Terry McGean
city engineer · active c. 1991–present
Ocean City's city engineer during the beach replenishment era; his May 1992 assessment of the 1991-92 storm season — that without the new beach 'we probably would have lost the entire boardwalk' — became the program's defining verdict. Later served as Ocean City's city manager.
In the record (11)
1991
The brand-new replenished beach takes its first big hit — and saves the boardwalk.
The Halloween 1991 nor'easter and the storms that followed that winter (November, and the severe January 4, 1992 northeaster) were the engineered beach's first real test. The beach did exactly what it was designed to do: sacrifice sand to protect the town. Roughly 2 million cubic yards — about a third of the new sand — was carried offshore across the three storms, but Ocean City's post-storm repair bill was about $100,000, against $380,000 at Bethany Beach (which lost its bandstand and most of its boardwalk) and $900,000 at Rehoboth. City engineer Terry McGean: 'We probably would have lost the entire boardwalk and would have seen extensive damage to most of our oceanfront buildings.' Officials put the damage prevented at ~$50 million. Telling detail: the 1988 demonstration dune, with three years of vegetation, weathered the storms with little damage, while dunes planted in 1991 — or not yet planted — washed away.
Source · checked 2026-08-05
1991 · 1991-12-10
The one municipal trace of the Halloween storm is a line in the 10 December status reports: the city engineer had met the Corps about 'the recent beach damage', and Phase I of a two-phase repair-and-renourishment would cost $165,000 out of the maintenance fund
Work session of 10 December 1991, synopsis item 13: "City Manager Dare reported that the City Engineer had met with the Corps of Engineers today regarding the recent beach damage. There will be two phases: one for repair and the second for renourishment. Phase I is expected to cost $165K and the Town's portion would come out of the maintenance fund." Neither the word storm nor a date appears; the item sits between term-limit talk and the day-care study, forty days after the record 7.8-foot tide of 31 October. It qualifies rather than contradicts the measured absence already recorded for November-December 1991: the storm never became an agenda item, but its consequence did, as a maintenance-fund line reported by the city manager. The same session's Planning and Zoning report carries the letter of map revision still "being pursued."
United States Army Corps of EngineersDennis W. Dare
Source · checked 2026-09-10
2013
Ninety-one documents and a staff list that has become professional: an ICMA-credentialled manager, a CPA finance administrator, a city engineer and a tourism director
Mayor Richard W. Meehan; Council President Lloyd Martin; Council Secretary Mary Knight; Council Member Dennis Dare; Council Members Pillas, Michael James; City Manager David L. Recor, ICMA-CM; City Solicitor Guy Ayres; Zoning Administrator Blaine Smith; City Engineer Terence McGean; Finance Administrator Martha J. Bennett, CPA; Tourism Director Donna Abbott. In 1957 the town's whole professional staff was a clerk who told the councilmen privately that a bond issue was needed to get Ocean City out of the hole.
Rick MeehanDennis W. DareDavid L. RecorGuy R. Ayres III
Source · checked 2026-09-02
2013 · 2013-01-07
Ten weeks after the largest Atlantic storm in living memory, the town's whole recorded relationship with it is a federal loan deadline three days away and rubbish washing up on the beach
Both items came from citizens at the microphone. "Beverly McDonald of the Small Business Association advised the forum that disaster assistance is available until January 10, 2013. Interested parties should contact the SBA via website www.sba.gov or call 1-800-659-2955. Council Secretary Mary Knight asked City Manager Recor to post this information on the Town's website." And: "Herb Pawlukewicz said that debris from Hurricane Sandy is still floating ashore. Council President Lloyd Martin said he will ask City Engineer McGean to look into this matter." The beach programme has done its work so completely that Sandy reaches this record as a housekeeping item — the same pattern the City Manager described in January 1992.
Source · checked 2026-09-02
2015
From 2015 the IQM2 packets include every attachment: 1,541 files retrieved for the year, of which 336 are actual session records carrying about 8.29 million characters
The year and every year after it must be triaged by filtering to documents whose opening pages are a session record. Mayor Richard W. Meehan; Council President Lloyd Martin; Council Secretary Mary Knight; Council Members Doug Cymek, Dennis Dare, Tony DeLuca, Wayne Hartman, Matt James; City Manager David L. Recor, ICMA-CM; City Solicitor Guy Ayres; City Clerk Diana Chavis; City Engineer Terence McGean; Public Works Director Hal Adkins; Finance Administrator Martha Bennett. The corpus's problem has inverted since 1934: the difficulty is no longer that nothing survives but that too much does.
Rick MeehanDennis W. DareDavid L. RecorGuy R. Ayres IIIHal AdkinsDiana Chavis
Source · checked 2026-09-02
2022
Three hundred and sixteen session documents about 6.61 million characters, filtered from a retrieval that was still running when the pass was written — 1,182 files of 1,765
Mayor Richard W. Meehan; City Manager Doug R. Miller; City Engineer Terry McGean. The incompleteness is recorded rather than hidden: this year was read from two-thirds of its own packet set, and a later pass over the remaining 583 files could change what the year contains.
Source · checked 2026-09-02
2023
Terence J. McGean, PE became City Manager — the second engineer to make that move after Dennis Dare in 1990
McGean had reported the Public Safety Building's leaks after Irene in 2011 and measured the boardwalk against the seawall in 1993. Dare had been City Engineer through the entire beach fight before taking the manager's chair. In a town whose central problems are sand, water and elevation, the person who understands the infrastructure keeps becoming the person who runs it. Three hundred and ninety-one session documents, about 8.69 million characters, filtered from 1,603 packet files covering 104 meetings; City Clerk Diana Chavis, MMC.
Source · checked 2026-09-02
2023 · 2023-03-23
The City Manager opened the FY24 budget by reporting that seasonal police officers had dropped from over 100 to fewer than 40 and part-time firefighter/EMTs from 80 to 40, so the town would hire twelve full-time firefighters and four full-time officers instead
City Manager Terry McGean's budget introduction at the budget meeting of 23 March 2023: "The greatest challenge faced over the past 24 months has been the decreasing availability of part time employees. Different strategies were implemented to address this including increased pay, signing bonuses, retention bonuses, referral bonuses and housing stipends. Seasonal police officers dropped from over 100 to less than 40 last year. The amount of available part time Firefighter/EMT dropped from 80 to 40. Shortages have led to dramatic increases in overtime pay. For Police and Emergency Medical Services, we have no choice but to continue to transition from a seasonal to a more year-round work force." The budget carried "8 new fulltime Firefighter/EMS positions, enough to deploy an additional two-man ambulance crew 24/7 year round" and "4 new fulltime police officers to make up for the drop in seasonal availability," funded by "additional revenue of $478,005 from assessments increases above constant yield." At the wrap-up on 30 March the council added the other four firefighters: "Motion to approve funding of 4 additional fulltime Fire/EMT positions," approved unanimously, the $104,473 to be covered by expected Medicaid reimbursement. The Communications division likewise asked for four full-time 911 specialists, which "completes the transition to all fulltime staff and eliminates the seasonal program."
Source · checked 2026-09-11
2024
The Director of Tourism and Business Development is Tom Perlozzo, who appears in this record as Recreation and Parks Director in 1990 writing a memo about beach volleyball courts, and as Chamber president in 2011
Mayor Richard W. Meehan; City Manager Terence McGean. Two hundred and eighty-three session documents, about 5.95 million characters, filtered from 1,198 packet files covering 107 meetings. The continuity of personnel across this record is itself a fact about the town: the people who settled the beach question stayed to govern what it produced, and their successors are often the same people in different chairs.
Source · checked 2026-09-02
2025
Guy Ayres, city solicitor since the 1970s, is gone — the town is advised by City Attorneys Heather Stansbury and Maureen Howarth
Mayor Richard W. Meehan; Council President Matthew M. James; Council Secretary Tony DeLuca; Council Members John F. Gehrig Jr., Jacob H. Mitrecic, Carol L. Proctor, William C. Savage III, Larry R. Yates; City Manager Terry McGean; Deputy City Manager Elton JR Harmon; City Clerk Diana Chavis. Ayres advised this council on the dune line in 1975, on Lucas v. South Carolina in 1993, and on public notification against Vince Gisriel for thirty years. A Mitrecic sits on the council forty-five years after Joseph Mitrecic first appears in this record.
Rick MeehanGuy R. Ayres IIIDiana ChavisVincent Gisriel Jr.
Source · checked 2026-09-02
2025 · 2025-05-27
Recreation and Parks Director Susan Petito retired on 27 May 2025 with a proclamation and a Key to the City for 39 years of service, one of four town employees so honoured that year with 123 years between them
Work session of 27 May 2025, Acknowledgements and Recognitions: "Mayor Meehan and City Manager McGean presented a proclamation and Key to the City to Susan Petito for 39 years of service." The council then approved Kate Gaddis, the recreation superintendent, as the new director. The Key to the City went to three others on retirement in 2025: Wastewater Collections Purchasing Technician John Burke, 21 years (28 January); Police Sergeant Joseph Bushnell, 25 years, with commendations sent by Delegate Wayne Hartman and Senator Mary Beth Carozza (1 April); and Deputy Fire Chief Chris Shaffer, 38 years (29 July).
Source · checked 2026-09-11