WB&A Trail Extension Opening Delayed

Ask anyone who lives in Anne Arundel County, particularly anyone who lives along the Route 2 corridor, what they think of the WB&A Trail, and chances are, they think it's a tremendous community resource. Sure, there were initially reservations about whether or not it would bring "unsavory" elements into the neighborhoods that abut the trail, but those concerns were largely unfounded.

An extension from Odenton to Bowie, which will connect the Anne Arundel and Prince George's County trails, is now nearly complete. The opening of the final segment, which includes a footbridge over the Little Patuxent River, is now being held up, in part, because of an enormous dump site of plastic waste adjacent to the trail. The County has already spent $47,000 removing 230 tons of plastic from the site, but several hundred more tons still remain. At least some of the plastic trash bears the logo of Nevamar, a plastic manufacturer that was based in Odenton from 1943 to 2004.

Let's hope the County pursues compensation for these remediation efforts if a culprit can be pinpointed. And, kudos to the County for pursuing this expansion of our well-traveled trail network.

Below is a map of the Anne Arundel County portion of trail's current configuration.



UPDATE: Sun coverage.

Not Too Keene

Well, Anne Arundel County Parks and Rec. are up to their same old tricks again. You may remember these folks from such bungled ballfield efforts as the Smith Farm on the Broadneck Pennisula. Dennis Callahan and pal Jack Keene are once again intent on trying to jam playing fields in the wrong place, when a far more intelligent alternative exists elsewhere. In the case of the Smith Farm, the old Nike site existed, flat and cleared only a few miles away. In the current case, where Callahan and Co. are trying to put fields on the environmentally sensitive Franklin Point Park, 477-acres of pristine wilderness in Shady Side, a dry, flat, and underutilized, site exists nearby.

Delegate Bob Costa (R-Deale), is seeking funds from the State to do a feasibility study examining the option of putting fields at the capped Sudley landfill site. Re-developing landfill sites into open space parks and fields has been done all across the country, and truly represents smart growth, taking advantage of an otherwise "wasted" resource.

The creative solution proposed by Costa also has the support of the president of the Shady Side Boys and Girls Club, Pete Medhurst, who originally supported efforts to puts fields at Franklin Point.

Perplexingly, though, County Executive Owens, and Jack Keene seem to have major reservations about even exploring the viability of the Sudley site. Let's hope they get on board with Costa's plan and drop the environmentally-irresponsible idea of putting fields at Franklin Point.