August 23, 2013 The Dispatch/Maryland Coast Dispatch Page 31 County Views Change As ‘Negative’ For Farmers By TRAVIS BROWN STAFF WRITER Regional Digest FROM PAGE 30 SNOW HILL – An emergency hearing later this month could significantly impact the use of poultry manure on farms throughout the state of Maryland. Both the Delmarva Poultry Industry (DPI) and Worcester County Commission had an immediate and adverse reaction to the announcement of the possible changes. Spearheaded by the Maryland General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review (AELR), the hearing will consider replacing the current P-Site Index with a new phosphorous management tool (PMT) when determining phosphorous applications on state farms. “This regulation will have a severe negative impact on the use of poultry manure in Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester counties,” read a release from DPI. “All counties in Maryland will be impacted. There has not been any economic study to show the effects of this regulation.” According to DPI, the new PMT is “more sensitive to existing environmental conditions,” which officials say makes it less likely that a field will be able to use poultry- based manures due to phosphorous amounts. The new regulations could hamstring area growers, according to Worcester County Commissioner Virgil Shockley, a poultry farmer. “This will basically shut down the spreading of poultry manure on about, low-side 65 percent, highside 80 percent of all fields in Worcester, Wicomico, Somerset and Dorchester counties,” he said. Nearly as troubling as the effects of the regulations are their origin, Shockley continued. “This is something that came from nowhere, literally,” he said. “About nine days ago it showed up at 5:15 on a website and has grown … It’s kind of a question, why is it an emergency, all of a sudden, when it was just kind of lying out there and it wasn’t even supposed to be implemented until 2016.” Shockley was also dismayed at what he perceived as a lack of solid reasoning behind the changes. “One, there’s no scientific evidence for what they’re trying to do. They’ve based a law off of 391 soil samples. That sounds like a lot, but I have four farms and I take over 40 on four farms,” said Shockley. “Four farms, I take 40 and they’re basing a Maryland law on 391. To me, that’s absolutely ridiculous. We need to slow down. We need to get some facts before you start passing stuff that is going to have a dramatic, and I don’t use that word lightly, impact on poultry.” Likewise, Shockley blasted the process as being less transparent than it should have been. “If this is implemented by this committee, the committee has the authority to do it, number one, there’s no recourse because it doesn’t have to be voted on by the legislature,” he said. Both DPI and Worcester County Commission are encouraging members of the farming and poultry industry in Maryland to get involved. The hearing will be held by the AELR Committee on Aug. 28 at 2:30 p.m. in the Joint Hearing Room in the Legislative Services Building in Annapolis. DPI plans on an “emergency bus trip to Annapolis” to attend the hearing. “We need as many chicken growers and crop farmers as we can get to fill the hearing room to show the state legislators how serious an issue this is,” read their release, “and how it can create huge negative implications for chicken growers and crop farmers.” The Worcester County Commission also plans on sending a formal letter opposing the new regulations. Pollitt Appointed To Funding Task Force SALISBURY – Wicomico County Executive Richard Pollitt Jr. was among the representatives named to serve on Gov. Martin O’Malley’s local and regional transportation funding task force. The 11-member panel will make recommendations on the range of options available to county and municipal governments to generate resources to fund transit service and highway projects. The task force will also explore the feasibility of creating regional transit financing entities and local option transportation revenues for the purpose of raising additional funds to support regional and local transportation system. Pollitt was appointed as a representative from the Eastern Shore on the bipartisan task force, which also includes Transportation Secretary James Smith Jr., two state senators, two delegates and other county and municipal leaders from around the state. The task force was created as part of the recently passed Transportation Infrastructure Investment Act of 2013, which will invest a total of $4.4 billion over the next six years in the state’s transportation system. “Progress begins in Maryland’s counties,” said O’Malley. “The local and regional tranportation funding task force is comprised of talented and experienced state and local officials and will help determine the best ways to support regional and local transportation system needs.” . . Motion To End New Paid Parking Area Shot Down FROM PAGE 4 pal election or wait until the elections in November of 2014. In the meantime, the town will be losing out on the revenue generated from the new areas of paid parking that was originally initiated to help close a budget gap, ultimately having the budget become unbalanced. This week, Mac Balkcom of Ocean Place Condominium returned to the Mayor and City Council disgruntled with the Board of Elections having custody of the petition without reviewing the signatures and releasing the results in a more timely fashion. “We counted the signatures many times before we turned them in, over and over, it didn’t take four weeks. I think the people in Ocean City know what’s going on here. It’s the council dragging their feet,” he said. Councilman Joe Mitrecic interjected the Mayor and City Council has nothing to do with the process of signature verification. “For you to insinuate that we are dragging our feet is wrong,” he said. Council President Lloyd Martin said the verification of signatures is a matter between the City Clerk and the Board of Elections. “I would think you would want us [Mayor and City Council] to stay out of it, and that is what we have done … for you to walk in here and think that we have anything to do with it was the wrong thing to do,” he said. Councilwoman Margaret Pillas pointed out that when general employees petitioned to gain collective bargaining rights last year it took less than 20 days for the results. According to City Clerk Kelly Allmond, she received the general employee petition on June 29, 2012, the Board of Election met on July 9, 2012, and the results were read on July 13, 2012 but there were urgent factors in the process, such as the town was preparing for an upcoming election that November. “It is right that it can be done in a more timely fashion … I think they have a legitimate gripe about it,” Pillas said. “I do feel the community feels that it is being held back.” While Balkcom was at the podium, Council Secretary Mary Knight took the opportunity to ask him and his associates to forward resident inquiries over the council’s intentions and reasoning for paid parking to the Mayor and City Council because incorrect information was being given to gain signatures. “I know on St. Louis Avenue when people were out collecting signatures I had an 88-year-old lady call me with the name of the person that told her the town is going to install parking up and down St. Louis Avenue … those are the kind of issues I would like to correct,” she said. At this point, Balkcom accused Mayor Rick Meehan of personally commenting to him that it will only be a matter of time before paid parking is installed on every street in town. “I never said that to you,” the mayor said furiously. “I am sorry to even have to say this tonight, but I heard everyone [petition representatives] was telling people that we will be putting parking meters on their streets, in residential neighborhoods that have never been discussed by this council … we need to base conversations on the facts and let the people make their own decision.” Regardless of the council’s feelings about the issue, many private citizens went out in the summer heat and collected the signatures of other private citizens in the community, Councilman Brent Ashley said. “They all deserve our thanks and admiration for participating in the democratic process,” Ashley said. “I know that this group worked diligently to insure that all signatures were checked and valid before turning them into the city clerk.” Ashley made a motion the council makes a goodwill gesture to those who participated in collecting signatures and those citizens who signed the petition, and vote to cover up the Cale machines in the areas affected by the paid parking ordinance until the official signature count is verified. That would essentially remove paid parking from those streets until the issue is resolved, resulting in a loss of funding for the city that has already been budgeted. Councilman Joe Mitrecic asserted Ashley’s motion would not only bag the Cale machines on 146th Street but all new areas paid parking included in the approved ordinance, such as the municipal parking lots. Ashley’s motion died in a 52 vote with only Ashley and Pillas in favor and Council members Dennis Dare, Doug Cymek, Lloyd Martin, Knight and Mitrecic opposed. OC Employees Get Emergency Training OCEAN CITY – Town of Ocean City employees this week participated in a two-day Continuity of Operation Plan (COOP) training exercise in order to prepare them for how to keep local government and its operations up and running in the event of an emergency or natural disaster, such as a storm. Town employees participated in the COOP training on Tuesday and Wednesday. Instructors from the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute conducted the training, the cost of which was funded through an Emergency Preparedness Grant. “The development of these COOP plans allow for the continuation of government services for an extended period of time in the event of an emergency situation,” said Emergency Services Director Joe Theobald. “The COOP plans are included as part of the town’s Emergency Operations Plan, in which each department and/or division develops its individual plan, but all town entities coordinate efforts to accomplish a seamless transition to allow for all essential town functions to continue.”