Resort officials say they continue to monitor homeless activity near the West Ocean City Park and Ride.
At the end of Monday’s Ocean City Police Commission meeting, Mayor Rick Meehan said he and City Manager Terry McGean had received emails from the connections of Bad Monkey regarding homeless individuals migrating from the West Ocean City Park and Ride to their property. McGean this week said efforts are being made to mitigate issues in the area.
“We are in the process of installing additional video cameras and we have disabled the exterior outlets at the bus station,” he said. “We have added exterior lighting in the past and eliminated benches as well. Although the Park and Ride is in the county, we do have police powers there, but we do not have police powers at the Bad Monkey property.”
Representatives with Bad Monkey declined to comment this week, but McGean said the operators had shared instances of individuals trespassing, using their bathrooms and electrical outlets, being rude to employees and customers, and openly using drugs.
Ken Argot, executive director of Diakonia, said he was also aware of complaints being made about homeless individuals at the West Ocean City Park and Ride and surrounding establishments.
“Yes, we have heard these complaints and are doing everything we can do to minimize the impact of those who are homeless in our area,” he said. “There are so many variety of levels to this issue, there are no cookie-cutter solutions that will satisfy everyone. A couple of weeks ago, Diakonia invited local residents to a meeting in order to help mitigate community concerns. Those who attended were able to understand the challenges Diakonia faces, as well as enlisting support to help curb the issue.”
How many “homeless” have cell phones now- as soon as one shows up- they text their friends and more show up. The solution is zero tolerance. Kick them out and kick out the bleeding heart trash who give them money.
Having a cell phone isn’t expensive, grandpa. What year do you think it is?
Why don’t they just get jobs?
“SURGE”? It’s been about 5 years since I drove a bus there. The change in focus for that facility has taken 5 years to happen so it didn’t happen overnight.