Holly Hill Harbor Civic Association Page 1

HHHCA NEWS

In This Issue

• Holly Hill Harbor: The

Place We All Wanted to

Come Home To (part 2)

• Message From the Presi-

dent (Page 3)

• Door-To-Door Solicita-

tion (Page 3)

• Playground Flyer (page

4)

• HHHCA Dues Form

(page 4)

• Contact HHHCA (page 4)

Holly Hill Harbor: The Place We All Wanted to Come Home To…. By Susan Snyder

In our last edition, Susan Snyder interviewed Patricia Severson who had lived in Holly Hill Harbor

since 1957, when the neighborhood was new. In this edition, Susan continues the article with Rich-

ard Severson…..

A Two-Part Interview – Part 2

My next interview was with Richard Severson, one of Patricia’s sons. He lived in Holly Hill Harbor

from 1957-1959, returned with his parents in 1964, and lived here until he joined the Navy in January

1973. After an eight year stint, he returned with his wife and young son, Sean, and purchased Leroy

Dixon’s house on Holly Road. He has lived in Holly Hill Harbor with his wife Helen, for 35 years. He

also happens to be my next door neighbor, and I couldn’t be more welcomed by both he and Helen!

Rich, you grew up here and lived most of your life here in this community.

What was Holly Hill Harbor like when you were growing up?

My parents bought the house in Holly Hill Harbor in 1957, and I remember I was about 5 years old,

and I do remember moving into it briefly before my dad was shipped overseas to Germany and Cy-

prus. We came back in 1964, when we were evacuated out of Cyprus. When we returned, I went to

Mayo Elementary school mid-year. All the houses looked pretty much the same, mostly ranchers.

Many have been renovated over the years, but in most of them you can still see the original rancher

that was added on-to. Some are the original rancher, having never been modified at all, like the

house at the corner of Valley View Avenue and Bear Creek Parkway, 107 Bear Creek Parkway.

The neighborhood was full of kids. We had a lot of fun on the pier. Walking out to the very end of

the pier, you could see straight to the bottom – it was perfectly clear, and you could see straight

down six feet. We caught a lot of sun fish, crabbing wasn’t as great, but everyone would go to the

public pier at Carr’s Wharf for that. We had a little wooden run-about with a 25 hp Johnson out-

board and we went out water skiing all the time. My brother and I and friends, we kids got along.

Unlike today’s environment with kids, all the neighborhood kids were allowed free roam…no fear, no

reason to fear – nothing for kids to stay out till 11pm. Parents really didn’t hang out together – there

were friends in the neighborhood like next door neighbors, but as close as the kids were, the parents

didn’t really socialize as a large community. The neighborhood was a young neighborhood made

up of young parents.

Holly Hill Harbor Civic Association Newsletter January 2016

Continued on page 2….

Join HHHCA

Holly Hill Harbor Civic Association

(HHHCA) is a non-profit organization

responsible for maintaining the commu-

nity property located on Holly Road.

Membership is limited to residents of

Holly Hill Harbor and is solely on a

voluntary basis. Your membership is

critical to continuing our mission.

Annual dues are $50. The member-

ship form is included on page 4 of this

newsletter and can also be obtained

from the “Holly Hill Harbor Residents”

Facebook group and from the Mem-

bers page of our website at http://

hhhca.org.

The organization is run by volunteers

from the membership. We cannot exist

and continue our mission without your

participation.

Holly Hill Harbor Civic Association Page 2

We’d ride bikes and get into mischief. At the time, in our section of what we called Old Holly Hill, there was no development at the top of the hill. There

were no houses at all, there was nothing up there but woods. We’d play hide and seek and all kinds of games there. We had a rope and we’d swing

out over the water. We would dig caves in the cliffs – our parents never knew – five or six or seven of us could get inside and have adventures. Sledding

was a big thing up there; we wore paths up there with snow.

Why did you move back here to stay?

I have such great memories of growing up here. Route

2 was a farm road, a small black top road that took us

up to Annapolis. You could go down 214 thru Mayo and

there was nothing there, just the Green Spring dairy and

the dairy farm. They supplied milk to the Naval Acade-

my, and their milk was in all the stores around here and

in Annapolis.

I went into the service in Jan’73 and came out in’ 80.

My wife, Helen, and I said, “Let’s go back home, we just

loved the neighborhood.” So many of the kids I grew up

with moved back and bought homes in Holly Hill Harbor

for the same reason. It is a great neighborhood. The

Halls, the Connors, the McMullens, and the Woody’s.

Bobby Woody and his wife, Pam, have bought two

houses in Holly Hill. My brother, Tim, and his wife, moved back here. There are many more. A lot of us kids grew up in the neighborhood and came

back - that speaks to the fact that this was a great place to grow-up. My generation of kids that moved back in the neighborhood looked the same as my

parents’ generation living here – lots of kids.

What are the biggest changes you’ve seen?

All of us (my generation that moved back in and the newer people) we had our kids. All our kids went to school together, but they moved on. Now, all

of us and our generation are done having kids, but we don’t want to move. We aren’t going anywhere. All of us have renovated our homes – we stayed

and fixed-up our much smaller homes. So consequently, we haven’t had the turnover in the commu-

nity – turnover is much smaller compared to other communities. So, there aren’t a lot of new people

in the community. And, the new people that are moving into the neighborhood don’t bring many new

kids. Knowing how much I loved growing-up here and having my kids grow-up here, it is kind of sad

to not see as many kids in the neighborhood.

The pier has been thru several iterations – people would leave their boats down there illegally back

in my parent’s day. There was no group, no enforcement. Our generation was the first generation to

take an active lead in having a civic association – my parents didn’t have it – so there was no way to

keep people from tying up their boats. It got into the way of enjoying the water. We couldn’t swim

near the pier, and the boats got in the way of fishing. Our generation – in fact, my sister-in-law,

Karen - was one of the first participants in the civic association. So, they started getting rid of the

boats there. This is not a slip or a parking peer.

I’d like to see that park develop a little more for kids. The whole park area used to be six foot reeds

and grass – couldn’t play in it. It is so nice there now, but could be improved, too.

Do you have any advice to the new people coming in?

Enjoy the water rights here; that is something that quickly is disappearing. Today, you have to pay

for boat slip fees, launching, etc. You have to go to the State Park to get access. So, have fun in

the waters here. Go out and enjoy it with the kids – it isn’t something that everyone gets to grow up

with. Also, enjoy the seclusion – the neighborhood is so quiet.

Holly Hill Harbor: The Place We All Wanted to Come Home To (continued from page 1)

“You could go down 214

thru Mayo and there was

nothing there, just the

Green Spring dairy and the

dairy farm. They supplied

milk to the Naval Academy,

and their milk was in all the

stores around here and in

Annapolis.”

-Richard Severson

Holly Hill Harbor: The Place We All Want-

ed to Come Home To - Part 2 (Article

begins on page 1)

The old Mayo Elementary School

Holly Hill Harbor Civic Association Page 3

Door-To-Door

Solicitation

Residents have expressed

concern about solicitors in

the neighborhood and asked

if a sign could be placed at

the entrance to the neigh-

borhood like the one in

Heron Cove. The President

addressed this concern with

the local police department.

Their response was that,

while we can place a sign,

the roads in Holly Hill Harbor

are owned by Anne Arundel

County and are therefore

considered public property.

The sign would be legally

unenforceable because no

one can be denied use of a

county road.

In order to protect your prop-

erty and allow law enforce-

ment to respond to com-

plaints, you must post your

property with “No Trespass-

ing” and / or “No Soliciting”

signs.

Do you have photos of the Blizzard of 2016 that you would like share? We are looking for con-tent, photos, and sug-gestions for the next newsletter. Send your photos to pkreuz99@gmail.com.

Message from the President of HHHCA

Members and Community,

I want to thank all who attended our General Meeting on October 6, 2015. Eve-ryone agreed that the Newsletter is a home run and thanks went out to Pam and Su-san for their fine work. A special thanks to Pam for design, content, and financial sup-port that made it all possible.

The meeting was called to address the issues surrounding the existing play-ground equipment at the Park. As managers of your Park, the legal liability falls upon the Officers and Board of Director’s to evaluate all functions of the Park; of paramount importance – safety and liability. As more and more communities, public parks, and schools have been subjects of law suits for child injuries, a playground committee was formed to assess the current equipment and cost of replacement in order to meet the State of Maryland and Federal CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) guide-lines for Playground Equipment and signage. A model CPSC playground can be seen at Quiet Waters Park or The Beverly Beach Community Park.

Grandfathering of equipment does not equal grandfathering of liability. The Fed-eral Government uses a standard called the Doctrine of Attractive Nuisance in injury cases involving children. The State of Maryland adheres to the No Child as Trespass-er Doctrine. Both hold that a child does not have the capacity to understand signage, safety issues, or trespassing statutes; hence the strict laws regarding fencing around swimming pools. Therefore, the committee had to work with the premise that tres-passing by children is foreseeable and probable.

Three bids were obtained by companies specializing in CPSC playgrounds. All are turnkey with variable options. On the average, replacement costs would be around $30,000. A safety inspection was also performed. The Monkey bars failed all safety requirements; in particular exposed bolts and no soft bedding. The Swing set was deficient in that the chains were not commercial type, the toddler seat was in disrepair and the required soft bedding was not in place. It was presented that the Monkey bars could not be brought into compliance; the Swing set could for around $6,000.

The members present were asked to respond by a straw poll to the following:

• Remove the Playground completely – no yes votes

• Explore funding for renewal of the Swing set or a new CPSC compliant play-ground – all were in favor.

• Monkeys bars to be removed – pending further investigation.

Questions regarding our liability insurance and their stance were raised. Our agent was contacted to address our cover-age for any injury on our playground equipment. It was deter-mined that since the insurance companies use the CPSC guidelines to evaluate playgrounds, that our playground equip-ment does not meet these standards, that the lack of a safety inspection on file or the fact that one exists and the equipment failed would give the carrier good cause to deny liability for any claim against the Association. In addition, repairs or modifica-tions by persons other than a licensed contractor can result in

prosecution of the person or persons who modified the equipment. To protect the Officer’s, Board of Directors, and the membership, a decision to immediately remove the Monkey bars and disable the Swing set was put into place.

A flyer was delivered to all asking for your help and donations to rebuild our play area. Please contact Jimmy Platt if you would like to be instrumental in our fund rais-ing efforts.

In closing, we are coming up on a new membership year. Thank you to our con-tinuing membership and a warm welcome to new community members to join in man-aging their Park.

Meg Krantz

Holly Hill Harbor Civic Association Page 4

Contact Us:

We are committed to improving com-munication within our community and are setting up online resources to get important news items out to our resi-dents.

Visit us on the web at

http://hhhca.org ( the website is cur-

rently under construction but sections

and member content are currently

available)

While setting up an HHHCA Face-

book presence, we contacted the

administrators of an existing Holly

Hills page for residents. With their

agreement, we will post HHHCA new

on this Facebook Group. There are

over 50 members of the group al-

ready. The page is Holly Hill Harbor

Residents; Edgewater, MD.

Holly Hill Harbor Civic Association PO Box 997 Edgewater, Maryland 21037

2016 is here - that mean’s it membership dues time!

Please send your check for $ 50.00 per member

Made payable to the: Holly Hill Harbor Civic Association, Inc.

P.O. Box 997

Edgewater, Maryland 21037

Name(s)__________________________________________________

Address:__________________________________________________

Email:____________________________________________________

Phone:___________________________________________________

I would like to donate ________________ to the Playground Fund

The Playground Fund is a restricted fund. Money from the Fund can only be spent on membership approved Playground equipment or refurbishment.

Join Holly Hill Harbor Civic Association (HHHCA)