Ocean City officials this week approved an event request for the second annual Ocean City Seafood Festival, but not before a lengthy discussion on how the event may be competing against area restaurants.
Last week, following a request from Councilman Jake Mitrecic, the Ocean City Council voted to hold a work session to review a private event request from the organizer of the Ocean City Seafood Festival. Citing complaints from local businesses, Mitrecic said he wanted to further discuss the event.
“I received a couple of calls last year, and this year as well, about this seafood festival from local purveyors of seafood, local restaurateurs, about the lack of being approached by the promoter, the lack of being approached by the city, and what kind of money or what kind of promotion we’re doing for this event, if there were an alternative that we could be spending that money with local businesses, things like that,” he said. “I just think it’s worth talking about, worth asking about, kind of seeing where the numbers are with that so we can have a better understanding of it.”
With that said, Tourism and Business Development Director Tom Perlozzo came before council members on Tuesday with the event organizer, Beth Laverick of B Scene Events & Promotions out of Havre de Grace, Md., to review this year’s event approval request and to address concerns related to local involvement.
But before the discussion even began, Robert Higgins of Higgins Crab House came before the City Council during public comments to share his concerns regarding the seafood festival.
“The proposed seafood festival is, in our case, right at our back door,” he said. “And this is an event that competes directly with what we do.”