Trimpers consider ending long Ocean City ride ... After entertaining generations of beach-goers with a conglomeration of rides, arcades and games, Ocean City's signature boardwalk business - Trimper Rides - could be headed for its 117th and final season.
Members of the family that runs the company say skyrocketing tax assessments, along with disputes among shareholders, could force them to close after this summer unless they get some form of tax abatement or other financial help.
Doug Trimper, vice president of the family business that controls most of a three-block parcel from Dorchester Street to the Ocean City Inlet at the southern tip of the old downtown district, said yesterday that the familiar whirling rides and noisy arcades will be open this summer. The hand-carved 105-year-old carousel will continue its circular path this season as well.
After that, 14 family shareholders - the heirs of Daniel and Margaret Trimper, the Baltimore tavern owners who opened for business at the beach in 1890 - will likely consider selling most of the boardwalk property.
"In October, we'll sit down and take a look at where things are financially," said Trimper, 55, whose father, Granville, is the company president. "I can't say how long; it could be a couple years. But we are definitely going out."
Under the state's assessment process, Trimper said, the family business's tax bill increased by $387,000 last year and by an additional $914,000 this year.
The assessed value of Trimper properties was set at $24 million in 2004 but jumped to $62.9 million this year.
Trimper fired off a series of letters to local, state and congressional offices in the past month, hoping that going public might prompt a move to assist the family operation, much as state farm property is taxed at lower rates.
Trimper also complained that the Worcester County commissioners recently approved a study of the feasibility of locating a new amusement park in the county that would compete with his family's decades-old rides.
Property values in Ocean City have risen 16 percent to 20 percent a year over the past three years, said Martha Bennett, the town's finance director.
Del. James N. Mathias Jr., a former Ocean City mayor who won his first term in the General Assembly last fall, said he and other state and local leaders would be willing consider some form of tax relief to guard historic businesses.
