Ladies of Elkridge Host Letter-Signing Party

After Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-MD, was unresponsive to their e-mailed pleas for help, ladies of Hanover banded together, pens in hand.

Robyn Winder, Cathy Bayne and Pam Bertrand drafted a letter they said was intended to speak to Mikulski "woman to woman" about the intermodal facility they did not want behind their homes.

"We believe you can meet our need to save our community while at the same time meeting the need for an [intermodal freight transfer station] by ensuring that facility is built where it belongs—away from neighborhoods," stated the letter.

There are more than 300 where CSX and Maryland Department of Transportation are interested in building a train-truck cargo transfer station. Residents have said they are concerned about property values declining, their quality of life deteriorating and health issues arising as a result of the large-scale operation that would service more than 900 trucks a day.

"The air pollution would be horrible," said Bertrand.

"And the noise pollution," said Bayne.

"This would set a horrible precedent," added Winder, standing in Bayne's backyard during the "signing party," held July 17, where ladies of Elkridge were invited to get together for an informal gathering and to sign the letter to Mikulski.

The two-page letter appealed to Mikulski's "instincts of protecting her community," wrote Winder in an e-mail, "because that is how she got her start in politics."

The senator's days of community activism date back to the late 1960s, when she successfully fought a 16-lane highway slated to run through Fells Point in Baltimore.

Greater Elkridge residents said they were disappointed Mikulski was silent on the issue of CSX. "She's the holdout," said Winder, who noted that Mikulski could be a "formidable ally" because of her political clout in the senate.

"As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Transportation Subcommittee, you are in a position to help ensure the [intermodal] is not built next to a residential neighborhood," stated the letter.

"She's responded to other inquiries I've made about different issues since I've written about CSX," said Winder of her e-mails to Mikulski. Winder said she hopes the letter, which will be sent via U.S. mail and filled with signatures, will get more attention.

The women will continue to collect signatures this week. If you are interested in signing, please contact elizabeth.janney@patch.com for more information.