Granville Trimper
councilman, council president, briefly mayor · active 1976–1995
Councilman and then Council President of Ocean City through the whole beach settlement — the Trident Report of 1982, the governor's opposition in 1984, the seven emergency ordinances of January 1988 and the dredges that followed. He became Mayor on Harry Kelley's death in February 1985 and held the office until Roland Powell's election that April. In April 1988, when Feehley proposed extending the Inlet groin, it was Trimper who said of the charge that the town was stealing Assateague's sand, "That's been the argument all along," and recalled that at a meeting in Annapolis "even the Governor or someone brought up the fact that they didn't want to rob Assateague." By 1995 he sat on the Convention Center Feasibility Committee as a private citizen.
In the record (35)
1972 · 1972-07-24
Asked to cut the new noise ordinance from 89 to 70 decibels, the amusement-park owner on the council said his problem was not the amplified sound but the people screaming, and that the lower limit would put him out of business
The town's noise ordinance (1972-8), enacted at the 19 June 1972 meeting after "numerous complaints ... from householders and roomers, resident and itinerant, of their nightly rest being disturbed ... by noise emanating from various dance halls, nightclubs and other business establishments", prohibited noises "exceeding eighty-nine (89) decibels at the adjoining property line." At the special session of 24 July, item 8, Councilman Frame wanted to lower the limit "from 89 to possibly 70 db." Attorney Cathell said Baltimore and New York had lately passed decibel-meter ordinances but had exempted construction noise, and that "constitutionally the working man would have to be allowed a working day"; the council reckoned 70 dB would eliminate "possibly all construction, amusements, and some restaurants and nightclubs." Councilman Trimper: "Let me speak as an amusement park operator and not as a Councilman. We are having a problem right now, and it is not from our amplified sound, it is from the people screaming. How do you stop people from screaming and still keep within this noise ordinance? ... If this law was put into effect it would effectively put us out of business."
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1972 · 1972-09-20
Roland Powell was elected council president five votes to one at the swearing-in of the new council, with Joshua Richardson back after four years and the council agreeing to resume saluting the flag
At the organisational meeting of 20 September 1972 Frank Hales, Clerk of the Circuit Court, swore in Mayor Harry W. Kelley and Councilmen Granville Trimper, Roland E. Powell, William Purnell Jr. and Joshua Richardson. "Councilman Cropper nominated Roland Powell; this required no second. The vote was then taken. For - Councilmen Richardson, Trimper, Cropper, Frame and Powell; against, Councilman Purnell; 5 yea votes, 1 no, 1 councilman absent (Showell)." Powell: "I have got to depend very heavily on the Mayor, it is a new job." Richardson: "if I told anybody I didn't miss it the last two years, it would be a lie." Kelley: "I guarantee you I ran it for two years that way and there is not a man in this room who can say there was any back door policy going on. I never badgered one Councilman for a vote." Purnell asked that the opening prayer rotate among councilmen rather than always fall to Councilman Frame, "and the Council return to the practice of saluting the flag during the opening ceremonies. The latter accepted graciously." A letter from former councilman Robert B. Jackson congratulating the retiring president, Daniel Trimper IV, on two terms was read into the record.
Roland E. "Fish" PowellHarry W. Kelley
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1974 · 1974-12-06
The Beautification Committee's chairwoman told a special session that $10,000 of Christmas lights for three weeks was a lot of money when permanent planting would last all year, and the town found twelve more pole units anyway
Special Session 38, 6 December 1974, 9:30 a.m. in the Mayor's office, with the Beautification Committee (Mrs. Elizabeth Sanford, chairwoman; Ms. Vicki Rinaldi; Mrs. Susan Frame Bounds; Mrs. Eleanor Kelly; Mrs. Evelyn Mumford; Mrs. Frances Mumford). Mayor Kelley: "I made the remark the other night that some feathers could be ruffled, they were." Mrs. Sanford: "we don't object to anybody objecting to anything we do, but we did think it would be nice if you had at least looked at it first ... Now I understand that you all have $10,000.00 in this year's Christmas budget, which if you have the money to spend is fine and good, but really I think in three weeks time that is a lot of money particularly when there could have been permanent things that could have lasted and been beautiful twelve months out of the year." She said the Montego Bay firehall was all concrete with nowhere to plant, that each display needed a separate meter, and that Steve could not even put a light on the tree at the foot of the bridge. Councilman Trimper: "Since I was probably the original feather ruffler ... I just meant that maybe we could supplement it until your Program got a little farther along with more trees." On 16 December James Gordon of Public Relations reported "twelve additional pole units which is about all we could find in stock" lit on Baltimore Avenue between Worcester Street and 6th Street and two on Philadelphia Avenue, 32 in all; asked for suggestions about Christmas lighting, the council laughed.
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1976
Zoning is mentioned 443 times across 14 meetings — more than beach, water or police — and the EPA appears in July, "possibly now for the first time aware of it", over permits
A bulkhead at 83rd Street went out to bid in January with a single bidder. Kelley in June: "this is the best year that this City has ever had" — the second year running he says so. Thirty-two meetings produced about 1.56 million characters, four of them verbatim sessions running to nearly 200,000 characters each. Mayor Harry W. Kelley; President Elbridge "Newt" Cropper; Councilmen William Purnell, Harold Gordy, J. Warren Frame, Granville Trimper, Josh Richardson, Bernard Deutsch; Attorney Dale Cathell, City Solicitor; Sheldon Dietert, Clerk-Treasurer; Brady Bounds, Building Inspector; William Hoover, Zoning Administrator; Chief Lee Duggan, Police; Jim Gordon, Public Relations.
Harry W. KelleyE. Raymond Bounds
Source · checked 2026-09-02
1978 · 1978-11-06
The owner of a new skateboard park at 125th Street asked the council to stop building a public skateboard bowl with state Open Space money a few blocks away, and the mayor answered that the city had started skateboarding here
Thomas Foley, general partner of the Rolling Surf Limited Partnership, told the council on 6 November 1978 that his skateboard park and arcade at 125th Street and Coastal Highway, approved unanimously in March, had opened on 21 July, and that his letter of 2 June offering Ocean City children membership for $10 a month - later free if the city carried insurance, "as is now done at the 3rd Street skateboard facility" - had gone unanswered. "Two weeks ago we learned that the Town of Ocean City had contracted to build the North Ocean City skateboard facility utilizing State of Maryland 'Open Space' funds along with Ocean City tax revenues ... We do not believe that Maryland 'Open Space' funds or Ocean City tax revenues were ever intended to be used to create a facility which would be in direct competition with private enterprise." He asked the council to suspend construction at 136th Street. Trimper said the solicitor had ruled the offer out within a week and there had been "no interest in the Mayor or Council"; Mayor Kelley: "Mr. Foley, we didn't start out competing ... We started skateboarding here. The City did." In August Trimper had reported preliminary approval of "the 32 or 37 thousand dollars for the skateboard park up north."
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1979 · 1979-05-07
The Ocean City Baptist Chapel, newly year-round, asked for the public lot beside it to be reserved for worshippers on Sunday mornings and was refused as a precedent, and told to use the City Hall lot free like the Episcopalians and Methodists
Item 5 of the regular meeting of 7 May 1979: "Reverend Terry Davis, Ocean City Baptist Church, relative to parking." Davis, pastor since January and living at 102 North Division Street, said "our church has elected to be a year around church as beginning last year" and had "discontinued the Coffee House Ministry, which has been its main Baptist witness in this community for many years." He asked to use the public lot next to the church at North Division and Baltimore "from 9:00 to 11:05 on Sunday mornings," either reserved for a fee or with a police officer at the entrance, the meters still paid. Councilman Trimper: "I don't think we've ever set aside any parking specifically for any church, and I just don't think we should set that precedence." Councilman Purnell: "I appreciate your problem, but I don't think we should help you." Chief Donovan: "you're setting a dangerous precedence." Trimper: "it would be fine if they wanted to use the City Hall lot just like the Episcopal Church or the Methodist Church ... And there is no charge." Davis, asked if he was satisfied: "Not really, but we'll get by." Mayor Kelley: "It's not that far of a walk, Reverend."
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1979 · 1979-07-16
Ordinance 1979-16 banned roller skates from every public street, sidewalk, alley, lot and the boardwalk, a fortnight after a councilman warned the craze was "very big in California now"
On 2 July 1979 Councilman Deutsch raised the matter: "We have outlawed more than 2-wheel vehicles on the boardwalk, and we've outlawed skateboards on our sidewalks and so forth, but we have done nothing so far about roller skates. And this in other parts of the country is becoming very popular. People want to start businesses here renting them." Councilman Trimper: "It's very big in California now, and we just don't have, with the crowds of people we have we can't have people running up and down the boardwalk at the speed they travel on roller skates knocking everybody down." On 16 July Attorney Groton read Ordinance 1979-16, "the roller skate ordinance," which "prohibited just like skateboards, prohibits to use the roller skates in the town on any public street, public way, public sidewalk, public alley, public boardwalk, public lots or other public property, except for public roller skate facilities and publicly sponsored or authorized roller skate events." By 6 August the council was building the town's own outdoor speed-skating track, "a 100 meter track," the city engineer reporting "about $3,000.00 for clay," and a private operator, Thomas Foley of the Rolling Surf at 125th Street, which had rented skates since May, complained that the town was using "the money we pay in taxes and permits to compete with us."
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1979 · 1979-12-17
The council appropriated $8,000 for Christmas decorations at the Coastal Highway entrances and intersections, after hearing that the town's decorations vanished every year and all the white lights around City Hall had been stolen
Councilman Trimper at the regular meeting of 17 December 1979: "the ladies of the Beautification Committee ... have worked out something on a few more Christmas decorations for next year since that seems to be one of my pet subjects ... that we appropriate an amount of about $8,000 to purchase new decorations for next year so that they can proceed with purchasing these right after the Christmas season when the price is cheaper." Susan Frame for the committee: "every year when the decorations are taken down they're taken down and some of them are taken, period ... you're talking about hundreds of dollars on decorations ... you're not talking a hundred or a hundred and fifty strings of lights." Trimper: "I understand all the little white lights sets that we had around City Hall have all been stolen." Frame: "Yeah, they all disappeared." Mrs. Smarte: the entrances alone would be $3,150; "the $8,000 was picking out major intersections on the Coastal Highway." Trimper moved the $8,000, Harrison seconded, and the mayor undertook to find the money and to have Jake Shaffer's public works crews hang the decorations and keep them "under lock and key."
G. Hale HarrisonHarry W. Kelley
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1981 · 1981-03-16
The Eastern Shore Times offered to sponsor an annual Public Employee of the Year award for Ocean City's workers - plaques, a composite plaque in City Hall, a fall crab feast and a sports celebrity to present it - and the council took it on the spot
Gee Williams of the Eastern Shore Times and Beachcomber newspapers came to the regular meeting of 16 March 1981 with a letter dated 12 March to public-relations director Ben Higgs: the papers "propose to sponsor Public Employee of the Year Awards to recognize outstanding and dedicated service provided by municipal employees in Ocean City ... The papers would organize and underwrite the cost of presenting annual awards to one or more outstanding employees each fall. An award category would also be created for the outstanding city department head or supervisor." Nomination forms would go to every city employee and the public; "an anonymous panel of judges" would choose; winners would get plaques and "their names would appear on a large composite plaque that would hang in city hall"; the announcement would be "at an annual crab feast held in Ocean City early in the fall" with the awards presented "by a sports celebrity contracted by the papers". Williams asked to hold it in early October, "after Sunfest is out of the way". President Trimper: "It sounds great to me, Gee." Mayor Kelley: "Go ahead, you're going to spend all the money and we don't have to do anything." Trimper: "But eat the crabs, right?" Williams: "Yeah." No one objected; Kelley: "if we can help him in any manner we'll do it."
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1981 · 1981-04-20
Easter weekend 1981 brought bunnies on the Boardwalk, a magician for about 800 parents and children at Convention Hall, an ecumenical sunrise service and a travel show that drew 8,000 people
Councilwoman Thelma Conner's report to the regular meeting of 20 April 1981, the day after Easter: "I would like to express the appreciation of the PR Department for all the help that we had with the Easter Program this weekend. I think almost every association was represented. I'd like to pay particular attention of course to the Downtown Association for all their help and having the bunnies on the boardwalk. I want to also thank the Swinging Seniors of Ocean City for the beautiful favors that they prepared for us to give out. They made them themselves." The Hotel/Motel/Restaurant Association "donated enough money for us to pay for the magician who performed for the children at the Convention Hall on Saturday night, and that was really a thrill, because we had about 800 parents and children at the performance." The Visitors and Convention Bureau's Consumer Travel Show "had 8,000 people through the show on Saturday and Sunday", an estimated 85 per cent from out of town. She had nearly forgotten "the sunrise service and the Ocean City Ministerium of course was in charge of that and the choir was ecumenical from all the churches and it was beautiful and of course the weather." President Trimper: "a beautiful Easter weekend and tremendous crowds of people for this time of the year."
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1981 · 1981-05-04
For the White Marlin Band Parade of 9 May 1981, moved up from Memorial Day to open the season early, the council voted 6-1 to let two or three private cars onto the Boardwalk so the Fire Department Queen and Miss Teenage Maryland could ride in a convertible
Bob Givarz, president of the Downtown Improvement Association, reminded the regular meeting of 4 May 1981 "of the upcoming White Marlin Band Parade, May 9th, of which the Mayor and City Council will be serving as Grand Marshals" - "the whole concept of this parade was to try and kick off the summer season a little bit early rather than the traditional Memorial Day." He asked the council to relax its rule against private vehicles on the Boardwalk: "We do have some ladies who will be in the parade, some Queens, one of which is the Ocean City Volunteer Fire Department Queen, and we think we might have Miss Teenage Maryland here ... we would like to have a nice car to allow them to ride in"; the Chamber of Commerce wanted a four-wheel drive "to show sport fishing" and the Assateague Mobile Sport Fishermen an entry. President Trimper was against it: "you're setting a very dangerous precedent, because everybody wants to use the boardwalk to put vehicles on. We've denied the antique cars. We've denied all others." Councilman Ayres had asked Public Works' Jake Shaner, who saw "no problem with automobiles or even pick-up trucks", and thought convertibles "an intricate part of a parade". Councilman Feehley moved to try it "on a one-time basis" with the boardwalk liaison; Harrison seconded; "Six in favor, one opposed. President Trimper was opposed." Givarz then asked, for the same association, that bicycles be allowed on the Boardwalk until 6 p.m. on May and September weekdays.
Ocean City Volunteer Fire DepartmentOcean City Chamber of CommerceGuy R. Ayres IIIG. Hale Harrison
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1981 · 1981-05-04
Ocean City's surfers were left five designated beaches for 1981 - losing 66th Street to the Holiday Inn and 52nd to a condominium once it was occupied - and lost 4-3 their request to surf until 10:30 on weekdays
Rich Parolski, for the Surfers' Liaison Committee, made his annual appearance at the regular meeting of 4 May 1981, having toured the beaches with Councilman Ayres. The 1980 beaches had been 52nd-53rd, 66th-67th, Pyramid to Century One, 118th-119th and 144th-145th Streets. Proposed for 1981: 52nd-53rd "until occupancy of 'Constellation House' project", 58th-59th (by consent of the owner), Pyramid to Century One, 118th-119th and 144th-145th - "We will lose 66th to 67th because of the Holiday Inn ... in effect we're losing two beaches and adding one." Parolski: "obviously the beaches are diminishing as time goes on. I think surfing has turned from a sport to now it's a commercial venture," naming three surf shops in the room. The committee asked to extend weekday morning surfing from 10:00 to 10:30. President Trimper: "I think your beaches are quite crowded by 10:00"; Councilman Harrison: the tourists "are on the beach in sufficient numbers by 10:00 to warrant the surfboards coming off." Ayres's motion to approve the whole request including 10:30 failed, "4 opposed and 3 in favor" (Feehley, Ayres and Duggan for); a fallback extension only north of 135th and south of 7th Street also failed - Ayres: "You know, we're running out of beaches." Parolski: "Got plan C?" The mayor suggested a beach patrol crew chief be made liaison to the surfers so the word could travel on days the swimmers stayed out.
Ocean City Beach PatrolGuy R. Ayres IIIG. Hale Harrison
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1981 · 1981-06-01
The Hare Krishna movement, which said it had worked the Boardwalk for ten or fifteen summers, asked to park book carts with juice and cookies there in 1981 and was told the town had never let anyone put a cart on the Boardwalk and would not start now
Item 16 of the regular meeting of 1 June 1981: "Mr. Lawrence Clow relative Hare Krishna Movement's activities for 1981 in Ocean City." Clow: "Over the past years all over the Country and here in Ocean City for the last 10 or 15 years we've been coming and performing our different activities. What we'd like to try this year is to kind of centralize our activities. In the past they've always had roving book distributors which distribute books and talk to the people on the boardwalk. But this year we would like to centralize our activities by having carts located at different areas on the boardwalk where people could come to us" - two-foot-wide carts with books and "some refreshments if they like", juice, peanuts, cookies, for a donation. Councilman Deutsch: "I don't think the First Amendment provides for the placement of the carts and so forth. It provides for your activity of the distribution of literature." Councilman Ayres: "if this is a First Amendment right why do you need our permission?" Clow: "We're not asking permission ... We plan to go ahead and do this, but we just wanted to see what your position would be. We're trying to present ourselves in a cooperative spirit." President Trimper: "How is that a cooperative spirit if you're telling us you're going to do it anyhow whether we like it or not?" Feehley objected to free food beside taxpaying boardwalk businesses. Trimper, for the council: "the City in the past has never interfered with your First Amendment rights or any Amendment rights to practice your religion on the boardwalk ... However, we have never in the past permitted anyone to put carts, tables or anything else on the boardwalk and I don't believe it's the position of this Council that they're going to give you permission to do it now." No councilman objected.
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1981 · 1981-06-15
VFW Ocean City Memorial Post 8296 won unanimous leave to raise $20,000 to $25,000 over a year and build a memorial to Americans who served in wartime at the Entry Park, with a service there one day a year
Bob Hastings of "the VFW Ocean City Memorial Post 8296", with the post's memorial committee (Roy Young, Mac McKenzie and Bill Allen), told the regular meeting of 15 June 1981: "what we want to do is put on a fund drive which will last a year until next Memorial Day. We wanted to give this to the City and ask permission to put it in your park, your Entrance Park ... The Memorial is to the American Men and Women who served honorably during the time of War." "Our first estimate was $28,000. We made some changes and now it looks like it's going to be between 20 and 25 thousand. We don't want to get this money all together from the people in Ocean City and all of a sudden we got no place to put it. People is going to be beating us about the head and ears." Councilman Feehley reported that Al Berger, whose family had paid for a memorial in the same park, had been consulted and "the monument was compatible with the fountain that would be in there"; Councilwoman Conner, worried about parking, was told a service would be held there "only ... on Memorial Day"; Councilman Duggan and recreation director Jerry Groves suggested the new Northside Park with its planned grass amphitheatre instead. President Trimper: "you can put it at the Entry Park or a better location if one is found and suitable to you." Feehley's motion, seconded by Harrison, carried: "It's unanimous."
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1981 · 1981-07-20
Residents of Shad Row came back to the council with 25 neighbours and petitions of 48 and 52 signatures against the noise of the Electric Circus and Blue Dolphin nightclubs, and asked the town to license nightclubs itself rather than leave it to the Liquor Board
Item 3 of the regular meeting of 20 July 1981: "Mr. Ed Miller relative the Electric Circus and Blue Dolphin noise." Miller, of Shad Row: "I was here two weeks ago and there were 3 of us here. We didn't know each other was going to be here, but we came with 3 complaints and they relatively were the same complaints." Since then, on President Trimper's advice, they had gone to the Liquor Board, where Buddy Jenkins "told the Electric Circus if the noise didn't stop they would take their license". "Mrs. Scheu has 52 names here from our neighborhood and 48 on the Shad Row and 52 for the Electric Circus." Mayor Kelley: "Didn't you bring a lot of people with you?" Miller: "There are 25 out there and their speaker is not working." Kelley: "Bring them in and they can stand behind the Council." Trimper: "This way you're closer to beat on the heads if they don't do what you want." Miller asked for "some kind of regulatory license like Father Deutsch said the last time" so the town, not only the Liquor Board, could act against "these grandfather clause establishments"; Trimper agreed in principle but said there was "a strong difference of opinion as to whether we have the right to invoke such a license and I think it's still being kicked around by the legal staff". A police captain had spoken to the Blue Dolphin, which "has been a lot better".
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1981 · 1981-10-05
Sunfest 1981, moved from Granville Trimper's donated Inlet Lodge lot to the municipal parking lot, cost the town $32,376 net - $15,123 under a budget already cut to $47,500 - after being $14,000 to $15,000 over the year before
At the regular meeting of 5 October 1981 Mayor Kelley presented Pete Richardson, Sunfest's organiser, with framed photographs: "I've had one complaint the whole time this time and that was on not some bathrooms out there ... No person that's in public service gives any more to anything than Pete Richardson gives to Ocean City." Richardson's report: "the budget that I worked under had been cut from 50 thousand to 47 thousand 500, but I was able to operate with the recovery of rentals and electrical ... with the 61 units under tent and at open spaces and the contribution of a thousand dollars from the Hotel/Motel/Restaurant Association supporting the Cloggers I was able to recover 18 thousand 9 hundred and 13 dollars. Consequently the total figure to operate was 32 thousand 3 hundred and 76, or I finished up under budget 15 thousand 1 hundred and 23 dollars. Compared to last year I recall that we were 14 to 15 thousand dollars over." "We thought we did the right thing moving Sunfest from Granville Trimper's donated land at the Inlet Lodge parking lot of 100 by 300 to the wide lane of 60 by 957 with the 8 lanes out there at the municipal parking lot," with tents and "an additional 20 picnic tables and benches"; "as far as a money making scheme it just never was that." He dated the festival to 1974, "when Thelma Conner and a few of the business people started way back in '74 with Save Six for September at 7th Street they had 18 or 20 booths."
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1982
Harry Kelley ran for governor and lost the September primary with 61,271 votes, and for most of the year President Granville Trimper ran Ocean City — appearing in the record more than three times as often as the mayor
Councilmen Ellis, Harrison, Duggan, Feehley, Deutsch; Councilwoman Conner; Guy Ayres as City Solicitor. A mayor of a town of a few thousand year-round residents standing for the governorship of Maryland is itself a measure of what the resort had become — and the town governed perfectly well without him, which is another.
Mrs. George B. ConnerGuy R. Ayres III
Source · checked 2026-09-02
1982 · 1982-04-05
Asked by Senator Long how it felt about a State bill keeping mopeds out of bike lanes and off sidewalks, the council backed it four to three, its president having called the traffic lane "the slaughter lane"
At the close of the regular meeting of 5 April 1982 City Solicitor Ayres reported a call from Senator Long about a bill, passed by the House and pending in the Senate, that "prohibits mopeds from being in the bike lanes or on sidewalks." President Trimper: "It puts them out in the slaughter lane." Councilman Deutsch recalled the town had once wanted to restrict mopeds and could not, and moved that the council "go on record as being in favor of the bill"; Conner seconded. Trimper: "We better increase our ambulance force." Councilman Harrison: "whether how you feel about mopeds or not, they're going to be in the town ... they oughta be in the bicycle lanes, I can't go along with supporting that bill." Ellis: "I agree with Hale, don't mix um up with the cars." Ayres explained the bill let the State Highway Administration post particular bike lanes as open to mopeds, so the town could ask for Coastal Highway afterwards. Captain Cropper noted that because of the engine size a moped "is not considered a motorized vehicle." On a show of hands: "Four. Opposed? Three." Trimper: "Ah, gee, I have mixed emotions on this." On 7 September 1982 the police report to council counted two moped accidents over the Labor Day weekend.
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1982 · 1982-10-21
After the municipal election of 19 October 1982 George Hurley and Leighton Moore were sworn in beside a re-elected Mayor Kelley, Harrison and Feehley left the council, Trimper was returned as president and Ed Ellis, said to have polled more votes than any councilman in the town's history, was made secretary
The clerk's minutes of the special session of 21 October 1982 record Mr. Sterling of the Election Board certifying "the vote tally from this past Municipal Election held this past Tuesday" and Warne C. Littleton, Clerk of the Circuit Court for Worcester County, administering the oath ("You do declare your belief in the existence of God ...") to Mayor Kelley and Councilmen-elect Hurley and Moore. City Solicitor Ayres: "Candidates Moore and Hurley can't vote yet since they haven't been sworn in." Duggan moved and Ellis seconded that Granville Trimper continue as president; Trimper: "I figured after the last two years I didn't have a chance." Kelley congratulated "the new Councilmen, Ed Ellis and George and Leighton and the re-election of Father," thanked "Hale here and Mr. Feehley," and nominated Ellis for secretary because "he polled the highest number of votes of any Councilman that's ever run in the history of Ocean City and I feel that giving him a helluva lot of work is a reward for doing that." Trimper listed the vacancies: Harrison's seat on the Police Commission, Feehley's on the Convention Hall Commission and as liaison to the Coastal Resources Advisory Commission, and "several new replacements" on the Planning and Zoning Board. The vote tally is referred to but not transcribed in the minutes. The IQM2 index files this document under 24 October; the minutes themselves are dated 21 October.
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1982 · 1982-11-01
Two Mormon missionaries who found too few people behind Ocean City's doors asked for a small display on the Boardwalk and were refused, the council citing its rule against everything but the Caroline Street pad and its trouble with the Hare Krishnas
At the regular meeting of 1 November 1982 President Trimper read a letter: "We are missionaries for the Mormon Church and are new to the Ocean City area. We would like to familiarize the people in this area with our church by setting up a small display on the Boardwalk where people can ask us questions and take written information on the church." Sister Jenson, 735 Bradley Road: "usually we can go door to door and talk to people but since there aren't too many people behind the doors around here, we're trying to think of different ways to contact people." Trimper: "it has always been the policy of the Mayor and City Council to refuse all the requests for placing anything on the Boardwalk whether it be religious business or whatever other than on the pad which we have at Caroline Street." City Manager Barrett recommended denial. Mayor Kelley, "a very lazy person as far as going to church," argued for a hard look "in a world that is as sick as it is when you've gotta call Halloween off," adding "we've had the Hare Krishnas which the Mayor fought, went all the way to court." Trimper: "we've had some rather aggressive religious organizations come into town ... to be consistent, my suggestion would be that we say no to all of them." Councilwoman Conner suggested the Ministerial Association. Moore moved to deny, Conner seconded, and the request was denied.
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1983 · 1983-12-19
The mayor invited the town to the Christmas tree celebration the city had started on the beach, with a train ride with Santa Claus from South First Street and hay rides for the children, and recalled the first year, when Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus were brought ashore by boat through breaking surf
Mayor Kelley on 19 December 1983: "I hope that you all can attend the Christmas tree celebration which we have started on the beach ... to me that beach is the greatest thing that happened." It was set for Wednesday evening at six; "you all have been invited to ride the train along with Santa Claus," loading at South First Street. "I think Ed, the most fear that I have ever had in my entire life was the first year we had it and we brought Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus ashore with those boats, I thought ... the waves were breaking big and I could just see Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus in that ocean." President Trimper: "Boy, what publicity, Mayor Kelley drowns Santa Claus. (LAUGHTER)." Kelley: "It was a great idea to start Christmas on the Beach because the beach is our bread and butter and to think that we are going to have it at night when the tree can be lit ... We changed that and decided to bring Santa Claus up another way." Trimper: "This year there will be hay rides for the kids." Councilman Hurley asked that radio stations 96 and 104 announce it for people who could not get to the paper stands. Mrs. Miller, the recording secretary, had sent chocolates and cookies down the council table.
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1983 · 1983-12-19
Delmarva Power and Light let the town hang its Christmas decorations on its poles in 1983 only on condition they stayed unlit, citing union men who would refuse to climb a decorated pole - "Scrooge takes over," said the council president
Councilman Duggan on 19 December 1983: "I hope next year we improve on the Christmas decorations (APPLAUSE and CHEERS FROM PRESIDENT TRIMPER) I honestly think they are very, very poor." Councilman Moore: "Wait a minute, D.P.&L won't let us put them up on the poles?" Trimper: "They would not, but they finally agreed they could be put up but not lighted." City Manager Barrett: "they claim, union problems, the man will go there and refuse to climb the pole if the Christmas decorations are on it and they have other problems with running electricity to it, however, I must say that after yelling at them they were happy to do it in the spirit of Christmas and they did allow us to put the decorations up on the poles unlighted and they assured me that we can work something out for next year." Trimper: "every other little town in the country is allowed to put them on D.P.&L light poles and they are lighted in every other little town but in Ocean City because of our unique situation I am sure, Scrooge takes over and we don't get the lights lit ... They are pretty decorations, but you can't see them." Duggan: "Well, what I can't see, I don't like."
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1983 · 1983-12-19
Councilman Deutsch closed the year by reading his "letter to Santa" for his colleagues - a rezoning of the whole town to R-1 for Ellis, a $1.75 million bond issue for Christmas decorations for Trimper, and a million dollars a month for jetties for Kelley, hand-carried by two state officials "dressed in filter cloth"
At the last meeting of 1983, on 19 December, Councilman Bernard Deutsch - who had just said EPCOT "makes Bush Gardens down in Williamsburg look like Trimper's Rides" - read the council what he had "put into my letter to Santa Claus for you all." For Ed Ellis, "yet another comprehensive rezoning changing all of Ocean City to R-1 except for three existing Exxon Stations and four new ones on sites currently operated by 7-11." For George Hurley, "a legal name change, so that never, never, never again will his honorable name be mistaken for that of George Feehley" (the year's most persistent budget critic). For Leighton Moore, "all existing political campaign posters, signs, flyers ... so that he might complete his long dreamed of plans for additions to the Gateway." For Thelma Conner, "three bills guaranteed of passage in the respective legislatures of Maryland, Delaware and Virginia, outlawing all disposable beverage containers and the type of people who dispose of them." For Lee Duggan, "a life appointment ... to the position of Super Chief presiding over the Police Department, Fire Marshall, Fire Department, Ambulance Corp." For Granville Trimper, "a new bond issue for one million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars to be used solely for Christmas decorations ... set in place around the town of Ocean City each year on Labor Day and to be removed the following Memorial Day." And for Mayor Kelley, "a State appropriation of one million dollars monthly for Ocean City jetties, the check to be hand carried on the first of each month by Zeni and Casanova, both dressed in filter cloth (LAUGHTER & APPLAUSE)."
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1985 · 1985-02-21
Harry Kelley died in office after fifteen years as mayor, and the council voted unanimously to pay for his funeral in a special session that also required a budget amendment
The minutes do not eulogise; they show the shape of it. On 21 January Kelley chairs, as he has since 1970. On 4 February the attendance line reads "ABSENT: MAYOR HARRY W. KELLEY," and President Trimper reads the American Heart Month proclamation "in Mayor Kelley's absence" — a proclamation about a disease that "this year will kill nearly one million Americans." On 21 February, in special session: Councilman Ellis — "In view of recent events and the death and the loss of the Mayor, funeral expenses are… I think the Council has voted to go ahead, unanimously by the way, and pick up the Mayor's funeral expenses. It's going to require an amendment to the budget." Councilman Duggan: "Do you have any idea of the cost?" City Manager Barrett: "I've got a ball-park figure… I will not get the bill — the funeral home has not tendered us a…" Mayor Trimper: "I think you might as well wait until you have the final figures and then announce it." By that session Granville Trimper is Mayor and George Hurley is President.
Source · checked 2026-09-02
1986 · 1986-01-06
The council met fifty-two times in 1986 — the first year it sat weekly — and opened the year by lifting a building moratorium
"DISCUSSION ON BUILDING MORATORIUM … Then I think we probably need a motion to go ahead and lift the building moratorium." Mayor Roland E. Powell in his first full year; Council President Granville Trimper; Councilmen Duggan, Meehan, Moore, Ellis, Trumpower, Hurley; City Manager Anthony W. Barrett; City Solicitor Guy Ayres III; City Engineer Dennis Dare; City Planner Jesse Houston; Zoning Administrator Blaine Smith; Clerk/Treasurer Sheldon Dietert. In 1946 the council met thirty-one times; in 1957, forty; now every week of the year.
Rick MeehanAnthony W. BarrettDennis W. DareGuy R. Ayres IIIJesse Houston
Source · checked 2026-09-02
1986 · 1986-03-17
A circuit judge in his sixth year on the bench told the council he could not recall a single child from the Ocean City soccer programme ever appearing before him in juvenile court, and described the six-to-nine all-stars losing the Ocean City Invitational final on a penalty kick after two sudden-death overtimes
Judge Cathell opened the regular meeting of 17 March 1986 wearing a green badge ("I'm Welsh ... after you all have St. Paddy's Day we go into depression and write poems"). On the North Ocean City Recreational Program's youth soccer, five or six years old by then: "Another benefit of youth soccer is that the kids are off the streets ... I cannot recall - and I'm in my sixth year on the bench - and I cannot recall ever having a kid before me in Juvenile Court who was in the Ocean City Soccer Program." Mr. Ayres's, Mr. Barrett's and Mr. Dare's boys were in it. Of the Ocean City Invitational: unbeaten against Greenbelt, Indian River and Easton going in, "At the end of the first half the Ocean City All-Star team was behind 3 to 1. At the end of the whole game we were tied, 3 to 3 ... at the end of the second death overtime with Greenbelt it was still tied. We went into one kickoff and we got beat by the last kicker in the kickoff ... these are kids 6 to 9 years old." He read the all-stars' names, and Will Cathell of the league-champion Barracudas handed a trophy to Council President Trimper ("Are you Yugoslavian?") for the trophy cage at the Recreational Complex.
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1986 · 1986-06-16
The Worcester County NAACP asked to march the boardwalk on 5 July 1986 over equal opportunity in private employment in Ocean City, and the council president answered "Welcome. Come along."
At the regular meeting of 16 June 1986 David Honig, counsel for the Worcester County branch of the NAACP, with branch president Catherine Walston of Pocomoke City and march committeeman James Purnell of Berlin, proposed "a peaceful, non-violent and patriotic march on the 5th of July" from 27th Street to the Inlet - not the 4th, "because we were afraid there'd be too many peculiar people out looking for the fireworks." They expected 100 to 150 marchers from NAACP Region 7 and branches from Baltimore to the District of Columbia, a 10 a.m. prayer meeting at St. Paul's Church first, every marcher carrying a small American flag, no more than four abreast, led by Joe Purnell of the American Legion. Asked by Councilman Ellis why the town's parade policy confining parades to Baltimore Avenue should not apply, Honig said "the issue that we'll be speaking to in this march, is equal opportunity in private employment in Ocean City and it is particularly businesses on the Boardwalk that we want to observe us marching before." Trimper asked what the signs would say: "equal opportunity is the American way, that segregation is not ... we won't tell all the tourists to go home." Duggan asked for three abreast; Walston agreed. Trimper: "Okay, any objections or problems? Welcome. Come along." On 15 September the council passed Resolution 1986-12 supporting an Ocean City Opportunity Council of nine - three town, two county, four NAACP appointees, all Worcester County residents, with an annual report and audit - which Councilman Moore described as training people who want to work in Ocean City "so that they can get and maintain a job."
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1986 · 1986-07-07
Told the council had agreed to license cats, the council president asked who was going to catch them, naming an old bobtail at the end of town that looked like it had been through the war
Regular meeting of 7 July 1986, after the solicitor's business. Councilman Duggan: "I believe at a Work Session we all agreed that animals, specifically cats, will also be licensed. I haven't seen anything." City Solicitor Ayres: "It wasn't at a Work Session that I was at ... About licensing cats? We'll license them at the next meeting." President Trimper: "You're gonna license cats?" Ayres: "I guess." Councilman Ellis: "No, we're gonna license cats, if we approve it." City Manager Barrett: "The Mayor and City Council's going to license cats." Duggan: "We voted on it." Trimper: "Okay. Who's gonna catch 'em? They're running around down at the end of Town there and I want to see some of you license 'em. There's an old bobtail cat there and it looks like he's been through the war." No cat-licensing ordinance appears in the remaining 1986 minutes; the word surfaces again only on 20 October, when Ellis told the retiring Councilman Moore they had "fought over issues from time to time like cats and dogs."
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1986 · 1986-08-18
Hurricane Charley passed Ocean City on the night of 17 August 1986 with shelters open and the television out, and the council's verdict the next evening was a successful preparation for a minor storm
The regular meeting of 18 August 1986 was held the evening after the storm. City Manager Barrett: "I'd just like to extend my appreciation and thanks to the Volunteer Fire Company, the Ladies' Auxiliary and of course our own City employees and to you for the work that was done over the hurricane period." Council President Trimper: "I also think the State Police, the State agencies, the County agencies deserve a great deal of credit and I think it's fortunate that the storm was as mild ... The School Board opened the shelters, the Social Services Department ... I too would like to compliment everybody who took part in what turned out to be a successful preparation for a minor storm." Councilman Hurley asked that the town "publicly thank the media for helping us last night. Especially the radio stations. I know that I've talked to two or three people on the phone last night and apparently it is a very lonely situation in some buildings with the wind howling outside and they're down here strange and the TV's out and they don't know anything and had it not been for some of the radio stations they would have been lost." Mayor Powell: "The news media was excellent." On 1 September Trimper reported a plaque from the Hotel-Motel Association "in their appreciation of the work of the Mayor and Council during the hurricane", announced over WBAL Radio, and the mayor said the beach "has grown fifty to sixty feet and more than that since the storm, Charley, already."
Ocean City Volunteer Fire DepartmentRoland E. "Fish" Powell
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1988
The year the sand was actually pumped is recorded here from forty-eight sets of council minutes and nothing else
About 1.67 million characters. Mayor Roland E. Powell; Council President Granville Trimper; Councilmen Feehley, Hurley, Meehan, Steckman, Trumpower, Hall; City Manager Anthony W. Barrett; City Solicitor Guy Ayres III; City Clerk Carol Davis. The environmental groups whose objection Hurley describes are known to this record only through the mouths of the men who waited them out.
Rick MeehanA. C. DavisAnthony W. BarrettGuy R. Ayres III
Source · checked 2026-09-02
1988 · 1988-02-01
The beach photo franchise, which had brought the town $56,000 a year, drew four-year bids of $324,900, $300,001 and $294,527 from three members of the Ferrante family - and a one-dollar bid, a stick of gum and a quarter
Bid opening for the Beach Photo Franchise, regular meeting of 1 February 1988: three franchises, each free to work the whole beach, four-year terms. Councilman Trumpower read the envelopes: John W. McDowell of Rehoboth $116,215; Jeff S. Bacon "$1.00 per year for a total of four years" written "on a cocktail napkin ... No, it's toilet paper" with a check for 80 cents; "One piece of gum... no price included"; an empty envelope; a bid of one cent a year with a quarter enclosed - "A little something for yourselves"; Richard Evan Wallace $164,457; Steven Opalensky $188,020; Eric Ferrante $208,000; Todd Ferrante $300,001 with a cashier's check for $60,000; Keith Lodowski $92,000; Kathleen O'Malley Ferrante $294,527; Greg Ferrante $324,900; Daniel Benson $140,744; Paul Bryant Fleming $155,999.92; Joseph Appel $180,808; Anthony Girandola $134,844.04. Trimper: "I think I'm going to sell the roller coaster and buy a camera." Steckman noted the packet showed total revenue from the three existing franchises as $56,000 a year, against "over $900,000" for the three high bids, "almost 2 cents on the tax rate." The council awarded the franchises to Greg, Todd and Kathleen O'Malley Ferrante unanimously; the vehicle vending franchise went the same night to Remo Ferrante at $108,200 for four years.
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1988 · 1988-10-20
Council President Granville Trimper finished fifth in the October 1988 election with 913 votes, tied with Hank Westfall, and George Hurley was elected president over Rick Meehan by four votes to three
At the organizational special session of 20 October 1988 Lucy Gaffney of the Board of Election Supervisors read the results of the Tuesday election: "Roland E. Powell for Mayor - Total 1,495; for Council: Brent Ashley - 254; Vincent Gisriel, Jr. - 1,146; Sally S. Hacking - 1,132; James S. Hall - 1,262; Richard W. Meehan - 1,217; Granville Trimper - 913; Henry B. Westfall - 913." Four seats were filled; Trimper, president through the whole beach-replenishment fight, was out. Councilman Steckman: "We had a virtual 60% turnout." Steckman nominated Meehan for president; the vote was four to three for Hurley, who said he hoped "to fill the seat of a big man who sat here before who certainly had my respect. I sort of hate to see him go." Meehan was elected secretary unanimously. Mayor Powell: "Most of all I guess we've all got to thank God that we have made it through this election ... no name-calling or anything of that nature." On 7 November Councilman Feehley, noting that the Charter leaves a tied election to the new Council, moved for a run-off election instead; the Solicitor agreed the Council deciding was "an almost untenable situation".
Rick MeehanVincent Gisriel Jr.Roland E. "Fish" Powell
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1989
Vincent Gisriel, Jr. — the private citizen who had stood at the podium in 1987 and 1988 taking the capital plan apart — took a seat on the council, and Granville Trimper left the chair he had held through the whole beach fight
Mayor Roland E. Powell; Council President George Hurley; Councilmen Feehley, Hall, Meehan, Steckman, Councilwoman Sally Hacking, and Councilman Vincent Gisriel, Jr. Gisriel had argued for tax relief on beach easements in February 1987 and warned about fifty million dollars of bonds in February 1988; he is now on the other side of the rail. Trimper had been president through the Trident Report, the governor's opposition, the emergency ordinances and the dredges.
Rick MeehanVincent Gisriel Jr.
Source · checked 2026-09-02
1989 · 1989-04-17
The town gave a free reception with hors d'oeuvres and cocktails for former Council President Granville Trimper, "someone who gave eighteen years of service to this Town", in the lower hall of the convention centre he had been influential in building
Councilman Steckman announced at the regular meeting of 17 April 1989 that after the Sunday town meeting on the land-use plan and capital budget (2 to 4 p.m. at the Convention Center), "roughly after 4 or 4:15 there's going to be a reception to honor someone who gave eighteen years of service to this Town and that is former Council President Granville Trimper. The reception will be held in the lower hall of Convention Center which Mr. Trimper was very influential in having built or constructed which has certainly benefited the town in the past year and it's been open a year and a half. There'll be a reception with hors d'oeuvres and there will be cocktails. It is free... someone who deservedly will get a very nice surprise and we have some things planned for him and I certainly hope to see a big turnout." The date and time had first been announced on 3 April. Trimper had left the council at the end of 1988, having chaired it through the whole beach-replenishment settlement.
Source · checked 2026-09-10
1995
The Convention Center Feasibility Committee had sixteen members and Granville Trimper among them — the man who presided over the entire beach fight now sitting as a private citizen
Chaired by John Staley, the committee reported in January and the bond ordinance followed in July. Trimper had been Council President through the Trident Report, the governor's opposition, the emergency ordinances of 1988 and the dredges. Gisriel is back on the council this year, having spent 1993 attacking it from outside.
Roland E. Powell Convention CenterVincent Gisriel Jr.
Source · checked 2026-09-02