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Volume 16, Issue 50 - December 11 - December 17, 2008
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Columns |
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
Fan Loves Burton and Fruitcakes
Dear Bay Weekly:
I was just reading Bill Burton’s article [A Shopper’s Advice: Dec. 4]. I just love Burton. He’s so practical.
Last year’s article on fruitcakes brought back lots of memories. We got six or seven when I was a boy, and we would eat them. Then we’d find one at Easter and I’d still eat it, even though others would be afraid to try it. That’s what I thought about when I read Burton on fruitcakes.
When people came over to my sister’s home for Christmas, I handed the article out. Now I’ve lost my copy. Will you send me one?
I’ve never met Bill Burton in the 12 years I’ve been reading him. But I feel like I know him. He gets it.
–Larry Petro, Edgewater
Editor’s note: Sent. For more on Burton and fruitcakes, read this week’s Letter from the Editor.
Bay Weekly Classifieds Work
Dear Bay Weekly:
I placed an ad in Bay Weekly a couple of months ago to sell an old boat. Also I placed the ad at the same time in the smd.com site, which is free. I recently sold the boat via your paper, and over the past couple of months, I got many more inquiries through Bay Weekly. It was well worth the $50.
The problem I got by advertising over the web was the large number of scam inquiries.
Please tell the classified department that they may remove my ad. Also dealing with people in that department was a very pleasing experience, unlike placing an ad in many big city papers.
You are a real asset to Southern Maryland and environs.
–Hal Vogel, Lusby
From Fox Creek to Chesapeake Bay
Dear Bay Weekly:
“Oh my God, how did we fail?” That was former state senator Gerald Winegrad’s reflection in Sunday’s Capital after 25 years of our ever-so-well-intentioned Bay cleanup effort. The Bay continues to degrade. Why? In the words of the great Walt Kelly’s Pogo, “We have met the enemy … and he is us.”
Last week, I, along with most of my neighbors, stood before the Board of Public Works on one side or the other of a six-year-long dredging permit application debate. The permit applicants wish to dredge the inlet opening of Fox Creek off the Severn River so that access for their large powerboats won’t be restricted by the tide cycles. Dredging operations at this inlet would eliminate the natural gatekeeper to this thriving ecosystem and transform the pond from a natural retreat used mostly by canoeists, kayakers and the entire array of Bay wildlife to a private dock haven for large motorized watercraft.
Every environmental group has advocated that this permit be denied to protect this rare, semi-occluded tidal pond and its habitat. In a precedent-setting show of support for her staff’s decision, Shari Wilson, the secretary of the Maryland Department of the Environment, introduced the department’s recommendation for denial. In another precedent-setting twist, Doldan Moore, the Board of Public Works wetlands administrator, disagreed and recommended approval. A decision is scheduled for December 15.
This case is a bellwether. If the Board votes for permit approval, then one could argue that we still don’t recognize why our Bay is dying. If the Board votes to deny the permit, that would ring out as a cry that, just maybe, our time has come.