Heads Up: Beverly Triton Beach Park Public Meeting Thursday 2/7/18 7:00 pm Mayo Eleme

[Lisa]

Hello all, I hope you're wintering well,

Beverly Triton Beach Park is in the hot seat again. Please come to the public meeting on Thursday, February 7, 2019 at 7:00 pm at Mayo Elementary School and support proposed park improvements. I predict that the park obstructionists will turn out in force and try to get the county to give up on park improvements and return to restricted public access at Beverly Triton Beach Park. The county needs to hear from the general public who love this park, use this park and paid for this park with our tax dollars.

The plan for Beverly Triton Beach Park has been pared down to almost nothing. The obstructionists got the parking reduced from 167 spots to 97 spots (for a 345 acre park). Right now there is no increase in parking spots, merely the surfacing of the grass parking lot outside the park entrance. Beverly Triton will be connected to the public sewer system and a bathroom building with a handful of flush toilets and some outdoor rinse-off showers will be installed on the existing lawn. The drop off and launch for kayaks and other cartop boats will be relocated away from pedestrian traffic and improved. A small childrens playground will be near the beach, and a small picnic shelter will be in the clearing to the right on the way to the beach. There will be a small fishing pier on Deep Pond. There are some ADA tweaks to make it easier to get to the beach. That's it.

After 36 years the county is on track to finally live up to its promise to make improvements to Beverly Triton Beach Park, the basic improvements that make it possible for people, especially families, to enjoy the park in safety and comfort. (Remember, the county bought this property for a park in 1983 because the neighboring communities said they wanted a park instead of the planned 2400 condos, golf course and marina.)

*Please* come to this meeting, especially if you live in Anne Arundel County, and speak up in favor of basic public access improvements at Beverly Triton Beach Park. Meeting details below.

Thanks

Lisa

=============================================

PUBLIC MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT

Beverly Triton Beach Park -- Project#P570302

WHO: Anne Arundel County Department of Public Works (DPW)

WHAT: Beverly Triton Beach Park Public Meeting

WHEN: Thursday, February 7, 2019 -- 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm

WHERE: Mayo Elementary School -- Cafeteria, 1260 Mayo Ridge Road, Edgewater, MD 21037

A public meeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 7, 2019 at 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm, at the Mayo Elementary School Cafeteria to present the proposed Beverly Triton Beach Park redevelopment. The proposed design will refine what was presented during the Mayo Parks Master Plan process.

Department of Recreation and Parks and DPW officials will present information on the proposed park improvements, and will also answer questions from those in attendance.

The public meeting will be rescheduled if the Mayo Elementary School is closed due to inclement weather.

[Lisa]

The meeting is Thursday, February 7 *2019* please disregard the subject line typo.

Lisa

[Lisa]

It's hard to believe, but Beverly Triton Beach Park was closed to the general public from 1983 to 2013. Many of the neighbors still think this public park belongs to them. Here are some background articles:

1997 Baltimore Sun article: "A ghost beach on the bay, Waterfront: Residents think of Beverly-Triton Beach Park as a private preserve, but Anne Arundel County wants to open the park to all: https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs...071-story.html

1997 Washington Post article: ". . . BUT DON'T GO NEAR THE WATER": https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...-d8bb64d43f3c/

Lisa

[Lisa]

Hello all,

Will the Snaggedliners who live in Anne Arundel County District 1 please contact me?

Here is a County Council District Map and here is a lookup your Councilmember and District by address search.

Thank you

Lisa

[Mark]

If you are a resident of Anne Arundel County and enjoy Beverly Triton Beach as a launch site, you most certainly will want to pay attention to this issue. You may also want to write to your County Council Member and County Executive Pittman to express your support for continued water access. Email makes it easy to correspond with your elected officials. I have done so on this matter and I urge you to do the same. Also, please attend Thursday's meeting to let the local government representatives who will be there know by your presence that you value and support continued access to county waters.

Thank you,

[Lisa]

Hello all, here's a list of email contacts. Word is that the neighbors are very close to getting the county to agree to cutting the parking cut back to a couple of dozen spots (for a 345 acre park) and to get the outdoor rinse off shower required for an official public swimming beach killed. They want to squeeze the parking down to so little that it effectively closes the park. Please tell the county about how you enjoy Beverly Triton and that the park should be fully and genuinely open to the general public.

Please send emails in support of a bigger parking lot and an official public swimming beach (the park has a mile of sandy beach right on the Bay) ASAP to:

1) Dawn Thomas, designated Rec & Parks contact for Beverly Triton comments: rpthom00@aacounty.org

2) County Executive Steuart Pittman: expitt99@aacounty.org

3) District 7 County Councilwoman Jessica Haire (Beverly Triton is in District 7): Jessica.Haire@aacounty.org

4) Director of Recreation and Parks Rick Anthony: rpanth49@aacounty.org

5) Water Access Commission Chair Mike Lofton: msl49@aol.com

AND if you do not live in District 7, your County Councilperson from the list below. If you are an organization, please send to all the county council members.

District 1
Councilwoman Sarah F. Lacey slacey@aacounty.org

District 2
Councilwoman Allison Pickard allison.pickard@aacounty.org

District 3
Councilman Nathan Volke nathan.volke@aacounty.org

District 4
Councilman Andrew Pruski andrew.pruski@aacounty.org

District 5:
Councilwoman Amanda Fiedler amanda.fiedler@aacounty.org

District 6:
Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien lisa.rodvien@aacounty.org

How to find your County Councilperson: https://www.aacounty.org/departments...ber/index.html

County Council District Map: https://www.aacounty.org/boards-and-...anic%20Map.pdf

Beverly Triton Beach Park website: https://www.aacounty.org/locations-a...ton-beach-park

2/7/19 Beverly Triton Beach Park Public Meeting Notice: https://www.aacounty.org/departments...public-meeting

Thank you

Lisa

[ssmd]

If anyone has ever used google maps to try and find water access in Maryland, you will find it aggravating how many miles of shoreline the Chesapeake bay and its tributaries are restricted to the general public. The countless miles of shoreline the bay provides compared to what is available to the public is ridiculous. It's a shame that these Anne Arundel residence are trying to restrict access to public land. I get it, they live there and don't want the traffic but it's a pretty lame excuse. They're just trying to keep it to themselves. Greedy... The fact is its public land that should be made into a useful resource for all MD residence.

Lisa thank you for your efforts and sharing this information.

[Mark]

Anne Arundel County has 533 miles of shoreline along the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. In fact, the county has done a good job in recent years creating numerous cartop launch sites from north to south.

However, last November we had a change in administrations with the election of a new County Executive, Steuart Pittman, who may not be as firmly committed to providing water access as previous administrations have been. It's important for Mr. Pittman and the Council members to hear from us on this issue.

Do we want more access points? Do we want to keep the launches we have? And do we want them to be adequately maintained and/or improved? I think most of us on this forum, especially those from Anne Arundel County would agree that the answer to each question is yes.

Lisa, as always, has done an excellent job keeping a spotlight on this matter. She has showed us how we can easily communicate with the decision makers by providing their contact information. It's up to us to follow through. It's not hard to write your representatives an email. It can mean a lot to your future enjoyment of the hobby if you do.

[john from md]

Dang, I just found this thread so I didn't make the meeting. How did it turn out?

I'm pretty sure the new county exec. is going to go 180 degrees from Steve Shu so we might not see too much improvement of parks.

[Mark]

John,

I attended the meeting. Mr. Pittman indeed has a different perspective than Steve Schuh on that matter and he indicated as such at the very beginning of the meeting. It's also clear the residents are very concerned by what they perceive as overdevelopment on their peninsula. They will continue to oppose improvements to the park to reduce its full utility. And that's a shame because the county's park officials have a very nice vision for the property that would make it an asset for all county residents.



So there is

[john from md]

I think there are quite a few people who voted for the new CE who are starting to regret it. First he makes us a sanctuary county, next he drops support for parks and access to the bay. I hope he turns into a one term wonder.