Marina

Marina owner Jerry Herson expected 1,000 people and the governor. He got 250 and a state delegate.Still, it was a good enough turnout, Herson said, to show that he has supporters in a Pasadena battle that began as a spat between neighbors and escalated last month into an army of residents blockading Bodkin Creek.Herson threw a party last night at his Pleasure Cove Marina largely to rally support for the controversial renovations he plans for the marina -- installing hydraulic lifts in his in-water slips and building boat racks to house the nearly 300 boats parked on his property.

When Mike Collins talks about the fall harvest, he doesn't mean pumpkins.He is referring to the microwaves and rubber rafts that are Dumpster-bound at marinas with working yards, where boats are repaired, as upscale boat owners clear their vessels for the off season of the usable items they plan to replace next year.Collins is among a small Annapolis-area community of maritime tradespeople and live-aboards who rescue good merchandise from marina trash bins.The two best seasons are fall, when boat hibernation begins, and spring, when a new year calls for new furnishings.

A three-alarm fire last night extensively damaged the second-floor storeroom of a building at Weaver's Marina on Riverside Drive at Cox Point on Back River, a fire official said.A firefighter was overcome by heat and was treated at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, said Battalion Chief Pat Kelly.Kelly said the fire in the building that also houses Weaver's sales offices and service departments was reported at 9: 59 p.m., went to three alarms by 10: 50 p.m. and was under control at 11: 50 p.m.He said 80 firefighters from stations at Essex, Golden Ring, Middle River, Wise Avenue, Jacksonville, Catonsville, Hyde Park and Perry Hall responded to the marina, about a mile from Eastern Avenue.

TOWSON -- County prosecutors have dropped charges against two Montgomery County men accused of raping a Towson State University student in April.Assistant State's Attorney Robin Coffin said the cases were dropped because of a lack of evidence implicating the men.Brereton C. Poole of the 23000 block of Frederick Road in Clarksburg and Jason A. De Santolo of the 20000 block of Waterside Drive in Germantown were charged with first-degree rape for an alleged "acquaintance...

Federal authorities have informally recommended against allowing a Pasadena marina to add five boat ramps and 10 boat slips.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recommended that state officials deny Pleasure Marine Center, in the 1701 block of Poplar Ridge Road, a tidal wetland license because nearby waters are a spawning and nursery ground for yellow perch.In a recent letter sent to Del. Joan M. Cadden, who represents the area, NOAA officials also said the agency would like boat ramps at nearby Fort Smallwood Park to be upgraded.

The emergency operations headquarters in Crownsville fielded more than 1,000 calls yesterday morning from Anne Arundel County residents without medicine or heat -- and from some who were simply stir-crazy, demanding faster snow removal."

Three things you might want to get before boarding Larry Townsend's boat: A tetanus shot, a flotation device and a good life insurance policy.Mr. Townsend is toiling furiously at a 42-foot steel and scrap metal boat in hopes of launching this summer what looks a bit like a World War II relic.But even this dreamer, whose self-styled nautical creation sank once when it wasn't even moving, admits the boat is a bit nightmarish."The whole thing is death-defying," said Mr. Townsend, 45, as he scampered over the boat's rusting deck at Shady Side marina.

An effort to settle a Pasadena civic group's suit against a neighboring marina owner before it goes to trial floundered this week, one of the civic group leaders said yesterday.Brantley Marshall, vice president of the Poplar Ridge Improvement Association, said his group and marina officials failed to reach an agreement Monday on the association's attempt to prevent the marina owner from building boat racks. But Mr. Marshall said he hopes the case won't go to trial.Meanwhile, Robert J. Fuoco, the lawyer for Pleasure Marine Center, said he expects to schedule another meeting with the civic group.

The County Council unanimously approved a bill last night that will eliminate within two years a tax imposed on marina boat slip rentals.The legislation, which was sponsored by the seven-member council, will lower the 5 percent slip tax by 1 percent in July. The next year, the tax will fall to 2 percent and it will be repealed altogether by July 1997.At a hearing attended by about 150 to 200 marina owners and employees, Councilman Thomas W. Redmond Sr., the Pasadena Democrat who drafted the bill, said repealing the tax is an economic development initiative.

A proposal by the owner of a Severna Park marina to replace a 360-foot breakwater in the Magothy River has rekindled a feud between the marina and its neighbors.The Manhattan Beach Civic Association has asked the Board of Appeals to freeze the county Permit Application Center's decision to allow Magothy Marina to build a new wave screen.The Board of Appeals will meet at 6:30 p.m. today in the County Council chambers of the Arundel Center at 44 Calvert St. in Annapolis.The 520-member civic group filed the appeal to protest what it considers a blatant attempt to use the wave screen as a means to expand the marina with little regard for the residents of Manhattan Beach, said Richard W. McClelland, a member of the civic group's board of directors.

To its opponents, the proposed condominium project on the Bowleys Quarters waterfront would be a monstrosity, a blight on the landscape the size of the playing field at M&T Bank Stadium. Its supporters, many of them of retirement age, enjoy the prospect of moving into the 36-unit building and enjoying the view of Galloway Creek - and leaving the yardwork to others. A public hearing last night on the subject, held by the Baltimore County Planning Board, was a standing-room-only affair and amply illustrated the divergent views of residents of the eastern county peninsula.

A prominent Anne Arundel businessman will not have to raze buildings constructed without permits on one of his two large marinas, under a settlement reached Friday with the county government. The consent decree states that the wedding chapel, rooming house, sheds and walking trails built by E. Steuart Chaney now comply with local laws and orders him to pay a $20,000 fine. Ending a high-profile lawsuit that the county filed against Herrington Harbour Inc., the deal specifies that the county hadn't accused Chaney, company president, of violating Critical Area or other environmental laws.

Marina Rios Chaconas, age 80, died Wednesday, December 19,2007 at her home in Ocean City. Born in Baltimore she was the only child of the late Peter Efstratios and Voula Arniotis Rois. She is survived by a son Aristides Evan Chaconas and his wife Christina Marie and their children Elizabeth Ann and Peter Rois Chaconas of North Carolina and a daughter Angel Chaconas and her husband James Gallagher of Ocean Pines. Marina was a graduate of Eastern High School in Baltimore and received secondary education from both University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University majoring in languages.

People in Bowleys Quarters say Milton Rehbein is easy to like. He's a native of the tight-knit shore community in eastern Baltimore County. And he put in or rebuilt just about everyone's pier or bulkhead. But his plan to turn the old family marina into upscale condominiums has divided a waterfront hamlet still coming to terms with change in the aftermath of a punishing tropical storm. How strong are feelings running in Bowleys Quarters? The local community association has endorsed the proposal - and opponents say they will push to impeach the group's president at what is expected to be a stormy meeting tonight.

Baltimore County firefighters returned yesterday to the marina where three people recently died of carbon monoxide exposure to talk to boaters about the dangers of the deadly gas. The boatside visits at Parkside Marina in Bowleys Quarters are part of the county's holiday week plan to visit about 20 marinas to distribute information and encourage people to equip their boats with carbon monoxide detectors - inexpensive devices that could have saved the...

Three people were found dead on a boat docked at a marina in Middle River yesterday, the apparent victims of carbon monoxide poisoning, county fire officials said. The victims were identified as Laura Jean Gladden, 34, of Middle River; John Elijah Marsh, 39, of Dundalk, and Patty Mae Vento, 42, of Plantation, Fla., said Elise Armacost, a county Fire Department spokeswoman. Foul play was not suspected. About 1 p.m. yesterday, county fire officials received a call about three unconscious people found on a cabin cruiser docked at the Parkside Marina near the 3300 block of Edwards Lane.

Marba Abram Struble, a retired church and funeral home organist and marina co-owner, died of heart failure May 16 at Anne Arundel Medical Center. The Severna Park resident was 94. Born Marba Abram in Chicago, she studied piano at the Gibson Studio there and moved to Maryland in 1940 to work at the old Bendix radio plant on Joppa Road in Towson. She was briefly co-owner and operator of a laundromat in Endicott, N.Y., then co-owner of the Clover Farm variety store in Marley Park, which she ran for more than nine years.

DNR needs to serve all the public The Department of Natural Resources uses a marina on the South River to berth one of its patrol boats, even though this boat is fully trailerable, meaning a flexible, mobile resource. So why is it stuck into one marina? It appears that people in this marina were constantly complaining about the wakes of passing boats. In response, DNR put a patrol boat in that marina. What is of concern is that DNR has provided this marina with a taxpayer-paid security force.

CRISFIELD -- With developers hungry for land in this once-faded fishing village, Maryland and city officials are preparing to turn publicly owned waterfront properties over to private investors in transactions that trouble many residents and businessmen. The state is working on a plan to lease Somers Cove Marina, a 486-slip marina considered an affordable treasure by boat owners here, to a private operator. The selected firm would gain the right to build stores, restaurants and other amenities on 60 open acres.

Maryland's second-highest court ordered the state yesterday to consider the rehiring of a self-described "whistle-blower" who claims that he was forced out of his job running a state marina on the Eastern Shore after he alleged that his bosses had misspent more than $80,000. James Heller, 62, a Vietnam veteran and former Bethlehem Steel manager, worked as manager of the state-owned Somers Cove Marina in Crisfield from October 1998 until April 2001. The marina is well-known as home of the annual J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clam Bake, which draws politicians and supporters from across the state for fried clam strips and gossip about politics.