OCEAN CITY – An ordinance that would have prevented amateur musicians, playing for tips on the Ocean City Boardwalk, from using amplification was tabled March 14, after a last-minute appeal from a young pianist and his supporters.
Bryan Woolbert of Egg Harbor Township, a student at Cairn University, has been playing on the boardwalk for years. He uses a battery-powered piano, which he feared would be disallowed under the ordinance.
City Attorney Dorothy McCrosson said the city had received numerous complaints about people playing too loud on the boardwalk, including musicians using amplifiers and microphones.
The original ordinance allowing boardwalk performers limited volume based on how far a performer could be heard, but she said it was almost impossible for amplified performers to comply with that.
The proposal was aimed at limiting the players to acoustic instruments, but she said she had not considered the effect on an electric piano or other instruments that rely on power to be heard.
She suggested a minor change could allow the ordinance to be approved and protect Woolbert’s place on the Boardwalk, but after members of City Council raised other potential concerns, Mayor Jay Gillian suggested the ordinance be tabled and reevaluated, to be reintroduced at a future meeting.
“Before we bring it back, we’ll make sure that he can play his piano,” Gillian said.
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