Worcester County residents react to proposed cable landing station

Berlin, Md. – Tensions were high during Thursday night’s town hall meeting at Stephen Decatur High School. Organized by Worcester County Commissioner Eric Fiori (District 3), the town hall meant to give Worcester County residents some clarity on a proposed development for a Cable Landing Station off of Stephen Decatur Highway developed by Virginia Beach-based company, Globalinx.

Several attendees raised concerns over potential impacts to the environment, noise levels and utility bill costs.

“I’m appalled this is even being considered,” Laurel Davis said. Davis is a Berlin resident and an educator at Delta Community College. “Assateague Island is a national treasure and a very important and sacred place for Native Americans and for everyone that loves the ocean and loves our state and loves our town.”

In their presentation, Globalinx has said the proposed CLS is not a data center, but rather a telecommunications gateway, which would enable multiple fiber carriers to connect to internet sources. Globalinx representatives said the building for the CLS would be big enough for five employees and store fuel for back up generators. County Zoning Division officials said Globalinx might be able to build on the particular parcel of land near Assateague Point if their project falls under the code a public utility. However, county officials from the Zoning Division have said there is still more information and testing to be done before any decisions are made.

Berlin-based business owner Mo Gould said the presentation did little to dissuade her fears of over development because Globalinx representatives did not explain their project in “layman’s terms.”

“I didn’t understand the process and they didn’t seem too concerned to let everyone else know too, what the process was,” she said.

Dozens of residents expressed outrage over the fact that it could be around 100 feet from the Purnell family cemetery, a historic cemetery established in the late 1860s.

“The most eye opening thing that I learned tonight is that there’s actually an African American cemetery that’s mere feet from where they want to build this atrocity,” Davis said.

Bobby Purnell and Alavontine “Al” Showell are family members, direct decedents of those buried in the cemetery and the cemetery’s current caretakers. Purnell said his end goal is to eventually have the deed to the cemetery, but he hopes to work with Globalinx should the development move forward.

“It’s a community thing and I feel whatever the community wants, you know, as far as the people that live here in that area, that’s what it should be,” Salisbury resident Purnell said.

Showell said him and his cousin ended up as cemetery’s caretakers because Purnell’s father had once been its caretaker, but neither one had known it existed before he passed in the 1990s.

“It doesn’t matter to us, really who owns the property as long as we have, I guess, some say right in what happens to, we don’t want it destroyed like it was being destroyed,” Showell said.

Timothy McMullen, an Ocean Pines resident and retired history teacher, said he was impressed with how the Purnell family had been mistreated.

“The fact that the county government and the town of Berlin did not step forward years ago to protect this family illustrates how terrible segregation was on the Eastern Shore,” he said.

However, he also felt as though Globalinx was not able to present fairly due to the many interruptions to their presentations.

“Partisan politics is destroying our country,” McMullen said. “Tonight was an example of that in which people would not allow the presentation from the corporation — which they have a right to present — and then when people were trying to talk at the microphone, people were yelling out.”

He said the county commissioners “should have stood up and put an end to that.”

“So overall, it’s an important meeting, but I wish it would have had a little bit of civility,” McMullen said.

Fiori said he hopes the meeting is able to bring Globalinx and the Purnell family together “to sit down and come up with a process to preserving the graveyard and access, and everything comes with it.” However, he plans to vote against the development should it come into consideration.

So far, county officials have stressed no plans have been approved.