Letters to the Editor

In Defense of Cove Point LGN Terminal

Dear Bay Weekly:
I was just reading your article “New Year Traffic Concerns: Tankers in Chesapeake Bay” [Dock of the Bay, Vol. XI, No. 1, Jan. 3].

Tankers are in the Bay every single day, heading north and south. The tankers that you are speaking of at the Cove Point Liquefied Natural Gas terminal have been here before. I would hope that boaters have the common sense to navigate around them or any other obstacle for that matter. It can be done.

Also on the matter of fishing. Well yes, it is very easy to get on the boat, go to Cove Point and catch rockfish. But rockfish exist in the entire Chesapeake Bay, not just at the terminal. When I grew up you had to rely on knowing how to fish in every aspect, and you had to know how to find the fish. (Usually for me that was to follow the best charter boat captain out that day, but nonetheless.)

I don’t see how the terminal will hurt charter fishing. Yes, some days won’t be as easy, but that is why you pay a charter boat captain, and I know plenty of them that don’t need the terminal to catch a fish.

No, I don’t like that extra pollution aspect of the opening of this plant, but Calvert County is lucky in the sense that we don’t have industry like Baltimore. Pollution can be caused by something as simple as clearing a lot and building a home or adding a new car to our roads — processes that occur daily in Calvert County.

We all need to use an energy source. Ours just happens to cause pollution in someone else’s back yard.

— Melissa McCormick, Solomons

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Shady Side Museum Needs You

Dear Bay Weekly:
The Captain Salem Avery House Museum is a watermen’s museum operated by the Shady Side Rural Heritage Society to preserve the history and traditions of the area. As the museum has grown, more and more people have been visiting at its spectacular waterfront site during its open hours on Sunday afternoons. An increasing number of school groups are also touring during the week as part of a greatly expanded educational program.

To greet these people and show them through the museum, both docents (who conduct tours) and greeters (who welcome visitors) are needed. Volunteers are welcome individually, as a couple or as a family working as a team. The time commitment would be three hours every four to six weeks.

On a typical assignment, a docent would show visitors through the display area, including the diorama of Shady Side as it existed in 1860, and then guide the guests through the portion of the building resorted to its original condition when Capt. Avery and his family resided there in the late 1800s. Guides and docents meet and interact with many people, and there are always several volunteers on duty so no one works alone.

“It can be a very enjoyable, fulfilling experience, and an opportunity to be part of the museum as it is undergoing an exciting period of expansion as part of the National Parks Gateway program and the Annapolis/London Town/South County Heritage Area,” said June Hall, chair of the board of directors.

If you’re interested, call museum director Janet Surrett: 410/867-4486 • [email protected].
— Mavis Daly, Shady Side

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