North Beach Fire Department Open House

Our own North Beach Volunteer Fire Department (Company 1) is having their open house on Saturday, October 25, 2008 at the firehouse from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM. Take advantage of the opportunity to tour our local firehouse and learn about all of the wonderful things that our Firefighters and EMT's do to help us out. In case you didn't know, this is an all-volunteer company. They are definitely here when we all need them and are truly a dedicated bunch of people. If you just happen to have any spare change around your house or any extra discretionary income in these hard times, please try and steer a few dollars towards the Fire Department. You never realize how very much you appreciate them until that awful day when you need a fire truck or ambulance at your own house. My family always makes a donation every year. I look at it as a payment in advance and a way to say "thanks for being there to help". Although, I do have to say, I kind of miss hearing the old fire siren go off to call the volunteers in for a call -- changing times, I guess, and I do understand why the neighbors had a problem with it. I just always looked at it as a reassuring sound that meant that help was needed and would be provided. I know, I'm old school...

Any new events?

Although I try to keep up with what's going on around Town, I don't always catch everything so if you know of anything going on in North Beach that might be of interest to someone, feel free to add a "Comment" to this post. I'll work on investigating other options for adding content that might be of interest to others. In the meantime, don't miss our Haunted Boardwalk, coming up next weekend, October 25th, starting at 6:30 down on the Boardwalk. Whatever you do, don't miss the haunted house down on the boardwalk!!

Family fun activities

It was nice to see all of the children enjoying the activities at the "end of summer beach bash" that was held recently. I really enjoyed watching the tug-of-war and the watermelon-eating contest -- those kids really looked like they were having a lot of fun. One little gentleman was very intelligent with his clothing choices -- seems like he didn't want to get all messy while he was chowing down on that watermelon! Coming up next is our annual "Haunted Boardwalk" event on October 25th, beginning at 6:30 PM. This is one of those events that the children look forward to all year while talking about what fun they had last year. Speculation is always rampant about what kinds of delicious horrors will show up on the north end of the boardwalk at the "very" haunted house. Each year seems to top the last one! My household is looking forward to being delightfully horrified again this year! October 31st is Halloween and our Trick-or-Treat starts at 6:00 PM -- it'll have to be quick trip to the last Farmer's Market of the season so I don't miss the little trick-or-treaters that always visit our house. This year, there is a pumpkin contest at the Haunted Boardwalk with the winners to be exhibited at the Halloween night Farmer's Market --- sure don't want to miss that! It's great that our Town is getting back to offering more family-oriented activities that all of our citizens can participate in and have fun! Sometimes in the past it's seemed as though people forgot that a great many of our residents are children who need things to do and places to play. Not knocking the Boys and Girls club but it's only one part of the equation and not the be-all and end-all of providing children's activities in Town. We need to remember that children need playgrounds and "unstructured" play time, too. Those opportunities are what help them learn to become independent, problem-solving citizens in their own right. After all, they're the ones who will be running our Town when they grow up. What do we want them to remember most about their childhood here -- how it was always so much fun with many things to do or how there was no place to play and nothing ever got done because all of the adults kept arguing and fighting with each other over what was best for them? Think about it.....

Farmer's Market

If you haven't been down to the Friday night Farmer's Market yet you are missing a real treat! We've had a few rainy Fridays recently but don't let that stop you from coming out -- farmers love rain (it makes their crops grow!). It's an opportunity to visit with neighbors as you stand in "the bread line". Sounds like something out of the Great Depression but the homemade bread is so fantastic that everyone wants some so there's a line. It's a pleasant wait as you chat with neighbors and enjoy the bay breezes. My son prefers the sesame semolina and my favorites are the olive bread and the rosemary bread. Yesterday's offerings from farmers included home-made caramel apples and decorative gourds and pumpkins along with some of the regular offerings. Food items are not the only items sold at our Farmer's Market. I must admit to placing a family member in the bread line to hold a spot or make a purchase while I stop at the Wise Acres table and treat myself to some garden grown flowers. White Oak farm has a lavender salt scrub that is truly fantastic! Add in an orchard for fresh fruit and you're carrying home a bunch of great purchases, all grown/made in southern Maryland. You can even get a special bag or two to make carrying items much simpler and very environmentally correct! Many kudos go out to the North Beach Special Events Committee (all volunteers) and the Town Hall staff for helping to make this a reality, along with the elected officials who believed in the viability of the idea from the start. It's been along time coming and I'm SO glad it's finally here. Now, if only we could find someone who does home-made cheese....

Uninformed people

There seem to be some people in North Beach and Chesapeake Beach who are terribly uninformed, misinformed, or downright spreading lies when it comes to details about our new Town Hall proposal. The whole thing reminds me of a Norman Rockwell painting. The painting has rows of faces, all speaking on a telephone. The upper left corner has a woman "A" talking to woman "B" who then talks to woman "C" and so on until you get to the bottom right of the painting where a person has called woman "A" to tell her the news. It is very clear from the expression on woman "A's" face that she has never heard what is being told to her and it is all shocking news. And so it is with information about our Town Hall proposal. I have heard totally outrageous dollar amounts, with no mention of the cap above which the North Beach government refuses to go. I have heard that the building will be 5 or 6 stories tall -- not true, it is only proposed to be two stories (less than the senior building across the street). I have heard that our tax bills are going to go up $300 a year -- again, not true. We have actually already been paying money towards a new town hall for the past two years in our tax bills and the only increases were due to rising assessments by the state. This year the Mayor and Council actually lowered the tax rate! Today I heard that each Council member would have their own office! I don't know what proposed blueprint document that person was looking at because that sure wasn't on the one that I've seen (the official one put out by Town Hall). Like anything else, it is the duty of citizens to exercise their responsibilities. You have a right to vote. You have a responsibility to search out information from valid, knowledgeable, credentialed sources and make sure that you have all of the information available to you before you consider voting on anything. Your neighbor Bob or Joe or John or whoever is telling you these things had better be showing you some official documentation to back up what they are saying. Don't just take their word for it -- you don't know if they have accurate information or not. Go down to Town Hall, ask to see what's being proposed and make up your own mind. Don't let people with agendas get you all worked up and panicked over something that isn't true. Find out the facts! Go directly to the source of the information. Hopefully, we're all doing the same thing with our up-coming presidential election. It's so important and much is riding on how seriously we take our responsibilities, not just our rights! Do the research!

Our New Town Hall

Well, if you attended our Town Hall Public Hearing tonight, you know that a great many people came to the meeting and many signed up to speak. One participant even commented on the similarities to the Friday Night Farmer's Market bread line! The wonderful thing about our Town is that so many people are willing to step up and have their say. I may not agree with what every person said but I defend their right to get up and express their opinions. As long as we are all talking to one another we can find areas of commonality and we can work with that! Will our new Town Hall please everyone? Of course not! That's an impossible task and we shouldn't expect our Town Council and Mayor to be striving towards pleasing everyone. That's a sure recipe for governmental gridlock. We voted for the people that we thought would do the best job (at least I hope we did!). We need to express our opinions, do our best to persuade them and then let them do the job we voted them in to do -- make those tough decisions on behalf of all of us. I am trusting that they do not make those decisions lightly but only after close examination of all of the facts available. I also trust that they use their intellect and carefully examine the present and future needs of our community. Will they make mistakes? Probably. Last I heard, God wasn't serving on any governmental body and since He's the only perfect person, yes, mistakes will be made. The true test is how those mistakes are handled. It was great to see so much citizen paarticipation. If only we saw that many people at every single Town meeting, our Town would be the richer for it. Get involved and vote! It gives you a right to complain! ;-)