Special Salt Barn Meeting

 From the Capital-Gazette:

    Davidsonville area residents opposed to a state salt distribution barn packed a hearing Thursday.
    The 10,000-ton barn for the State Highway Administration, would be at the intersection of Route 50 and Davidsonville Road.
    The room was standing room only, with 20 people outside who tapped on the window asking someone to open it so they, too, could hear.
    "They said it would be 98 feet by 108 feet and 40 feet high," Betsy Scible, whose family farm is the target for the project. "Otherwise the information has been conflicting and vague."
    One thing that wasn't vague is that the 140 people in attendance don't want the salt dome in their community. The meeting was hosted by the Davidsonville Area Civic Association and at the community recreation center.
    The SHA is considering the site and others in the county for the barn, which would store road salt for winter storm use. The salt would be distributed from there to smaller domes, SHA officials have said. A decision is due later this fall.
    County Council Chairman Jerry Walker told the crowd he has sent letters to SHA declaring his opposition to the project, and later encouraged the crowd to keep sending emails to him and other representatives. "We will forward them," he said "It is working. Keep it up."
    Walker said he and state Sen. Ed Reilly met with the SHA's District 5 engineer Lee Starkloff in July. "And we told him this should not be put in a rural, agricultural area. It is the entrance to Davidsonville and Crofton, and we don't want it."
    SHA officials did not attend the meeting, although the civic association invited an agency representative.
    "We are aware of the their position, " said SHA spokesman David Buck. "Any representative who would have been attending would likely only have been listening and noting residents comments."
    Two farm families, who have worked the land in the immediate area for generations, would be the most directly affected if the salt facility is built.
    The Scible family has planted crops since 1951, and their cousins, the Doepkins family, has worked there since the 1920s.
    The biggest problem for the Scibles is that the state owns the 3.94 acres in question.
    The state took the land by eminent domain 55 years ago to build an off ramp from Route 50 to Davidsonville Road. But it never built the ramp after road officials selected a different design.
    Part of the final agreement said the Scibles could continue to farm the remainder of the property that was not used for a ramp. They have done so since the 1960 state takeover.
    One resident stood to say the state ought to surplus the land. "The county can turn it down and the Scibles can buy it back," said Julia Reinhardt.
    Several residents are worried about salt contamination of their wells and surrounding farmland.
    This year that swath of land has patches of sweet corn and pumpkins growing on it. The pumpkins are sold at it's popular Y Worry Pumpkin Patch.
    "It would shut the pumpkin patch down," Betsy Scible said. "People have been coming here for generations for it. Who is going to want to come for a day in the country next to an industrial facility?"
    The SHA is also exploring other sites for the salt dome, including Interstate 97 at Route 32, and I-97 near Glen Burnie, as well as part of the old Crownsville State Hospital grounds.
    "But like with those other sites there are many considerations, access to roadways and environmental concerns, like tree removal and stormwater management," Buck said of the Crownsville location.
    No matter where the SHA decides to put the site, the agency will host a public meeting to go over details, he said.