Letters to the Editor
Volume VII Number 20
May 20-26, 1999

Oysters Cheer Trees

Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:

Sorry to have missed your Sixth Birthday Bash. I greatly admire your commitment to the Community and to that greater community, Chesapeake Bay. Keep up the great work and may there be many more celebrations.

-Bob Pfeiffer, Port Republic

Editor's note: Pfeiffer directs The Oyster Recovery Partnership, the beneficiary - to the tune of $6,500 - of last year's birthday bash.

The Chairman Speaks

Dear New Bay Times-Weekly:

Good news! I met Joe Rooney at the Deale-Shady Side Small Area Planning Community Forum Tuesday night, and he no longer insists (Letters, May 6-12) I resign as the committee's chairperson because of my recent comments opposing Safeway's Planned Commercial Complex at the intersection of Routes 256 and 258 in Deale, covering 88,000 square feet (over two acres under roof), plus several additional acres of asphalt parking near the edge of Rockhold Creek. It was his view that I could not be "fair" as the chairperson because of my opposition.

I advised Joe that neither I nor our committee will determine the fate of Safeway's project. The Safeway decision is now up to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Maryland's Department of Environment, which are responsible for issuing and renewing permits to use the site. They are studying whether the Safeway permit application's depiction of the non-tidal wetlands at the site faithfully represents the actual facts there.

An ecological study submitted to both agencies in March concluded that "the extent of non-tidal wetlands on the Deale Safeway site is much greater than depicted on the permit documents and current site plans ... at least three times that which is currently depicted."

I feel certain that both agencies will be paying close attention to this latest study as they consider whether to authorize the building of such a massive complex at the proposed location.

One hundred sixty-two Deale-Shady Side citizens turned out for the community forum, over 50 percent higher than any previous first community forum in the County's small area planning process. Thanks to all those who participated in drafting the vision for our area, as well as the many volunteers and organizations who distributed posters and made signs advertising the forum!

-Ronald G. Wolfe, Deale

| Issue 20 |

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