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November 28, 2022

The Chestertown Spy

An Educational News Source for Chestertown Maryland

Spy Top Story

Twigs and Teacups 2.0 in Chestertown: A Chat with Paul and Erin Heckles           

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The beloved Twigs and Teacups is back open at 111 S. Cross Street just in time for the holidays.

The popular gift shop known for its quirky array of treasures had been temporarily moved to High Street while renovations took place.

For Paul, Jayne, and daughter Erin Heckles, it has been a year of decisions, toil, and patience as they and their building team headed by Taylor Loughry Construction gutted the 1922 brick building, removing the warren of unused second-floor offices and opening up the ceiling to its original rafter structure.

“We’ve been kind of the Three Musketeers through thick and thin, and we are just happy to share this with you,” Paul Heckles said during the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Originally built by the Gill brothers for their ice cream factory, Heckles notes that the original plan called for the second floor to remain open for community dances and other social events. This tradition continued for 25 years or more. Today it has been opened as their second-floor gift display area, complete with an elevator.

After the Gill brothers, a succession of owners used the space for various businesses until 1997, when April Marshall moved her small Twigs and Teacups gift shop into the building from across the street.

“It was April who brought together Twigs and Teacups and this location and created a cherished home away from home in Chestertown for almost three generations.”

The Spy met with the Heckles last week to talk about their year renovating the building and continuing the legacy of one of the region’s most charming gift shops.

The Heckles’ original intention was only to renovate the front of the building. “It was like peeling an onion,” Heckles says. One thing led to another until the structure was down to its shell.

A year later, the newly designed front entrance opens into the new Twigs and Teacups, and while you might be amazed by the dramatic change, you will still feel its intimacy and find that unique gift for that birthday party you almost forgot.

This video is approximately six minutes in length. To find out more about Twigs and Teacups please go here.

 

Slaves and Klansmen in the Family: A Chat with Washington College Fellow Edward Ball

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Many of us have leaped down the genealogical rabbit hole as rainy-day detectives searching for clues to identify our forebears, only to be hampered by duplicate names, confusing archives, and contradictory family stories.

For author Edward Ball, an investigation into the Ball family history led to a National Book Award for his 1998 Slaves in the family, additional recognition for his current book, Life of a Klansman, along with his current position as Patrick Henry Fellow at Starr Center for the American Experience at Washington College where he is at work on his third title about other members of the Ball family.

The Ball family history harkens back to the rice plantations of 17th-century Charleston, South Carolina. Up to the Civil War, six generations of the Ball family enslaved more than 4,000 people on more than a dozen plantations.

After hearing much about his ancestors during Edward’s childhood, complete with visits with his father to the vestiges of some of the old family houses, the young writer began to look closer at his legacy and ask questions that would change the trajectory of his life: who were these individual humans that had been enslaved?

Determined to challenge the silence shrouding the topic in his family, Ball set off on an investigation that would send him into a three-year search through thousands of Ball family records across the country to archives and oral histories, and even to Africa.

Eschewing the idea of “guilt of the past,” Ball sought to demythologize the family’s self-identification as compassionate overseers, saying in a New York Times article by Drew Faust that “Rather than responsible, I felt accountable for what had happened, called on to try to explain it.”

Along with documenting the white slave-owning family, the centerpiece of that accounting became a search for descendants of the Ball family enslaved people. Often, living descendants were unaware of their lineage, while others added to the historical narrative from family oral traditions linking them to one of the Ball Plantations.

In his 2020 book Life of Klansman, Edward Ball explores the matrilineal side of his family and another great-great grandfather, Constant Lecorgne of New Orleans. Lecorgne, a Confederate discharged for misconduct, was the Klansman in the family and a primary resident evil during the white supremacy backlash to Reconstruction’s promise of rights to formerly enslaved people as Southern states moved into the Jim Crow era.

Ball says that a series of horrific murders—Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Dylan Roof—compelled him to look at Lecorgne through the lens of contextual post-Civil War history to see if he could identify and confront the roots of white authority and privilege.

Ball sees ex-Confederate Lecorgne as part of the virulent strain of white supremacy that rose during the Reconstruction and still echoes sometimes loudly, sometimes as inaudible as a rattlesnake in repose, waking to bite us in your everyday lives. Readers will be hard-pressed to find a difference between the life of Klansman Constant Lecorgne and the white identity movements of today.

Katy Shenk at the Starr Center adds, “We’re delighted to have a writer of Edward’s stature here in residence, whose work speaks to contemporary concerns while chronicling the past. Already, he has embraced life in Chestertown to the fullest and is a valued member of the Starr Center and Washington College community.”

The Spy sat down with Edward Ball to talk about his extraordinary investigation into the Ball family, Constant Lecorgne, and what accounting for the past can mean for us today.

This video is approximately fourteen minutes in length. More about the Starr Center for the Study of the American experience may be found here.

 

Town Council Member Efland: Keep the Middle School in Chestertown

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Although the final Kent County Middle School Project listening session was held in early November, a decision about the project to replace the middle school awaits further studies as part of the Kent County Board of Education’s “The Six-Year Facilities Strategic Plan.”

The projected target date for a new middle school is 2026.

Funding, transportation, stormwater management, and public sentiment are part of the equation being calculated to determine if the new middle school will replace the current one in Chestertown, be a new structure in Worton, or be attached to Kent County High School in Worton.

Ward 4 Council Member Meghan Efland and the Chestertown Town Council see the continuing presence of a middle school in Chestertown as integral to the lifeblood of the community. The Town Council formally supported the building of the school in Chestertown at the November 7 council meeting.

“People in my Ward want the school to stay in Chestertown,” Efland say. “That’s part of reason they bought their houses, they like being close to the school, volunteering, and being a part of the children’s lives.”

Despite a reduction in the County census, Efland, who lives on Campus Avenue, says she sees a lot of families with younger children moving into the College Heights area, along with younger children showing up to the RiverArts KidSPOT program and Saturday Market.

“My hope is that we continue to attract more families,” Efland says, seeing that the enhanced ability for many to work from home has opened the door wider for future residents.

Even though the topic of a new middle school has been ongoing since 2018, Efland is concerned that a lot of people are still unaware of the fact that decisions are on the horizon. 

“I feel like a lot of people don’t know about this. The Board of Ed started talking about this back in 2019 or earlier but I don’t think people realize this is an upcoming decision whether it’s because they don’t have children in he school system or whether their children are not in the school system yet. They don’t understand how this is going to impact them.”

Efland says there a third alternative to the three location choices recommended by the Board of Education.

“There is another option that is not on their list, a land swap, where we find another parcel of land within Chestertown.” The old school would be reverted to the County for demolition and a new school built within the town.

No matter the hurdles to rebuild the school in town, Efland promotes the Town’s willingness to become a cooperative partner with the Board of Ed and to offer alternative ideas for the upcoming feasibility study.

The Spy recommends going to the Kent County Middle School Project website for an analysis of the of projected ideas and costs. There is also a link to a community survey (at the top of the page).

This video is approximately seven minutes in length. To find out more about the Kent County Middle School Project, please go here.

 

 

 

Mid-Shore Stewardship: ShoreRivers and Galena Elementary School 

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The preservation and revitalization of the Eastern Shore’s vast system of waterways requires a commitment to environmental stewardship and an effort to teach future generations to care for the world that sustains us.

Since 2017 and the merging of the Chester River Association, (CRA), Midshore Riverkeeper Conservancy (MRC), and Sassafras River Association (SRA) into ShoreRivers, the organization has worked to protect and restore the quality of our unique and interlaced river networks while collaborating with farmers to help reduce the agricultural runoff that pollutes waterways.

Another of ShoreRivers’ forward-planning initiatives is its Environmental Education program serving over 2,500 3rd grade and high school biology students every year in Dorchester, Talbot, Queen Anne’s, and Kent county schools.

Recently, ShoreRivers continued their long-term partnership with Galena Elementary School to introduce Pre-K through 5th graders to environmental stewardship by planting 26 trees along a walking path behind the school. The walking path was a previous ShoreRivers and Galena Elementary School project. Eventually the area will also be used for outdoor classes.

Galena Elementary School Principal Becky Yoder and ShoreRivers Education Director Gutierrez Finley met with the Spy to talk about the event and their ongoing collaboration.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. More about ShoreRivers may be found here.

 

Proposed Armory Demolition Back to Square One

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The decision by the Historic District Committee to approve the demolition of the Chestertown Armory has been rescinded and will be addressed at their next meeting on December 7, 2022.

At Monday Night’s town council meeting, Mayor David Foster reviewed the history of the College’s acquisition of the Armory, the environmental assessment presented to the Town Council and Historic District Committee.

Because a procedural error made by the HDC—a 25 day public review period—and a question on whether there was a waiver of the review period, the referral for demolition is now back on the HDC’s desk.

Ward 1 Councilman Tim O’Brien pushed for clarification, asking “Just on that one procedural error of not giving a waiver and not respecting the 25-day review period, does the nullify both our vote the Historic District Committee vote, or if this that a great enough error that we have to review it.”

Foster said that the town council had not given a permit for the structure’s demolition and that the process required plans for a new building before granting a permit.

O’Brien raised an additional question about the property’s covenant clause in the, an agreement between the Grantor and Grantee, that “property shall be used solely for governmental and/or education purposes, said governmental and/or educational purposes hereby being defined as (a) government businesses and/or office and/or (b) college and/or university uses. This provision shall be a restrictive covenant running with the land and binding on the Grantee, its successors and assigns.”

The question becomes: is the covenant clause in the transfer of the Armory from the State to the Town carried from Town to Washington College.

Barbara Jorgenson, Vice President of Kent County Historical Society, told the Council that the Historic District Commission had not been informed about the covenant clause and the procedures from College to HDC and town council had not been transparent.

Foster said that, in retrospect, the Council was not as transparent as it could have been. “I want to emphasize that there has never been any intent to hide something.” He also mentioned that the original HDC’s agenda listing of the Armory’s proposed demolition by it Cross Street’s address, although standard practice, did not inform the public the property was the Armory.

“I would really take issue with the idea that there was any intent anywhere along the line to mislead in this course. There was a procedural error, and we will do everything to correct that and move forward,” Foster said.

In a copy of an email given to the Spy and sent to the State of Maryland Military Department and Board of Public Works, Jorgenson asked “if they been informed of Washington College’s efforts to terminate this covenant? Are they aware of the interpretation of “college and/or university uses”? Do they agree with either a termination or this interpretation?”

Richard Grieves, a member of the 2016 citizen’s committee “Save the Armory” said that many opportunities to preserve the structure had been offered, but the constant flooding without maintenance has left the building unrecoverable.

“I get the death of a building is a big deal, but what you’re fighting for, you’re fighting for a tombstone that will sit there for the next fifty years and not be used…you can fight; everyone in this town can fight, but what you’re fighting for is zero because there isn’t enough money with anybody to fix this armory.”

This video is approximately thirteen minutes in length. 

 

Clarifying the County and Town tax Differential Issue with Mayor David Foster

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Often discussed and perennially misunderstood or dismissed as old news, the conversation about the relationship between county and town taxes has once again landed on our doorstep as a topic during this election cycle.

According to Mayor David Foster, who in the past has appealed to the County Commissioners to address it, the “tax differential” is double taxation. Homeowners and renters in Chestertown pay town and county taxes, but Foster and others point out that the services provided to the town from paying county taxes are not equitable.

“Where it becomes double-taxation, for example, is when you pay for county roads but the county doesn’t pay for roads in the town even though you’ve paid those taxes. If you want the roads paved and maintained you pay the town for it,” Foster says.

Public safety is another example. the Mayor says. The town pays county taxes for county sheriffs but there is no reciprocal compensation or rebate by the county to pay for the Chestertown Police Department.

Median income disparities between the town and county offer an additional perspective on the tax differential. County median income is approximately $60,000/year while Chestertown residents’ median income is about $39,000.  Foster sees this as another reason a new formula should be legislated in the form of a rebate or discount.

“There are really only three counties in Maryland, Kent, Wicomico, and Worcester that refuse to compensate the citizens when they are taxed twice.”

According to Foster, the issue began in the 1980s State legislation required nine counties to amend their own regulations and determine how much the municipalities save the counties and for the counties to pay back or help reduce the tax rates of the municipalities. Except for the three counties, the rest eventually agreed.

The Spy recently interviewed Mayor Foster to talk about the tax differential.

This video is approximately ten minutes in length.

Spy Report: Sultana Downrigging Weekend Pitch Perfect

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Apparently the universe slotted a cinematically perfect day for Chestertown’s 22nd Sultana Downrigging Festival because it couldn’t have been a more stellar autumn weekend to host the fleet of tall ships, the Halloween parade, authors readings, exhibits at Sultana’s Hold Center, gallery shows, and astounding bluegrass music.

Friday’s arrival of the Kalmar Nyckel, Pride of Baltimore II, Virginia, Lynx and Sigsbee joined Sultana with newcomers Maryland Dove and Godspeed. More than 1,000 seafaring visitors would enjoy cruises under sail over the weekend.

Throughout the weekend, the hours were filled with bluegrass country music in the Music Village along with outstanding food vendors.

Even the Ambassador of France, Philippe Étienne, couldn’t resist an invitation to visit and watch the Sultana hoist the tricolour.

In all, Sultana Education Foundation and its sponsors came through with a weekend gift to be remembered.

Proceeds benefit the Foundation’s environmental literacy programs and the other nonprofits participating in the festival.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. The theme music to this video is from the U.S. Navy Band ensemble “Country Current.”

Equity, Service, and ARPA in Chestertown: A Chat with Bishop Ronald Fisher

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For Bishop Ron Fisher, a pastor’s spiritual life easily intersects with his other roles in community and county service. From the pulpit to the floor of a town council meeting, the pastor promotes the same message—to seek equitable solutions for community problems. 

To this end, each Sunday since 1990, Bishop Fisher preaches to his congregation at Faith Life Church in Chestertown and ministers to individual needs, may it be marriage or financial seminars.

His wide-spectrum community service has included work with the Town Council, sensitivity training for Chestertown Police, youth mentoring, and work with the incarcerated, Chestertown Equity Advisory Committee, to name a few. 

The Equity Advisory Committee, part of the 18-month plan for the Town mandate “Chestertown Unites against Racism,” formed in 2020 and currently on hiatus, was created as a consulting group to help identify areas of inequity, research, inform, guide, and make recommendations to the town council. 

Now, as the Chair of Upper Shore Community Development Partners, Fisher has a similar role, but one with a more direct approach. USCDP is designed not to duplicate services, but rather to create capacity, engage communities, and help organizations partner with one another.  In addition, as a nonprofit, USCDP will be able to bring resources to our community – partner organizations, area nonprofits, and the Town – that are not currently available.  

As Bishop Fisher mentions in the interview, USCDP was not founded to duplicate other area services but to support them and those in need of a particular service. 

For example, Fisher cites the inability for some to understand the complexities of starting a business. USCDP would collaborate with SBDC, SCORE, and other entities to help provide services. Backlogs of people needing home buying assistance, including help with credit counseling and mortgage applications. 

The USCDP would collaborate with other similarly focused organizations. USCDP will also work with the broader Chestertown nonprofit community to assist with organizational development, eliminate duplication of services through partnerships, and create fundraising capacity.  Larger entities like the Town of Chestertown could benefit as a partner or client, gaining capacity and access to resources not currently available to municipalities.

USCDP was founded by Sallie Findlay, a Chestertown resident, working with founding consultants Rebecca Flora of ReMAKE Group, Sam Shoge of Rivers and Roads Consulting, and Rebecca Murphy of RCM Strategic Consulting, all of whom bring extensive experience, and are local to Chestertown. Together, they shaped the mission of the organization, to help “ALL residents, including Black and other people of color, have access to the funding, education, training, coaching and other resources necessary to have affordable homeownership opportunities, stable employment, and successful small businesses and entrepreneurship opportunities.”

Although Fisher was not on the USCDP Board for the three presentations made to the Mayor and Town Council earlier this year by the consulting team on USCDP’s behalf, his hope is that the community development corporation as a “convening organization” to assist the community will be seriously considered ARPA funding directly through the Town, in order for them to provide much needed capacity and technical assistance.

Fisher points out that the pandemic amplified problems for everyone, especially those who had been struggling before the Spring of 2020 when Covid started to hit.

“The ARPA Fund Task Force is doing tremendous things to improve Chestertown… but it’s really my hope the (USCDP) objectives and goals will be revisited by the Council. Upper Shore is not just looking to find grant money to be given to them to spend willy-nilly.” he says, but rather with a scope of work, objectives, and specific goals and benchmarks.

The reference is to the ARPA legislative language: “Eligible uses include affordable housing, childcare, early learning services and making certain community development and neighborhood revitalization activities eligible for disproportionately impacted communities” to compliment private funding they have already received.”

USCDP consultant Rebecca Murphy, says, “USCDP fully supports the hard work of the ARPA Task Force, and applauds their focus on equity and their commitment to organizations in our community. However, we also believe that the Town would benefit by also having an organization who is focused on ensuring that equity is part of the community’s ongoing discussions in an intentional way, and who can provide the support that the Town says it needs to implement the recommendations of the Equity Advisory Committee, help nonprofit organizations, and provide other services.

So far, the Town appears reluctant. Fisher recently met with Councilman Tom Herz regarding USCDP’s request for $270,000- $90,000/year for 3 years – which represents approximately two (2) percent of the total allocation, a minimal amount. 

It has always been USCDP’s goal to work with the Task Force to provide technical assistance to applicants, assist with community engagement, and provide staff support as needed. To that end, the founding consultants met with members of the Town Council and the Mayor prior to their presentation to help them understand the potential of the CDC, and specifically with Council Member Herz to explore how the ARPA Task Force and the CDC could work together. 

That’s where a community development corporation like Upper Shore Community Development Partners could assist, providing organizational capacity and the services necessary to make access to services equitable for all.

This video is approximately ten minutes in length. For more about USCDP, please go here.

 

 

 

 

The Peter and Hanna Woicke Collection: “Reading Dog” Comes to Chestertown

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The first of twenty-four sculptures donated by Peter and Hanna Woicke of St. Michaels was unveiled Saturday at the Kent County Public Library.

Fitting for a community that supports the arts and loves its dogs, “Reading Dog” by Massachusetts sculptor Jay Lagemann is a fanciful, floppy-eared bronze canine standing on its hind legs and reading a book.

Arranged and curated by Chestertown Public Arts Committee, “Reading Dog” is the first of eight outdoor pieces to be strategically placed throughout the community by the end of the year. The remaining sculptors will arrive over the next two years.

Chestertown Arts and Entertainment District, Chestertown Town Council, Mayors Cerino and Foster, and County Commissioners promoted the public arts initiative, an idea inaugurated by former Washington College professor and artist Alex Castro who brought the stainless steel wave “Broad Reach” to Wilmer Park in 2107 as part of the Chestertown’s Public Arts Master Plan.

Quoted in a 2021 Spy article, Kent Cultural Alliance Director John Schratwieser said the collection is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a small rural community. “The artists are diverse in every sense, and the long-term benefits for the people of Chestertown and Kent County are many. Having a public art trail for students to learn from, seniors to interact with, and visitors and residents alike to enjoy, is just a win for all.”

Chair of the Public Arts Committee Ben Tilghman opened the ceremony and introduced sculptor Jay Lagemann.

Lagemann said that the sculpture was inspired by making wax figures of dogs for his children. Observing their glee, he thought a large rendering of one of the dogs would evoke the same reaction.

Proving to be true, the whimsical canine caught the attention of the Woickes and, until it’s installation in Chestertown on Saturday, the sculpture graced their lawn in St. Michaels for a decade.

“The Public Arts Committee feels that these sculptures will deepen and enrich this idea that Chestertown as a community that supports arts, that has working artists that are here for the benefit of everyone in the community,” Tilghman says.

This video is approximately five minutes in length. Photography by Elizabeth Healy. For more about Chestertown Public Arts, see their new website here