College beach weekend’s impact on local businesses

College Beach Weekend is in full swing in Ocean City.

The event brings thousands of college students into Ocean City each year.

The city has been preparing for the event since June. As a result, visitors can expect to see a heavier presence of law enforcement throughout the weekend.

Local businesses on the boardwalk told 47ABC that they feel prepared for the heavy crowds.

Cirena Soria, a Sales Associate at Sunsations, said, “Honestly, I’m prepared for the rowdiness because of senior week. It’s almost the same age group and it was pretty crazy but, you know, if not the same, but maybe a little more toned down.”

Business owners told 47ABC they’ve been working hard all summer long to maintain a healthy relationship with local law enforcement, something they said is key when events like this come around.

Matt Ortt, Director of Operations at Hooters on the boardwalk said, “We always feed [the cops] and we don’t charge them and we order cases upon cases of bottled water just to hand them out to the officers walking by.”

The hope that business owners have is that by helping out the cops, the cops would return the favor.

“It just keeps the community and the business community involved with the police officers and they’re a great, they’re a first class team down here,” Ortt said.

When 47ABC asked Ortt how he expects this weekend to go as compared to last year’s College Beach Weekend, Ortt said, “I think there may be a couple little skirmishes here and there, and that happens on the boardwalk when you have 300,000 people in town, but I think that the presence of the law enforcement will handle the situation, you know, and take care of it.”

Overall, local businesses are looking forward to the increased business and are hoping for a good weekend for everyone.

“Hopefully everybody’s just coming to have a good time in Ocean City,” Ortt said.