| Oyster Moratorium Is Not Necessary
Dear Bay Weekly:
As a full-time waterman on the Chesapeake Bay, I must respond to Les Prosser's letter to the editor. I feel he is misinformed, and I would like to clarify a few things:
1) When we speak of oysters filtering the entire Bay every three to six days in years past, this was a time when there was no runoff from overdevelopment, there were no sewage plants dumping raw sewage into the Bay and - most of all - there was no sedimentation, which causes oyster bars to sink out of sight.
2) Oyster bars are very much like farm crops. They have to be cultivated and kept clean.
3) The oyster business is very much alive and strong, and the future looks bright for oysters. Get out on the Bay in the middle of December and you'll see first-hand the men and women who rely on this fishery to sustain themselves and their families.
4) If a moratorium were imposed, this would in turn put even more pressure on the crabbing industry as well as the fishing industry.
Watermen, Department of Natural Resources biologists, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Oyster Recovery Partnership (which I am a board member of) and local environmental groups are working hard together to help the oyster, not only for ecological benefit but also for the economical benefit.
-Kenny Keen, President: Calvert County Watermen's Assoc.
Authors by the Bay
Dear Bay Weekly:
The Calvert County Library Foundation would like to thank all of those who made our first Authors by the Bay program so successful. First, we thank Helen Thomas, the well-known dean of the White House press corps, for taking time out of her busy schedule in this election year to initiate this series.
The early, generous support of Mayor Gerald Donovan of Chesapeake Beach and Mayor Mark Frazer of North Beach gave us the security we needed to move forward with gusto. Corporate Underwriters were Collins Management and Constellation Nuclear. Thanks to Pat Collins and Mary Krug for help getting those generous contributions.
We are also indebted to Sustaining Supporters, including Mayor Frazer (contributing personally), Holler Associates and Don and Carey Randall of Drum Point.
We would not have been successful if not for Loyal Book Worm donors. Thanks to Tricia and Randy Casto, Marlin Fitzwater, Audrey Hatry, Kitty Hurrey, Holiday Inn Select Solomons, Ruth Keimig, Lee Funeral Home Calvert, Sen. Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., Lusby Motor Company, SMECO, Sneade's Ace Home Center, Stevenson Pools, Tiki Bar, Twin Shields Golf Club, The Rev. M. Joanna White and Kathleen Wray.
And, of course, we thank the 167 people who attended.
We would be remiss if we didn't thank our local press, the Calvert Independent, the Recorder and Bay Weekly for generous coverage.
The Foundation was overwhelmed with support and is already planning to showcase another nationally known author in Calvert County.
-Pete Hively: President, Library Foundation
From Rose Haven to the Sunshine State
Dear Bay Weekly:
Jennifer A. Dawicki writes very admiringly of the tropical foliage in Rose Haven in "Where Do the Palms of Summer Go?" [Vol. VIII. No. 46: Nov. 16-20]. She said the foliage is imported directly from the Sunshine State. Rose Haven has something just as grand to export to the Sunshine State: Trouble-free elections. The Rose Haven Civic Association has had numerous elections in the 15 years I have lived here, and we have never had the fiasco they now have in Florida. No recounts. No pregnant ballots. No chads. And no swarms of lawyers. We have standards. We invite the election officials in Florida to visit us to see how it is done.
-Tom Gill, Rose Haven
Copyright 2000
Bay Weekly
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