Ron, the purchase money for the Skypark came from Rural Legacy Funds. not the Maryland Environmental Trust (MET). The MET does have an environmental easement on the property.
Keith

I'm in complete agreement with Pat and Rick. If it takes legislation to stop the county from closing the Essex Sky Park, so be it. Let's get behind Tom and the Aviators at Essex Sky Park, to save the last Skypark in Baltimore County, it's a worthly cause.

We know where our State Representatives stand on the issue of closing the Essex Skypark. What's the position of Councilwoman Bevins and Councilman Olszewski Sr. on the closing of the Skypark. Are they for it or against the closing. The citizens of their district's would like to know.

Mr. Gardina wasn't worried about a NEW CONDO TOWNHOUSE complex in the general area! Now all of a sudden its the airport that he is so intent on targeting! Just like the closure of a small road off Hollyneck Rd. that when we have a disaster, such as Tropical Storm Lee last year, for the sake of another small housing development! When this road is CLOSED and we have trees and lines down we will now be cut off from everything. Most of us have generators but if you can't get out to get gas you have nothing. We are on the grinder pump system for sewage and when electric goes out you can't use interior water because if the grinder pump fills it'll overflow. Now isn't that going to be great for the Bay! There are treatment plant failures and what is done about that? Yet we as the tax payers pay the consequences and fines for supposed environment concerns. So therefore we will have no way to get out for days perhaps weeks. The utility lines still have not been correctly re-connected to a pole that broke off during the tropical storm. Numerous calls have gone ignored to correct this issue. I posted earlier that the County owns a 40 +/- acre farm about a mile from the air park they can use all of that for planting the trees, etc. There is more to this than what we are being told.
NO LEAVE THE AIR PARK ALONE!!!!

George: I've spoken with Councilwoman Bevins and will post an update story later today.

Vince Gardina doesnt care about the skypark and he doesnt care about the Chesapeake Bay.........just like the govenor.......all he wants to do is meet a goal given too him about some other issue. In this case, he needs to get credits for some other environmental blunder. Just like the govenor using septic systems to control sprawl which does not allow him to balance a budget....nothing to do with the bay as stormwater is the real problem with the bay.

I have always wondered how new homes have never taken over most of the peninsula as I thought sewer hookups were available.
Besides this property, why have developers not taken over much of this land?

Clarice....you are right.....there is always more to the story. Unfortunatley, we only get the angle that the media want to run with.
Again, it has nothing to do with the environment.
No one really want to save the bay, it is too expensive and it will put many people out of business.......because what are we really going.......nothing?

Everytime I see a small plane flying in the beautiful blue sky, it brings back childhood memories of Essex Skypark. I remember waiting anxiously with my six siblings for my turn to fly across the Chesapeake bay in my father's plane. It's amazing when I go there now and see my brothers fly their children and grandchilden on the same magical route. Essex Skypark is a real gem, a wonderful place to fly your plane, picnic, or just watch the planes soar overhead. Why would anyone want to take historical Essex Skypark away?

The 580+/- acre Skypark Property was purchased with "Rural Legacy" funds. The Rural Legacy Program was established to specifically prohibit development. The Skypark property also has an "Easement" from the Maryland Environmental Trust protecting the forests and wetlands. The Back River Neck Peninsula Community Association (BRNPCA) has continually supported the operation of the Skypark. The "Lower Back River Neck Peninsula Community Action Plan" which is a part of the "Baltimore County Master Plan" specifically supports the continuation of the Skypark. As a former President of the BRNPCA, former Chairman of the Lower Back River Neck Peninsula Community Action Plan, and a community activist in the Essex Middle River community for more than 30 years, I want to go on record as stating that as long as I have a breath in my body, there will be NO RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT of the Skypark property. I have yet to find any evidence to substantiate these development rumors. I have, and will continue to support the operation of the Skypark, but I urge all interested parties to stick to the facts and not spread unfounded rumors. Finally, check the records...as a County Councilman, Vince Gardina downzoned and/or placed into preservation thousands of acres on the lower Back River Neck to limit and/or prohibit development.

I have, and I am digging deeper. I was born and raised near the Skypark. As a child and young man I played, hunted, and spent overnight "camping adventures" on just about all of that property. The first job I ever had was working at the Skypark when it was operated by Earl and Lois Wilson. I took flying lessons there. As an adult and community activist I have spent countless years working to support the Skypark. I do not deny anyone the right to their oppinion. All I ask is that we seperate fact from fiction in regards to the property being developed.

Yes Keith I stand corrected on the Somogyi farms acreage, then are you saying the Sky Park is a better areas to reforest? If so then I really don't care what they do down here. Let them re-forest and tare down the Sky Park since there is no other area that trees can be planted. Re-foresting the farm is better than a few other things that were proposed and those proposals did not include farming, unfortunately. There is more run off from the farms that pollute the Bay than the Sky Park. But who cares anyway the County will do what they want to do. I'm done....