By Greg Ellison

(March 5, 2020) In addition to funding two playground replacement projects, the Ocean Pines Association’s budget for next year gives Recreation and Parks a $20,000 increase for special events.

Recreation and Parks Manager Debbie Donahue said her departments’ financial allotment for the new fiscal year includes roughly $47,000 to replace playground equipment at Bainbridge Park and about $50,000 for a similar venture in Robin Hood Park.

“They both are way over their time limit,” she said.

Donahue said the upgrades, which would address safety concerns and ensure the playgrounds comply with the American Disabilities Act, would be financed from replacement capital.

“The playgrounds now should be done for a little bit until the next ones come up in a few years,” she said. “Right now, being able to do both of those in the same year puts Manklin Meadows, White Horse Park, Bainbridge Park, Robin Hood Park and Huntington Park all within about a five-year span of being up to date and ADA compliant.”

The Recreation and Parks budget allotments for the next fiscal year, which starts on May 1, also increases funding for special events from approximately $94,000 budget this year to roughly $119,000.

“That was done because we’ve been challenged to bring in new events,” she said.

The $119,000 total includes $76,000 for special events and $42,000 for OPA-sponsored bus trips.

Donahue said included in the fresh slate of events is a Celtic Festival scheduled for June.

“We have the Celtic Festival that’s coming in that we will have some expenses for,” she said.

Although venturing into uncharted waters for the inaugural ethnic festival this June, there are anticipated revenues to offset the added expense, Donahue said.

“Not knowing what that revenue is going to be, we have to put it in our special events as an expense … and then we see what the first year revenue will be when it comes in June,” she said. “Then next year we can plan for it and budget more tightly.”

Donahue said certain events like last year’s revamped Fourth of July festivities are challenging to estimate without historical data to which it can be compared.

“This year we can put some good numbers in there,” she said. “Last year … we did it completely different not knowing how much we would get back in revenue.”

Donahue said regardless of initial increases to budget allocations for special events the net cost would be contingent on related revenue.

“It goes up a little but in all of those things there is revenue that is taken in,” she said. “Even though that number is higher each one of those events take in some revenue to offset the costs.”