Harry W. Kelley

In the record (95)

1. 1936 · 1936-08-20

   The 1936 Ocean City Beach Patrol, named: seven men, four of them local, appointed by the Mayor and Council

   'The Ocean City Beach Patrol Squad of seven members, appointed by the Mayor and Council this summer, are doing splendid work in making bathing in the surf safe for visitors and in looking after their welfare,' the Democratic Messenger reported on 20 August 1936. 'Those in the Patrol are: Gary Todd, Thomas Dukehart, of Baltimore; Robert Craig, Wilmington, Del.; James Parker, Collins Elliott, Milton Connor and Harry Kelly, all of Ocean City. All of the seven members of the patrol are expert swimmers.' Three of the seven were on the beach the year before: the 1935 minute book names Harry Kelly, Conner and Bill Purnell among the town's lifeguards. Harry Kelly would be mayor of Ocean City from 1970. — 1937 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [confirmed]: The patrol went from seven to nine in 1937 and the campaign now holds two more rosters. On 24 June 1937 the Democratic Messenger reported the increase and named 'Captain of the 1937 beach patrol is Harry Kelley, of Ocean City. Other members engaged to date are as follows: Collins Elliott, Milton Connor, [Ja]mes Parker, Franklin Savage, Edward Lee Carey, of Ocean City; Robert Craig, Wilmington, and Gary Todd, of Baltimore.' On 2 September ten men took medals for passing the final life-saving tests: Franklin Savage, Gary Todd, Thomas Dukehart, Collins Elliott, Samuel Moore, William Purnell, James Parker, Robert Craig, Toby Fields and Capt. Harry Kelly. Five of the 1936 seven reappear. ⚠ THE SAME ARTICLE DATES THE PATROL'S FOUNDING TO 1928 — 'the Mayor and Council, which established the unit of lifeguards nine years ago' — against the 1930 the campaign has carried. The council's own minute of 7 June 1937 says the increase was two men, not three.

   The BeachOcean City Beach Patrol

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

2. 1937 · 1937-06-24

   The Ocean City Beach Patrol went to nine men in 1937 under Captain Harry Kelley, and ten of them took medals in September

   'To Increase Ocean City Beach Patrol To Nine Members', the Messenger reported on 24 June 1937: three new men were being added to 'the unit of lifeguards' the Mayor and Council had established 'nine years ago', with operations to begin 1 July. 'Captain of the 1937 beach patrol is Harry Kelley, of Ocean City. Other members engaged to date are as follows: Collins Elliott, Milton Connor, [Ja]mes Parker, Franklin Savage, Edward Lee Carey, of Ocean City; Robert Craig, Wilmington, and Gary Todd, of Baltimore.' At the end of the season, on 2 September, 'Ten members of the Ocean City Beach Patrol, all of whom passed final life saving tests, were awarded medals as follows: Franklin Savage, Gary Todd, Thomas Dukehart, Collins Elliott, Samuel Moore, William Purnell, James Parker, Robert Craig, Toby Fields and Capt. Harry Kelly.' Twelve names for a nine-man patrol: Dukehart, Moore, Purnell and Fields joined during the season, Connor and Carey are not in the September list. The council's own minute of 7 June — 'Motion was made & carried that life Guard be increased by 2 men' — is the same decision seen from the inside, and it says two rather than three. The county paper adds who taught them and under whose flag: 'The entire Beach Patrol at Ocean City received instructions in life saving. These were, Franklin Savage, Gary Todd, Thomas Dukehart, Collins Elliott, Samuel Moore, William Purnell, James Parker, Robert Craig, Harry Kelley, Toby Fields ... The Berlin group received buttons and the Ocean City Beach Patrol received medals for passing the final test. These classes were given under the direction of Mr. L. Grant McCubbin, and were part of the nation-wide water safety campaign carried out by the American Red Cross. Instruction was given at Public Landing from 9:30 A.M. to 11:30 A.M. and at Ocean City from 2:30 P.M. to 4:30 P.M.' Ocean City's lifeguards in 1937 were therefore certified not by the town that paid them but by a national voluntary body, in an afternoon class on their own beach.

   Ocean City Beach PatrolL. Grant McCubbin

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

3. 1970 · 1970-07-29

   Hugh Cropper did not run again after a decade as mayor, filing instead for County Commissioner — and filed for a Council seat the same week Robert Jackson filed for mayor

   "Voters in Ocean City will go to the polls to elect a new mayor and four Councilmen with a large turnout expected from the 1,600-plus registered voters. A new face in the Mayor's office is assured as Mayor Hugh T. Cropper Jr. will not run. He will be running for County Commissioner against Louis J. Hickman." The three candidates as the paper introduced them: Robert B. Jackson, two four-year terms on the Council, the last as secretary, fifty-six, forty years in Ocean City, outdoor advertising and apartment rentals; Harry W. Kelley, sixteen years on the Council, four of them as president, a native of the town with several business interests; and Josh Richardson, who resigned from the Council after two years in order to run, owner of a market, seven years in the town. Kelley won — he is mayor in the 1972 minutes — but the result was not found in the pages read.

   Hugh T. Cropper Jr.

   Source · checked 2026-09-02

4. 1971

   1971 is Harry Kelley's first full year as mayor, having succeeded Hugh T. Cropper Jr. — which answers the question the 1970 minutes left open

   The 1970 file records three candidates for the mayoralty in July 1970 — Robert B. Jackson, Harry W. Kelley and Josh Richardson — and notes that the result was not found in the pages read. Kelley had sixteen years on the Council behind him, four of them as president. He would govern the boom, the dune-line war, the casino refusal and the beach bond until his death in office in February 1985.

   Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.

   Hugh T. Cropper Jr.

   Source · checked 2026-09-02

5. 1972

   Forty-nine meetings produced about 2.4 million characters of minutes — more than double the 1964 volume from two more meetings, because the town had begun transcribing sessions verbatim

   Mayor Harry W. Kelley in his second year; Council President Trimper for the first part of the year and President Powell by December; Councilmen Cropper, Frame, Purnell, Richardson and Showell; Attorney Cathell as City Solicitor and Miles Allgood as City Engineer. The decision to transcribe verbatim is why the December dune session survives as an argument rather than a resolution.

   Source · checked 2026-09-02

6. 1972 · 1972-04-03

   The council polled itself on metering the City Hall parking lot at ten cents a half hour, with meters reckoned at about $90 apiece for 60 spaces, over the mayor's objection

   At the 3 April 1972 regular meeting the council debated resurfacing and metering the lot behind City Hall. Mayor Kelley: "I'm against it, but I'll live with whatever you do." Councilman Cropper asked "How much will the meters cost?" - "No one could answer exactly, one thought $90 a piece, 60 spaces, you figure you've got $150 in each space, $5,400 total." Kelley: "You're not talking about 6 or 8 cars, everybody parks there that comes to City Hall. I don't see where you're going to benefit that much." President Trimper polled the councilmen: "Bill? 'I want it metered, 10 cents for every half hour, have a place for employees. After 5 o'clock the meters become alive.' Johnny? 'That suits me', Warren? 'likewise'."

   Source · checked 2026-09-10

7. 1972 · 1972-06-19

   Every councilman went on record against an evangelistic concert on the beach north of the pier, then voted the Navigators half a block of beach east of the parking lot on condition the amplifiers faced the ocean

   At the regular meeting of 19 June 1972 (meeting 32; the document is filed in the index under 17 June), item 4, John Robertson of the Navigators, "[an inter]denominational Christian Organization working primarily with students and servicemen", asked to repeat the previous year's evangelistic concert at the Santa Maria Motel "on the beach or some other area", Friday 18 August, 8:30 to 10:00, amplified, "just north of the pier on the beach as this seems to be the center of activity." The poll: Purnell "I'm opposed to it on the beach"; Showell "I'm against this too"; Frame "I'm against the beach"; Trimper "I've already said I'm not"; Powell "I guess I go along with - beach"; Cropper "I'm against the beach." Mayor Kelley: "Let's establish something, is the Council in agreement that we're going to get them a place?" Everybody concurred. Councilman Powell moved "that we allow them to use the first half-a-block on the beach, east of the parking lot", with Attorney Cathell's stipulations "as far as a precedent is concerned": "no handbills, no collections, no admission charges, amplifiers turned towards the ocean, and that the beach be policed by the Police Department. This will not run past 10:00 PM."

   Roland E. "Fish" Powell

   Source · checked 2026-09-10

8. 1972 · 1972-07-17

   After a newspaper headline called it a rock concert, the council president reversed the Navigators' concert permit by telephone and the council then refused them the Little League field three votes to four, over the mayor's plea that he could not in good conscience turn them down

   On 3 July 1972 the Navigators had been granted Art Davis's parking lot at Baltimore Avenue and 7th Street for Friday 18 August. At the 17 July regular meeting, item 6, John Robertson "was advised the President of the Council had telephoned all but two of the members of the Council and obtained enough votes to reverse the decision", after he had failed to canvass the neighbours. He proposed the Little League football field on 3rd Street instead, with six neighbours' names in support. Councilman Powell: "Did you ever refer to this as a Rock Concert?" Robertson: "No sir, never did, it is not a Rock Concert." Powell: "That is what the headlines said." Councilman Frame: "That is what killed you, the paper blasted you as a Rock Concert." The poll: Powell, Trimper and Showell for; Purnell, Cropper, Frame and President Trimper against; motion defeated. Mayor Kelley: "here is something of a religious nature, here are people that are trying to save other people's lives and I wish it was within the power of the Mayor because I would certainly grant it; I cannot in good conscience turn these people down on this request, I cannot do it." There was "some discussion regarding a veto which cannot be completely discerned"; asked whether any member wanted to change his vote, none did.

   Roland E. "Fish" Powell

   Source · checked 2026-09-10

9. 1972 · 1972-09-20

   The State offered to sell the town Liberty Ships at a dollar apiece to sink off the coast, and the council preferred them as fishing grounds to jetties, which it thought would be an eyesore

   At the organisational meeting of 20 September 1972 "Mayor Kelley presented to the Council, for their decision and consideration, an offer extended to the Town to sell them Liberty Ships to be sunk off the coast of Ocean City at a cost of $1.00/each plus the expense of transporting them to the sites and the expense of sinking same. There was considerable discussion as to their value to the City, where they should be placed, etc. Most Council felt these would be more beneficial for shoaling-up the coast for better fishing grounds as opposed to their use as jetties. The latter considered an eyesore. The Mayor had been requested to give the State a reply by Tuesday A.M.; however, it was the decision of all present this was too great a decision to be made in such a short time." Kelley was to ask for an extension and Councilman Cropper to sound out the Marlin Club. No later 1972 minute returns to the offer.

   Ocean City Marlin Club

   Source · checked 2026-09-10

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" PowellGranville Trimper

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

11. 1973 · 1973-01-17

    Police Chief Lee Duggan and Mayor Kelley put up a $5,000 reward for the arsonist behind the winter's fires

    "Resort Offering Reward Of $5000. Chief Lee Duggan of the Ocean City Police Department has announced that he and Mayor Harry W. Kelley are offering a $5000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons who were responsible for setting the recent fires in Ocean City. Chief Duggan said that all a person has to do is to call 289-5454 and ask for the duty officer. Everything they say will be kept in confidence." Front page, 17 January 1973, a week before the Nordica went.

    Ocean City Police Department

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

12. 1973 · 1973-01-17

    Five weeks after Secretary Coulter asked the town to put its building line behind the dune line, the Board of Natural Resources was suing — and the town said the suits had killed a $3 million beach purchase

    The front page ran it as "State & Local Heads Dispute Dune Line," and the editor set out the town's case in reply to a reader who had accused Ocean City of mismanaging the beach: "We would like to elaborate on Ocean City's 'mismanagement' of the beach area. After consulting with engineers and planners, the Mayor and Council last year established a building limit line along the dune line at the beach. They also set up a Soil Erosion and Sediment Control Ordinance. In conjunction with this they made plans for a public beach. They had $3 million in easements and had worked out an agreement with a federal agency for purchase of the rest of the beach area. Mayor Harry W. Kelley said that they had even been congratulated by the state for their actions. However, the arbitrary suits by the Board of Natural Resources against construction on the dune line has killed the beach purchase program. We wonder just who is doing the mismanaging — it certainly doesn't sound like Ocean City is the one." The county paper's last substantial argument, and it is about who owns the sand.

    Source · checked 2026-09-02

13. 1973 · 1973-02-19

    The Senate Finance Committee voted 10-5 on 19 February to rescind its earlier decision and back the bill restricting oceanside development at Ocean City, after a hearing Mayor Kelley called a closed 'power play' by the Senate president

    "One-Sided Dune Bill Gets Hearing. Mayor Harry W. Kelley of Ocean City said that he was 'very disturbed' about the hearing held by the Senate Finance Committee Monday in which by a 10-5 vote they rescinded an earlier decision and voted for a bill to restrict oceanside development at Ocean City. The decision to reconsider the measure came after an unusual, one-sided hearing at which Sen. William S. James, the Senate president, and James B. Coulter, the secretary of natural resources, testified in favor of the bill. Mayor Kelley said that he and the City Council had been told that the meeting would be a closed one just for the members of the committee. Because of that his people would be unable to attend. Mayor Kelley called this move a 'power play' on the part of the Senate head. The bill would allow the state to protect sand dunes and to prevent commercial and residential development on the seaward side of the dune line." James and Coulter said it was needed "to protect Ocean City from floods during violent storms and to prevent the beaches from becoming overrun with hotels and motels"; Kelley answered that "pumping in sand has no permanent value," citing Rehoboth's losses in the recent storm, and that "the only thing that would hold in a storm is a bulkhead." Front page, 21 February 1973 - the last issue in the run, and the last word the county paper carried on the dune line.

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

14. 1974

    1974 is the first year of the modern era and the first with no newspaper of any kind in this corpus — the county weekly stopped in February 1973, the Coast Dispatch was not founded until 1984 and Ocean City Today until 1993

    Forty-five meetings, forty-five documents, about 1.06 million characters — and all of it is the town describing itself. No account of the season, the visitors, the workers, the county, or anyone who did not attend a meeting. Mayor Harry W. Kelley; President Powell; Councilmen Trimper, Cropper, Purnell, Showell; Attorney Cathell as City Solicitor. The Salisbury Daily Times, 1923-2012, is the single highest-value unopened source in the campaign and needs a library card this researcher cannot obtain.

    Source · checked 2026-09-02

15. 1974 · 1974-02-08

    Ocean City honoured its first Eagle Scout, Joerg Lienemann, at the American Legion Hall on 8 February 1974, with the mayor presenting the award

    President Powell told the council on 4 February 1974 (item 11a): "There will be for the first time in the history of Ocean City an Eagle Scout to be honored at the American Legion Hall on Friday, February 8th. This will be the first Eagle Scout Board meeting and the Scout Master has asked President Powell to extend an invitation to all Council members. Mayor Kelley will present the award to Joerg Lienemann."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

16. 1974 · 1974-06-24

    Twenty town employees - 14 in Sanitation, 5 in Water, 1 in Public Works - staged a sick-out over the weekend of 22-23 June 1974, and a special session voted unanimously to replace them permanently

    Special Session 21, 24 June 1974. Attorney Cathell: "any of the people that did call in sick falsely on Saturday, Sunday and today have violated the official Sick Leave Policy of the Mayor and City Council that was established two years ago, regardless whether or not they are ... members ... of any organization." Mayor Kelley: "I think there were 14 Sanitation, 5 Water, 1 Public Works, we're talking about 20" of "600 personnel"; "they picked the opportune time to strike ... But with everything, with this Council and everybody cooperating, the people of the City didn't even know that they were on strike." One condominium had its water valve turned off at night. The organiser, Kreiner, who Kelley said claimed to represent 30,000 employees, had cancelled a scheduled meeting and telephoned threats "at quarter to twelve"; Kelley said the Governor had called him too, and that he had police at every yard and water station around the clock. Kelley: "they didn't get a raise in five years, and in three years' time it is probably in the 50% area that we've given raises"; "Are you going to let 20 people dictate for the other 580? No way." The council refused a dues check-off and would meet Kreiner only at a public meeting. Councilman Purnell moved "to permanently replace all employees who have violated the official Sick Leave Policy of the Town of Ocean City, Maryland"; Richardson and Showell seconded; unanimous by show of hands. The Water Department's two remaining plant operators had worked the weekend on cat naps, "up at 6 o'clock backflushing and working like dogs." On 5 August Kelley said that "call it strike, call it walkout, call it what you will, since then the boys walk down the street and if a piece of paper blows off the garbage cans they pick it up."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

17. 1974 · 1974-07-01

    A Washington promoter staging a Bo Diddley concert at Convention Hall on 6 July was refused a permit to drive a loudspeaker car through town, after a day of police pulling his posters off the poles

    On 1 July 1974 (item 7) Raymond Lacraw of R&L Productions, 1825 M Street N.W., Washington, told the council: "We're giving a concert July 6th at Convention Hall. And I made an application to Mr. Dietert for a permit to operate a PA System on top of a motor vehicle in the City limits during a respectable time at a respectable volume without verbage, this is music, with signs on the automobile. The music to be presented is not rock, it is jazz." Mayor Kelley: "Are you the one that's responsible for all these things on these poles?" ... "Is it your concert?" Lacraw: "It's my concert." President Powell: "What is the name of your concert?" Lacraw: "DioDada, BoDiddley." Kelley: "We've been picking them up all day long, there's no telling how much you cost us." Powell: "If we find the man who's been nailing them up, we're going to nail him." Attorney Cathell: "You can't get a permit unless the Mayor and City Council expressly grants the permit." Councilman Purnell moved to turn down the request for a public address system on a motor vehicle; Cropper seconded; unanimous by show of hands.

    Roland E. "Fish" Powell

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

18. 1974 · 1974-07-15

    After Captain Bob Craig read his mid-season Beach Patrol report, the mayor put on record that Craig was just past 56 and had given the beach patrol forty years

    On 15 July 1974 (item 8) Captain Craig read his Mid-Season Beach Patrol Report, attached to the minutes but not in the text layer. Mayor Kelley: "I think Bob is just past 56 years old and I think that he has had 40 years on the Beach Patrol. I think he took over after I was Captain and I think that we deserve to recognize that Bob has given this town a great force, lifeguard force, beach patrol, what have you, and it is a source of real pleasure, Bob, to watch your men. You had a decent surf that in July cut down on some of your rescues, but by the same token, the men watch and do prevent with their whistles and their flags a lot of problems that could develop with your rips and your eddies ... the Mayor and City Council wants to compliment you not only on this year, but in all the past years." Earlier in the same item Councilman Purnell reported that "some church organization was selling peanuts on the beach" the previous Saturday, claiming a guard had said it was all right, and Trimper a lighted candy-and-ice-cream van on the beach parking lot claiming a two-day permit for a visiting motorcycle group.

    Ocean City Beach PatrolRobert S. Craig

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

19. 1974 · 1974-08-05

    After two boys' daytime bicycle accidents sent them to Peninsula General, the mayor spoke at length with Governor Mandel about stationing a State Police helicopter at Ocean City for brain injuries

    On 5 August 1974 Mrs. D'Arco told the council: "In broad daylight, I saw two boys have bicycle accidents about three weeks ago ... they were both rushed to Peninsula General Hospital." Mayor Kelley (item g): "the press, the doctors and nurses have contacted the Mayor's office with respect to getting a State Helicopter here for serious brain injuries, etc. I've had occasion to speak with Governor Mandel Wednesday evening in length about it, the Attorney General, a letter has been forwarded also to them, we talked to Tom Smith of the State Police and ... it takes a crew of ten to man one of these State helicopters. Senator Nock is very much interested in it, we've asked the Governor to see if the monies can be appropriated through the legislature. It will be a lot of money we're talking about ... a real, real service that could land right on the hospital in Baltimore to the top brain surgeons in the world." Mrs. D'Arco: "Your ambulance service is fantastic." Kelley: "in some of these emergencies, we feel maybe that a life or two could possibly be saved in the summer time."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

20. 1974 · 1974-10-07

    Crawford O. Savage, the former councilman who had taken a fledgling Councilman Kelley under his wing, died in 1974 before the town could present his plaque, and his son Bill accepted it on 7 October

    Item 1 of 7 October 1974, Presentation by Mayor Kelley: "Bill and Evelyn Savage will you come up? ... at the time we wanted to honor all Councilmen your Dad was alive ... Crawf was certainly interested in this Town. Even the day before he died, he wanted to call us and tell us to stand fast to our guns in respect to our problems with the strike. But I think his blood pressure was so high, his wife Hilda, your Mother, asked him not to do it ... I recall that Crawf was a Councilman when I went in and he kind of took me under his wing. I was a fledgling Councilman and didn't know which way I wanted to go ... He said it is a shame that everybody can't serve on the City Council so that they would recognize the problems and maybe not be so critical of us." The plaque read: "PRESENTED TO CRAWFORD O. SAVAGE IN RECOGNITION AND APPRECIATION OF FAITHFUL AND MERITORIOUS SERVICE AND YOUR OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PEOPLE OF OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND, WHILE SERVING AS A CITY COUNCILMAN."

    Capt. Crawford Savage

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

21. 1974 · 1974-12-02

    A surfers' attorney brought the council a 'Report On Tour Of Surfing Areas' in December 1974, and the mayor said hundreds had surfed every beach after five o'clock all summer without a problem

    On 2 December 1974 Attorney Parolski presented a "Report On Tour Of Surfing Areas" made with Councilman Gordy, proposing a new area 7 comparable to 66th and 67th Streets and "an extension of the hours either between the pier and the jetty, either letting the surfers surf to the left or letting them start at five or maybe ten-thirty or five-thirty"; Mr. Hungerford felt the northern beaches were "pretty empty" by five. Mayor Kelley: "You use all the beaches after five o'clock ... And I mean hundreds of them and nothing was done or said. They enjoyed it. They in fact went up to dark and sometimes a little after dark. There was no problem ... I don't think you ought to start creating one." He asked Parolski and Gordy to bring the material to Captain Craig and the assistant captain, with perhaps Mr. Schoepf at a special meeting, so that "some flags and some other designated signals can be used": "I don't see anything here that deters whatsoever from the pleasure that you all have with surfing. The only thing is that President Cropper and myself are just a little bit too old to do it with you."

    Ocean City Beach Patrol

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

22. 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.

    Granville Trimper

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

23. 1974 · 1974-12-16

    Father Bernard F. Deutsch was sworn in as an Ocean City councilman on 16 December 1974 by the county clerk of court, the first new member since the October reorganisation

    Item 2 of 16 December 1974, Swearing-in of the new Councilman: "Mr. Frank W. Hales, Clerk of Court, Worcester County, Maryland, swore in the new Councilman, Father Bernard F. Deutsch. Mayor Kelley: Father, just for the record, you haven't changed since last night have you? You have plenty of time and can work hard? Councilman Deutsch: Yes, everything is the same." Later in the meeting James Gordon of Public Relations offered "the greetings of the Public Relations Department to Councilman Deutsch and say, sir, that we look forward to your ideas on promotion of the community." The 7 October reorganisation had seated President Elbridge "Newt" Cropper with Councilmen Purnell, Gordy, Frame, Trimper, Richardson and Powell; Deutsch first appears in December, abstaining on one rezoning vote that night. How the seat came open is not in the text layer.

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

24. 1975

    Ocean City's centennial year was recorded here as having no newspaper, and that was wrong: two local papers were publishing and the Maryland State Archives holds both

    The Eastern Shore Times (Ocean City, 1973-1985) is held for 1973-1979 as SC 4414 and the Maryland Coast Press (Ocean City, 1969-1988) for 1969-1980 as SC 5241. Neither has been read. The error was corrected on 2 September 2026 — the same failure that had written off 1957 and nearly deleted four years of the 1970s, in its third costume: an absence recorded through one route and reported as a fact about the world. Mayor Harry W. Kelley in his fifth year; President Elbridge "Newt" Cropper; Councilmen Purnell, Gordy, Frame, Trimper, Deutsch, Richardson, Showell; Attorney Cathell.

    Source · checked 2026-09-02

25. 1975 · 1975-05-05

    Dick Davis and Chuck Michaels presented the council with their song 'Ocean City', said they had sold 5,000 copies, and sang its first two lines from the floor because they had forgotten the guitar

    First item of the 5 May 1975 regular session. Dick Davis: 'in behalf of my co-writer, Mr. Chuck Michaels and myself, the producers and the publishers of the song entitled "Ocean City", I would like to present you with a complimentary copy and I hope that you will play it around the house and dance around... Chuck and I would like to dedicate this song to you, and the Town of Ocean City, and we appreciate your initial interest in it, because without your interest and your encouragement we probably wouldn't have written it.' Kelley: 'It is almost like the fourth grade coming in here... since we don't have the record player in here now you two would sing it for us?' Davis: 'We received our first check today. We sold five thousand copies of this. We delivered [several] hundred copies over at Salisbury... but we forgot our guitar.' The minutes record the two men singing: 'OH! THE SUN IS GOING TO SHINE TODAY, IN THAT OCEAN CITY WAY...' Kelley: 'I will tell you one thing. I like it.'

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

26. 1975 · 1975-05-19

    The town gave first reading to its first general dog ordinance in May 1975, with the Dog Control Officer telling shopkeepers that 'for years Ocean City has been the dog's playground and the beach has been their bathroom'

    Regular session of 19 May 1975, the first reading of what became Ordinance 1975-15, which repealed and re-enacted Article I 'Dogs' of Chapter 23 of the code. Cropper: 'We never had a law period. This is the first law.' Purnell: 'We had a law on the beach Mr. Cropper.' Boardwalk shopkeepers objected; one, Mr. Cessner, asked 'why don't we ban dogs in Ocean City?' Richard Huntington, Dog Control Officer: 'for years Ocean City has been the dog's play ground and the beach has been their bathroom. What we are trying to do is make this town more attractive to the people who come to play in the sand, lay on the sand and spend their money here.' Kelley listed the resorts that barred dogs from beach and boardwalk - 'Asbury, Atlantic City...' - and said his 12th Street lawn was 'a stopping off place for 50 dogs daily': 'I think this is one of the best Ordinances this City has ever passed.' The ordinance let police, beach patrol or the animal control officer seize 'any dog on the public beaches or boardwalks of the municipality whether leashed, under control, or running at large during the period from May 15 to September 15', and by August the police were on the beach at 6 a.m. to catch a repeat offender who swam her dog in the ocean.

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

27. 1975 · 1975-06-16

    The council voted 4 to 3 to keep an old ordinance that made a man on the boardwalk without a shirt guilty of indecent exposure, after the attorney pointed out it only applied south of 27th Street

    At the 16 June 1975 regular session Councilman Deutsch raised the town's indecent exposure ordinance, which the attorney read into the record: it made it unlawful to 'indecently expose his or her person on the boardwalk on Atlantic Avenue', and defined that to include 'the wearing by any person over the age of 10 years of any bathing suits which will consist only of trunks without covering that portion of the body to the waist up.' Cathell: '27th Street south, you are indecently exposed and from 27th Street north you are decent. So I think it would need some amendment.' Nobody could remember whether it had been repealed - 'Someone forgot to throw it out' (Gordy); 'Mr. McCabe made a motion that we not enforce the law' (Purnell). Purnell on the boardwalk: 'you solid see some poor looking shaped men... There are scares and big bellies sticking out there.' Gordy moved to repeal; Frame seconded; it failed 4 to 3 (Gordy, Trimper, Richardson for repeal; Purnell, Frame, Deutsch and Cropper against). Kelley: 'I congratulate you on keeping the Ordinance... making this a family resort.' Cathell was sent away to redraft it.

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

28. 1975 · 1975-08-04

    The town proclaimed Calvin Bancroft 'Steve' Quillin, its first ambulance driver and a 26-year employee, an 'Honored Citizen' and gave him a Key to the City with his name engraved on it

    First item of the 4 August 1975 regular session. Kelley: 'I remember the first ambulance that was bought and you were the first driver, night or day.' The resolution recited that Quillin 'has served the Town of Ocean City and the citizens thereof and sojourners therein, loyally and dutifully for over twenty six years', had supervised 'many public buildings and other public facilities', had been 'active in the Ocean City Volunteer Fire Company as an active member for over 50 years holding many offices', was its treasurer and statistician, and had 'on occasion performed such duties at considerable risks to himself'; 'BE IT PROCLAIMED TO THE WORLD... that Calvin Bancroft (Steve) Quillin be, and he hereby is, acclaimed and proclaimed to be, now and forever after, an HONORED CITIZEN of the Town of Ocean City', his name to be enrolled on the town's 'Honors List'. Kelley: 'we thought of a watch, we thought of a ring, but I believe this is more apropos Steve. This is a Key to the City of Ocean City, Maryland, with your name engraved on it.' Purnell, his liaison for 'the parking meters, the various stop lights in Town and the public rest rooms': 'He does a hell of a job.' Quillin: 'Thank you.'

    Ocean City Volunteer Fire Department

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

29. 1975 · 1975-08-18

    Samuel Stevenson Henry Sr., the contractor the mayor credited with 'most of' the beautification around City Hall, drowned in August 1975 and was buried the day the council stood for a minute of silent prayer and voted him a plaque

    Mayor Kelley, 18 August 1975, after praising the beach patrol for a weekend of 'deceiving surf' with bad rips and undertow: 'I would very much appreciate this Council this evening would pay tribute to a great man that we lost last week, who drowned, Samuel Stevenson Henry, Sr.; who was buried today... By resolution prepared by the City Attorney and put on a plaque to be given to his wife and his family at ceremonies here and include in that a Beautification Committee. I think that Sam Henry did as much in the growth of Ocean City as any man that we could single out. In the beautification and all the things around City Hall, Sam did most of it... I would like all of us here in this room to stand for a minute of silent prayer. Amen.' The council concurred; Kelley told the clerk 'we want a real nice plaque' and asked the Beautification Committee to join the presentation. The March vouchers carry 'Sam Henry & Sons - release of retainage', the firm's last city job.

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

30. 1975 · 1975-10-20

    Bill Ochse got the town's reviewing stand hauled onto the beach at Second Street for a stunt-kite competition judged by the kite's English inventor Peter Powell, who was in the country that week promoting it

    Regular session of 20 October 1975. Mr. Ochse: 'This kite is dual controlled kite with a 75 foot tail and it has this week been declared the official kite of the 1975-1976 olympics in Montreal and hopefully this particular kite will become as popular to Ocean City as the Nantucket kite man is to Nantucket and as the hang gliders are to Kitty Hawk, and my request is that the City Council would be able to provide some sort of platform on the beach at Second Street. We have judges coming. The inventor of this kite which by the way is an English kite, the inventors name is Peter Powell. He is in this country this week promoting his kite, and he among several other people one of whom is Valerie Golden of the Maryland Kite Society and there will be five judges.' He asked for the platform and 'approximately seven chairs for judges and officials'. Kelley: 'I think it's a great promotional stunt... grant Bill this request of putting our reviewing stand up there.' The judges had to sit behind the flyer, downwind, so the stand went on the sand, pulled by the beach tractor 'as they did it for the surfing contest'. Frame asked that the competition be built into the next Festival Week; Ochse said Sunday would be an open fly, 'just flying kites for fun'.

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

31. 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.

    E. Raymond BoundsGranville Trimper

    Source · checked 2026-09-02

32. 1976 · 1976-04-26

    The mayor ordered seven solid-brass lights for City Hall at $700 apiece, down from $1,000, and took the $7,000 out of the fishing-reef programme

    At the 26 April 1976 special meeting Mayor Kelley asked, "Did you all get my memo about the lights in City Hall?" President Cropper: "The ones that cost thirteen hundred dollars." Kelley: "Seven. They cost a thousand ... They are solid brass and we got them down to seven hundred. The Beautification Committee wanted them and they had me ride over, I said order them but I am going to, they are pretty." Councilman Purnell: "I am going to vote against it ... You took my seven thousand out of the Reef Program, I want it back." Kelley: "You'll get it back." The clerk noted that two topics were being discussed at once, Purnell meanwhile reporting that the reef barge was "half full right now" and would be ready Wednesday at 8 o'clock. Cropper ruled that liaison councilmen ran their own departments and the mayor was liaison to City Hall; Councilman Trimper: "We'll call it the Mayor's lights."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

33. 1976 · 1976-08-16

    During the August 1976 hurricane threat the mayor said he took fifty to a hundred calls from the news media in one evening, the governor telephoned personally, and the National Guard and Dover Air Force Base stood by

    At the 16 August 1976 regular meeting, the first after Hurricane Belle passed offshore on 9-10 August, Mayor Kelley reported on "the storm" without naming it: "during the storm from 8:00 until possibly 9:00 that night, our three secretaries here I want to congratulate them ... We talked in the neighborhood of 50 to 100 news media. Now, I don't always do that, but I thought it was important and it worked ... They disseminated that information and people's nerves were calmed ... so I've come to the conclusion now there are 85 percent good people in the news media." "You're looking at a couple of hundred thousand people in this City ... the Governor called personally, he dialed personally and I want you-all to know that. This man put the full resources of the State of Maryland behind us if we had needed them." Civil Defense, the Red Cross, "General Warfield had the National Guards standing by," Dover Air Force Base and the Health Department were named, and "a Mr. Bob Cole whom I've never met in the Miami weather service" was credited with the best information. Two weeks earlier, on 2 August, he had thanked every department for standing by through an earlier storm that knocked out a water pump.

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

34. 1976 · 1976-09-06

    The mayor told the council that twenty-two boardwalk shops had been selling obscene T-shirts, that he had sent the police chief to buy them, and that a woman had complained she could not get her shirt because the shopkeeper took her for a policeman

    Under the mayor's business at the 6 September 1976 regular meeting: "With reference to the 22 shops that have been selling the T-shirts, I feel that we have fought awfully hard to get a family image here ... I think it's utterly ridiculous that we have got to put up with these shop owners that want to put these shirts out in the open for these families and children to see ... And I've asked the Chief to purchase these T-shirts and I think another year that we ought to take a good look at that too, we ought to get some law. I think it's utterly ridiculous just because the Supreme Court, it seems to me that we own these streets in this City." Councilman Purnell: "Mayor, you put the fear of God in them." Chief Duggan: "They've stopped ... a couple of weeks ago ... you could get anything, when I say anything that's exactly what I mean, printed anywhere you want it on any shirt. If you go down there now, we have about 12 more shops to hit ... a woman came up complaining to us that she couldn't get the shirt that she wanted because the owner thought she was a Policeman." Kelley: "If it takes a regulatory license on them, let's put it on them and stop it in another year." President Cropper: "we're going to change those ordinances and try to take their licenses away from them."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

35. 1976 · 1976-11-16

    New York City's parks department sent a delegation to watch Ocean City's beach sanitizer work on 16 November 1976, and Delaware's natural-resources people came to look at the bulldozers

    Mayor Kelley told the 6 December 1976 regular meeting that "the Department of Natural Resources from the State of Delaware has been down here to see our bulldozers. I think they are very much impressed and Bethany Beach has already started the program," and read a letter from Paul J. Trautman of "the group that came down from New York": "We are greatly appreciative of your hospitality, interest, and assistance in helping New York City solve a most costly and vexing problem. The beautiful clean beaches of Ocean City attest to the top notch operation you and your Department of Public Works people have established. The beach sanitizer demonstration on November 16th really impressed the New York City Parks people ... My family and I will visit you next summer and try out your beach first hand." Kelley: "They were most impressed with both our bulldozers and our beach cleaners and they want to get into it." The bulldozer was the $142,000 machine the mayor called "Bully", which he had defended on 16 August: "your money for 142 thousand dollars for that bulldozer was well spent. I just wish I had two."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

36. 1978

    Forty meetings and about 1.74 million characters, with President Cropper giving way to President Frame during the year

    Mayor Harry W. Kelley in his eighth year; Councilmen Purnell, Trimper, Deutsch, Cropper, Frame. The volume of the town's own record has roughly doubled again since 1972 — a boom measured in paperwork as well as concrete.

    Source · checked 2026-09-02

37. 1978 · 1978-03-06

    The February professional tennis tournament sold fifteen to twenty per cent ahead of the year before, and the mayor said a forty-thousand-dollar loss was cheap for 212 television stations

    Two days before the tournament, on 20 February 1978, Councilman Gordy reported "It looks like we're going to be sold-out over the weekend and the players, no last minute cancellations, injuries or second thoughts" and "about 15 or 20 percent ahead" of the previous year's sales. On 6 March Mayor Kelley: "that Tennis Tournament does more to bring this City together cohesive than anyone thing we will do ... Probably the best function we have and we look forward to it in the dead of winter ... If the City dropped 40,000 it dropped $40,000, it's hard to tell, she went over 212 television stations, it certainly didn't cost you very much." On 3 April he admitted "that $41,000 shook me up a little bit."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

38. 1978 · 1978-06-05

    The owners of the Baltimore Colts came to Ocean City for the first time with the Corralling the Colts convention and told the mayor it was one of the cleanest cities they had seen

    Mayor Kelley, reporting on 5 June 1978: "We had the Corraling the Colts parade here and that was just great. That's good for Ocean City and it brings a lot of good business here ... Mr. & Mrs. Irsay were here, the first time they had ever been in Ocean City, the owners of the Colts. And it was great compliments that they had for us. They said it was one of the cleanest Cities he had ever been in and it's their first time here and they'll be back." He set it beside the Catholic War Veterans, in town the same spring, who "all have the same story. Thanks for the beaches" - the bulldozed beaches he was defending that night.

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

39. 1978 · 1978-08-07

    Townhouse owners at 31st Street asked the council to remove the groin built in 1976, saying it had taken their beach, caused a drowning and put the ocean inside their property line

    Owners at Surf Village, between 31st and 32nd Streets on the ocean, came to the council on 7 August 1978 having "protested the installation of the groin at 31st Street" when it was built. Leonard Reamer: "we never had a problem until 1976 when you authorized the groin to go in there ... The minute the wind turned around and came out of the southeast it started cutting our beach ... The water now at highest water is well within our property line, that never happened previously ... we had one drowning up there, who knows what reason it was, but a person drown. Every day you can check the Beach Patrol that had pulls from that area. Today it took four guards to get two people." Dorothy Brown: "we're paying for land under water." Mayor Kelley refused the blame: "It is the Corps of Engineers' permits and the Department of Natural Resources' permits. It is their money to spend ... let's put a little blame where the permits come and where the money is spent," while allowing "Maybe it was a mistake." The owners asked for a resolution requesting removal.

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

40. 1978 · 1978-10-16

    The outgoing council president was given a plaque for four years' service and told by the mayor that he had been put in the two toughest departments on purpose

    Mayor Kelley opened the 16 October 1978 meeting by calling up Elbridge "Newt" Cropper, who had left the council at the autumn election: "There is a certain amount of nostalgia about it serving the people, the ups and downs of a city that make it strong. The fights, the arguments, all of it, you were a part of it. You liked to move - you made things happen. Many times you argued with the Mayor. I put you in two of the toughest departments that there was, but I had a reason and the City is a better place for having had you ... Too many times a city and its people soon forget the services, the hard work, that's human nature, but this Mayor and City Council will not forget you." The plaque was dated 2 October - "it's the 16th tonight" - and honoured "faithful and meritorious service ... for serving as a City Councilman, and President, the last four years." On 20 November the Beautification Committee hung a plaque in the City Hall lobby for Elizabeth Sanford, chairman of the Beautification Committee from 1973 to 1978.

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

41. 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."

    Granville Trimper

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

42. 1978 · 1978-12-04

    A visiting pageant queen was given a Key to the City at a council meeting, and the mayor told her on the record that the framed key cost about twenty dollars

    Rhonda Koch, introduced by pageant organiser Gary Fischer, who said she would "be up for the 1979 finals for Miss Maryland" in Ocean City, was presented to the council on 4 December 1978. Mayor Kelley: "it's our pleasure and our pride to give you a Key to the City, and these are not cheap. It costs about eight and a half to frame them and about eight and a half, so you know, it's a twenty dollar gift ... And we look forward to you participating in our event this year and come down here and crown somebody. I crown all the time." He walked her down the table - "this is Father Deutsch a Catholic Priest. We have a Councilwoman, we've got it all ... and my cousin Santa Claus Purnell" - and the minutes record "(kissing Mayor and all laughing and talking)." Fischer said a request had also gone in for Miss U.S.A. to attend. Councilman Purnell had complained on 3 April that "Every time I go somewhere with him he gives every girl he sees a Key to the City."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

43. 1978 · 1978-12-04

    The council agreed to host a state beauty pageant for one year, and its promoter promised seventy contestants in the surf in March and the first live telecast of a pageant in Maryland's history

    On 6 November 1978 Councilman Trimper moved "that we try it for one year and see and hold the costs at a minimum"; it carried with two opposed, the mayor warning that "it's going to be tight, I see it coming, the tightest year we've ever had" and the council hoping motels would sponsor the girls' rooms and meals. On 4 December the promoter, Sid Sussman, who said he had run pageants for 21 years "from the Fountainbleau in Miami to the Hyatt in Los Angeles," told the council: "in the entire history of the State of Maryland there has never ever been a live telecast of the pageant before ... We're going to televise this thing on a Sunday night live to maybe 5 or 6 million people ... even though it's March, March 25th with the magic of videotape ... it will look like July 20th. And if you don't think we'll have 70 girls in the surf in March, you watch." He had fashion shows for charity and a bowling tournament in the works, and called the mayor "a legendary character" fit to stand with "Vince Lombardi and Joe DiMaggio." Kelley: "I'll look up that word legendary after the meeting."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

44. 1979

    The council debated publishing the budget in the newspaper and decided against it — "as long as it's available for the public to see"

    Councilman Trimper's formulation draws the line where the town had drawn it in 1977 when it wrote its own open-meetings exemptions: access on request rather than access by default. Thirty-four meetings this year. Mayor Harry W. Kelley in his ninth year; President J. Warren Frame; Councilmen Purnell, Trimper, Deutsch, Harrison, Ayres.

    Guy R. Ayres III

    Source · checked 2026-09-02

45. 1979 · 1979-02-26

    During the February 1979 snowstorm the town ran its ambulances behind snowplows, logged 167 police calls, and the mayor commanded from his own house with the heat out

    At the regular meeting of 26 February 1979 Mayor Kelley gave his account of the snowstorm of the previous week: "I used my home for a base, and the heat went out. Now, I wasn't about to come down here on that switchboard, so the Mayor used City personnel, the City fuel oil to get his heater going, and I've paid for it." He had told "the Governor, General Warfield, and Colonel Bradshaw where I'd be" and "got 5 calls from Florida." On the emergency service: "there wasn't anytime that we couldn't have gotten in Montego Bay, gotten a heart attack victim, and we did. We had to put the snowplows in front of those ambulances to move them, but we moved. If anybody looked at it from 10 to 1 on Monday it wasn't fit for man or beast out." "There were 167 calls to the Police Department." "I think you had 134 people in one hotel with frozen pipes, but we could have moved those people." Earlier in the same meeting he told the Ambulance Corps volunteers "I don't believe I've ever received so many compliments." On 19 March he added that "during the snowstorm we had one break-in."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

46. 1979 · 1979-04-16

    Ocean City Elementary's natural history class, grades 2 to 5, reported a $1,200 boardwalk Bike-A-Thon and proposed a 200-square-foot test planting against beach erosion, and the mayor gave them a Key to the City

    The regular meeting of 16 April 1979 opened with "Mrs. Dot Mumford's Natural History Class (students in grades 2-5), reference: Soil Conservation and Tree Planting." Mrs. Mumford reported the Bike-A-Thon the council had helped with: "we have turned about $1,200.00, and I think that's great, and it's the best Saturday there has been on the boardwalk." The children spoke in turn: Terry Fischer explained that Jerry Rechner of the soil conservation office in Snow Hill needed "a test area of about 200 square feet, which you as the Governing Body will choose," with plants from the Cape May material centre at no cost to the town during the test; Michael Pappas named them - beach grass, Japanese sedge, shore shrubbery and Japanese black pine, "used on Assateague Island"; Sue Ellen Vickers gave the school's number, 289-6800. Mayor Kelley: "That's the best speech I ever heard ... let them all come up here, Dot. We're going to give them a Key to the City." The clerk recorded: "The children are coming up and sitting in the Council Members chairs."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

47. 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."

    Granville Trimper

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

48. 1979 · 1979-08-06

    The Golden Plough Restaurant at 45th Street invited the mayor and council to press their hands and feet into its wet sidewalk in the manner of Grauman's Chinese Theater, and a councilman asked how they would get the mayor's mouth in

    Item 2 of the regular meeting of 6 August 1979, "Mr. William Kelly, on behalf of the Golden Plough Restaurant": "On behalf of the 45th Street Golden Plough Restaurant, the owners have asked me to invite you ladies and gentlemen to become a part of perpetuity if you will. They're going to try to enshrine as Grauman's Chinese Theater has, they want to lay blocks of concrete and they want famous people's handprints and footprints ... They're pouring concrete in the sidewalk this week." Councilman Purnell: "yours and my cousin the Mayor he's not famous for his feet or his hands, he's famous for his mouth. How are you going to put his mouth in concrete?" Kelly: "I'm sure it's been suggested that some of the members of this Body be enshrined of their feet in concrete before, but never on dry land." Mayor Kelley settled on Thursday at ten o'clock: "why don't those that plan to do it try to be there at 10:00." Kelly: "They're going to get hopefully famous people from all over the country, so they want to start with this Body."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

49. 1979 · 1979-10-01

    Baltimore's Mayor Schaefer spent three days of Sunfest '79 in blue dungarees under the big top and told the radio station that Kelley was doing "a hell of a good job"

    Pete Richardson's report on the fifth annual Sunfest, 20 to 23 September 1979, delivered at the regular meeting of 1 October: "I'd just like to make a comment about Mayor Donald Shaffer from Baltimore. I took him over to WKHI who was our official voice of Sunfest, and he was interviewed and he said that one thing he like was Mayor Kelley. He said, I certainly think he's doing a hell of a good job here in Ocean City and he said, the festival was an outstanding example of what Ocean City can do as far as festivals. He said, we have one almost every week ... September and October being two beautiful months, and he said, he just loves to come down to Ocean City." The written report entered in the minutes adds: "(Mayor Shaffer in his blue dungarees attended SUNFEST 3 days)" and that he "should know as Baltimore has had plenty of them." Kelley: "They said Mayor Shaffer was very complimentary and had a big time down there." The report claimed Demoflush attendance of "roughly 100,000 people" over the weekend and no-vacancy signs on every open motel from the Route 50 bridge to 33rd Street; President Frame observed that the festival had cost "twice as much as you allotted us."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

50. 1979 · 1979-11-15

    Secretary of Natural Resources James Coulter came to a special session to lay out a stone-groin programme for the whole beach, built in bundles of ten from the south end, and left with a Key to the City he asked the mayor to autograph

    Special session of 15 November 1979. Coulter explained that Maryland's coast policy gave "some twenty-two miles of our coastline on Assateague" to open space and "the northern nine miles, essentially Ocean City," to "high density family recreation-type uses"; that Delaware had been consulted and no work would be done "within a mile of the Delaware border without first discussing the consequences"; and that the town would not be "doing something to the scale of twelve-to-thirteen million dollars all at once" but "a series of groins that will be built perhaps in bundles of ten starting from the southern end ... with appropriations from the General Assembly ... year-by-year." Councilman Harrison: "it's a great day for this Town that this jetty program is finally jelling together." President Frame: "I think the Mayor and Secretary Coulter had a few words back and forth but it's always nice to see them join hands." Mayor Kelley: "You won't believe it I gave him Key to the City and he got out the door (Secretary Coulter), he said wait a minute Harry I want you to autograph it on the back." Councilwoman Conner thanked him "from the business community also."

    Maryland Department of Natural ResourcesG. Hale Harrison

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

51. 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."

    Granville TrimperG. Hale Harrison

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

52. 1980

    Thirty-one meetings, one source, and the last year of the Maryland Coast Press holding at the State Archives — 1980 closes the run that SC 5241 could have supplied

    Mayor Harry W. Kelley; President J. Warren Frame; Councilmen Purnell, Harrison, Laws; Mr. Bounds, Building Inspector. SC 5241 holds the Maryland Coast Press for 1969-1980 and SC 4414 the Eastern Shore Times for 1973-1979. Neither has been read for any year. From 1981 the archive holdings this campaign has identified run out and the newspaper-gap plan turns to Enoch Pratt.

    W. Preston LawsE. Raymond Bounds

    Source · checked 2026-09-02

53. 1980 · 1980-02-04

    Mayor Kelley presented a plaque to retiring Police Chief Raymond Donovan and told the chamber that the department could have been "put asunder by one powerful individual" had Donovan not stood

    Item 1 of the regular meeting of 4 February 1980 was "Mayor Harry W. Kelley, presentation of plaque to Chief Raymond Donovan." Kelley, speaking without notes: "Never once did you say that it was somebody else's fault. You took that responsibility when it wasn't yours ... when the chips were down, when this City could have been destroyed, when a Police Department, an entire Police Department could have been put asunder by one powerful individual, you stood like a man." The plaque read: "Sincere appreciation is hereby extended to you by the people of Ocean City and its Governing Body for your dedicated and distinguished service while serving on the Ocean City Police Force and during your tenure as Chief of Police. From the Mayor and City Council, Ocean City, Maryland, February 4, 1980." Donovan: "Mayor, as you know I write a lot better than I speak ... you're a hell of a man, Harry Kelley." The new chief, Frank Pappas, was introduced at the next regular meeting, 3 March 1980, by President Frame, who was "sorry the Mayor wasn't here."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

54. 1980 · 1980-06-02

    The White Marlin Open's founders asked the town for $12,500 toward a cable-television film of the tournament and were refused in a struck budget year, Councilman Deutsch asking why the town should "make a film to lie about something" after Jim Motsko conceded that Oregon Inlet caught more white marlin than Ocean City

    Item 4 of the regular meeting of 2 June 1980: "Mr. Jim Motsko, White Marlin Open, Incorporated, relative $25,000 White Marlin Open." Motsko said Victory Films of Charlotte, North Carolina, which supplied the American Cable Network, would shoot "5 miles of film" of the tournament at a cost of about $25,000 and go halves if it kept the rights; the town's share would be $12,500. On the tournament: "We had approximately 500 fishermen last year. Approximately 130 boats participate in the tournament. Our accountants tell us that it probably generates close to a quarter of a million dollars in revenue to the Town of Ocean City." He recalled that when the Open began in 1974 "there was a gas shortage ... we came up with a slogan that Ocean City was only half a tank away. Now, this was 1974, and it seems like history is repeating itself." Councilman Trimper: "we didn't even put water pipes or anything else in there." Councilman Deutsch: "for them to hear all of a sudden that $12,500 is available for something that they just heard of tonight I think would be unconscionable ... with or without the film we'll remain the White Marlin Capital of the World." Motsko: "if there is anybody here that knows off-shore fishing they do know that Oregon Inlet does catch more White Marlin than we do here in Ocean City, period." Deutsch: "Then why should we make a film to lie about something?" Mayor Kelley: "We are at a disadvantage, 65 miles compared to 4 in Florida, 17 at Oregon Inlet ... we have cut a lot of things." Ben Higgs offered to put the brothers in touch with NBC SportsWorld, ABC Wide World of Sports or CBS Sports "just as long as we're not committed."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

55. 1980 · 1980-07-07

    Beach Patrol Captain Robert Craig reported that every guard on the beach now held a CPR certification card after two evenings with the paramedics, and told the mayor the patrol had six women guards that summer

    Item 7 of the regular meeting of 7 July 1980, "Captain Robert Craig, Ocean City Beach Patrol": "I would like to go on public record of thanking Larry Buchanan and his crew of paramedics, because as of two or three nights ago all the Beach Patrol have now been completely certified in CPR, and every person on the beach now holds a card for that certification. And Larry and his crew put in two evenings with us. Total of about 7 or 8 hours." He thanked Chief Pappas, Major Ryan and Ted Eschenburg for a session "to try to clarify some things on the beach" and reported "a very full 4th of July weekend very successfully with no major problems." A Run for Fun and a Swim for Fun, a mile each, were pencilled for 21 and 24 July at the south end. Mayor Kelley: "how many ladies do we have working for us?" Craig: "We have six now." Kelley: "Six, well, I think that's great. It shows we're an equal opportunity crowd ... the test is very rigorous, and I've watched the one up there that you had Saturday at 13th Street, and she was real good." Eschenburg recalled that Craig and Kelley had been lifeguards together and that Craig "tried to beat you, but he said, damn if he's have me by 15 strokes every damn time."

    Ocean City Beach Patrol

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

56. 1980 · 1980-09-01

    Delegate William H. Cox Jr. of Bel Air, deputy majority whip and chairman of the House mass-transit oversight committee, came to council to propose a federally funded monorail for Ocean City, and the mayor said he thought the votes were there in the House of Delegates for state money

    Item 2 of the regular meeting of 1 September 1980: "Delegate William H. Cox, Jr., Harford County, Bel Air, Maryland." Cox: "I have served in the Legislature for 10 years and have been on the Ways and Means Committee the last 6, and I've served as the Deputy Majority Whip of the House the last 4. I'm Chairman of the Mass Transit Oversight Committee ... Several months ago I called Mayor Kelley. Harry, I'd like to come down one day and talk with you about the prospects of a monorail system in Ocean City." He had spoken to Speaker Ben Cardin, to Delegate Mark Pilchard and the Eastern Shore delegation, to "the Head of the Urban Mass Transit Administration in Washington, Ted Lutz" ("He said you're springing one on me"), and to Transportation Secretary Jim O'Donnell: "Bill, you know the funds are short, but I'm sure we can work on appropriation monies." "We're going to have to find out if the system is feasible." Mayor Kelley: "Thanks very much, Bill I'll be in touch ... By the way I think we have enough votes in the House of Delegates. We've contacted enough people I think that we could get the State money. Right, Mark?" Delegate Pilchard: "Right ... I'll work with Bill. He's the guy that's taking the lead."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

57. 1980 · 1980-10-20

    A dentist asked the town to apply for federal Center for Disease Control money to fluoridate its water, telling the council 97.2 per cent of Marylanders drank fluoridated water, and the council sent the question to its water-department liaisons rather than appoint a commission

    Item 10 of the regular meeting of 20 October 1980: "Dr. Geoffrey Robbins relative fluoridation of city water." Robbins: "I'm here tonight on behalf of all youngsters in Ocean City ages infants through 12 or 13 in regard to their oral health ... There are funds coming available in April through the Federal Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia to provide money. To not only fund the system, but to carry it through with the necessary chemicals for at least 2 years, and Mr. Neat has talked to them and has found out that Ocean City would be a good candidate." Mayor Kelley: "it was a lady some years ago, I guess maybe 5 or 6 ... At that time I think that the dentists all over the Country were 50/50 as to the value of fluoridation of the water ... To fluoride all your water for this City when we pump somewhere's 10 to 12 million gallons of water per day." Robbins: "Ninety-seven point two percent of the people in the State of Maryland drink fluoridated water ... The extreme Western Shore and the extreme Eastern Shore are your exceptions ... I do see the effect of it when these families move down here. Their decay experience is almost nonexistent compared to the children who live in this area." Councilman Harrison recalled a Water Department estimate of "somewhat on less of the order of $10,000 a year." Mr. Lamphier corrected the mayor: the lady, Ellen Wattay, "objected strenuously." Councilman Deutsch moved that the Water Department liaisons look into fluoridation and bring back recommendations and costs rather than appoint a commission; seconded by Councilman Duggan. Councilman Ayres: "it's not just the dental profession that supports this. You can find that most of your pediatricians support this theory too."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

58. 1980 · 1980-12-01

    The second annual Mayor's Prayer Breakfast at the American Legion Hall was announced for Friday 5 December 1980 with former Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson as speaker, following Senator Harold Hughes the year before

    Item 3 of the regular meeting of 1 December 1980: "Mr. Bill Patton to extend invitation to Mayor and City Council." Patton: "I'd just like to report to you-all that the Second Annual Mayor's Prayer Breakfast shall go on at the American Legion Hall this Friday at 7:30, and I'm here to extend invitations to you-all, everybody listening ... Our speaker this year we're very fortunate, we didn't know if we'd be able to come up with somebody that would be of the same quality that we had last year. You-all that were there last year remember we had Senator Harold Hughes. He did a good job of stepping on all our toes. This year we have the ex-Yankee second baseman, Bobby Richardson. We hope to make this an annual event, and each year we'll get someone from a different segment of our social line and then the next year somebody from the business community." President Trimper: "that's at the American Legion Home Friday at 7:30." Patton: "Seven-thirty in the morning." Mayor Kelley: "They have a good breakfast by the way too."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

59. 1981

    Mayor Harry Kelley launches a long-shot run for governor of Maryland.

    By late October 1981, Ocean City's combative mayor Harry W. Kelley — in office since 1970 after 16 years on the City Council — had declared his candidacy for governor, setting up a Democratic primary challenge to incumbent Harry Hughes. A UPI dispatch of October 30, 1981 refers to events happening 'ever since he declared his candidacy for governor recently,' fixing the declaration in fall 1981. The run ended in the September 1982 primary, where Kelley took 61,271 votes (10.37%) against Hughes.

    The mayor of a 5,000-person beach town challenging a sitting governor is peak Harry Kelley: the man simply did not believe Ocean City was a small stage.

    Source · checked 2026-08-05

60. 1981 · 1981-01-19

    On the night before the Iran hostages flew home, an Ocean City police officer told the council that one of them, Alan Golacinski, had been a summer policeman in the town in 1974 and his own patrol partner

    At the regular meeting of 19 January 1981 - the deal for the release of the American embassy hostages had been announced that day; they left Tehran the next - Officer William (Tiny) Kerns of the police department asked to speak: "I'd like to take this opportunity to inform the public and Mr. Harrison and Councilman Duggan that one of your former employees is a hostage in the Embassy in Iran and will be home, hopefully, within the next week or so and that's Alan Golazinski. Seventy-two-seventy-three he was a summer employee of Mr. Harrison's in the Plim Plaza complex and the following summer Alan Golazinski was a police officer here in Ocean City and worked under Chief Duggan's command and was a police partner of mine at that time. And I hope that maybe he will have the opportunity to be here this summer." Councilman Harrison added that Golacinski was "my fraternity brother from the University of Maryland" and that he had known for months he was among the hostages. Mayor Kelley, in his own remarks that night, noted that "Councilwoman Conner recognized it in her prayer that we all should be extremely happy" and wished "the prisoners of war and other people could be freed as possibly the hostages were." (The minutes spell the name Golazinski; the embassy security officer among the fifty-two hostages was Alan B. Golacinski.)

    G. Hale Harrison

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

61. 1981 · 1981-01-19

    Albert Alford, the former head of the Sanitation Department, died on a Saturday night in January 1981 and the council voted a resolution to his widow rather than only the flowers the mayor had already sent

    Councilman Harrison at the regular meeting of 19 January 1981: "It is with deep regret that I inform the Mayor and City Council that Albert Alford, who was the former Head of the Sanitation Department, passed away Saturday night. His funeral will be this Thursday in Baltimore. I believe it would be appropriate, your Honor, if we did have a Resolution sent to Mrs. Alford for Al's contribution to the City. You know, his brother works for us, for the City, in the Engineering Department and Al always did a fine job for the Town and many of the people from the Sanitation Department will be going up Thursday to Al's funeral." Mayor Kelley: "Well, we've written a letter, Councilman Harrison. We sent flowers. I think the Resolution idea is excellent. He was a tremendous employee, as is his brother. So, if you would get, Ted get us a Resolution, we'll sign that and send that to Mrs. Alford ... It is a sad thing. He gave us his best."

    G. Hale Harrison

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

62. 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."

    Granville Trimper

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

63. 1981 · 1981-04-20

    The Mayor of Salisbury came to Ocean City's council as 'messenger boy' for the Billy Graham Crusade, which wanted to hand out invitations on the Boardwalk on Saturday 30 May 1981, and Kelley gave it his blessing on the grounds that the federal courts would not let him refuse

    Item 4 of the regular meeting of 20 April 1981 was the "Introduction of Mayor Elmer Ruark of Salisbury, Maryland". Kelley: "Everybody here certainly knows the great Mayor of Salisbury, Maryland, Elmer Ruark ... He's Billy Graham's crusader and he's a hell of a Mayor." Ruark - "I come as a messenger boy, you know, more or less" - had been asked by the Baptist Convention of Maryland to deliver a letter from Elwyn E. Cutler, Crusade Director of the Billy Graham Team, dated 8 April: "Dr. Billy Graham and his Team will conduct a Crusade June 7-14, 1981 in Baltimore's Memorial Stadium ... This year the last weekend before the Crusade is Memorial Day Weekend and as you are aware, thousands of persons will gather in Ocean City during those days. The purpose of our appearing before the Council is to respectfully request permission to distribute printed Crusade invitations along the Boardwalk during a three-hour period on Saturday, May 30, 1981. The invitations will be distributed by local Ocean City residents." Councilman Deutsch had looked up Chapter 72 of the code and found soliciting already permitted between 15 September and 15 June. Kelley, having read the letter aloud (and named the team - "Cliff Barrows and George Beverly Shea the singer"): "I don't think we have any problem with it Elmer. But, to be perfectly honest with you I think the Federal Judges have ruled that you can't stop it anyhow ... So, I think we should give our blessings to it with you coming over here. I'd want you to bat a thousand."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

64. 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".

    Granville Trimper

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

65. 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."

    Granville Trimper

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

66. 1981 · 1981-10-30

    Kelley blames political enemies — 'not goblins' — for mystery calls and banging on his apartment walls.

    In a UPI item filed the day before Halloween 1981, the 62-year-old mayor said he had been hearing strange sounds and receiving mysterious late-night phone calls ever since declaring for governor. His two cars had been ransacked and robbed of two gold keys he presented to visiting dignitaries. 'This has got to be a planned strategy,' Kelley said, warning that if he caught the culprit, 'he'll be sorry he messed with Harry Kelley.'

    Source · checked 2026-08-05

67. 1982 · 1982-04-19

    The council stood in silence for John B. Lynch of the Commander Hotel, a former councilman the mayor called a pioneer who had spent his own money promoting the town at travel shows

    After the prayer and pledge at the regular meeting of 19 April 1982 President Trimper asked the chamber to remain standing. Mayor Kelley: "I feel that we've lost one of the great peoples of Ocean City, Maryland ... I think he's one of the greatest men I've ever known, Mr. John B. Lynch that owned the Commander Hotel. And certainly, I want to pay recognition to him, he was a pioneer of Ocean City, owned the Commander Hotel, he was a City Councilman, years and years ago, he took his own money to go away and promote us at the Travel Shows and so forth. He was always a great church man ... I just wish that I could find the words to describe what this city has lost and if we could give some comfort to his family that's left behind to carry on the businesses that Mr. Lynch left here. He was one of the great men that's made Ocean City what it is today, so if we'll just bow our heads in silence and reverence and recognition of this great individual."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

68. 1982 · 1982-10-11

    William Donald Schaefer, Mayor of Baltimore, sat in on a special session of the council as a listed special guest, and told it that east of the bridge was what he called God's country

    The clerk's minutes of the special session of 11 October 1982, 9:30 a.m., list "William Donald Schaefer, Mayor of City of Baltimore, Special Guest" in attendance. Mayor Kelley: "I don't know of a greater Mayor anywhere, in any century than Mayor Don Schaefer. Don, stand up because I also want to say that he promotes Ocean City almost as much he does Baltimore and he's been a great friend to Ocean City, Maryland and he comes down here and he loves to flounder fish and relax and I think he'd like to retire here some time." Schaefer: "I heard you were having a special session so I thought I'd come and watch a good City Council ... When anybody comes to Baltimore, of course, they'll have to come to Baltimore first, but I always mention Ocean City and tell them if you want to go down and get some good fishing and tell them to come on down here ... two different worlds, west of the bridge and east of the bridge and when you cross that bridge, you're in what I call God's country which is Ocean City."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

69. 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.

    Granville Trimper

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

70. 1982 · 1982-11-01

    Reviewing the late-October northeaster the mayor said the winds had been only seven knots with more north than northeast in them, that the beaches had been low around 10 October, and that the town might get back into the jetty-building business

    The mayor's agenda at the regular meeting of 1 November 1982. Kelley: "I'd like to talk about the storm and about the jetties and maybe throw a little political plug in there right at the end of it." He and City Manager Barrett had walked the Boardwalk "looking at the beaches and I feel it's important for the public to know that the jetties had built the beaches up to a real good position but around October 10th, we were low, we were hurting." "About ... 7:30 Monday night, we found out that the winds were only 7 knots which if anybody was up there on the Boardwalk watching the waves come in, they didn't have the wallop, there was more north to it than northeast, had they been more around to the eastward, the waves would have had more of a wallop and we could have possibly had the damage that was south of us and north of us." He doubted the two DNR-designed jetties could be built for "the 300,000 dollars," said "the city may end up getting back into the jetty building business," and urged anyone with friends in Caroline County to help re-elect Delegate John Hargreaves, chairman of Appropriations. Trimper: "That could be called a political plug, right?" The Coast Guard proclamation of 15 November dates the same storm's rescue to 25 October 1982.

    Anthony W. Barrett

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

71. 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.

    Granville Trimper

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

72. 1982 · 1982-11-15

    Eddie Benham, who took up running at 71 in a ten-mile race on Coastal Highway in 1979 and held over five world and twenty national age-group records, was proclaimed Ocean City's Marathon Ambassador of Good Will

    The first business of the regular meeting of 15 November 1982 was a presentation to Ed Benham, who came forward saying "Well, I got my girlfriend here." Mayor Kelley read the resolution: "Whereas, Ocean City resident, Eddie Benham, has distinguished himself as a world champion long distance runner by setting over five world and twenty national records for his age and; Whereas, the ageless Eddie Benham has competed in the famed Boston Marathon as well as in marathons in Baltimore, New York, Washington, Japan, and Whereas, Eddie Benham was named 'Outstanding Masters Athlete' in 1980 and 1981 by the Masters Long Distance Running Committee of the Athletics Congress of the U.S.A., and Whereas, Eddie Benham started his running career at age 71 in Ocean City when he entered his first race, a ten mile jaunt on Coastal Highway in 1979 ... that Eddie Benham be, and he is, hereby, proclaimed to be Ocean City's Marathon Ambassador of Good Will." He was given two copies and a key to the city. Kelley: "The only regret I got is you were running around one day with a George Feehley shirt on." Benham thanked the Coastal Press for its write-up and said "I jog down the Coastal Highway and down at the Ocean ... All I do when I go away is brag about Ocean City."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

73. 1982 · 1982-11-15

    The Mayor and Council proclaimed their appreciation of the Ocean City Coast Guard station for rescuing the crew of the capsized Canadian sailing vessel Scrimage through the inlet in the northeaster of 25 October 1982

    At the regular meeting of 15 November 1982 Mayor Kelley called up Chief Powell: "you look like an old salt ... My father was a Coast Guardsman here at the Ocean City Station." "You took risks beyond what is ordinarily done, that was a rough sea, rough inlet, if the big boat hadn't got out there and you put up with some irregularities when you went out first and then came back in and then went back out again." The proclamation: "Whereas, the Personnel of the Ocean City Coast Guard Station did at great personal risk to their own safety execute successfully a difficult rescue of seamen in the face of much adversity created by gale force winds and tumultuous seas during the recent northeast storm ... Whereas, the lives of the crew of the Canadian sailing vessel, Scrimage, was probably saved due to their weakened condition caused by having already capsized and fought the elements many hours prior to said rescue and Whereas, for over 100 years the personnel of the Ocean City Coast Guard Station and their parent organization at the Ocean City Lifesaving Station have demonstrated their dedication in the saving of lives along the Maryland Coast ... honoring the gallantry and bravery displayed during the rescue of the crew of the sailing vessel the Scrimage on October 25th, 1982." Signed Kelley, Trimper and Ellis as secretary. Chief Powell: "The only thing I can say, we were doing our job."

    United States Coast Guard

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

74. 1983 · 1983-07-05

    Congresswoman Barbara Mikulski and Congressman Roy Dyson flew into Ocean City by helicopter to inspect the inlet, landing on the ball field at half past one on Thursday 7 July 1983

    At the close of his remarks on 5 July 1983 Mayor Kelley announced: "Congresswoman Barbara Milkuski [sic] and our own Congressman Roy Dyson are going to come down here in a helicopter and land in the ball field at one-thirty Thursday, isn't that right Ruth? So they are going to look at the inlet if any of you want to come, you are certainly welcome to see them and talk with them." Recording secretary Ruth Miller: "The police have arranged transportation for them, from the ball field to the inlet." President Trimper: "In an unmarked car." Councilman Ellis, in the week of the parking-ticket complaints: "Maybe they are going to stop and write a few tickets on the way." The visit belongs to the year's campaign for state and federal money for the jetties and the inlet.

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

75. 1983 · 1983-07-05

    The mayor reported the biggest Fourth of July crowd former Mayor Cropper could remember, with "big bombs" going off across town after midnight, thousands sleeping under the boardwalk, and hundreds of parking tickets he thought should have come second

    Mayor Kelley on 5 July 1983: talking with former Mayor Cropper, "who saw a lot of fourth of Julys come and go," both thought "there was more people here" than ever. "I know that the Mayor has never received so many phone calls on parking tickets ... there were some big bombs that went off anywhere from midnight on, I mean all over this city and they were of such velocity and power that they would have blowed an arm off or a leg if they were near anybody. I think the city needs a new ordinance on fireworks of that magnitude. I think we ought to throw a hell of a fine at them ... that priority should have come ahead of parking tickets because there were hundreds given. Now, in addition, this has to be in a sense criticism, there were hundreds, literally thousands of people sleeping here on that boardwalk, Philadelphia Avenue, Baltimore Avenue, sleeping free ... if we let a lot of people sleep under that boardwalk, literally there were thousands under there, then we are hurting ourselves as far as our rentals go." He asked for "a little bit of a warning system" on tickets.

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

76. 1983 · 1983-07-18

    Volunteer fireman Jeff Dieter died fighting the Saute Cafe fire on Saturday 16 July 1983, and the council opened its next meeting with a minute of silent prayer and the Maryland flag at half mast for twenty-one days

    The regular meeting of 18 July 1983 "was opened with a prayer by Councilwoman Conner in which we remembered Jeff Dieter, the fireman who lost his life fighting a fire in Ocean City." President Trimper turned the meeting over to Mayor Kelley: "We lost one of our family, it hurt, it hurt bad ... You live in cities sometime where you don't know your next door neighbor, this one here is our own" - and then "a minute of silent prayer from all of you." Later in the meeting Hale Harrison asked the council to make sprinklers mandatory in newly built restaurants and night clubs, and Trimper said "had that restaurant been sprinklered, they would be serving dinner there Saturday night and the life would not have been lost in vain." The index names the fire as the Saute Cafe fire. Kelley announced that "Governor Hughes through Mark Pilchard will have a citation tomorrow and Senator Joe Long will present the Maryland flag and the Legion will present the flag to the family," and that the city "will fly the Maryland flag at half mast for twenty-one days and the City flag." On 1 August the Fraternal Order of Police, which had been lent a Dunk the Clown machine, asked to give half its proceeds from a 24 August fundraiser on the pier to the trust fund set up for Dieter's son; the council agreed.

    Ocean City Volunteer Fire Department

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

77. 1983 · 1983-09-19

    William A. Steger Sr. was given a resolution of appreciation and two framed pictures of the town for serving on the Planning and Zoning Commission since 1965

    The first business of the regular meeting of 19 September 1983 was a Resolution of Appreciation read by Mayor Kelley: "Whereas, William A. Steger, Sr., has served the citizens of Ocean City since 1965 on the Planning and Zoning Commission of Ocean City, Maryland ... has exhibited a high level of leadership in his chairmanship of the Planning and Zoning Commission, Therefore, be it resolved, the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City does hereby formally express its appreciation ... and that a framed copy be given to William A. Steger, Sr. as a lasting token of our sincere respect and regards." Kelley added that Steger had "been here until one o'clock A.M. many nights" holding the lawyers "to the fire" and "can almost quote the book by heart," and presented "two pictures of the greatest city it has been our pleasure to know ... the daytime picture of Ocean City, with our signature down here."

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

78. 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.

    Granville Trimper

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

79. 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)."

    Granville Trimper

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

80. 1984

    The Maryland Coast Dispatch was founded in 1984 — the first local paper since the Democratic Messenger stopped in February 1973 — but its online archive does not reach back this far

    Eleven years without a hometown paper in this corpus, ended in principle and not yet in practice. Twenty-seven meetings this year. Mayor Harry W. Kelley; President Trimper, with Acting President Hurley; Councilmen Ellis, Deutsch; Councilwoman Conner; City Manager Barrett; Guy Ayres, City Solicitor.

    Mrs. George B. ConnerAnthony W. BarrettGuy R. Ayres III

    Source · checked 2026-09-02

81. 1984 · 1984-01-16

    The council proclaimed 17 March 1984 'Keith A. Kreul Day' for the National Commander of the American Legion, who was to visit Post 166

    At the regular meeting of 16 January 1984 Mayor Kelley read the proclamation in the absence of the Legion's Frank Holloway, who Councilman Ellis said 'with the weather and all they might not be able to make it but they would like you very much to go ahead and read the proclamation.' Kelley: 'we would be highly honored in having the National Commander of The American Legion here on March 17th.' The text recited that 'National Commander Keith A. Kreul of The American Legion will visit Ocean City and participate in exercises at The American Legion Home No. 166 on March 17, 1984' and that 'the date of March 17, 1984 be and it is hereby proclaimed as "KEITH A. KREUL DAY"'. Ellis moved 'that we approve the Mayor's request to proclaim March 17th V.F.W. day and Keith Kreul Day.' The minutes of 19 March and 2 April do not record whether the visit took place.

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

82. 1984 · 1984-04-16

    The town bought its Fourth of July fireworks from Zambelli for $6,500, a forty-minute manually fired show at the same price as the year before, after the mayor argued that hand-lit shows keep the crowd on the boardwalk longer

    Three bids were opened on 16 April 1984. Grucci of Bellport, New York asked $10,000, $15,000 and $20,000 for electronically fired 20-, 30- and 40-minute displays and $5,000, $6,000 and $7,000 fired by hand; Vitale asked $7,000, $8,000 and $10,000 either way; Zambelli Internationale asked $7,500, $8,500 and $10,000 electronic and $4,500, $5,500 and $6,500 manual. Mayor Kelley: 'the crowd does leave as soon as the fireworks are over, so if we started them you know maybe at 9:15 the crowd may stay here until ten o'clock ... manually may take a little bit longer and certainly for $6500.00 I would like to see us go for 40 minutes.' To Councilman Deutsch, a priest, who said '40 minutes is 40 minutes': 'Well, I work the manual and you work the electronic Father. When we used to work them manually Father it did take a little bit longer, they had to run up and down the beach lighting them manually.' Councilman Moore: 'I would like to move that we accept the apples. The manually fired $6500.00 job from Zambelli.' Susan Seifried: 'We paid $6,500.00 last year for 40 minute manually fired.' Moore added that he wanted the shells evaluated because 'I don't want a bunch of sparklers out on the beach.' The city manager noted the Fourth fell on a Wednesday.

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

83. 1984 · 1984-05-07

    Peter Townend, the 1976 world surfing champion, won the council's unanimous approval to run a $10,000 professional surfing contest at the Inlet after Ocean Pines turned him down

    Townend first came before the council on 5 March 1984: 'I don't come from the United States, I come from Australia ... I was a former World Surfing Champion, I was the champion in 1976.' Sponsor Tropix of Miami proposed a Grand Prix of three East Coast events, New Smyrna Beach, Myrtle Beach and Ocean City, 'each of these locations would have prize money of $10,000.00 and the final event here in Ocean City would have $10,000.00 and also a Datsun Four Wheel Drive 12,000.00 vehicle to be given away to the grand champion,' with 120 contestants from 'Australia, Japan, England, South Africa.' Asked by Mayor Kelley 'More wave action here Peter than anywhere else?' he answered 'Definitely not,' and told the council the professionals 'will come here with the right equipment to ride microscopic waves.' The council steered him to Ocean Pines. On 7 May he returned: 'the Ocean Pines with whom we talked last time ... denied the request to host the event,' and he asked for the surfing beach near the Pyramid, promising 'commitments from five of the top ten surfers in the world.' Councilman Deutsch objected that at the end of June 'it takes about one hour to get from Gold Coast Mall to 62nd Street'; Councilman Moore moved 'that we have it at the Inlet Parking Lot this year on the dates requested,' seconded by Duggan, and 'the vote was unanimous.' Ellis: 'I would expect you all to do a topnotch job in organizing this thing and promoting it, otherwise, see you in New South Wales.'

    Ocean City Inlet & Jetty

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

84. 1984 · 1984-06-04

    Two months after the Colts left Baltimore the Colts Corral fans still held their Ocean City parade, with one player, and the mayor walked the whole route and called it the biggest event they had held since the team went

    The request came to the council on 7 May 1984 with nobody to present it; President Trimper: 'They went to Indianapolis.' Councilman Moore: 'I would love to have the Baltimore Colts in Baltimore and I would love to have the Colts Corral walk up and down and parade but Baltimore doesn't have them and I just wouldn't want to close the streets for about 25% of what we usually have.' Councilman Ellis: 'as much as I personally detest Robert Irsay and what he has done, I think it would be a real mistake for this town to turn it's back on the colt fans that have supported this town for these many years ... if they want to have a parade this year and two people show up that is fine, okay, we have got to give them the right to fail.' The parade formed on Philadelphia Avenue from 9th to 30th Street. On 4 June Mayor Kelley reported: 'I think possibly that's the largest one we've had ... it lasted about two hours, but just to think that they had that parade, I think they had one Colt player. The old Mayor walked the whole distance of the parade ... basically, crowd-wise, this is the biggest event that they've held since the Colts left.' He added that 'we've offered Ocean City's help in any manner whatsoever to get another national league football team there.'

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

85. 1984 · 1984-10-18

    Voters refused to raise a councilman's pay from $5,000 to $6,500 by five votes, 725 for and 730 against, on the same ballot that re-elected the mayor unopposed with 1,458

    On 3 September 1984 Councilman Duggan asked that a council raise 'go before the public ... let the citizens of this town decide.' President Trimper: 'The Council is now $5,000.00 a year and $5,500.00 for the President,' and 'most people that serve on this Council will lose far more in their respective businesses through the time spent ... than they'll ever recuperate regardless of what the salary is.' Duggan: 'it takes ten to twenty hours a week out of your schedule.' Councilwoman Conner, 'since I'm not running,' moved '$6,500.00 for Council and $7,500.00 for President'; Father Deutsch, also retiring, seconded, and Trimper put 'a motion and a second by the two "old has-beens"' - unanimous. Deutsch on the mayor: 'He's overpaid now.' At the special session of 18 October Mr. Sterling read the results of 'this past Tuesday': 'For Mayor, Mr. Kelley 1,458 votes; Mr. Duggan for Council 892; Mr. Feehley 938; Mrs. Harman 431; Mr. Meehan 671; Mr. Smith 635; Mr. Steckman 4?0; Mrs. Thomas 582; Mr. Trimper 806; Mr. Trumpower 848 ... The first [ballot question] had to do with Councilman's pay For the ballot question 725; Against 730. The second ballot question had to do with bond issues, For the question 904 and Against 498.' Duggan, Feehley, Trimper and Trumpower were seated.

    Granville Trimper

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

86. 1984 · 1984-11-05

    Councilwoman Thelma Conner was presented with two photographs of the town for eight years on the council, with Mayor Kelley absent in the hospital, and told the men 'don't stay out so late'

    President Trimper opened the meeting of 5 November 1984: 'I'm sorry to report to you all that Mayor Kelley is still in the hospital and not able to be with us this evening. Wish he could be here for the following presentation. Councilwoman Conner would you please come up front ... no councilperson has ever shown more dedication to the job, has worked harder at the various committees as liaisons ... I'd like to present you with these two photographs of our City with a little plate about it ... These are in honor of the eight years you have served on the Council.' Conner: 'Thank you Granville. Thank all of you. This is lovely and I really appreciate it and I would just like to shake hands with everybody. (Applause)' Councilman Duggan called her back for a handshake and kiss, 'because I find it funny hugging John now,' and Conner: 'Thanks all of you, very much. And look fellas, don't stay out so late. (Laughter and applause).' The mayor had also been absent on 24 October; he was back to read a resolution on 19 November.

    Granville Trimper

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

87. 1985 · 1985-01-21

    At his last council meeting Harry Kelley asked the town to form a commission to raise money for starving children abroad, heard his council call it communist-tainted, and told them to drop it

    At the regular meeting of 21 January 1985, the last one Kelley attended, the mayor closed with two items. The second: "I've talked with a lot of people around the City and still with all the modern conveniences we have today we're not exactly that civilized... if a 12 year old youngster can do it - raise money for indigent people such as Cambodia, Indonesia, India - where there's 40,000 youngsters dying per day I think that it would be little that this City could do to form a commission within this City to raise funds for those indigent people particularly the little children." Councilman Duggan said he had wanted to raise the same thing after watching "the T.V. show." Councilman Ellis: "I have a whole bunch of a hard time sending my money to a place like Ethiopia which is a left-wing, communist-oriented, Russian-dominated regime." Kelley: "A child that's 3 or 6 years old does not know that, Ed." Albert Perron of Nautical Lane, citing "my previous job in intelligence work," doubted a dime in the dollar would arrive; President Trimper said the money "is going to further the communist regimes." Nobody would chair it. Trimper: "Mayor I guess if you'd like to form a commission? You certainly have the authority." Kelley: "No. Drop it." The synopsis records: "Discussion died for lack of interest." In the same remarks he pressed again for the one-question mailing on the City Manager government, "Are You Satisfied?", which the council had voted 6 to 1 to send the previous spring and which was still "in the red book." He was absent on 4 February and dead by the 21st.

    Granville Trimper

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

88. 1985 · 1985-02-18

    Boy Scout Troop 261 came to the first council meeting after Kelley's funeral and were handed 'Supreme Order of Sun Power' certificates the dead mayor had already signed

    Regular meeting of 18 February 1985, the evening Granville Trimper took the oath as mayor. President Hurley: "I'd like this evening to recognize our local Boy Scout Troop. I believe I belonged to that Troop at one time - #263 is that the number?" ("261.") Mayor Trimper: "I have some certificates of Supreme Order of Sun Power which Mayor Kelley had signed and if you all would come up as I call your name I'd like to give those to you." He called Trevor Steadman, Scott Hammerbacher, Bruce Bossaker, John Bradford, Chad Dolman, Steve Cropper, Mitch Yunson and Ricky West; one boy, Teddy McCrobie, had no certificate. Councilman Moore: "it's probably one of the last things that the Mayor personally signed so I would definitely hope that you hold on to them forever and Teddy, don't feel too left out because you'll probably get the first signature of the new Mayor on yours." Earlier in the same meeting City Manager Barrett asked that the Washington Police Department be thanked for sending men "to work with our Honor Guard" at the funeral.

    Granville TrimperAnthony W. Barrett

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

89. 1985 · 1985-03-18

    Four Ocean City families had twenty trees planted in Israel in memory of Harry Kelley, and the certificate reached the council by mail

    Regular meeting of 18 March 1985, comments from the Mayor. Mayor Trimper: "I do have one interesting certificate here. It came in the mail. It says trees have been planted in Israel, twenty trees in loving memory of Harry Kelley, Mayor of Ocean City, by Jeanne and Harold Greenspan, Bea and Al Berger, Robert Givarz and Sam Schramm. I thought that was interesting and very nice that they had done that." The synopsis, item 16: "20 trees planted in Israel in memory of Harry W. Kelley." Robert Givarz appears elsewhere in the year's minutes speaking on the sign ordinance.

    Granville Trimper

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

90. 1985 · 1985-06-17

    Asked by the state Secretary of Transportation what to name for Harry Kelley, the council chose the Route 50 bridge over Route 90 by four votes to two, and told Annapolis to use his middle initial and spell Kelley his way

    Regular meeting of 17 June 1985, comments from the Mayor. Mayor Powell: "I got a call from the Secretary of Transportation; they'd like some input on what we'd like to name for Harry Kelley." Councilman Moore: "I still think it should be Route 50 Bridge." Council President Trimper: "if they're going to do one, do any highway or anything that it be the Route 90 Bridge." Powell counted: "One 50 and one 90." Hurley, Route 50. "Two 50s." Ellis, "Three 50s." Trumpower: "Make it an even two hundred." Meehan: "It's really immaterial to me but I did favor 90." Powell: "It sounds like 50; do you want to go ahead and send it in?" Hurley: "I've read a hundred letters about the man or more and his initial was always in there. I would suggest that the initial be put in." Ellis: "Harry W. Kelley." Trimper: "And make sure they spell Kelley the way he did." The synopsis, item 23: "Vote was 4 for Rte. 50 and 2 for Rte. 90. Letter will be forwarded." The Route 50 bridge is the Harry W. Kelley Memorial Bridge.

    Roland E. "Fish" PowellGranville TrimperRick Meehan

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

91. 1985 · 1985-12-02

    Four men led by Archie Elliott came to the council with a plan for a six-to-eight-foot statue of Harry Kelley paid for by about $12,000 in private donations, and the council steered it from the Route 50 entrance park to the City Hall yard

    Regular meeting of 2 December 1985. Archie Elliott, Box 441: "There's a group that's got together and we want to donate funds in memory of the late Mayor Harry Kelly to build a statue... We'd like it at the entrance park at the Route 50 bridge. It won't cost the city anything because it's all going to be private funding." Size: "Around 6 to 8 feet." "There's four of us that's got together... Bill Purnell will be in charge of the drives. We're going to have the money set in escrow in care of Bill Purnell and the Bank of Ocean City... The figure's been roughly $12,000." Elliott: "everybody associates the name of Kelley... they're going to come over the Route 50 bridge and that's the first thing they're going to see." Council President Trimper: "since Kelley spent the biggest part of his time here at this building that right out in the yard out here might be a better place." Councilman Ellis: "Where he spent most of his life. Between going to school here and being in politics here." Hurley worried the State Highway Commission might one day "buy up that whole block and loop a road through" the entrance park. Trimper: "Is anyone opposed to the statue project? There you go, Archie. You have our blessings." Councilman Moore asked that the Beautification Committee have input on the sketch.

    Granville Trimper

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

92. 1986 · 1986-08-18

    The Harry W. Kelley Scholarship Award for 1986 went to Brook Rogers, presented by a hoarse Mayor Powell, who was told it was still the Mayor's scholarship even though it carried Kelley's name

    Regular meeting of 18 August 1986, first item. Glenn Steckman for the committee: the recipient "is a young man by the name of Brook Rogers and his father is here, Pastor Jim Rogers, and we have asked the Mayor because basically this still, even though it's named after Mayor Kelley, this is the Mayor's scholarship and we'd like to ask the Mayor tonight to present it to Brook Rogers." Mayor Powell: "Brook on behalf of this very active committee and let's say all the people of Ocean City, it's a pleasure to present to you this award. I would like to read it but I'm just a little bit hoarse. It has the Ocean City logo up top, Harry W. Kelley Scholarship Award presented to Brook Rogers in recognition of his overall achievements as a student and citizen of the Ocean City-Berlin Scholastic Community, 1986."

    Roland E. "Fish" Powell

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

93. 1987 · 1987-06-15

    The Harry W. Kelley Scholarship Awards were made, two years after the mayor's death in office

    The scholarship named for Harry W. Kelley, who died in office in early 1985 after fifteen years as mayor, appears in the council's record for the first time in June 1987.

    Source · checked 2026-09-02

94. 1996 · 1996-12-16

    A citizens' skate park committee told the new council that the 3rd Street bowl was "the oldest skate park in the country ... run by a municipality", built after skateboarding was outlawed in 1975, and that after twenty years it needed rails, fun boxes and mini-ramps for street skating

    Regular meeting of 16 December 1996, item 10. Joe Hall: "we have formed a skate park committee made up of local and regional citizens interested in restoring and modernizing our skate park. We first met on October 24th ... Due to tremendous use and exposure to the elements, the current park has deteriorated to a point of several safety deficiencies." Brad Hoffman of 204 Trimper Avenue: "Ocean City Skate Park is actually the oldest skate park in the country, possibly in the world, run by a municipality ... In 1975 skateboarding was made illegal in Ocean City. And at that time the skateboarders were really given nowhere to go. Mayor Harry Kelley and Dorothy 'Haystack' Marlowe got together with the support of others in the community and figured out an idea that would solve the problem which was giving the skaters a skate park in the downtown, 3rd Street area ... Salisbury, Maryland, followed by building skate park ... We built a half-pipe in 1984 in the bottom of the big bowl ... We had national events there such as the East Coast Skateboarding Championships ... it's flawed in design being 20 years old. We need a skate park that accommodates street skating which is the biggest part of skateboarding today which means railings, fun boxes, hit ramps, and mini-ramps." Michelle Fonte of 1551 Teal Drive reported that of fifteen parks she contacted, two "showed a $60,000 and $72,000 profit for 1995", building costs ran "from as low as 66 cents per square foot to as high as $18 per square foot", and "we could rebuild our park somewhere in the 8-to-12 per-square-foot range". A video by Dave Messick, who worked at the park, was shown. The synopsis: the committee "will return at future work sessions to discuss exactly what improvements and renovations are needed".

    Source · checked 2026-09-10

95. 2019 · 2019-11-04

    The mayor proclaimed for Joerg Leinemann, the first Eagle Scout of Ocean City Troop 261 - chartered by the American Legion in 1946 and pinned by Mayor Harry Kelley in 1974 - on his Outstanding Eagle Scout Award

    Regular Meeting of 4 November 2019: "Proclamation Recognizing Outstanding Eagle Scout Award Recipient Joerg Leinemann. Boy Scout Troop 261 was recognized, and a proclamation was presented acknowledging Joerg's Outstanding Eagle Scout Award, the highest achievement or rank attainable by local, state or regional levels through distinguished service to the Boy Scouts of America profession and community." The proclamation's recitals in the packet carry the troop's own history: "OC Troop 261 was chartered by the American Legion in 1946 and is part of the Del-Mar-Va Council Tri-County District"; "Joerg Leinemann achieved his Cub Scout Arrow of Light badge in 1969 and became the first Eagle Scout of OC Troop 261 and awarded his Eagle ribbon by Mayor Harry Kelley in 1974"; he then "established his Ocean City business, Carpets by the Ocean, Inc., having just completed its 45th year anniversary," and "currently serves as the Unit Advancement Chair for OC Troop 261." The same evening the mayor proclaimed the 25th anniversary of the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians.

    Rick Meehan

    Source · checked 2026-09-10