Hello Pam,
Welcome to PB. I don't have an answer for you, but it sounds like if you are going to have some equipment come in (small excavator) you might as well have them remove the silt/sludge layer on the bottom. On a pond this small it won't take any time.
Also My Grandmother lives out by you, in the house my dad grew up in, over in Seabrook MD. Where she's at has grown up and changed since even I was a kid, but there are still some beautiful areas out that way. My Great Grandmother used to work at the Goverment Farm.
Matt Wehland
