Meet the Maggiores

Imagine after working hard finally being able to purchase your dream home. You sign the papers, write a check, put your name on the deed and start moving in. It’s heavenly, right? This is one of the single greatest joys a person can have in their life, to stand on land and sleep in a house that is theirs alone.

But for Charles and Amber Maggiore of Perryville, MD, that dream became a nightmare. The couple, for the sum of $275,000.00, bought a parcel of land to put down their roots and raise their five children from the estate of Mabel S. Williams-Whack, who passed away in 2014 at the age of 90. It’s a beautiful range of 51.62 acres located on Jackson Station Rd home to wetlands and waterways.

After signing the dotted line in May 2016, their problems began. One day, the Maggiores caught a suspicious man hunting near the old Mill Creek Reservoir, which stands on their property. This poacher claimed to have been given permission by the town to hunt on the land. Reasonably, Mr. Maggiore consulted Denise Breder, Perryville’s Town Administrator.

“Poacher said the town gave him permission to hunt by the reservoir,” Charles Maggiore told us, “I went into town to see Denise and she said to call the cops.”

Mr. Maggiore said that the next time it happened, the Department of Natural Resources got involved and advised him to put up No Trespassing signs. According to their maps, the reservoir was on his property and by the opinion of the state, belongs to him.

A 2013 Cecil Whig article by Jane Bellmyer claimed that the reservoir built by the Cole family in the 1930s was sold to Perryville for the use of the reservoir. The land it sat on was purportedly being leased to the town. More on that later.

 The Maggiore’s situation only worsened after this.

The Action to Quiet Title

 In March of 2016, the Town of Perryville had filed a quiet title action and the following July a judge ruled in their favor, allowing Perryville to effectively seize the 17.85-acre parcel of land where the reservoir stands as town property.

From Wikipedia: “An action to quiet title is a lawsuit brought in a court having jurisdiction over property disputes, in order to establish a party’s title to real property, or personal property having a title, of against anyone and everyone, and thus ‘quiet’ any challenges or claims to the title.”

In previous cases involving a quiet title, people using lands that are not theirs have made adverse possession claims followed by quiet title actions and been able to take ownership of that land by court authority. Various news websites have described this as a means to legally steal real estate.

In order for the action to work, the squatter for an amount of time that varies state-to-state has to be openly living on or using the property without permission and paying taxes or other expenses associated with maintaining the property before they can make the case. It’s similar to a common law marriage, where after cohabitating for an established period of time an unmarried man and woman are considered legally married.

A municipality (the Town of Perryville) arguably cannot squat on private property, nor can they pay taxes and fees to themselves for it. Even if they argue that they own the Mill Creek Reservoir which has been on the land since the 1930s, that is a very flimsy predicate, as for decades the reservoir and land have not been in use by the town.

It’s also worth noting that the defendant listed in the court records for the quiet title action is Gertrude C. Cole of South Carolina, not Mabel S. Williams-Whack or the representatives of her estate, Dwight James and Thomas Short III, or even Charles and Amber Maggiore who were sold the property and all its contents before the ruling was made. According to the deed for the property, William Cole Jr. and his wife Sarah sold the parcel of land to Collins Williams in 1926.

Maryland Code Real Property Title 14 – Miscellaneous Rules subtitle 6 – Actions to Quiet Title states in subsection 14-610: “Notification of personal representative. – If a person required to be named as a defendant is dead and the plaintiff knows of a personal representative, the plaintiff shall join the personal representative as a defendant.”

In a similar case, Estate of Zimmerman vs Blatter, the additions to Subtitle 6 signed in by Governor Larry Hogan in 2016 applied retroactively and following an appeal, the judgment in the Zimmerman case was vacated and the case was dismissed. This sets a legal precedent for any future cases with the same circumstances.

As we pointed out before, in the action to quiet title and settle ownership of the 17.85-acres, Perryville town attorney Fred Sussman did not name Thomas Short III or Dwight James, the representatives of Mabel S. Williams-Whack as defendants in his action to quiet title. Which, by the precedent we’ve explained, means the court’s ruling that the 17.85-acre parcel belongs to Perryville should too be vacated. But to this day, they still claim the town owns the land around the reservoir.

In our investigations, we have found that there are no records in the Cecil County circuit court of that land ever being allocated to the town of Perryville prior to the quiet title action, either ownership or lease. The County Clerk was unable to locate any relative information.

Not only that, the Town of Perryville submitted the wrong deed for their case. The document given belongs to a property at Old Post Road in Perry Point that was owned by John Stump in the 1800s. This location is miles away from the disputed land.

And that would be checkmate, I think. It is hard to believe that this farce ever held up in a court of law. The Court should review their ruling and with the evidence in mind, vacate it and dismiss the case according to legal precedent.

The quiet title action is not the only suspicious misfortune the family has suffered since moving in.

The Fire, the Liens and the Land Developers

In November 2016, the Maggiore’s home caught fire. Investigators suspected arson and according to Mr. Maggiore, inspectors came out twice while he wasn’t home and logged it without notifying him. Evidence pointed to the fire being started from outside the house and Maggiore believes the case is still open and unsolved.

No one was hurt, thank God, but for a time the house was unlivable, and the family had to be away from the property, and Mr. Maggiore says they never received anything in the mail from the town about any matter, except for warnings Ms. Breder and town attorney Fred Sussman issued for them to stay off the property and not to hang signs or paint the trees.

Tax liens were then placed on their property, ostensibly to satisfy unpaid taxes and charges due the county in the amount of $919.12. The property was sold at an auction for $170,000.00 to Thornton Mellon LLC, who would foreclose the property after six months if the Maggiores did not pay the money.

After fighting the sale and highlighting errors made by the town, the Maggiores successfully reclaimed their property. But the Town of Perryville still claims ownership of that 17.85-acre parcel of land around Mill Creek Reservoir via their shady quiet title action.

The question you’re likely pondering is: why does Perryville care so much about an 80-year-old defunct reservoir and the land surrounding it?  

In March 2016 (the same month the Quiet Title action was filed,) Jane Bellmyer reported in the Cecil Whig that the Town of Perryville was given a draft plan for a stream restoration project that would fix flooding issues around the reservoir and help the town. The specifics are unclear as the representatives of TLBT, LLC whose organizations devised the draft plan were under a DNR, as was Lisa Webb, the director of Cecil County’s Department of Economic Development.

That fall, Bellmyer reported in her Whig news column that the town of Perryville wanted to scrap the reservoir and sell the property. She also mentioned that the stream restoration project was being carried out by Lidl, which recently opened its new distribution center in the county. Following this information, it would be safe to conclude that Lidl would be the purchaser, or perhaps another company working in tandem with them.

The area around it has a lot going on recently. Contrary to the Whig’s claim of stream restoration, the logging and digging taking place adjacent to the Maggiore’s property have been damaging the wetlands and waterways. The MDTA notified the family of this effect along with their intention of applying to the Maryland Department of the Environment to obtain authorization.

There are also improvements to the I-95 exit sought by the Maryland Transportation Authority, likely due to the Great Wolf Lodge going up next to Hollywood Casino. Being nestled between I-95 and Route 40, the land is also in the path of the County’s Master Water and Sewer Plan. York Builders (Stewart Properties) is involved with many of these enterprises.

In another letter, MDTA requested permission to enter the Maggiore’s property to perform a field survey. Mr. Maggiore has expressed contempt for the damage these projects are doing to his property and its value.

It would seem that the only crime Charles and Amber Maggiore committed was choosing a home for their family that lay in the path of the town and developers looking to turn the area around the I-95 exit into a tourist hub. The lack of concern for the local nature and the value of Maggiore’s property is sad.

• The Maggiore Deed 2016 with Map (Current Owner of 655 Jackson Station)
• The Cole Deed 1926 (Previous owner of 655 Jackson Station)
• Town of Perryville Quiet Title 2016
• The Stump Deed 1893 Town claims was Deed to 655 Jackson Station (Reservoir) Page 1 at bottom , Page 2
• 1858 Survey map of Cecil County showing the Deed 2 different deed’s references.

The post Perryville’s Not-So-Quiet Title Farce appeared first on Cecil County News.

“But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

– John 4:14

Water is life, it’s a simple fact. Most of our bodies are made of it. The plants we grow in our gardens need it as much as clean air and sunlight. Every single beverage we consume is based on it. To live properly, we must consume at least eight 8oz cups of clean water daily. Droughts kill farms and starve populations.

For the town of Rising Sun, Maryland, the state-mandated pursuit of providing a modern water and sewer system has been an arduous task, needlessly overcomplicated by interference from the Cecil County government and complaints by those advocating for well water, such as former mayor Robert Fisher.

In 2005, the town devised a comprehensive plan to resolve the issue as required by the state of Maryland by building a wastewater treatment plant and running water lines from the Chester Water Authority. This would allow them to import one million gallons of water every day and provide the town’s own needs, as well as allow them to sell to outlying properties that request it, partner with the county on their economic development initiatives, but more importantly provide resources to alleviate documented water quality issues in the region.  

In 2006, a building moratorium was placed on the town due to its inability to meet the water and sewer requirements and stunted the town’s growth. This brought on a $90 million lawsuit by developer Frapple LP, which planned to construct a 120-house subdivision dubbed Wellington Manor. To remedy their issues, the town began moving forward on the $14 million wastewater plant and the deal with CWA.

While it is true that well water is sometimes higher quality than water that has been purified by chemicals, it is not an absolute certainty, nor is it unlimited. Previous wells had been drilled to no avail. Wells also dry up whereas a reservoir fed by the Susquehanna will not. Town Commissioner Augie Pierson clearly explained to the Cecil Whig in 2012 that not only can new well water not promise to consistently meet the town’s demands, existing regulations requires public water systems drawing from the ground to be treated by chlorination, which renders the quality point moot.

The town employed multiple engineering firms which estimated a cost of $30 million to find, drill and pipe wells that would ultimately provide a low yield, and the idea was ruled impractical. Running a pipeline from the Chester County Water Authority came at lower cost and guaranteed a yield of one million gallons per day, enough to abolish drought restrictions that have frequently plagued the town. An additional $1 million would later be saved thanks to a change in material to be used in the pipes.

On April 11, 2012, they broke ground on the new wastewater treatment facility. As the legal battle with Frapple continued, all but one of the counts against the town of Rising Sun were dropped, and they declined a $5 million settlement. Eventually, the judge presiding over the case ruled in favor of the town.

PNC Bank initially funded the wastewater plant project via a construction loan that was repaid by a low-interest loan to the town from the United States Department of Agriculture to be paid back over the next 40 years. In 2013, the town extended a contract with Davenport and Company, of Towson to protect themselves from PNC calling in the tab before the USDA came across with their loan, which finally arrived in early 2015.

Rising Sun Town Administrator Calvin Bonenberger Jr. was accused of working for the interests of developers, due to the fact that the map of the water line from CWA ran over land owned by George Beer, a developer who built Maple Heights in Rising Sun. Keith Campbell, a former member of the RS board of appeals made an accusation that Bonenberger was tied to Beer and acting for his own enrichment.

Bonenberger responded to the allegation by filing a grievance against himself to force the ethics board to perform an investigation and held an open forum to answer questions of 75 people from the community, intent on clearing the air. He was later vindicated of any malfeasance.

In December of 2013, it was proposed for commissioner George Walker to take over water and sewer from commissioner Lyn Duggar after she worked with Mayor Fisher to undermine the town’s water plan by spreading a questionable survey implying that well water. Days later, the switch was approved. The survey pushed by Fisher and Duggar was debunked by legal research carried out by the town attorney, which revealed the land they sought to drill on was protected.

In August of 2015, as the wastewater plant neared completion, the Rising Sun town hall began receiving calls from interested developers looking to build in the town. Once the wastewater plant was completed, the next phase was the pipeline project to connect to Chester Water Authority. Current estimates placed the project at $10 million. In August of 2016, the town made a grant application to cover some of the current estimated $10 million cost of connecting to CWA and spare residents some expense. Mayor Travis Marion and the board of commissioners spoke to Governor Larry Hogan and asked for assistance.

County Councilman Dan Schneckenberger voiced support for the agreement with CWA and promised to help find more grant money to finance the pipeline. Unfortunately, sewer costs rose along the way. But with the future looking bright, the town looked at lifting the building moratorium that had halted development for a decade since the water issue arose. Soon after, however, changes to the USDA’s policy for low-interest loans left the town looking for a new way to pay for the connection to CWA, and they were forced to take another loan out from PNC Bank.

In a measure to save money, the pipeline map was rerouted and construction on the Pennsylvania side began in February 2018. In April, the Maryland Board of Public Works awarded Rising Sun a $500,000 grant for the water line project. On May 2nd, Rising Sun broke ground.

The next hurdle was funding the installation of out-of-town fire hydrants, a measure that would help protect residents outside the town limits of Rising Sun by allowing fires outside of town to be better fought. The topic was discussed with County Executive Dr. Alan McCarthy, who refused to issue county funds to install hydrants. Despite this, the town were under pressure from state and federal lawmakers to install the hydrants regardless. McCarthy reneged on a budget allocation and directed them to apply for casino funds.

Later that month, Wellington Manner was purchased by Patricia Wagner, Rising Sun’s public accountant, and a town resident expressed concern that the town was risking another lawsuit, or worse, that Wagner was receiving undue benefits by letting the pipe run through her land. Wagner however, addressed his concerns by pointing out that she is paying for and using the land for pasture, and that her cows cannot drink chlorinated town water. Even though all private property owners allowing the water line to go through their property get a five-year window to link up for free, it was of no use to her pasture and she only asked if it be transferred to her other property.

When $350,000 of Hollywood Casino revenues were divided among 48 applicants of the Video Lottery Terminal Grants, Rising Sun received $21,428 of these moneys, which fell short of the $57,200 they needed to pay for the hydrant project. Mayor Marion expressed dismay at the County’s inability to pass a budget amendment to finance the project for the safety of county residents. As a result, the people of Rising Sun had to pay to protect people outside of Rising Sun in order to comply with state and federal orders.

Concerns arose again in September 2018 when Chester PA planned to sell the Chester Water Authority to a private company. What this meant for the town’s water supply was in question. Commissioner Alan Authenreath assured that there was nothing to worry about. Protections had been set for the town’s sake just in case such an event occurred, such as a non-competition clause that precludes CWA from running any lines within five miles of the town.

In November 2018, the building moratorium was finally lifted after a dozen years of town development being halted. Rising Sun was declared open for business by Mayor Travis Marion.

In March 2019, just as everything was ready to launch, the County blocked Rising Sun’s long pursued comprehensive plan, arguing falsely that their plan extended along 273 to Wilson Road, up to the PA state line, and six miles south down 276 and clashed with the McCarthy administration’s 2018 Master Water and Sewer plan, which alongside the County’s previous 2010 comprehensive plan focuses on development along the intersection of Route 40 and Interstate 95.

Mayor Marion and Town Administrator Bonenberger stood their ground, arguing that their plan had already been discussed and approved with the county representatives and the state. Several properties around the town had requested their service be extended to them; among them Ramsey Ford, Calvert Elementary, Calvert Manor, and Rising Sun High School. Contrary to the claim of extending from Wilson to the PA line, the water line would only go as far as Rising Sun High School to service the aforementioned locations, as well as a few other properties looking to reduce maintenance issues and the costs of maintaining their wells and septic systems.

The town’s comprehensive plan, drafted in 2005, was in line with the County’s 2010 comprehensive plan and well in progress before County Executive Alan McCarthy’s administration put forth their own Master Water and Sewer Plan in November 2018, which clashed with the plans Rising Sun made first. County officials claimed not to know that Rising Sun was seeking a quota of one million gallons of water per day to distribute. Mayor Marion responded to this by reminding that he sent them the documents when the town filed paperwork in 2016 to supply as much as 1.8 million gallons per day.

County Council President Bob Meffley accused their plans of conflicting with the Rural Legacy Program.  A claim echoed by County Administration Director Al Wein, who also released a statement favoring the County’s plan over Rising Sun’s and claimed that the Code of Cecil County prohibits municipalities from extending water and sewer service beyond their boundaries without the consent of the County Executive. Wein also echoed the accusation that Rising Sun did not inform the McCarthy Administration of their plans.

The accusation against Rising Sun is easily proven false by years of reporting in the Cecil Whig by Jane Bellmyer. It has been clearly stated in articles going back as far as 2012 that the town sought one million gallons of water daily so that they could provide their own needs and sell to neighboring towns and properties within the map of their approved municipal growth area in order to bolster revenues and lower the water and sewer costs for their residents. Unless then-Councilman McCarthy has been living under a rock and never reads the newspaper, it would be impossible not to know.

McCarthy spread a rumor without evidence that Rising Sun planned to run lines as far as Newark DE and vowed to halt any attempt by Rising Sun to run water outside of their borders. To justify his position, he claimed that it would violates the county’s comprehensive plan because of the area’s designation as a rural conservation district.

Vincent Sammons, a local businessman and current chairman of Cecil County’s GOP Central Committee, was told by Executive McCarthy at the recent County Fair that he was concerned about Chester Water Authority’s nitrate levels being too high compared to Artesian Water Resources, which services Elkton and has the rights to service properties along Route 40 and Interstate 95 (the same path as McCarthy’s conflicting water and sewer plan).

However, Artesian Water’s own nitrate levels are no less than Chester Water Authority’s simply because they buy and resell water from CWA to Elkton and properties with a 20% upcharge, making the Executive’s claim absolutely ridiculous. Artesian provides the exact same water as CWA that has won awards for its quality and taste.

The real issue is that Rising Sun’s Comprehensive Plan makes it a direct competitor to Artesian for providing water to surrounding areas. The County had previously sold all its water plants to Artesian, giving them a monopoly in the area and total power over pricing that would be tacked onto their customers’ property taxes at a flat rate. That monopoly lasted until Rising Sun’s wastewater plant and CWA pipeline completed and they were ready to start selling to their neighbors.

It would seem that to protect Artesian Water’s monopoly and ensure water sales along Route 40 and I-95 that had been guaranteed, the County trampled over Rising Sun’s plans and pulled rank when they took issue with it.  In that effort, the County abused its power and overstepped by rejecting Rising Sun’s Master Water and Sewer Plan in favor of its own.

Measures by the town to address water concerns expressed by the Maryland Department of Environment that could only be solved by piping water out of town limits were blocked. Among them were Rising Sun Elementary School ( Executive McCarthy also blocked a grant application to the USDA which would have paid entire cost for water to Rising Sun Elementary), which has suffering from high nitrate levels in its current water system, fourteen residential Southern States properties at Wilson and Telegraph that are suffering water quality issues and have been ordered by MDE to resolve them, two residential wells contaminated by underground fuel tanks, and 30 residential properties that are identified in the County’s own water and sewer plan.

All of these locations fall within the approved map of the Town of Rising Sun’s municipal growth area described in the comprehensive plan they have worked toward since 2005, thirteen years before McCarthy’s pipe dream was put forward. But the County, instead of working out a compromise with Rising Sun to allow both water and sewer plans to coexist went as far as to remove the Southern States from the map.

Is it really rural reservation that they are thinking of, or has service to these properties already been promised to Artesian? The pretense of protecting rural areas was never an issue until the McCarthy administration devised its own plan and promised business to the Artesian Water Resource, one of his large campaign donors.

The County had no legal rights to step on the previously approved municipal growth area of Rising Sun that had been part of their state-mandated municipal growth area and comprehensive plan. Rising Sun’s plan had been entirely transparent with the County and Maryland Department of Planning’s clearing house since its inception.

On July 22, 2019, following a visit to the town of Rising Sun by Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford, the Maryland Department of the Environment approved a version of the Cecil County Master Water and Sewer Plan amended to allow Rising Sun to run its water outside their limits and service outlying properties. Town officials declared victory on the matter, despite other commentators seeking to downplay it by pointing to small technicalities and parroting the McCarthy’s administrations falsehoods.

Rising Sun has fought long and hard to comply with the state of Maryland’s demand to modernize their water and sewer system and pave the way for growth. They have cleared significant hurdles such as lawsuits, cost and funding issues, slander of town officials and interference from biased parties. The County Executive deliberately obstructed them in favor of his own pursuits and was reprimanded by the Maryland Department of the Environment for it, providing another stain on his record to go with the recent news of his violation of the County Charter Article 4, Section 405 (b).

But in the end the facts are clear, the MDE has amended the County’s plan to allow Rising Sun to run water lines outside municipal limits. The town of Rising Sun does not look to disturb the rural charm of the Calvert area, or annex it entirely into the town, but only to provide clean water to locations that the state has demanded action on and provide better means for firefighters to protect them.

In our investigation of the matter, we have found no malfeasance by the Town of Rising Sun, and nothing but salacious misconduct by the McCarthy administration and well advocates amounting to public corruption. No sane individual should condemn a measure that will provide the homes of people in rural areas with clean water to drink and protect them from fire.

The post The War Waged Against Rising Sun’s Water Supply appeared first on Cecil County News.