Hot News

11.08.05

By KATE GREGORY

GAMBRILLS, Md. — There is still a long way to go before horse enthusiasts are unloading their horses and galloping a victory lap around the ring of proposed the Maryland Horse Park. On Oct. 10 the Maryland Stadium Authority announced that the Naval Academy Dairy Farm located in Gambrills would be the site of a feasibility study for the proposed horse park, beating out the Fair Hill site in Cecil County.
If the feasibility study passes certain criteria, then the real planning will begin. If not, another site will be found.
“When finished, the study should tell us many cost issues, such as issues with traffic,” said Alison Asti of the MSA. “Then if the [Anne Arundel] county is satisfied and the Navy likes it, it will go forward.”
The Horse Park will be modeled after the Kentucky Horse Park, but will be tailored to take into account the unique aspects of the Navy Dairy Farm and the amenities of the surrounding area, according to the MSA.
The Navy Dairy Farm is in a prime location for Maryland to take full advantage of the money that such a park will generate.
“The horse park has the potential of generating over $163 million a year in economic impact for Maryland, thereby strengthening the status of Maryland’s recreational horse industry, and has the potential to generate more than $17 million in taxes, with $3 million in local taxes,” said J. Robert Burk, executive director of the Maryland Horse Industry Board.
The farm is close to major highways, including, I-97 and I-95, and the surrounding area has more than 9,000 hotel rooms and many restaurants. The location sits on the corner of I-97 and Route 32 and can be easily accessed by truck and trailer. One of the issues of using the Fair Hill site was that many of the hotels and restaurants in the area were not in Maryland, but in Delaware and Pennsylvania. This would have allowed the state to lose income to other states.
The Navy dairy is approximately 857 acres and was originally designed to provide midshipmen safe, typhoid-free milk and dairy products. The farm currently hosts a working organic dairy, dairy 4-H participants, and is also home to Bill, the Naval Academy’s legendary Billy goat mascot. The current amenities include many barns, outbuildings, and worker housing; all sit up high overlooking acres of rolling green terrain. The layout is perfect for the horse park’s intended equestrian disciplines that would include: steeplechase, trail riding, and three-day eventing. It also links to other lands in Anne Arundel County and Annapolis for future and already established networks of trails, like the 655-acre Waterworks Park. The intent would be to refurbish historic buildings on the naval site, such as the Hammond Manor House, circa 1713, which burned down in the 1980s, as well as adding competition arenas, and a Naval Dairy museum.
The farm was worked in the Navy’s hands from 1913 until 1998 when Congress passed legislation allowing the Navy to lease the site for profit. In 1998 Horizon Organics set up shop on the Navy site and began converting the land for a completely organic operations. Horizon also opened an educational center and museum with organic and dairy themes as well as provided organic gardening plots for surrounding residents. Then, Horizon Organics experienced rearranging when it sold out to Dean Foods because of a large deficit that its production had incurred. Still called Horizon Organics, much of the dairy operation is subcontracted to farmers like Ed Fry of Sunrise Farms who now leases the Navy Dairy as a subcontractor for Horizon; his interim lease began in February and doesn’t expire until 2007. Fry’s operations on the Navy farm include a dairy as well as crop operations. He employs four full-time workers who operate the completely organic dairy.
“We try to keep about 116 to 200 replacement heifers,” said Fry of his operation.
The Navy Dairy is also home to many dairy 4-H animals. The 4Hers board their cows on the farm during the show season and some heifers stay throughout the year. There are about 25 members of the 4-H group of Anne Arundel County and they have approximately 30 heifers, according to their leader Gail Yeiser. The group buys hay and straw from Sunrise Farms.
“Ed is a great partner in what we’re trying to do here and we are happy to be partners in that operation,” said Yeiser.
Under the current feasibility plan the 4-Hers will remain and become part of a working farm museum to provide education on Maryland’s steep agricultural heritage to urban and suburban children. Bill the Goat will also stay as part of the Navy Dairy museum.
“The current lessee of the facility that operated the organic crop farm will no longer be viable in its current form. However, hay and straw production will most likely continue as they mingle well with a horse park and the majority of the property, which will remain as pasture, and although it has not yet been discussed as of yet, the hay and straw production could remain operated by the current lessee. The Farm Bureau has also expressed support of this project,” said Burk.
The legislation that allowed the Navy to lease the farm also states that it must be “maintained in its rural and agricultural nature,” something the park would also provide like the dairies.
“The structures suggested in the initial request for sites could perfectly blend into this property and would only occupy approximately one percent of the land,” explained Burk. “Thereby retaining the unspoiled agricultural green space which exists at the site and guaranteeing its future as a Maryland treasure and as green space that Marylanders can enjoy.”
The Navy said it is encouraged by the interest being expressed about the long-term lease of the dairy. However, the academy has not received any formal proposals or made any decisions or commitments on the long-term leasing of this property.
If the feasibility test allows the site to be approved by the Navy and Anne Arundel County and the bill is passed in the 2006 legislation, the moneys would be available by July of 2006. This could allow ground to be broken as early as January 2007 to finish in May of 2009. For now, Maryland will wait to make any decisions until the feasibility study is completed.
“This is an ongoing process. I am reserving judgment until I’ve heard from the community and the Naval Academy,” said Congressman Benjamin Cardin, representative of Anne Arundel County.