Susquehanna

Father and son, Fred and Brian Twigg, of Bel Air, would have had a memorable day fishing the Susquehanna on June 9, even without the catch that left the two bass anglers puzzled. In addition to the eight nice white perch they kept to eat and the three smallmouth bass they released to provide sport another day, they also boated a toothsome oddity more typically found in saltier water, an Atlantic needlefish. The creature, which struck a deep-running silver crank bait in about 12 feet of water off the northern end of Port Deposit near the former Townsend's Marina, was more than two feet long, 28 inches to be exact, though its garden-hose shaped body gave it only slightly more heft than a large white perch.

Time for spring cleaning, dear readers, The Havre de Grace department of public works sponsors clean-up days April 20 and 27 from 8 a.m. to noon at the Havre de Grace Community Center, 100 Lagaret Lane for Havre de Grace residents. For details, contact city hall, 410-939-1800. Celebrate Earth Day, Saturday, April 20, at the annual river sweep along the Lower Susquehanna Heritage Greenway, 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. from Tydings Park to the Susquehanna Museum at the Lock House. For details, phone 410-939-7644 or 410-808-6118 or email peter.d.green@att.net or visit http://www.hitourtrails.com . Earth Day is April 22. The American Legion Post 47, 501 St. John Street, Havre de Grace, hosts chicken and ribs night with live music, April 20, 6-10 p.m. Tickets available for $15 by calling Josh, 410-939-0234.

The Goucher men's lacrosse team advanced to the Landmark Conference tournament final for the third time in four years courtesy of a record-setting performance by Rory Averett. The junior attackman scored a game-high four goals to pace the top-seeded Gophers to an 11-3 dismantling of fourth-seeded Susquehanna before 285 at Gopher Stadium Wednesday. Goucher (11-5 overall and 4-1 in the Landmark) will play host to No. 2 seed Scranton (8-7, 3-2), which defeated No. 3 seed Catholic (11-5, 3-2)

It's April showers, dear readers, But things to do are stacking up. The Susquehanna Museum of Havre de Grace at the Lock House reopens April 13 (Saturday), 1-5 p.m. for the season. Free admission. Contact 410-939-5780, email: lockhousemuseum@gmail.com or visit their site at http://www.thelockhousemuseum.org. A bargain meal! The Boy Scout Troop 967 will prepare its spaghetti dinner and bake sale for April 13 (Saturday), 4-7 p.m. at the Havre de Grace United Methodist Church, Congress and Union Avenue, adults $7, seniors $6, children $4. Eat in or carryout.

Twenty years is a long time to wait for a fish to find its way back home, but that is what happened with the shad of the Susquehanna River. Dams on the river, which feeds the Chesapeake from a watershed reaching all the way to Binghamton, N.Y., blocked access to the migratory foodfish's spawning ground early in this century. The worst effects of that ++ were not seen until 1980, when a harvest 91 percent smaller than formerly recorded prompted a ban on shad fishing.Maryland and Pennsylvania authorities had been struggling to convince Philadelphia Electric Co., principal owner of the Conowingo Dam, and other utilities farther up the Susquehanna to provide ways for the shad and herring, another migratory foodfish, to get past their dams.

You've heard tales, recounted in The Sun, of hardy souls in Cecil, Harford and eastern Baltimore County who commute by car to metropolitan Washington -- how they have several alternative routes and keep their ears glued to traffic reports. Even with good advance planning, that daily commute is getting harder. "If you want to see the grass grow, be on the southbound John F. Kennedy highway early in the morning," says one motorist.The Susquehanna Flyer commuter train service that kicks off May 1 is not a panacea.

Having once mooched meals off author Susan Stranahan for most of a weeklong canoe trip, I know her camp kitchen to be superbly organized and stocked with a generous range of goodies.And so it is with her just-published book, "Susquehanna -- River of Dreams," an eminently readable, nicely researched tour de force that goes on my must-read list for anyone interested in knowing the Chesapeake Bay.Never mind that the book's subject is a river almost wholly contained in Pennsylvania and New York, beginning a few blocks from Cooperstown's Baseball Hall of Fame, 448 miles and six days travel for a drop of rain flowing down to Havre de Grace.

The Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Sheldon Bair, will present "Music for the Season" at 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8, at Fallston High School.In addition to seasonal favorites, the program will include Vivaldi's "Concerto in E Minor for Bassoon and Orchestra," featuring Judith Brand.The conclusion of the concert will be excerpts from Handel's "Messiah," with the Harford Choral Society joining the symphony.Proceeds will benefit Holy Family House.Information: 838-6465.

The Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra will open its 18th season at 8 p.m. Oct. 29 at the John Carroll High School in Bel Air with a performance of "Struggle . . . and Hope."Sheldon Bair will conduct the program, which celebrates the tenacity and courage of the human spirit in the face of adversity.The concert will open with "Fanfare for American Heroes," written by black composer William Grant Still in 1944.Beethoven's "Fidelio" overture and a cello concerto written by John Davison and performed by prize-winning cellist Evelyn Elsing will be featured.

Mission: To restore, preserve and maintain the cultural history of the city of Havre de Grace and the former Susquehanna & Tidewater Canal, including the Lock House, Pivot Bridge, Canal Lock and Basin; and to interpret the history through educational programs and exhibits. In operation from 1840 to about 1900, the 45-mile Susquehanna & Tidewater Canal connected Havre de Grace with Wrightsville, Pa. Mule-drawn boats traveling the canal had to be raised 233 feet through 29 locks. Historical artifacts of Havre de Grace and the canal era are on display in the Lock House, which was restored and opened to the public as a museum in 1982.

In building the new Susquehanna Center/APG Federal Credit Union Arena, the college selected the most energy efficient equipment available. The new arena consists of more than 100,000 square feet of building space, the largest single building on the campus, and consumes a tremendous amount of energy needed to light, heat and cool the building. By selecting high performance equipment, HCC received a rebate for more than $90,000 from Baltimore Gas and Electric. This rebate was used to help purchase the energy efficient equipment resulting in a no-cost agreement between the college and installing contractor.

Zebra mussels have finally made their way down the Susquehanna River to the Chesapeake Bay, though it's unclear what if any harm the invasive aquatic species might do there. This month, state biologists found 20 of the non-native shellfish attached to three channel marker buoys off Havre de Grace as they were removing the buoys from the water for the winter, the Department of Natural Resources reported. Native to the Caspian and other seas in eastern Europe, zebra mussels were first discovered in the United States in the Great Lakes region in the 1980s, likely transported there in the ballast water of ships.

The Susquehanna River and its big dams have been in the news lately. A handful of Maryland county officials would like you to believe the dams are the primary ill of the Chesapeake Bay. They claim that because sediment reservoirs behind the Conowingo Dam are at capacity, instead of trapping pollutants during storms, the dam now allows two pollutants - phosphorus and sediment - to flow downstream at alarming rates. They argue that years of restoration progress have been erased and that current bay restoration efforts do not address these issues.

Editor: Oct. 16, 2 a.m., the Susquehanna Hose Company responded to a fire call at my residence on Red Head Way in Havre de Grace. The volunteer firefighters went above and beyond their call of duty. They mitigated further water sprinkler damage by use of tarps and moving furniture. They carefully and methodically searched all possible causes of heat. The volunteer firefighters were patient, polite, efficient and extremely professional. I would like to personally thank the 13 Susquehanna Hose Company volunteer firefighters who arose from their beds and responded: Assistant Fire Chiefs Steve Allers and Wayne Carroll; Fire Lieutenants Billy Lamana and Scott Pentz; Firefighters Ray Burroughs, Cameron Carter, Jami Gomez, Andy Lempka, Charles Maddox, Chad Myers, Ken Perry Jr. and Drivers Jim Hawkins and Mike Shenk.

From time to time, two competing technologies exist in parallel situations for an extended period prior to one dominating, and supplanting, the other. Back in the tape age, there was a great debate among tech heads as to whether Beta or VHS was the better format for videotape. For a while, both were available at Blockbuster and other video stores. Beta supposedly had superior sound quality and equally good picture quality, and the tape cassettes were smaller, so that style of videotape had a loyal following.

The woman whose body was found in the Susquehanna River in Havre de Grace Friday morning was identified Monday as Marie Rocco, 47, with addresses in both Havre de Grace and Vail, Colo. Rocco's body was discovered in the water off Hutchins Park by Havre de Grace Police at about 8:40 a.m. No further information about the cause of death was available, Ofc. Jeff Gilpin said in an e-mail Monday. "As in any death by unknown circumstances, we are treating this as a homicide until, or unless, evidence dictates otherwise," Gilpin said.

HAVRE DE GRACE -- In March 1926 young Earl Hopkins, age 15, made his way to the new office the Boston engineering firm of Stone & Webster had just opened in the little village of Conowingo. The company was getting ready to build a dam, and Earl was one of its first hires. He earned $12 a week as an office boy.For residents of Harford and Cecil Counties that spring, the start of construction on the Conowingo Dam must have come as something of a relief. It had been assumed for more than 20 years that a hydroelectric plant would eventually be built in that part of the Susquehanna River's narrow valley one day, but until 1926 the project was all talk and no digging.

For over an hour now, Bob Schutsky has been peering through the mist over the wide Susquehanna River. The object he's watching here in Maryland's Conowingo is rare: a male bald eagle, perched motionless on a rock in the middle of the river.Suddenly catching an updraft, the bird lifts off and soars upward. It circles higher and higher until it turns and screams toward the water, talons outstretched.A splash and three powerful wingbeats later, the eagle is aloft again, grasping a struggling fish.

The Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra opens its 36th season with "A Night in Old Vienna," a performance planned for Saturday, Oct. 6, at Bel Air High School As Sheldon Bair, music director and founder of the orchestra, explained, Vienna in the 19th Century was the world capital of music, and even German composers like Beethoven and Brahms were drawn to the homeland of Johann Strauss Sr. and Jr. Today, Strauss Jr., Beethoven and Brahms rest in the...

Now it's official: A report released today (8/30) finds the Conowingo Dam is losing its ability to prevent pollution from reaching the Chesapeake Bay. The U.S. Geological Survey reports that the reservoirs behind Conowingo and other dams on the lower Susquehanna River are nearly full of sediment and are increasingly failing to trap it as it washes down river.  The 94-foot-high hydroelectric structure at Conowingo is just the last and largest of...