Anne Arundel
Waterway Restoration Alliance

Meeting Notes 2006-07-25

Attendance: 19 individuals with 4 notable guests:

• Bayland Consultants, Sepahr Baharlow
• Chris Phipps , Merrill Plait, Masoud Ghatineh - AA County Official of DPW

Chris Phipps, Chief Engineer of the Dept. of Public Works of Anne Arundel County, was given the floor who presented a handout of the AA County Waterway Improvement Fund request date July 14, 2006, submitted to Maryland State Director of Waterway Improvement Fund, Robert P. Gaudette. Anne Arundel County most have matching 50% grant funding in order to continue with dredging projects listed without requiring a special taxes funding from the communities. In FY07, 2.5 million was granted by the State compared to 4 or so years ago of $154,000. This large amount of funding has some to do with AAWRA campaigning for Waterway Improvement funds be used for that purpose.

The Waterway Improvement Fund list was stated as having the same dredging projects as last year and that the top 9 on the list where requested for the matching funds from the state of Maryland for FY08. The bottom 3 creeks of the top 9 still need a boat count survey completed, stated Merrill Plait. There were a total of 17 dredging projects on the AA County list of requested projects being studied. The other 8 are still in the early stages of the review process for waterway improvements. See 2006 Request for WIF Funding (PDF) for more details.

Parrish Creek is a federal channel project and will not have an impact on grant funding from AA County or Maryland State.

Mill Creek is/will be funded through other sources due to the spoilage from the raw sewage spill.

Whitehall Creek will have funding though the Dept. of Transportation due to the construction of Rt. 50. This project was funded in the current fiscal year and is being researched and engineered towards getting implemented in the following dredging season.

Also present was a time table chart of each of the 17 waterway projects.

Waterway Improvement is a 3 year process once approved for funding which includes such steps as securing DMP, permit and design.

Town Point dumping station matching funding grant was a needed grant to secure south county waterway improvement projects.

Source of sediment has become more of an issue for Waterway Improvement projects. Merrill stated that there is another source of funding if the sediment meets specific criteria. AA DPW is working on how to better take advantage of this funding when possible.

Treasurer's Report
There are 5 new members who joined AAWRA since last reported. Membership drive was solicited again. Nothing to report on 501(c)(4) status. Money will be needed for the questionnaire campaign.

Q&A For Candidates
2 questionnaire lists were generated from everyone's contributions, 1 for AA county candidates and 1 for State candidates for the up coming elections. It was commented that AAWRA should compile the results from the candidates answers and publish a list of candidates who support AAWRA annotatives. A cover letter along with the questionnaire will be mailed out in the next couple of days if there are no more comments.

AAWRA Meeting Schedule
Many conflicts exist for next AAWRA scheduled meeting, date to be announced in the near future. This meeting will focus on responses from the candidates in reference to the AAWRA questionnaire.

Attending this meeting were:

Bob Whitcomb/Saefern
Jay Phillips, DCET
Geoff Thomas/Admiral Heights
Paul & Gloria Rickett, Broadwater Farms
Elisa Moore, Deale Beach
Vern Penner, Amberly
Juliet Page, Divinity Cove
Jon Bupp, Kirwan's Landing, Queen Anne.s County
David Kemp, Wexford
Steve Goins, Broadwater Creek
David Seriero, Clark.s Landing, West River
Anastasia Hopkinson, Annapolis Roads
Rhonda Harrison, Brady Cove
Al LaGrange, Brady Cove
Jackie Anderson, Brady Cove