Letters to the Editor
Volume VII Number 39
September 30-October 6, 1999

Their Port in a Storm

Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:

We were on our way from Aquia Harbor Marina in Stafford, Va., to enjoy a long Labor Day weekend in Annapolis. With the uncertainty of Hurricane Dennis, we had kept close tabs on the NOAA and television weather forecasts. Friday morning, after checking all possibilities, we made the decision to go ahead with our plans and set out for the weekend.

We went as far as Solomons' Island on Friday and got up early Saturday morning to start the trip to Annapolis. We were out on the Bay for approximately two hours when the weather deteriorated. We quickly checked our charts and saw that there was an area noted as Flag Harbor Yacht Haven not far from where we were.

We spoke with Patty Gay, who advised us to pull into any slip we could. Once we were safely in and our boat secured, we spoke with John Little, the harbor master. John told us not to worry and to stay until we felt we could safely get back underway.

Our duck into safe harbor turned into three days. During our stay, the people we met at the marina were helpful and most hospitable. We were taken to the local grocery by Bud Moos. The commodore of Flag Harbor, George Tornell, helped us figure tides and provided some useful local Bay information.

Our trip was definitely not as we had planned, but we can honestly say it was a pleasurable experience. St. Leonard is a lovely area and if the people we met at Flag Harbor are representative of Calvert County, you are indeed fortunate and have a delightful place to live.

-Charlie and Kathie Evans, Stafford, Va.

Frogs in the Cauldron of Sprawl

Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:

I enjoy New Bay Times. Presently, I am on a 10-year odyssey of cruising about half the year on my 42-foot sailboat.

I am a permanent resident of San Juan County, Wash., an island about 70 miles south of Seattle. Though we are a ferry-served community, we face the same problems that you related in your editorials. I am retired, but have spent several years serving on a local planning board and on our county's solid waste committee.

When not sailing, I maintain and manage about 400 acres of lands for the preservation of habitat and eventual old growth forest.

You were right on with your editorial that it will take political will to implement solutions. People are generally unaware of the high costs of growth. National studies have shown that each new residence and its family impact the community with infrastructure costs over $27,000. Like the frog who is slowly boiled to death when cooked in water, residents are slowly, inexorably suffocated by the escalating taxes caused by this growth.

-Walter Corbin, Olga, Wash. and Herrington Harbour North, Tracey's Landing
[email protected]

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