Annapolis, MD - Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman issued the following statement regarding the Chesapeake Conservancy’s decision not to build a conservation center at Quiet Waters:
“I am very disappointed that the Chesapeake Conservancy’s outstanding work to create the Earl Conservation Center was met with such vitriol by nearby residents, leaving the Conservancy no choice but to direct its efforts elsewhere. I am saddened that recent threats to surveyors by neighbors and online attacks on the organization and its director left the board with no appetite to continue.
“This project was a public-private partnership whereby a generous contribution from the Earl family would have leveraged a $10 million conservation center for small local nonprofits to collaborate, educate, and engage the public at a waterfront site with an inspiring view that everyday people in our county rarely experience. The site is in public hands only because the Earl family and Joel Dunn at the Conservancy put together the funding to make it happen.
“I hope that as we move forward on creating public access to this extraordinary site, we hear from those who will benefit from its magic.
“We try to achieve equity in resource distribution, but until we achieve equity in community engagement, progress will be difficult to achieve.”
