Sports Complex Opposition
Editor:
(The following letter was addressed to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore with an enclosure of a letter opposing a sports complex.)
Enclosed you will find a letter which I wrote in opposition to the proposed Sports Complex which is being planned for the vicinity of Ocean City, Md. The project is estimated to cost at least $166,900,000 or more. The Town of Ocean City intends to fund 20% of the cost, and wants the State of Maryland via the Maryland Stadium Authority to fund 80%. A copy of my enclosed letter was sent to every member of a Task Force which was convened by Mayor Rick Meehan of Ocean City to study the issue.
In 2022, I was asked to chair a Ballot Initiative Committee identified as People For Fiscal Responsibility and organized under the rules established by law under the Maryland State Board of Elections. The committee was formed to place a bond bill in the amount of $11.2 million before the voters of Worcester County. In the Spring of 2022, by a slim majority, the Commissioners of Worcester County voted to go to the bond market for the initial funding to build a sports complex in the county.
Over 70 volunteers gathered sufficient signatures to place the bill on the ballot in November, 2022. The voters of Worcester County rejected the bond bill in a referendum vote. Not satisfied with the outcome of that vote, the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City began discussions to pursue the matter on their own initiative requesting support and funding from the Stadium Authority.
I have studied this project since 2019, and I am convinced that it is not financially feasible, and it will require ongoing subsidy by local and state government, in a similar way the Ocean City Convention Center operates. I request that you review my letter to the task force for a detailed explanation of my opposition.
Upon review of this matter, if and only if, you feel that Maryland needs such a sports complex, I submit that it may be more feasible in another area of our state. However, I firmly believe that taxpayer dollars can be better spent on more worthwhile projects.
Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.
Vince Gisriel
Ocean City
X
Reflections On Power
Editor:
I am always interested in other points of view, but when the same names pop up here with misinformation and made-up numbers repeatedly it is disturbing to me. There are people that will believe the nonsense because they “read it in the paper”, without vetting it with real data.
Delmarva Power does not generate any power, they buy it. Data shows that 20% of all generated power is lost and wasted by voltage drops on those long transmission lines. One recent letter claims that one company charges 50k for a trailer’s solar system! Look up the real prices please. We have had our Solar panels since 2010 and they generate 1000kwh almost every month, they paid for themselves in less than 7 years and are under warranty for 12 more years and will still be generating after that. Delmarva Power made it difficult by restricting the panel numbers then and constantly messing up the billing. They now allow much bigger systems and they resist it less. I could replace my system with a complete bigger one for just $15,000 now. Do not rely on the ones that claim to put a system on your roof for free and then “just” charge for your usage. They should be all free since they get SRECs and tax breaks. Buy your system if you can. When power companies ask everyone for conservation during heat waves, we are sending our excess to the grid. We used to watch the meter spin backwards.
Coal is a very complex mineral that has virtually every element including heavy metals that get released into the air we breathe and deposited all around the Coal fired plants. Look up the “cancer rings” around the Indian River Plant and others.
Nuclear-powered plants are thought to be the cheapest form of generation but the companies involved are not collecting for the enormous cleanup and storage costs. Guess who they will dump that cost on like the other Super fund sites? The pellets are safe to be around until they have been in service, when they also irradiate everything around them from the building to the entire contents. The feed water pipes carry the very corrosive irradiated water that feeds the now irradiated turbines. The conditions inside prevent any inspections even by robotics. At a symposium long ago, I asked a Constellation engineer how long the Calvert Cliffs were certified for and he said 25 years, and they would probably be recertified without an inspection since it was not possible. Calvert was started in 1975, and there really have not been new ones commissioned since here in the US. They are currently storing radioactive waste on site like all do, and like all are located near large bodies of water like the Chesapeake. They all report leaks of contaminated air and water almost daily. You can access that data as well.
People are fighting against wind power planned for federal sites way out to sea saying it will ruin their view. They do not rail against those ugly condos that go up as high as 317 ft and block lots of other people’s views, or the constant banner planes and signboats and their noise. The towers will not only supply power, but also good jobs, tourism, as well as great habitat for sealife like the oil derricks in the Gulf do. That habitat will replace the structure that years of strip mining the bottom has been done by watermen’s dredges. Fish need structure to flourish. I cannot wait to fish and dive them. Retired oil derricks are cleaned up in the Gulf and left as fish havens.
We cannot rely on just solar or wind yet, but anything we can do now will lower future costs and leave us with local power generation that will cut down on wasteful transmission power losses. Require Nuke companies to put money aside for overdue and future cleanup so we do not get stuck with the bill, which will make nuclear power the most expensive per kw of all.
Hans Van Den Bosch
Snow Hill