On Friday, the town unanimously passed a new ordinance, which also regulates how deep holes on the beach can be. Effective immediately, holes can be no longer or wider than two feet and no deeper than one foot.
In the past, the town’s mayor said digging holes on the beach is part of the summer experience and that the town doesn’t want to take that away. Rather the goal is to make it safer for people or beach vehicles who could fall in holes, like what led to a 2017 deadly accident in Ocean City.
At Friday’s town council meeting, Bethany’s leadership agreed they would have a soft approach to enforcement, similar to when the town passed a canopy ban. The town said it did not issue any citations when that law went into effect, and they plan to do the same this summer with the trench ordinance.
Smart move! Now when is Ocean City going to do this? Ocean City should be held liable for all the deaths happening for not enforcing laws such as these.
Every time I go to the beach I complain to the lifeguards about these “trenches” they continue to ignore the problem. I believe Ocean City has an ordinance that holes can’t be deeper than knee deep but the lifeguards refuse to enforce them.