Bay Grasses Need Attention
Editor:
Why are the bay grasses in Sinepuxent Bay dying?
I have kayaked the Sinepuxent Bay waters for more than a decade. I have seen lots of changes but this year the change is exceptional. Earlier in the summer, I noted on the shallow water flats behind Assateague Island that certain area of the submerged aquatic vegetation were turning black. As I walked along crabbing with a crab net, the black grasses would break off and clog my net. I believe the grass was Widgeon grass but I am unsure. I know it wasn’t Eel grass but the dead grasses were right next to the Eel grass beds.
Now big blobs of the dead grasses are floating on the surface of the bay, back and forth with the tides. It is quite a sight and very unsettling. So who do we turn to in order to find out why this is happening? There is probably no single unit at the Assateague Island National Seashore who studies or is responsible for researching this. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is responsible for enforcing hunting and fishing regulations, so it is probably not their responsibility.
The Maryland Department of Health is responsible for what goes into the water body, not what is impacted once it is in that water body. Maybe the University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s laboratory at Assateague Island might look into this but it is not their responsibility. I wonder if anyone in the scientific community has even noted this situation. It certainly not been mentioned in any of the press or other media.
I hope someone or some group will step in to look into the matter. Thanks.
Tom Wieland
Bishopville
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Bethany Overreaching
Editor:
The Bethany Beach council is considering telling good people what they can and cannot use on the beach to stay out of the sun. Most of the complaints seem to be from locals that sometimes, depending on what time of day they show up, can’t always find the exact spot they want or don’t always have a perfect, unobstructed view of the water. You love when tourists show up, spend their money, support your businesses, and pump millions of dollars into the local economy every year. Why then would you treat your guests like criminals?
My family has been coming to Bethany Beach every year for 34 years straight. Last year there were 57 of us. We set up five canopies right on the back dune line. In this way, we affect nobody’s view or beach access. All are attached to each other and weighted down. With so many small children, we need the protective shade that the canopies provide. Having to use over 20 umbrellas to accommodate our large family is just silly.
We come from California, New York, Virginia, Texas, Maryland and Ontario, Canada. We figure we spent well over $25,000 last year on renting five (big) houses, food, parking, parking tickets, clothes, books, paintings and every other souvenir you can think of. If we are not able to use our canopies (in a respectful and common sense manner) starting next year, we will be forced to move the whole operation to OC. Rehoboth was an option until its council showed that they are not a family friendly resort by banning canopies last year.
The businesses in Bethany Beach better wake up. Your (elected) council is about to take tens of thousands of dollars out of your pockets.
The only business that would stand to benefit from this new law is Steen Umbrella Rental. Hmmm, isn’t there a member of the Steen family on the team that reviewed the effect of tents and canopies on the beach? Interesting.
Keep Bethany Beach a family resort. Families have kids. Families have babies. Families need the ease of use and the shade these devices provide.
RG Ruest
Selbyville, Del.
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Another Successful Year For OC Home Tour
Editor:
On behalf of the Art League of Ocean City, thank you to everyone who made this year’s Sand Castle Home tour a huge success. The proceeds from this yearly event continue to provide sustaining funds to support our non-profit mission of promoting the visual arts in the Ocean City area, and help to keep the Ocean City Center for the Arts free and open to the public. The tour showcases the many beautiful residential communities in our area, as well as the builders, decorators, contractors, restaurants, and others who provide amenities which support our local economy and the arts.
We would like to thank Maryland’s First Lady Yumi Hogan for being our honorary chairperson of this the 13th annual tour. Her support of this event and of the arts in general is noteworthy and appreciated.
Our gratitude to our gracious homeowners: the Lawson, Gwyn, Cocco, Curcio, Roskovich, Miller, Pihllips, Burt, Zaleski, and Tomaselli families who opened their doors to the community. Thank you committee members: Mary Ellen Rosenblit, Ryan Wilde, Karen Hunter West, Nancy Fortney, Marian Bickerstaff, Debbi Dean Colley, Eileen Salafia, and Linda Kessinger who worked many months to coordinate the tour.
This year’s kick off cocktail party themed “Peace, Love, and Art” was a spectacular tribute to the 70’s organized by Judy and Jon Tremellen, Susan Hogan, Cindy Leiner, Marsha Howarth, Jamie Albright, Marian Bickerstaff, Emmy Challenger, Rebecca Galyon, Cheryl Taustin, Nadine Wieder, Gayle Widdowson, Jan Perdue, Eileen Stamnas, Emily Schwab, Trisha Wentz, and Katy Durham. Special thank you to the Gateway Grand for hosting the party.
To the florists who provided spectacular arrangements for the party and homes: City Florist, Flowers by Alison, Kitty’s Flowers, Ocean Greenery, Ocean City Florist, Beached Butterfly, Barefoot Gardeners, Ocean Pines Garden Club, and Worcester County Garden Club, we are grateful. Thank you to all of the artists who painted the fabulous home portraits: Elizabeth Collard, Robin Foreman, Kathy Bohs, Rebecca Simonds, Sandy Glassman, Jill Glassman, Dale Sheldon, Gerilyn Gaskill, Barbara Doyle Schmid, and Tinsel Hughes. Thank you also to Atlantic General Hospital for providing booties for the tour goers to wear in the homes, and the Commander Hotel for the tour bags.
Our appreciation to our valued media partners: Maryland Coast Dispatch, Ocean City Today, Coastal Style Magazine, Metropolitan Magazine, and Delmarva Public Radio, and to the 50 local businesses who advertised in the tour book. We appreciate the support of the restaurants that provided gift certificates for our raffle: Fager’s Island, Sello’s, Sunset Grille, Liquid Assets, Longboard’s, Blu Crabhouse, Captain’s Table, Rare & Rye, Fin’s, and Shotti’s Point.
It truly takes a village to run this event, and we are so grateful to the over 240 volunteers who worked as docents during the tour, many of them who return to help each year and some of them representatives from other non-profits in the area. Finally, to the almost 1,000 people who took the tour, thank you for coming, we hope you enjoyed the beautiful residences of our area and look forward to seeing you at the Ocean City Center for the Arts on 94th street, and next September for the 14th annual Sand Castle Home tour.
Rina Thaler
Ocean City
(The writer is the executive director of the Art League of Ocean City.)
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Parents Should Be Wary Of Colleges
Editor:
We raise our children for 18 years; instilling in them a sense of responsibility, morals, industriousness, charity, kindness, and love for this country. Then they are off to college. They come home with those character traits that you, as a parent, worked so hard to inculcate in them — greatly distorted. Parents are finding out more and more that they paid over $100,000 to have their children’s minds set against the very morals and nationalism that they so fervently believe in.
Much to your surprise your child hates America. Where do you think all this “take a knee” crap is coming from? Plato, a student of Socrates, 428-348 BC said, “The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.” The socialist left, who hate capitalism, this country, and all the institutions that make it great, knows this. This is why they are against school vouchers and any competition in our educational system. This attitude changing starts in kindergarten and continuous through 12th grade. The children are still home in this time period and good parents can at least observe subtle changes in their children.
A professor of environmental studies at Salisbury University wrote an example of this in a long winded, two-column dissertation. It could have been summed up with, “Hey America, stop trying to be great again. Decrease productivity and dominance in the world. Give the environment a break you overgrown pig of a country!” You know, that our country is responsible for bettering the lives of millions of people all over the world in countless ways that would fill this newspaper!!
It is time parents start boycotting these colleges which hire professors who hate this country while sharing personal distortions which they harbor. Parents, you are paying to have your offspring indoctrinated. Look into schools that teach facts and accurate American history. Hillsdale College is a good starting point.
Dennis W Evans
Berlin