Legislators Oppose Salt Barn

    A Week after a crowd packed a meeting to oppose a proposed 10,000-ton salt storage facility in Davidsonville area legislators have asked Gov. Larry Hogan's for help.  County Councilman Jerry Walker, R-Crofton, and Del. Sid Saab, R-Crownsville, sent letters asking Hogan for assistance to find a more suitable location for the State Highway Administration road salt storage barn than the strip of farmland next to the intersection of Route 50 and Davidsonville Road    The intersection has been called the gateway to Davidsonville and Crofton and area residents don't want the facility. More 200 showed up at the meeting Sept. 3 to say so.

    Walker, whose District 7 includes the location, noted in his letter that Hogan makes his home in the same district.
    "Being from Anne Arundel County and a District 7 constituent, I know that you are aware of the citizens' desire to keep development to a minimum and to preserve the rural look and feel of our community," Walker wrote.

    A spokesman for Hogan did not respond to requests for comment.
    The state bought 3.94 acres adjoining the intersection from the Scible family using eminent domain powers more than 50 years ago. It was to be used for a ramp to Route 50, but no ramp was built. The family has continued to farm the land, as permitted under the contract, in the years since.
    In the 1990s SHA wanted to erect a smaller salt dome but the community, led by then Del. Marsha Perry, resisted and won.  Saab referred to that fight in his letter to Hogan.
    "It wasn't right then, and it still isn't right now," he wrote.

Walker suggested the state return the land to the Scible family
     Surplusing this property back to the Scibles will prevent future generations form enduring a similar fight with their state government," Walker wrote.
    "That's excellent," Betsy Scible said. "I can't help but have hope that with political leaders on our side they can solve this issue for all of us."
    The Scible's Y Worry Farm includes a popular pumpkin patch and Christmas tree stand and Scible has said the salt facility would likely kill that business.
    Walker added a personal note in his letter, saying his son Andrew "picks pumpkins there every year.
    "It would certainly be a disappointment to my 8-year-old if I had to tell him there would be no more pumpkin patch."

    The SHA has been looking at other locations all along and recently added the old Crownsville hospital site and its own District 5 headquarters on Defense Highway into the mix.