Wye River

The Maryland Department of the Environment announced yesterday it plans to ban shellfish harvesting in most of the Wye River because of potentially unsafe bacteria levels in the water.The shellfishing ban, which takes effect Sept. 28, covers the eastern branch of the river, its headwaters and Wye Narrows. Until now, those areas had been subject to temporary closure for harvesting of clams and oysters after heavy rains.The closed portions of the river have oyster beds, but are not major commercial harvesting areas, said Quentin Banks, agency spokesman.

Leland C. Brendsel, who made millions helping average people realize the American dream of homeownership, is living the dream in one of the most exclusive and historically significant properties on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The property, called Wye Hall, was owned by William Paca, a leader in the American Revolution, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and Maryland's third governor. Historians say the Paca home burned in 1879, but the Brendsels' home - built in the early 1930s - sits roughly on the footprint of Paca's original house.

The president of Wye River Inc., the Eastern Shore-based marketer of seafood seasonings and other products, was charged yesterday with defrauding the Food Lion grocery chain of more than $300,000.Beginning in 1988 and continuing until August 1993, Joseph L. Bernard III overcharged the grocery chain by listing inflated prices on invoices, according to federal prosecutors.The company produces and markets seasonings for crabs, plus other products such as crab soup, tartar sauce and seafood cocktail sauce.

After a second year of bitter Columbia Council politics, voters elected new leadership yesterday for a town that's supposed to stand for social harmony. The 10-member council, which oversees one of the nation's largest homeowners associations, will have five new faces when the winners take office May 1. The elections held in seven of Columbia's 10 villages were a narrow victory for a community group, called Vote 01, that made just one campaign promise: a more collegial council. Four of the seven seats at stake yesterday were won by candidates either recruited or backed by Vote 01, which is associated with Columbia's establishment.

WYE LANDING -- Charles "Chuck" Schnaitman isn't surprised that state health officials couldn't pinpoint the source of unacceptable bacteria levels that caused them to call a halt last week to shellfish harvesting on much of the Wye River.Schnaitman has a theory, based on a lifetime working the water and helping run the dockside boat rental, bait shop, snack bar and crab wholesaling business his family has owned for more than 50 years: It might be the natural splendor of the river itself that's the problem.

QUEENSTOWN -- An elegant 1,100-acre Eastern Shore retreat near the tranquil headwaters of the Wye River is about to become the center of international diplomacy -- at least for a few days.American, Palestinian and Israeli leaders are to begin arriving tomorrow at the Wye River Conference Center for negotiations that officials hope will produce a breakthrough Middle East peace accord.As diplomats iron out last-minute issues of substance and protocol, hotels from Annapolis to Accomac, Va., are filling up, electricians are working into the night, and telephone technicians are wiring dozens of new lines.

The president of Wye River Inc. says his conviction and one-year sentence for mail fraud won't stop his company from being a competitor in the local seafood seasoning market."

QUEENSTOWN -- When Israeli and Syrian negotiators sit down today at the Wye River Conference Center, they will be secluded in the tranquillity of nature.The wind moves through the bare trees; birds chitter. There is an occasional squawk from a duck taking wing over the tree line. The Wye River's icy-bright water is separated from the land by a thin, pristine line of snow.It is territory unlike the landscape of the Middle East. That is what the State Department wanted, a tranquillity that could become a silent partner at the negotiating table.

JERUSALEM -- Sounding conciliatory and confident, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat publicly pledged yesterday to move the beleaguered peace process forward.If their first meeting went beyond pleasantries and promises, neither leader gave any hint of it after they emerged from a 75-minute meeting at a border crossing between the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip and Israel.Barak viewed yesterday's meeting as a new beginning for the often wary peace partners, saying the two sides had "embarked on a new road to trust."

Baltimore's only potato chip company has been bought by the owner of an Eastern Shore company that got its start in the mid-1980s by challenging the maker of Old Bay for its near monopoly of the steamed crab seasoning market.Mrs. Ihrie's Potato Chips Inc., an East Baltimore business born out of tragedy nearly 70 years ago, was bought by Joseph L. Bernard, owner and president of Wye River Inc. on Kent Island.Mr. Bernard, 38, declined to reveal the price other than to say, "It was in the millions of dollars."

A FEW DAYS AGO, Queen Anne's County schools Superintendent Bernard J. Sadusky received an e-mail from a friend. "We have an illegal alien in the county," it read. Sadusky laughed. Elian Gonzalez, the world's most famous 6-year-old, might or might not be legal. The courts and Janet Reno will be the judge of that. But it makes no difference to Queen Anne's County schools. It's a stroke of egalitarian genius and a source of considerable stress that American public schools take on every child, legal or illegal.

The odyssey of Elian Gonzalez continued yesterday with the boy and his family leaving Andrews Air Force Base, their home since he was taken from Miami relatives by federal agents early Saturday, and moving into private quarters at the Aspen Institute on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott ordered public hearings next week on Elian's seizure from the home in Miami's Little Havana, contending that Attorney General Janet Reno needs to explain why heavily armed federal agents were sent to retrieve him even as negotiations for a peaceful transfer were under way. In Miami, the outrage of many Cuban-Americans was vented yesterday in a general strike that shut down Little Havana, but not the rest of the city.

On the last Monday of September, my brother, my nephews and I were treated to an interesting morning on the water with a foggy mist surrounding us, a common occurrence for this time of year. Fog can be hazardous for the inexperienced boater, and one should not attempt to navigate in it without being familiar with the area and using a compass.Luckily, we made it about five miles down the river before the fog rolled in heavy. Crabbing in foggy conditions can be tranquil, and the sensation is one of floating through clouds comparable to looking out the window of an airplane.

JERUSALEM -- Sounding conciliatory and confident, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat publicly pledged yesterday to move the beleaguered peace process forward.If their first meeting went beyond pleasantries and promises, neither leader gave any hint of it after they emerged from a 75-minute meeting at a border crossing between the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip and Israel.Barak viewed yesterday's meeting as a new beginning for the often wary peace partners, saying the two sides had "embarked on a new road to trust."

Monday, May 10, began much like any other day. I awoke to the sound of the clock-radio at 3 a.m., jumped out of bed and soon the house was filled with the smell of frying bacon and eggs. However, this was not just any other day. It was the day of my first crabbing trip of the year, and I was filled with anticipation of being out on the water and pulling in the first big jimmies of the season.Bundled in coat and hat, since the morning air was still brisk, I set out for the Eastern Shore with my son and godson, heading for my favorite crabbing spot, a shallow creek south of the Bay Bridge.

JERUSALEM -- President Bill Clinton had some advice for both sides in the frayed Middle East peace process yesterday.He told the Palestinians they must "work harder" to uphold their end of the deal, and he urged the Israelis to remain on the road to peace because there is no alternative to a secure future.The president, on a three-day mission to salvage the stalled Israeli-Palestinian agreement he worked so hard to bring about in Maryland in October, spent his first full day in Israel assuring the Jewish state of America's enduring commitment to its security and applauding its efforts to pursue peace despite the %o difficulties.

Baltimore's only potato chip company has been bought by the owner of an Eastern Shore company that got its start in the mid-1980s by challenging the maker of Old Bay for its near monopoly of the steamed crab seasoning market.Mrs. Ihrie's Potato Chips Inc., an East Baltimore business born out of tragedy nearly 70 years ago, was bought by Joseph L. Bernard, owner and president of Wye River Inc. on Kent Island.Mr. Bernard, 38, declined to reveal the price other than to say, "It was in the millions of dollars."

Wye Harbor. Governor Grason Manor. Wye River Farms. Bell Point Farms. The elegant-sounding names of the residential communities stretching along the Wye River in Queen Anne's County suggest pleasant living on fields that used to grow corn.But environmentalists and state planners see a threat to Chesapeake Bay and a drain on the taxpayers' purse from developments on former farmland like that of the narrow Eastern Shore peninsula just south of Kent Narrows.Nearly 74,000 acres of Maryland's farmland and more than 71,000 acres of forest have been lost to development in just the last five years, say officials of the Maryland Office of Planning.

JERUSALEM -- The Israeli Cabinet narrowly approved the newest "land-for-security" agreement last night, but added stern demands that may hamper full implementation of the accord.After seven hours of debate by the 17-member Cabinet, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was able to win only 8 votes in favor of the pact. Four ministers voted against it and five abstained.The agreement now goes to the Israeli parliament, which will discuss it Monday.Since the Oct. 23 signing of the Wye River Memorandum in Washington, Netanyahu has been trying to sell the accord to his hard-line ministers.

COLLEGE PARK -- Former President Jimmy Carter reminisced yesterday to a packed room at the University of Maryland about the groundbreaking Middle East peace talks 20 years ago.Carter's talk, in which at one point he seemed to choke back tears, came as part of a 20th-anniversary commemoration of the historic Camp David summit between Israel and Egypt. Those talks paved the way for other Middle East negotiations, such as the one recently undertaken by President Clinton at Wye Plantation."The talks of 1978 showed that it was possible for Arabs and Israelis who had warred with each other, and who had killed each other, that they could find peace," Carter said in the student union ballroom, where more than 500 people gathered.