Home Care In White Marsh, MD

UPDATE/CORRECTION: The Maryland Department of Natural Resources sent the following email to NottinghamMD.com:

“The Days Cove rubble fill lease was withdrawn at the Board of Public Works to allow the Department of Natural Resources to continue negotiations with the facility’s operator to address identified community concerns. DNR remains committed to closing and capping the rubble fill in 8 years or less, as the current proposed lease would do (five years of operation, three years to cap).

The draft lease includes specific language that would not enable it to be renewed as it had been under previous administrations. We want to make sure the lease provides a seamless transition of the property into public use.

The rubble fill will continue to operate under the terms of the previous lease while the negotiations continue.”

Original story below…

WHITE MARSH, MD—In a major development for Chesapeake Bay conservation, Maryland state officials have officially denied a controversial request to increase wastewater discharge at the Days Cove Rubble Landfill.

The decision, announced Wednesday following a meeting of the Board of Public Works (BPW), represents a significant shift in the management of the White Marsh facility. Senator J.B. Jennings, who has spent the past several days coordinating with Governor Wes Moore’s administration and the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), confirmed that the state will not issue the permit that would have allowed a higher volume of effluent to flow into local waterways.

The proposed permit had drawn intense scrutiny from local residents and environmental advocates. If approved, it would have allowed the landfill to increase its daily discharge of treated leachate into the Bird River and Gunpowder River.

Senator Jennings characterized the MDE’s denial of the permit as a “significant victory” for the community. The senator noted that his discussions with State Treasurer Dereck Davis and MDE leadership focused on the potential environmental impact that increased effluent would have on the already delicate ecosystem of the Chesapeake Bay.

While the discharge increase was defeated, the Board of Public Works did address the future of the landfill site through a renewed lease agreement with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). However, this new lease comes with strict stipulations designed to phase out the facility’s operations:

The outcome follows a period of concentrated bipartisan efforts at both the state and county levels. Senator Jennings highlighted the work of Baltimore County Councilman David Marks, as well as Delegates Ryan Nawrocki and Kathy Szeliga, who collaborated to ensure the Board of Public Works was fully briefed on local concerns.

“I want to sincerely thank everyone who took the time to contact the BPW and make their voices heard,” Senator Jennings said in a statement. “You truly made a difference.”

The Days Cove Rubble Landfill, which primarily handles construction and demolition debris, has been a fixture in the White Marsh area for decades. With the new five-year timeline now in place, the facility is entering its final operational phase, marking the beginning of a long-term transition toward total environmental restoration of the property.

“A huge win for the environment and the community,” said Councilman David Marks on Wednesday. “This means that by 2032, along with the closure of the Honeygo Run Reclamation Center, two dumps will be shut down in our district.”

“Thank you to Senator J.B. Jennings for his leadership and for working hard and closely with me on this over the past two days; Delegates Ryan Nawrocki and Kathy Szeliga for their strong advocacy on behalf of the Eastside; and to the Gunpowder Riverkeeper, Gunpowder Valley Conservancy, many other organizations and hundreds of residents who spoke up to demand better for the Eastside,” Marks concluded.

For Chabad of White Marsh, celebrating Chanukah at The Avenue is about more than lighting the menorah.

“It’s really a public display of our Jewish pride, of bringing the concept of bringing light into a dark world. That’s really the messaging that we’re trying to get across,” said Sarah Schectman, rebbetzin of the Chabad in White Marsh, northeast of Baltimore.

In partnership with The Avenue, a local shopping center, Chabad will celebrate the start of Chanukah on Sunday, Dec. 14, with the lighting of a 9-foot-tall menorah, as well as crafts for children in attendance, ice skating at The Avenue’s outdoor ice rink and, of course, Chanukah food.

“We have doughnuts, latkes, and we do something that the crowd gets really excited about. … The gelt drop, where we have a truck with a tall lift, and someone goes up and throws down gelt, and the kids get to go and collect [it],” Schectman explained. “It’s open to the whole community, and we really do see people coming out and being supportive. It’s a very powerful and beautiful event.”

The celebrations don’t stop there. Chabad will also host a Chanukah story time at the local Barnes & Noble and — new this year — the Chabad is offering programming for public schools to teach students about the holiday.

“If they want us to come in and do a Chanukah presentation for the classes in the public school, to both educate more about Jewish tradition and also to help kids that might be Jewish in the class feel more comfortable and feel like their holidays are being highlighted as well, [we will do that],” said Schectman.

Chabad of White Marsh, led by Schectman and her husband, Rabbi Tzvi Schectman, offers more than just Chanukah programming. Schectman told Baltimore Jewish Times that she sees Chabad of White Marsh as a community center for Jewish experiences. “It’s about each individual person and our connection with them … seeing what their needs are, or what they want Jewishly, and really just offering Jewish experiences and opportunities.”

“Our goal is to do exactly that, to bring everybody together and offer Jewish experiences,” she added. “One by one on meeting different Jewish people, and we’ve had amazing stories … that have brought us together with people.”

Chabad of White Marsh also hosts Purim parties, Passover Seders and various forms of family and children’s programming. “We do individual visits to elderly people that we know that are [nearby] … challah deliveries, Shabbat dinners, challah bakes.”

The challah deliveries, she said, are a key way for Schectman and her family to make individual connections with those in their community.

“Whether there’s someone new that we haven’t met yet, or we heard are Jewish, we might go over and deliver challah to them, and before Passover, we deliver matzah to people,” Schectman said. “Even if there’s just someone that we already know [and] wanted to bring the joy of Chabad to them, or [are going] through a hard time — we’ll just come over and deliver challah to them at different times.”

Schectman said Chabad of White Marsh’s newest project is still in the works but will include providing meals to those dealing with hunger and food insecurity.

“We would like to start having community members join us to cook, prepare food … that will then be able to be delivered to shelters or just people who are in need of food,” she said.

Schectman said she and her husband personally carry the lessons of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, wherever they go.

“The big, strong two messages that he gave us — one is that he was able to see every individual as a pure and worthy soul, and that every mitzvah, that every good deed, [is] a transformational event,” said Schectman. “We really strive to emulate these messages in everything that we do, having a non-judgmental and open acceptance of every person, and just providing these opportunities as individual opportunities to connect to … the Jewish experience that exists for every single Jew.”

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