.

Programing will be the most flexible and will include developing applications for smart devices mostly using the Android operating system as well as games for a variety of media. Being able to build games from the ground up is a dream for a lot of young people, said Belardo, and generating apps allows a lot of room for creativity. The thing that sets DYE apart from other training centers, however, is that once the game or app is made that’s when the real work begins.

“Basically, what we want to give is real world experience,” he said.

With all apps and games there is a “global target,” meaning that modern technology allows greater opportunities for independent developers now than ever before. No longer does a thriving software company need a skyscraper and west coast real-estate to impact the market, Belardo promised.

“While in the past a lot of enterprises had to be centralized in a certain area now there’s not a need to centralize, say for instance, Silicon Valley in California,” he said.

With the software market today something like the Wild West, there’s room for a small programmer with a unique idea to go from unknown to a household name in months.

“You never know what can happen in this marketplace so some little application could become a global phenomenon,” said Belardo. “Or a game from an unnamed company can become a major player in the industry.”

He pointed to websites like Twitter and Facebook which are now multi-billion dollar giants but started from next to nothing. Even more telling is the app Instagram, he added, a digital photography tool that was started by a handful of motivated developers and became a billion dollar property within a year once they were acquired by Facebook.

“We might be training the next Twitter, the next Facebook, somebody from this organization might come up with the next big idea,” said Belardo.

Even if students don’t regularly churn out billion dollar games or apps, the programing skills taught at DYE are valuable across the board and the cyclical style of the organization, turning students into trainers, should provide lasting jobs in the area.

“We are hoping that the people that we train and we bring in here will generate family-supporting jobs in Worcester County,” Belardo said.

The securities field for example, while not as glamorous as game development, is an under-tapped market. In fact, Belardo got the idea for DYE while working as a senior project manager for the World Bank, which is still his day job. Despite dozens of interviews, Belardo revealed that he recently was unable to locate a qualified programmer for a World Bank venture, leading him to realize that there are huge gaps in people trained in programing versus the jobs available.

On the local front, Belardo noted how DYE fits in nicely with the push in recent years by Worcester to encourage Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Despite the county having some of the best public schools in Maryland and by association the country, a long-standing complaint in the area is that students are moving away after graduation.

“And all of that great education we’re giving our kids is not staying in the county and supporting it,” said Belardo.

Though not currently working with any schools in the area, Belardo confirmed that he has spoken to educators in Wicomico and Worcester and would welcome partnerships in the future.

“We are not, right now, working with any of the school systems but we hope to,” he said.

For more information on Digital Youth Experience, located off Route 611 in West Ocean City, visit www.digitalyouthexp.com or call 443-355-4393

Harman, Macky’s, Greene Turtle Score Awards At Annual Industry Awards Gala

BALTIMORE — The Restaurant Association of Maryland presented its annual Stars of the Industry Awards last night, including Restaurateur of the Year to Fish Tales’ Shawn Harman, Favorite Bar/Tavern to Macky’s Bayside Bar and Grill and a Cornerstone of the Industry Award to the Greene Turtle.

Other winners from the evening include:

McCormick Cornerstone of the Industry Award, awarded to the companies that best illustrate how restaurants are the cornerstone of the economy and their community, The Greene Turtle Sports Bar & Grille, CarterQue Barbeque & Grilling Co., Glory Days Grill and Ledo Pizza – Pasadena.

Maryland Hospitality Hall of Honor, created to recognize those restaurants in Maryland that embody the spirit of the hospitality industry based on their longevity and overall contributions to their customers and the industry as a whole, Pasta Plus Restaurant & Market, Carrol’s Creek Waterfront Restaurant, Giovanni’s Restaurant, Hard Times Cafe – Bethesda, La Tavola Ristorante Italiano and CJ’s Crabhouse and Restaurant.

The Otto Schellhase Award, Michael Burke, Janjer Enterprises/Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen.

Brice and Shirley Phillips Lifetime Industry Achievement Award, Patrick ‘Scunny’ McCusker, Nacho Mama’s & Mama’s on the Half Shell.

2013 RAM Allied Member of the Year, Rossmann-Hurt-Hoffman, Inc.
2013 Chef of the Year, Jeff Eng, Clyde’s Tower Oaks Lodge.
Maryland’s Favorite Restaurant, Jimmy’s Famous Seafood.
Wine & Beverage Program of the Year, Chef Geoff’s.
Craft Brew Program of the Year, Rams Head Tavern.
Favorite New Restaurant (open two years or less), Quench – A Modern, Urban Bar and Restaurant.
Favorite Food Truck, The Jolly Pig.

Although not recognized with awards, other local businesses nominated included Travis Wright, owner of The Shark, Chef of the Year; the Captain’s Table Restaurant, Favorite Restaurant; de Lazy Lizard’s Wayne Odachowski, Restaurateur of the Year; and Dead Freddie’s, Favorite Bar/Tavern.