St. Clement's Island with the sun setting behind the Blackiston Lighthouse. Copyright 2010 THE CHESAPEAKE

The original Blackiston Lighthouse on St. Clements Island was destroyed by shelling practice by the Navy after being vandalized by local heathens of the Seventh District. A new lighthouse has been built by a large group of dedicated volunteers.

By Cap’n Larry Jarboe
THE CHESAPEAKE

   Did you know that one of the most popular excursion boats in St. Mary’s County started as a brick?

   From 1994 to 1998, I served upon an all Republican Board of County Commissioners.  We lowered property and income tax rates, cut the assessment cap in half, fully funded education, and gave the people two miles of waterfront access on the Patuxent River. 

 However good our public policy, we argued like cats and dogs.  At the end of 1998, all of us were back in the private sector.  The Democrats took over and hiked property taxes to new heights..

  This is not an article about how the tide shifts between the two party system.  Instead, both parties can work together to bring positive accountable governance and infrastructure to the public.

  Soon after taking office in 1994, I met with Leonardtown Mayor Chip Norris to discuss the upcoming plan to move the historic circuit courthouse function from its downtown location. 

Mayor Norris is a Democrat who is elected in a non-partisan election.  Party lines are not anywhere as important as putting taxpayers first.

   Mayor Norris wanted the courthouse to stay in Leonardtown.  It was the anchor for the town’s prosperity.  I agreed with him but I had four Republican County Commissioners opposed.  Also, we needed some help from our State officials.

   State Senator Roy Dyson killed the bond bill to move the courthouse to the Governmental Center.  With this impetus from Annapolis, the topic was brought back to the commissioners’ table. 

The back wall of the 1901 St. Mary's Circuit Courthouse was exposed when the old jail and elevator were removed for the new construction that now houses the expanded circuit courthouse.

The public was resoundingly in favor of preserving our historic courthouse location for an expansion in the rear overlooking Breton Bay.  Commissioners Frances Eagan and Chris Brugman joined our side giving a majority of commissioners to save the courthouse and Leonardtown’s economy

   Two Democrats and three Republicans worked together to benefit St. Mary’s County.

   The jail behind the courthouse had to be demolished to make room for the new addition.  In 1997, instead of a groundbreaking, our County Administrator hosted a brick breaking with five small hammers.  From the pile of rubble, I broke off a single brick for a souvenir.

   While walking into the celebration luncheon hosted by the Town Council in Tudor Hall, I realized that I do not need to keep mementoes, memories are sufficient.

   I must have looked like an anarchist carrying that brick into the Leonardtown government offices.  I decided to leave the brick as a paperweight on one of the secretary’s desks.

   As I reached to place the brick on the first most accessible desk, I sensed that I should put it on the other desk further over.

   I was placing the old brick on that distant desk when Millie Huseman walked up.

    ”Oh, you must have read the Enterprise article about me collecting bricks.” she said.

   Somewhat confused, I replied, “No, I was just leaving it on that desk for a paperweight because something inside me said to do so.”

   “Well, I’ve been collecting bricks from all over the world to build a shrine for the Blessed Mother that overlooks St. Clements Island.” said Millie.

   Let’s see: Over eighty thousand people lived in St. Mary’s County at the time and I unknowingly deliver a brick to the one lady who collects bricks for a shrine.

   Millie said, “I have been wanting to talk with you as well.”

   She relayed her enthusiasm for the history of the founding of Maryland and the events that occurred when the first colonists landed on St. Clements Island.

   A shuttle boat was needed to help tourists and locals visit the island.  I agreed that we could do this.  I brought the idea to the County Commissioners.  We established a boat committee with Karl Kopel as chairman.  They were tasked with finding an affordable, fuel efficient, low maintenance, U.S. Coast Guard approved boat that would pay for itself through a nominal passage fee.

    Today, the Water Taxi II carries up to a couple dozen passengers to and from St. Clements Island on the weekend for only seven dollars each.  The boat is available by charter during the week for tour groups.

   For more information, please call the St. Clements Island Museum at 301-769-2222.

The Solstice is joined this year by the Eclipse, the third of the Solstice class of Celebrity ships. The newest ship features an Ilounge in addition to other amenities. The Soltice is shown here in Fort Lauderdale. THE CHESAPEAKE

Nine new ships will be cruising from North American ports this fall and winter.  

New Queen Elizabeth fills up with as many Americans as Brits on first voyage as Cunard rolls out third Queen

Photo gallery of the new Queen Elizabeth II

Sailboat show in Annapolis over the Columbus Day weekend; Columbus showed up in the New World in one of these babies, not the kind on display in Annapolis harbor. THE CHESAPEAKE staff photo

This fisherwoman is on the rock seawall at Piney Point with the St. George Island bridge in the background. THE CHESAPEAKE staff photo

PINEY POINT (Special) — In spite of warnings from the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the O’Malley Administration has failed to act to secure and safeguard St. George’s Island from drifting away from the mainland at the same time that the local politicians have been conducting secret negotiations with the Mattaponi Indian tribe to use the law to seize the land on the island.
Under the eminent domain laws, St. Mary’s County Executive Bull Wade has prepared immediate seizure of all private property on the island for resale to the Indians for a casino.
“We don’t want to sell our property,” said Winona Sayre, a 5th generation resident of the island. “These tinhorn politicians in Leonardtown have cooked up a scheme to take our property and I want the Governor to come to our rescue, arrest those Leonardtown crooks and let us live in peace.”
The path of the island is unclear at this writing but at the present rate of the separation which began in April, State Highway officials believe that by November they will no longer be able to continue installing plates in the bridge in the island side in order to maintain the road connection and the island will start to drift away.
The seismic readings on the Gregorian Fault, which initiated the furious reaction by locals to the earthquake under the Potomac River and which is triggering the sudden shifting, has put the island at peril and spawned a plan to move the residents of the island to the Take it Easy Ranch.
There are other consequences as the local officials continue to assess what the changes will make.
“We will continue to levy taxes on the property on the island as Maryland owns all of the Potomac River, right up to the Virginia shoreline and we will make sure no one escapes our high taxes,” said Bull Wade.  “Just in case anyone thinks that they can stop paying property taxes, we will pursue them all the way to Virginia.”
But it is the secret talks with the Indians over establishment of a casino that worries residents of the island, many of whom are elderly.
“We just want to be left alone and I don’t understand why Governor O’Malley can’t put some large barges in between us and the bridge,” said Sayre. “We could drive onto the barge, and then enter onto the bridge and still have access to the mainland.  I am too damn old to be rowing over to Piney Point from my home.”
The island’s Post Office has been closed and requests for car ferries have been turned down by the Obama Administration as well as the State of Maryland.
“We are really in a pickle,” said Fred Fullya, who retired to the island from a job with the Bush Administration.  “If the county won’t pay me what I paid for my waterfront home, where will I live, in section 8 housing in Lexington Park, I don’t want to live in a trailer in Callaway.  This is an election year and I am certainly not happy that my commissioners are cooking up a back room deal to build a casino and throw us out of our homes.”
“What good is that Hoyer fella if he can’t help out us old folks,” said Sayre.  “I have voted for that fool for the last time. Is Steve Uhler running this year, I always thought he was so handsome”.
A boat full of Indians was seen leaving the Seafarers dock and taking a trip out on a certain local skipjack with the trip catered by a local caterer.  A waiter for the catering service was able to secretly take audio clips from the discussions held on the skipjack ride and due to the recordings being conducted in violation of Maryland’s wiretap laws, the name of the waiter is being withheld from our readers.
“We don’t want to pay top dollar for the homes on this island,” said Chief Running Dozer on a secret recording.  “This is a recession and many of us are new at this Indian culture, as I myself lived in New Jersey until I found out some of my relatives had been locked up in Upper Marlboro and when I checked my family tree I found that my great grandmother had lived in Nanjemoy, so now I am Chairman of the Tribal Council. But I am looking forward to running a casino, it sure beats running numbers.”
Other audio clips of the skipjack trip show collusion on the part of the Indians and the commissioners and will be released to a Washington TV station which can use them and not break Maryland law.
At this time, interviews with the various elected officials and County Executive Wade have revealed little on-the-record information about the casino.
“We have been conducting these sensitive negotiations in the back room where it belongs,” said Wade.  “When I think the public has a right to know something, I’ll decide what to release.”
St. George Island is still accessible by roadway which the lone business on the island hopes will be kept open.
“When we have to, we will provide water taxi service for our customers,” said Bugs Evans IV, owner of the venerable Evans Seafood.

Not since 1989 when the island actually broke loose from the mainland, causing the island to lose its Post Office and the road link to the Piney Point area has such an extreme danger to everyday lives of residents come into question.

A county commissioner, Francis Russell, lives on the island and has been bombarded with phone calls from his neighbors who are asking what the government is going to do to keep the earthquake-like event from severing their land connection with the mainland.

State Highway Administration trucks have set up a checkpoint on the mainland just before the bridge and have seismic monitors drilled into the ground at the bridge to monitor each and every tremble.

“We will shut this bridge down at the first sign of new cracks,” said SHA spokesperson Judy Landau.  “We cannot allow anyone to be endangered by being on the bridge at the time of gaseous trembling emitting from the deep recesses of the Gregorian Fault, which caused the bridge to be severed back in 1989.  Engineers had provided the structural repairs necessary to the island with 742 metal rods which had been drilled into the northern end of the island to permanently anchor it to the south end of the bridge and we are doing Satellite surveillance of all of the changes in the positioning of the island over the past 12 months.  At the first sign of movement, the bridge will be closed to traffic and after that residents are on their own for transportation to the mainland as the State of Maryland is already facing a $2 billion deficit. “

Commissioner Russell vowed to conduct County Commissioner meetings on the island as a way of forcing the State of Maryland to provide ferry boat service.   Commissioner Kenneth R. Dement told a resident of the island that “I’m not taking any boat to the island, I don’t go on boats.”

The popular Bull Wade, who has been the county executive for five terms, first elected in 1990, reported to the commissioners at last week’s meeting that he had met with Congressman Steny Hoyer who said he was going to have the Department of the Interior study the suitability of the island simply becoming a national park and having each resident be given a I.O.U for their property, as the national government is already facing $14 trillion in debt and won’t have any money to pay residents for their homes, but Hoyer reports that the SEIU has sent a proposal to the Obama Administration to give the island to the Mattaponi Indian Tribe who will then turn St. George Island into a casino. 

“The Mattaponi Indian Casino will be able to provide car ferries to patrons of the casino, which will also include new high-rise hotels,” said Hoyer in a statement delivered on the House floor a few minutes after the contentious health care issued was passed.

“It’s a shame that someone didn’t think of this sooner,” said Russell. “Most of the people on the island are getting old and going to die anyway, so it’s imperative that government act to prevent a new generation of aging Americans from moving in, growing old and then dying, the cemeteries are full and neither the county or the state government can afford to pay for ferry service, but the Indian Casino will be able to do the service, provide jobs and a strong source of tax revenue for county and state government, everyone wins under this proposal.”

With the Mattaponi Indian tribe signing a 99-year affiliation with the SEIU last year, the two entities will work together to quickly move all of the St. George Island residents into FEMA trailers which have been brought in from a large FEMA storage lot in Purvis, Miss.

“This is a win-win, those St. George Island residents who would lost their homes due to the island separating from the mainland will be able to frolic in the lush pastures and woodlands of the nearby Take It Easy Ranch,” said Russell.  “They will be on high ground, not be a target for every north-easter and hurricane, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why anyone ever wanted to live on the island.”

The chief snag to the deal for the island is coming from the Seafarer’s Union which had been negotiating with the Mattaponi Indians to sell their Harry Lundeberg School of Seamanship facility at Piney Point to the Indians. 

The two 6-story resort hotels already built at the Seafarer’s school campus, along with dining and marina facilities would allow the tribe to quickly implement the license for slot machines it won last month from the State of Maryland as well as exercise its rights under an agreement with the Federal Government to settle outstanding litigation over confiscation of Indian lands in St. Mary’s City.

“We have been promised a lot over the past couple of years,” said SEIU President Fibing B. Eig. “We worked hard to get this administration elected and our members need jobs, we need to compensate the Indians for their native lands and someone has to  pay for car ferries, so here we are, in the Majority Leader’s home district to replace a bridge that will soon lead to nowhere.”

When the weather starts warming up, I get the bug to start up the Harley and enjoy the open road.  I know that I am not alone because warm weather brings invites to poker runs, weekend get-a-ways and just local rides.  All of it is a good time; you just have to decide which one fits into your hectic schedule.

When asked to write this article and share important reminders, the first thought that came to mind about the great two wheel sport is “You better respect that motorcycle.  It is not a forgiving machine.”  With that in mind, please do a good safety once over on your motorcycle before you take that long ride.

First and most important, check the tires to make sure they are properly inflated; check for dry rot or excessive wear.  If the tread is worn, getting caught on a wet road can be very painful and costly.

I will never forget, as a young man, I was in the high school parking lot showing off my Bonneville.  As I was just getting the front wheel off the ground the rear wheel took off with a mind of its own.  Needless to say, I was picking gravel and glass out of my hide for day.  The incident cost me a new handle bar, pipes, and seat- due in part to a bald back tire and not enough respect for an unforgiving machine.

Dan Kenney, owner of Motovation Cycles & Accessories in Charlotte Hall is not just an old biker, but one of the best mechanics in the area.  His customers come to him from New York and as far away as Ontario, Canada.  He believes that one of the most common problems is the gasoline they sell us that has ethanol with a short shelf life.  Dan says to use Blue Stabil when you put your bike up or in storage for any length of time.  If you did not use your Blue Stabil when you put your bike away for the winter, be sure to drain that old gas before you start her up.  Ethanol absorbs 600% more water than a pure gasoline product.  Dan also agrees that tire condition and correct air pressure is very critical.

Finally, or at least until next month’s edition, do a good walk around inspection, check for loose parts, nuts, bolts and screws.  Use a torque wrench if it is recommended, as it is often required.  Don’t be a Bolt on Bob coming back from Fredericksburg.   About a year ago, I was one biker behind Bolt on Bob who was riding a Harley Ultra Classic.  After about ten miles out of town, market clutter began to fall off.   First he lost a turn signal light cover, and then his heel/toe shifter with a skull image fell off on route 301.  Then just before the bridge he lost a chrome thing that looked like a 58 caliber mini ball bullet.  None of these flying objects were Harley Davidson parts, nor did a mechanic put these parts on the bike.  Don’t get me wrong, I like a custom bike as much as the next guy.  BUT-IF YOU ARE LIKE Bolt on Bob, make sure all those cool items are on tight so they do not fall off your bike.  You will be legally responsible for damage caused by those flying objects.   Additionally, you could hurt or even kill a fellow biker.

Good luck, ride safe and watch out for the other vehicle operators because often they do not see you.