Editor, Gazette-Journal:

The recent decision by the Corps of Engineers to not dredge and to remove navigational aids from Queens Creek, along with the (I hope) trial balloon floated as regards doing the same for Hole in the Wall, will have ramifications far outside the boating community. It’s just a matter of time.

Mathews County officials should easily be able to quantify these impacts and owe it to their constituents to start making noise about them sooner, rather than later. Folks in the market for ‘rivah’ country real estate are quickly apprised of the premium attached to property when it is located on navigable water.

Mathews County’s plethora of such property and the resulting increased assessments and tax receipts for those more valuable homes benefit all recipients of local services at the expense of those willing and able to pay a premium to live on navigable waterways. Should the result of the Corps’ non-dredging, etc., result in an end to the...