Now that the Phillips Wharf Environmental Center (PWEC) has purchased the Oyster House property at the foot of the Tilghman Bridge, the second phase of its expansion project has begun. The main element of Phase II is constructing an Education Building to provide increased display, exhibit, and classroom space for PWEC’s expanding array of learning programs. A capital campaign is underway to raise $1 million for the new building.
The fundraising effort got off to a running start in Annapolis on April 5. The General Assembly awarded $100,000 to PWEC “for the acquisition, planning, design, construction, repair, renovation, reconstruction, and capital equipping of the Oyster House….”
Sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Richard Colburn and in the House of Delegates by Delegate Addie Eckardt, the grant is included in the Maryland Consolidated Capital Bond Loan of 2014, the Capital Budget. Demand for such grants far outstripped supply. Colburn serves on the Senate Capital Budget subcommittee, which considered 156 bond bill requests totaling more than $40 million. Only $15 million in new Senate projects were funded, and the Oyster House Project is one of the few to be fully funded.
According to the wording of the bond bill, in order to qualify for the grant, PWEC “has until June 1, 2016, to present evidence satisfactory to the Board of Public Works that a $50,000 matching fund will be provided,” and the money has to be used by June 1, 2021. Fundraising for the $50,000 match is already under way. Donations may be sent to PWEC, PO Box C, Tilghman MD 21671.
Colburn expressed confidence that the money will be well spent. He said, “I know Kelley Phillips Cox and the good work she is doing at the Phillips Wharf Environmental Center. I know she wants to return the Chesapeake Bay to the day when Maryland watermen can once again have a bountiful harvest. She is hardworking and devoted to this project, and I am confident she will see it through. I was pleased to secure funding to be used towards this important project.”
“We are ecstatic that the Bond bill was passed,” says PWEC Executive Director Kelley Phillips Cox, who says they have an immediate use for the money. “Replacing the collapsing bulkhead on Knapps Narrows is a safety issue. And because we’re committed to keeping the waterfront seafood operation going, the bulkhead has to be at the top of our list. The Bond bill money will certainly be a big help and it comes at just the right time. I really appreciate the joint efforts of our local legislators to see our request through the approval process so successfully.”
PWEC volunteers already are pitching in to help with the Phase II work. On Saturday the 5th, the same day that the General Assembly was voting on the Capital Budget, a platoon of some 30 PWEC volunteers, clad in wellies and work gloves and armed with shovels, rakes, chainsaws, trash bags, and other tools, descended on the property to clean up and remove discarded material left in the storage building. The cleanup was conducted in conjunction with the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay’s Project Clean Stream initiative, and included trash removal elsewhere on the island as well.
“The bond bill and other grant money will help us transform this historic location into an attractive campus where environmental education is linked to the seafood industry and economic development,” said Gary Crawford, a PWEC vice-president. “It’s an unusual combination that makes PWEC unique,” he added.
With an outdoor area five times the size of their old location, PWEC will be able to install buffer plantings and rain gardens and demonstrate other techniques of conservation landscaping. A nature walk is part of the design, as is a living shoreline, an area for locating oyster spat tanks, and a kayak launching area.
A large classroom in the new PWEC building will enable PWEC to conduct classes rain or shine and throughout the year. “Tilghman may be at the end of the road, but it is surrounded by the Bay,” said Cox. We intend to take full advantage of being an island to provide students and visitors with a variety of ways to experience the life in, around, and above the Bay.”
For more information about PWEC and the Oyster House Project, call 410-886-9200 or visit www.pwec.org.
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