Maryland Natural Resources Secretary Josh Kurtz was on the Eastern Shore recently to visit three potential locations for parks to be created in partnership with Wicomico County. Among these is the Connelly Mill sand quarry site on the north side of Salisbury. But the county has revealed other plans for this environmentally sensitive site — to turn it into a dumping ground for some 400,000 cubic yards of dredge spoils from the Wicomico River. This has turned Connelly Mill into an environmental battleground. Delmarva Public Media's Kevin Diaz has the story.
DON RUSH: Maryland Department of Natural Resources is considering three potential sites for parks in partnership with Wicomico County. Among these is the Connelly Mill sand quarry site on the northern side of Salisbury, but the county has other plans for this environmentally sensitive location, a dumping ground for some 400,000 cubic yards of dredge spoils from the Wicomico river. This has turned Connelly Mill into an environmental battleground. Delmarva Public Media's Kevin Diaz has the story.
DIAZ: This is a story with a happy beginning, a contentious middle, and an ending yet to be determined. In the beginning, a group of Salisbury landowners donated a 234-acre parcel of wooded land to Wicomico County. That was eight years ago. The vision was to turn the land into a park or a recreation area for area residents, but first, the county would use it to quarry dirt for construction projects, and also its landfill. Since the property covers an aquifer around the headquarters of the Wicomico River, the quarry would fill up with water, creating a pair of manmade lakes, enhancing the recreational potential of the parcel. This is all just five miles from downtown Salisbury. Then comes the middle of the story. Last year, apparently to the surprise of the county council, and most everyone else, county executive Julie Giordano turned the parcel over to the promoter of off-road vehicle events.
The result was safari at the quarry, a rally of four wheel drive, Jeeps and other vehicles. The predictable outcry ultimately led both the city and the county to nix further offroad vehicle rallies and returned the parcel to a long-term planning process to turn it into a park for wildlife and people. Boosters of what was going to become Connelly Mills Park thought they'd won a victory, but now comes the end of the story, which remains undetermined. In September, Wicomico County Public Works officials unveiled a plan to use the site to store river dredge spoils and logging debris, casting doubt on the future of the park.
STOFKO: I think it borders on criminal.
DIAZ: That's Craig Stofko, a nearby resident and former Somerset County Health official.
STOFKO: The property back here is stunningly beautiful, and there's a lake back there, its pristine, just Garden of Eden type stuff.
DIAZ: Stofko is part of a community group to save Connelly Mill Park, which fought the four wheel drive rally and is now fighting the dredge proposal. While everybody understands that the Wicomico River needs to be dredged for navigation, park boosters say Connelly Mill Park is not the place for all that muck.
DAHLEN: I was absolutely floored.
DIAZ: That's Mikele Dahlen, one of the leaders of the community effort to save the park.
DAHLEN: This is 234 acres of green space. It's less than five miles from downtown Salisbury and the urban center. All of the other similar parks that Wicomico County has are a 35 .o 40 minute drive away. And when you talk about equity of access to the benefits of open air and green space, we are robbing the people of Salisbury and the Urban Center
DIAZ: County officials say the dredging project would eventually help develop the park by gradually creating an artificial wetland. County executive Julie Giordano, who was instrumental in the Safari at the Quarry, did not return a call seeking comment, but in a recent social media post, she accused critics of spinning a false narrative and said the dredging project would actually help move things in the direction of a park. Mikele said, even if that's true, the dredging plan would put off the park for another generation. She said she left the county's recent presentation on the dredge project with a sense of alarm.
DAHLEN: Most of the people in the room were too. We left out of there not fully understanding, but the words at the end of it were, this'll create artificial wetlands. The county can monetize the carbon credits, and at the end of it, there'll be a park. But there's, by the way, 30 years of dredge storage.
DIAZ: Well, the county executive has a lot of power in Wicomico County, park proponents are counting on help from the county council, which helped them stop the Safari at the Quarry.
DAHLEN: So we have a very bipartisan group. The park itself was envisioned by a Republican county executive. It was approved by a majority Republican council. It was done the correct way.
DIAZ: But for now, what proponents are calling the "Central Park" of Wicomico County remains very much up in the air. For Delmarva Public Media, this is Kevin Diaz reporting.
