By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(April 12, 2018) The rules of depreciation and gravity are similar: what goes up must come down, which was the case with a huge surge in capital purchases in the 2016-17 business year in Ocean Pines followed by the similarly sized thud of deprecation that dwarfed the write-downs of the year before.

According to a depreciation expense list obtained by the Bayside Gazette, the general manager’s office in Ocean Pines counted 15 items with retail costs totaling $49,656.08 as of May 12, 2015.

Items on that list date back as far as April 1984 and include furniture and carpeting, filing cabinets, one color printer and one copier, one laptop computer, one desktop computer, and a 55-inch Vizio television for the boardroom.

During the period when Brett Hill was the interim general manger, Aug. 26, 2016 through Sept. 15, 2017, more than 120 new items were purchased for the general manager’s office for a total expenditure of $286,907.79.

Below are some of the more interesting purchases along with price and purchase dates:

• Six iPad Pro tablets ($3,905.51 on Oct. 20, 2016)
• One Microsoft Surface Pro tablet ($1,462 on Jan. 4, 2017)
• One Sony HDR television ($3,177.88 on Jan. 4, 2017)
• Four Panasonic Toughbook laptops ($12,747.55 on Jan. 18, 2017)
• One iPad Air tablet ($494.28 on Jan. 28, 2017)
• One Apple Mac Pro ($3,021.80 on Jan. 28, 2018)
• Two iPad Air tablets with retina displays ($1,023.44 on Jan. 28, 2017)
• One Xbox One S “Gears of War and Halo Special Edition Bundle” ($320.75, Jan. 30, 2017)
• Five iPad Pro tablets ($3,444.95 on Jan. 30, 2017)
• One iPad Pro tablet ($876.06 on FEB. 14, 2017)
• Twenty-five Lenovo ThinkCentre desktop computers ($14,248.75, March 3, 2017)
• Five Dell Latitude touchscreen laptops ($3,644.75 on March 15, 2017)
• Two Microsoft Surface Pro tablets ($3,300.57 on March 15, 2017)
• One Mac Mini computer ($1,506.86 on March 24, 2017)
• Three iPad Pro tablets ($2,156.22 on March 24, 2017)
• Three ZeeVee digital video encoders ($13,380 on March 28, 2017
• Five Sony 4K televisions ($3,347.24 on March 28, 2017)
• Two iPad Pro tablets ($1,477.31 on March 28)
• Twenty-five Lenovo ThinkCentre desktop computers ($14,988.75 on April 1, 2017)
• One Bose loudspeaker system ($4,796 on April 5, 2017)
• Three Bose L1® Model II speaker systems ($12,288 on April 5, 2017)
• One Behringer digital mixer ($2,199.99 on April 5, 2017)
• One Roland electronic drum kit ($7,948.94 on April 5, 2017)

Additionally, between April 10 and April 28, 2017 purchases were made for video surveillance systems for the community center ($6,552), Cove restaurant ($11,500), beach club ($11,160), police department ($2,413), golf club ($12,111), and administration building ($9,264).

Other purchases made on April 28, 2017 included 10 Dell Latitude laptops ($6,028.99), 10 iPad Pro tablets ($7,499.90) and one Livestream Studio HD550 “compact and portable all-in-one live production switcher” ($11,818.38).

General Manager John Bailey, who was hired last September, said he was aware of certain items, including the electronic drum set and mixing board.

“There may very well have been a justification for it – I do not know what it was,” he said. “All off my watch – don’t really know what the reasonings were.

“The drum set, we’ll be trying to sell that as an asset and the soundboard I haven’t quite figured out what to do with that yet, but there’s probably some takers too,” Bailey added.