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Letters to the Editor

We welcome your opinions and letters – with name and address. We will edit when necessary. Include your name, address and phone number for verification. Mail them to Bay Weekly, P.O. Box 358, Deale, MD 20751 • E-mail them to [email protected]. or submit your letters on line, click here

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Shaw Replies on St. Leonard Bandstand

Dear Bay Weekly:

I am writing to respond to Barry Grier’s Letter to the Editor in the Aug. 31 of Bay Weekly [Vol. xiv, No 35], where he takes me to task for stating that the Board of County Commissioners for Calvert County has “no control” over the St. Leonard Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad decision to hold concerts on land that they own. He implies that the concerts are somehow my fault.

Like any other landowner, the St. Leonard department makes decisions about their private property without consulting Calvert’s Commissioners. Like any other property owner, they are subject to the same laws and zoning rules.  If Mr. Grier believes that the department is breaking any laws or violating any zoning ordinances, he is entitled to make a complaint to the proper authorities, including the Sheriff’s Office and/or the Department of Planning and Zoning. Both can be found at:  www.co.cal.md.us  Or, he may wish to discuss his concerns with the fire department to see if mutual ground can be found and to try to rectify his safety concerns through voluntary action.

Thank you for allowing me this clarification.

—Susan Shaw, 2nd District Calvert County Commissioner

Another Word on Callahan

Dear Bay Weekly:

As I opened your August 31 issue [Vol. xiv, No. 35], I looked forward to some insight into Dennis Callahan’s candidacy for Anne Arundel County Executive. Unfortunately, what I found was little more than an echo of Mr. Callahan’s campaign brochures.

Mr. Callahan was director of Anne Arundel County Recreation & Parks Department for over seven and a half years. The agency owns thousands of acres of public waterfront land with miles of shoreline. Yet it was unable to offer taxpayers a single public beach or boat ramp. Certainly, his pledge to offer improved public access to the Chesapeake deserves some challenge in light of his record on the subject.

Claims about agricultural land preservation also deserve critical examination. The South County Small Area Plan, unanimously adopted by the County Council and signed by the County Executive in 2001, calls for protecting 20,000 acres by 2007 and eventually 40,000 acres. The permanent protection of 12,000 acres to date is just 60 percent of the goal. In the real world, 60 percent doesn’t earn a passing grade. Sadly, there aren’t 40,000 acres of agricultural land left to preserve in Anne Arundel County.

In choosing the next county executive, your readers need to be able to rely on thorough examination of records and promises. The county’s leadership is more important than ever.

—Mike Lofton, Harwood

Department of Corrections

Democratic candidate for Anne Arundel county executive Dennis Callahan’s home creek was mysteriously misnamed in the second paragraph of Bill Burton’s column of Aug. 31 [Vol. xiv, No. 35]. Callahan lives on Spa Creek not Edgartown Harbor.