We're in Trouble on Spriggs Farm Park

[Lisa]

on the fly asked me to post this here.

We're in trouble on Spriggs Farm Park. Here's what you can do to help.

Rec & Parks built a parking lot at Spriggs in Summer 2013 and we've been waiting for TWO years for Rec & Parks to "talk to the neighbors" before opening Spriggs to the general public. The neighbors do not want Spriggs open to the general public. They've commissioned a living shoreline design that ripraps the shoreline. Spriggs will not open to the general public without our public pressure.

You can do two things to help: send emails and come to the WAC meeting

A) Come to the September 9 2015 Water Access Committee meeting at 6 pm at Old Mill High School, 600 Patriot Lane, Millersville MD 21108 and tell Rec & Parks to open Spriggs Farm Park *now*.

B) Send a letter/email to the 6 people at the end of this post and make the following points:

(suggestions, please use your own wording)

1) what SnaggedLine is, there are lots of you, about how and where you enjoy the water, how you take your kids and your grandkids fishing, how kayak fishing is different from other sports, your yaks are heavy and you need a short carry to the water

2) Open Spriggs Farm Park *now* - Spriggs Farm was ready to open in 2013 when Rec & Parks built a parking lot there and we've been waiting for 2 years for Rec & Parks to talk to the neighbors, it's a public park, it should have been open 2 years ago, you want to fish the Magothy *now*

3) Don't use the living shoreline design commissioned by the neighbors that lines the shoreline with double rock walls. Any erosion control at Spriggs should follow the Beverly-Triton model of off-shore stone groins that build beach behind then and not the living shoreline design proposed by the neighbors that ripraps the shoreline.

Your First & Last Names (so they know you're a real person)
Snail Mail Address
Email Address

Thanks, Lisa

Please email/send your letter to these 6 people:

Steve Schuh, County Executive
Anne Arundel County
The Arundel Center
44 Calvert Street
Annapolis, Maryland 21401

exschu00@aacounty.org

Rick Anthony, Director
Anne Arundel County Department of Recreation and Parks
1 Harry S Truman Parkway
Annapolis, Maryland 21401

(410) 222-7867
RPANTH49@aacounty.org

Jana Davis, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Chesapeake Bay Trust
60 West Street, Suite 405
Annapolis, Maryland 21401

410.974.2941 x100
jdavis@cbtrust.org

Mike Lofton, Chair
Anne Arundel Public Water Access Committee
508 Polling House Road
Harwood MD 20776

410-867-3623
MSL49@aol.com

Bhaskar Subramanian
Shoreline Conservation Section Chief
Chesapeake & Coastal Service
Maryland Department of Natural Services
Tawes State Office Building E-2
580 Taylor Avenue
Annapolis MD 21401

410-260-8786
bsubramanian@dnr.state.md.us

Kevin Smith
Deputy Director
Restoration, Finance and Policy
Department of Natural Resources
Tawes State Office Building E2
580 Taylor Avenue
Annapolis, MD 21401

410-260-8797
kevinm.smith@maryland.gov

[Lisa]

Spriggs Farm Park is 55 acres on the south shore of the Magothy River, across from Dobbins Island. The county paid 3.1 million dollars for Spriggs in 2011. It's ready to open. Rec & Parks ran a kayak trip out of Spriggs on 7/12/15, see the photos:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...9085347&type=3

We can get our yaks to the water now, if only Rec & Parks would open the cable across the entrance.

Lisa

[Fishinfool]

Thank you very much for your edforts Lisa. I don't live in the county but will do what I can.

It seems to me that if AA Co taxpayers paid that much for a park that they won't open due to neighborhood "concerns", then they should insist that the Spriggs Farm Community Association buy it back from taxpayers at $3.1 million, plus lost taxes and interest.

Seriously, what legal right do area neighbors have to dictate whether the county opens the park or not?

[On the fly]

Lisa,
Thanks for your efforts now time for us to do a little emailing.

[Lisa]

Thank you very much for your edforts Lisa. I don't live in the county but will do what I can.

Seriously, what legal right do area neighbors have to dictate whether the county opens the park or not?

None, but the neighbors are the interest group that never loses interest and the county is catering to them. It's on old bad tradition in Anne Arundel County. Look at Beverly-Triton - the county bought Beverly-Triton in *1983* and only opened it in *2013* - 30 years of appeasing the neighbors at the public expense.

If you want to visit Spriggs, here are the directions: Take Route 2 to College Parkway. Turn onto College Parkway. Turn left onto Shore Acres Road. Turn left onto Bayberry (it's easy to miss this turn). Stay right at the Y intersection to continue on Bayberry. Spriggs Farm Park is on the right. There is no park sign. First there's a mowed roadside parking lot on the right. You can park there and walk around the old Spriggs farmhouse and down the hill through the meadow to the water. It's ~ a mile. and the view from the Spriggs farmhouse is glorious. Or you can continue and look for the lower meadow entrance further down on the right. It's one lane, doesn't look like much, and blocked by a chain. Park outside the chain, walk by the meadow parking lot and down to the water. The county mowed the park in July 2015 for the Rec&Parks kayak trip and it may have gotten overgrown since then.

Lisa