James Dissette

Kent County Vaccine Roll-Out: A Chat with Health Officer Bill Webb

January 13, 2021 by James Dissette 7 Comments

As the national and Maryland Covid-19 positivity rates spike, the need for clear instructions about how, when and where to get the vaccine is front and center in our lives.

The Spy interviewed Kent County Health Officer Bill Webb to discuss the Maryland vaccination plan and how it is being implemented in Kent County.

Maryland will distribute the vaccines to five different priority groups based on relative risk of exposure or developing serious illness.Vaccinations will be given at the Kent County Health Department in Chestertown.

Currently, Kent County is in part 1A of the three-part plan. 1A is the vaccination of frontline hospital staff health care workers, nursing home residents and staff, law enforcement and firefighters, EMS, all licensed, registered, and certified health care provider, correctional health care staff and officers. 1A is by invitation, and the injections are administered at the Kent County Health Department in Chestertown.

As the roll-out continues, an online application process will be required. For those without internet services or who have difficulty with the application, a network of volunteers is standing by.

Despite a recent Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommendation that anyone above the age of 65 get the vaccine, Maryland Governor Hogan said yesterday that the State would continue its original immunization plan.

The most accurate way to find out when you may get the two-shot vaccine is to go to the Maryland Covid Link here.

The Kent County Health Department at 125 South Lynchburg Street in Chestertown may be reached at 410-778-1350

This video is approximately seven minutes in length.

Omicron-Phi Chapter of Kappa Sigma: Sweet Appreciation for Frontline Workers

January 12, 2021 by James Dissette 2 Comments

Pete Fisher, parking attendant, UM shore Medical Center at Chestertown, and Omicron-Phi Advisor Dr. Aaron Krochmal.

Sometimes it’s the small things, a courtesy of holding the door open for someone, an elbow bump to an old friend, an attaboy for a job well done all the gestures of fellowship that brighten a community.

The Brothers of the Omicron-Phi chapter of Kappa Sigma fraternity at Washington College made such a gesture by delivering 500 lollipops to UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown to revive the tradition of giving a to each person receiving a Covid-19 vaccination.

“The Brothers were looking for a way to thank and congratulate all the brave people caring for the health and well-being of all of Kent County,” says Executive Director, Chester River Health Foundation Maryann Ruehrmund.

It was also a great way to remind the community of Kappa Sigma’s volunteer efforts to raise awareness and money for worthy causes.

Kappa Sigma advisor Aaron Krochmal says that the 20-strong members of the Washington College fraternity wanted to reach out to the community healthcare workers as a token of their appreciation. “We thought it was a simple way to bring a smile to and thank those on the front lines in Kent County.”

The Omicron-Phi chapter of Kappa Sigma has a reputation in the community for doing good works. Since 2007, Kappa Sigma Fraternity at Washington College hosts their Semi-Annual Charity Pancake Breakfast held at the Emmanuel Church. The event includes all-you-can-eat pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon, juices, and coffee for only $5.00. 100% of funds raised are donated to charity. Over the last 13 years, the event has raised nearly $40,000.

Kappa Sigma, founded at UVA in 1869, is one of the leading chapters for raising awareness and funds for philanthropic causes worldwide. Its worldwide Community Service Initiative has raised more than $6.7 million for charity and has volunteered over 1.4 million community service hours from 2015-2017. There are more than 200,000 living members, including 17,000 undergraduates in the fraternity.

More information about Omicron-Phi Chapter of Kappa Sigma at Washington College may be found here or the general fraternity here.

The Photograph of Who We are Now by Jim Dissette

January 11, 2021 by James Dissette 9 Comments

I recently walked by Charles Sumner Post today as dusk settled in over town. It was closed of course, but access was not why I was there. I had been thinking about a photograph, now iconic, taken in the National Statuary Hall of the US Capitol during the fatal insurrection by Trump supporters on Thursday. The image has a direct thread to Chestertown.

The photograph by Reuters photographer Mike Theiler shows a man waving a Confederate battle flag through the halls of the United State Capitol where portraits of past lawmakers pose regally from their frames. It is doubtful the insurrectionist knew the identities of the two portraits captured with him during that fleeting moment.

Aside from the dominance of the Confederate flag, one’s gaze shifts to the portrait in the background, a full-bodied fellow with mutton chops who looks to be gazing off to some imagined future.

It’s Charles Sumner, the US Senator from Massachusetts, leader of his state’s anti-slavery movement and fiery abolitionist in the Senate during the Civil War.

Sumner devoted his life to ending “Slave Power,” the influence southern slaveholders had on the federal government and he almost gave his life up for it when beaten almost fatally by South Carolina Democrat Preston Brooks after Sumner gave a five-hour speech on the floor condemning Kansas’ admission to the Union as a slave state. The senator did not mince words and leveled his criticism at Senator Stephen Douglas calling him a “noise-some, squat, and nameless animal . . . not a proper model for an American senator,” and an even more scathing rebuke of Andrew Butler, another ardent advocate of slavery. Preston Brooks was Butler’s cousin and sought retribution for Sumner’s personal attack on his family’s pro-slavery stance.

To the left of the criminal intruder waving the ultimate symbol of white supremacy, is another portrait, the South Carolina statesman, John Calhoun. Calhoun, a slave owner, equated human bondage as equity and a signifier of status among the South’s elite. He once wrote “The will of a majority is the will of a rabble. Progressive democracy is incompatible with liberty.”

And there it was: the trifecta of converging elements mixed into the bloody and explosive alchemy we saw in display during those few hours as the Capit0l lay fallen in the hands of marauders who ransacked the Capitol and the American psyche, a perfect summation of white supremacy and the moral imperative to end it.

It’s hard to say what a Venn Diagram of last Wednesday’s coup attempt against the Capitol would look like if you added every belief and grievance that clawed its way through the building that day. One would have to add the Proud Boys and other militia groups, Q anon cultists who believe that the government is run by blood drinking satanic pedophiles, CEOs, Republican officials, GOP donors, anti-maskers, evangelical Christians who blessed Trump with moral authority, ex-military, and Trump adherents in the grip of self-reinforcing denial that the 2020 election was a massive conspiracy, many of them capable of committing murder, and some who did, all spurred on by the President and his entourage of spokespeople fomenting summed up by Rudy Giuliani’s call to arms just hours before the onslaught: “Let’s have trial by combat.”

Amid the overlapping circles in the diagram, its center, where one usually finds the commonality within separateness, what would we find? I think we might discover a two layered center—the fervent Trump supporter rallying to the call of his false claims about the election, and the venom of white supremacy.

The day after the insurrection that cost the lives of Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick and four others, Ford Foundation President wrote “I have long believed that inequality is the greatest threat to justice—and, the corollary, that white supremacy is the greatest threat to democracy. But what has become clear during recent weeks—and all the more apparent yesterday—is that the converse is also true: Democracy is the greatest threat to white supremacy.

Yes. Consider the reenactment of the George Floyd death under a BLM banner at National Christian Church Wednesday morning; the disparity in the police response Wednesday to last August’s BLM protest; a noose dangling from a beam outside the Capitol building; a man wearing an Auschwitz t-shirt after breaking into Congress, the Confederate Stars and Bars fluttering next to Trump flags. Where else would a threatened white supremist strike but the heart of democracy, the halls of the Capitol.

Of course, many thousands of true believers in Trump’s delusion of a vast conspiracy to defraud the election made their way to DC not to commit violence but to uphold their right to protest. They feel disenfranchised, cancelled, with no one at the helm to address their grievances.

In one interview this weekend, a Black woman commented “maybe now you know how we feel.” We will never know that fully, but maybe we are in inch closer.

Reflecting on the photograph once again, I see less the racist with the flag or the bench-jawed Calhoun eternally counting his slaves, but more the gaze of Charles Sumner still imagining some future, perhaps prescient with the knowledge that racism would continue to wear many hats and its fever dream would long seep into the fabric of the nation and continue to manifest in attitudes, policies and systemic malignancies. He wouldn’t have been wrong.

As I walked away from the building on Queen St. bearing Charles Sumner’s name for its heritage as a post for Black veterans of the Civil War, I thought about something else he wrote: “I have fought a long battle with slavery; and I confess my solicitude when I see anything that looks like concession to it.

Anything.

Jim Dissette is the editor of the Chestertown Spy. He acknowledges with thanks The Atlantic’s staff writer Clint Smith for calling attention to the image.

State of the Town: Chestertown Mayor Cerino Reports to Council (with transcipt)

January 5, 2021 by James Dissette 2 Comments

During Monday’s town council meeting, Mayor Chris Cerino delivered his yearly report to the Town as required by the town charter.

Traditionally the report on the State of the Town is a detailed portrait of each year’s challenges and accomplishments, and as one can imagine, this year’s report checks off every box from the impacts and responses to the deadly Covid-19 pandemic to addressing social justice issues and all the complexities of governing a community in between.

As a service to the community, The Spy offers the Mayor’s report. During the recitation of the report during the council meeting, Cerino also offered recommendations for the future along with a slide show of the year’s positive highlights. They may be found on the town website when posted here.

This afternoon, the Spy received the text of Mayor Cerino’s Report to the Council:

State of the Town of Chestertown 2020

STATE OF THE TOWN: The Charter of the Town of Chestertown states, “The Mayor, during the first quarter of each calendar year, shall report to the Council the condition of municipal affairs and make such recommendations as he (she) deems proper for the public good and welfare of the town.” Herein is said report.

This past year was one that the residents of Chestertown will never forget. Economically and financially, it appeared that the Town was inching closer to a recovery from the lingering effects of the Great Recession of 2008-9. For the first time in over a decade, the number of building permits issued by the Town increased substantially and property valuations were stable or rising. The Mayor and Council’s efforts to hold operational expenses down were starting to have positive impacts on the General Fund. Then, during the early weeks of 2020, a foreboding global pandemic that originated in Wuhan, China arrived on the shores of the United States and impacted American society on a scope and scale not seen since 1918.

With the onset of the COVID-19 health crisis, almost everything usually highlighted in the State of the Town Address seems trivial compared to the life-threatening impacts of this infectious disease. Public safety became the most important community concern and Governor Hogan, the Maryland Department of Health, and the Kent County Health Department led us through the pandemic with firm directives on protective safety procedures and restrictions on public gatherings. As a result, the Town Council changed their meeting format from in-person sessions at Town Hall to on-line Zoom meetings, with live streaming video footage posted on the Town website. Chester Gras was the only large event that was held in 2020, followed by the cancellation of nearly every other traditional Chestertown festival. Major events that had to be cancelled in 2020 included Earth Day, PRIDE Weekend, the Chestertown Tea Party Festival, the National Music Festival, Legacy Day, the Jazz Festival, the annual September block party on Cross Street hosted by DCA and Main Street, the HP Festival, Santa’s arrival and the Christmas Parade over Thanksgiving Weekend, Downrigging Weekend, Cars on High, and Dickens Weekend. Additionally, the Visitors Center was closed to public visitation for most of the year.

Another extremely serious matter addressed by the Council in 2020 was social justice and the impact of three centuries of systemic racism on the community. Vaulted into the national public consciousness by several tragic events in the spring and summer involving the senseless murders of African Americans at the hands of law enforcement, the Town Council engaged in several public discussions about how to address this issue at the local level. These conversations resulted in several important actions and resolutions adopted the Council in the fall of 2020.
The first decision was to sponsor and participate in the painting of the Black Lives Matter mural on the 200 Block of High Street and the We Can’t Breathe mural on the 200 North Block of College Avenue. The Council unanimously voted adopt these murals as government speech and added the phrase “Chestertown Unites Against Racism” to both street paintings.

The second decision was to pass Resolution 03-2020 Regarding Black Lives Matter in Chestertown, Maryland (October 5, 2020). In Resolution 03-2020, the Mayor and Council officially apologized for Chestertown’s historic role in the slave trade and for the lives, wealth, and freedoms that were stolen from enslaved people. It acknowledged and honored the positive contributions of African Americans to Chestertown and strongly affirmed that all citizens have equal rights, equal access to goods and services in our businesses, equal rights to be treated fairly by law enforcement and the criminal justice system, equal rights to start and maintain businesses, and equal access to housing and employment. The Resolution also committed the Town to establish a Human Rights Commission, but the Ordinance to create the Commission was withdrawn at the Mayor and Council meeting of December 7, 2020.

The third action was to pass Resolution 05-2020, which on October 19, 2020 authorized the creation of an Equity Advisory Committee that will assist the Town with Chestertown Unites Against Racism, a comprehensive 16-month plan that features a variety of initiatives addressing systemic racism in Chestertown. The plan focuses on the three pillars of Education, Legislation, and Unification. Portions of the plan have already been set into motion and implementing the remaining action items will be a continued focus of the Mayor and Council throughout 2021.

On a fourth matter of importance, the Mayor and Council had a Zoom meeting with MDE and UMMS Shore Regional Hospital on November 20, 2020 to discuss the ongoing remediation efforts to clean up the remnants of a 30-year-old heating oil spill on the Hospital’s Brown Street campus. The meeting was precipitated by an unauthorized shut-down of the pump and treat system at the Hospital for almost two months that was discovered in the back of 300 plus page report. Prior to that, a six-month trial shutdown of the system had been approved by MDE and scheduled to start in the summer of 2020. However, after the unauthorized shutdown, MDE fined the Hospital and the trial shutdown was postponed indefinitely – likely until the spring of 2021. As a result of this systemic failure, the Hospital released the former consultants working on the remediation plan and hired a new firm to oversee the cleanup efforts: Gannett Fleming. During the Zoom meeting, Gannett Fleming gave a comprehensive analysis of the spill and how they intended to move forward. The Town provided its own history of the spill and documented long periods of time when the Mayor and Council had not been informed of actions that potentially jeopardized the Town’s well system. The historic records show that at least 85,000 gallons of heating oil have been recovered from the site to date, and the Town has suffered the loss of a shallow water well that was never replaced or compensated for by the Hospital or MDE. The November meeting was the first dialogue where all parties had met at one time for over seven years. The result was a promise of complete transparency with the Town by UMMS, their consultant, and MDE in the future.
What follows are the more usual annual items found in a typical State of the Town Address:

• FINANCIAL: The FY2020 audit for the Town of Chestertown was completed on October 29, 2020 by Lindsey & Associates, LLC of Towson, Maryland. The audit showed the Town to be in strong financial condition with total net assets over liabilities in all departments of $19,034,763, up from $18,485,728 in 2019. Property tax rates had been raised from $.37 to $.42 per $100 in FY2018 and from $.42 to $.43 per $100 in FY2020 in hopes that the increase, along with improving property values, would provide the municipality with adequate revenues to cover expenses for a meaningful number of years. In addition to the increased revenues, overall expenses decreased by $232,835. The Town continues to retain the Homestead Property Tax Credit percentage of 5%, which limits the increase in a homeowner’s property tax bill to 5% in any given year, no matter how much their assessment has increased.

• NEW CONSTRUCTION: Somewhat ironically, 2020 was a banner year for new construction permits in town. Five new single family detached homes and eight new townhouse units were approved last year with a total reported value of $2,439,000. Commercial construction values reported on the permits for the Boss building, the YMCA, and Dunkin Donuts totaled $20,502,500. In the downtown Historic District, major reconstruction has continued on the 200 and 300 blocks of High Street. The total value of all permits, large and small, commercial and residential, totaled $34,064,282. No doubt the efforts of the Town in creating a 1,400-acre Enterprise Zone have begun to bear fruit.

• STAFFING: The Town has 38 full time employees and 3 part time positions. Our employees do an amazing job of providing services to all 5000+ taxpayers living on 25 miles of roads and streets. During a typical year our part-time employees work at the Visitors Center, where we greet thousands of tourists coming to see Chestertown every year.

• REQUESTS OF THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS: The Mayor and Council continued to follow a formal process of asking the Kent County Commissioners to consider two major requests:
1. TAX DIFFERENTIAL/TAX REBATE: For the seventh consecutive year, the Town asked the Commissioners to provide a meaningful tax differential or tax rebate to the Town of Chestertown to compensate taxpayers for planning and zoning services, police coverage, and street maintenance. Within Town limits, these services are paid for by the Town’s tax base, yet Chestertown residents still pay the full county tax rate as if the County funds these services in our community. Kent County is one of only two counties in the State of Maryland that does not provide a tax differential or tax rebate to its incorporated towns, though at one time they did. The Town once again urges the Commissioners to stop the double taxation of Chestertown residents and provide a tax differential or tax rebate to them.
2. HOTEL TAX FOR AIR BnBs: Another meaningful loss of revenues to the Town (and to the hotels and registered Beds and Breakfasts in Chestertown) is the loss of hotel tax fees that many Airbnb’s are not paying to Kent County. Not only are they avoiding these fees, but they are also taking business away from businesses that do. The Town passed Ordinance 04-2020 Establishing Chapter 138 Registration of Non-Owner Occupied Short Term Rentals in April, which requires anyone running an Airbnb to register with the Town and pay the Hotel Tax to Kent County. This tax is then reimbursed to the Town of Chestertown.
• CHESTERTOWN MARINA: In April 2020, the Town received a hoped-for final USDA grant in the amount of $445,000.00 for the renovations at Chestertown Marina. This grant enabled the Town to fully pay off an outstanding line of credit for improvements to the property and reimburse the general fund in the amount of $187,000.00 for additional expenses incurred during the construction process.

Marina Manager: The Town of Chestertown had the extreme good fortune of hiring Paul Coleman to serve as the new Marina Manager after Samantha Branham, the previous manager, took a new job on Kent Island. Samantha did a fantastic job of working with new and returning boaters, establishing protocols for running the facility, and training a young and welcoming staff. Paul seamlessly took over those duties and received rave reviews for his demeanor and knowledge of the job. Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there had been waiting lists for slips during Tea Party, Jazz Festival, and Downrigging Weekends for 2020. Despite the cancellation of these popular events, there were still numerous weekends where the Marina was completely full, with many boating clubs visiting our port for the very first time. We commend Paul, as well as dockhand Annie Page Brocker, for their hard work and dedication.

 CHESTERTOWN BUSINESS CAMPUS: On the other side of town, Dixon Valve is doing spectacular things on the Business Park Campus. The Campus itself is a 79-acre parcel annexed by the Town in 2016 as part of Chestertown’s 1,187-acre Enterprise Zone. The first of their buildings was a 148,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art warehouse. Their second building, right next door, was a 70,000-square-foot corporate headquarters that fully opened this spring. Next came the 100,000-square-foot BOSS Manufacturing Building, which is currently nearing completion. This fall, there was a groundbreaking for the new Kent County Family YMCA, a 57,000-square-foot facility now under construction on the corner of Scheeler Road and Haacke Drive. This impressive “Y” will undoubtedly be a significant addition to Chestertown and Kent County.

 LUISA D’A CARPENTER PARK at Washington Park: The Town received funding from a DNR Community Parks and Playground Grant in the amount of $138,000 for improvements at Luisa D’A Carpenter Park. Improvements included a basketball court, street lighting, a pavilion, a paved parking area, and significant landscaping. The project was finished this summer and a ribbon cutting was held on September 5, 2020.

• RAIL TRAIL: Phase IV of the Rail Trail has been fully approved by the Maryland Rail Administration for construction and a new grant from the Maryland Bikeways program was received for this last section of trail with a match that will be much more acceptable to the Town’s finances. This project will be put out to bid in early 2021, with the hope of completing the buildout this summer.

• KENT ATTAINABLE HOUSING: Kent Attainable Housing has built a 1,500-square-foot, single- family home for a deserving low-to-moderate income family on College Avenue. The family selected to occupy this new residence will be moving in soon.

• FARMERS AND ARTISANS MARKET: During the early days of COVID, the Town worked with the Farmers and Artisans Market managers to find a safe place that allowed proper distancing for vendors and customers. Fountain Park did not provide the distancing required by the Health Department. The first breakthrough in bringing back the Market came when the owners of East Coast Storage at 848 High Street generously allowed the Market to move to their location on a temporary basis. This worked beautifully for several weeks until a new plan was proposed to close the 200 and 300 blocks of High Street to traffic, creating the separation needed to reopen the markets downtown. This new arrangement was made permanent in December 2020 as it adds a festival-like atmosphere to Chestertown every Saturday. Many of the ideas for COVID-related modifications came from Julie King, who as Manager of the Market has done a truly outstanding job.

• LONG RANGE STATUS OF THE HOSPITAL: The status and existence of our local hospital is a continual concern to the Council. The local “Save the Hospital” group still meets and expresses their concerns about the disappearing functions of the hospital center.

• CURB APPEAL, GARDEN CLUB: This was another banner year for Curb Appeal and the Garden Club. Even though Covid-19 stopped so many things from happening in Town, Curb Appeal and the Garden Club still had the Town looking spectacular.

• REDISTRICTING OF THE COUNCIL WARDS: The Council formed a Ward Redistricting Committee in January 2020 that started its work on Zoom. This made the task of decision making more difficult than expected and their work will continue at full tilt when the 2020 Census results become available in March of 2021. The goal of the Mayor and Council is to finish the redistricting in time for the November elections in 2021.

GOALS FOR 2021:
o Work closely with the Kent County Health Department to ensure that residents and businesses throughout Chestertown follow all safety protocols to protect the health of the community during the COVID-19 pandemic
o Assist in any way possible with educating community members about the COVID-19 vaccine, and help as needed with getting residents vaccinated
o Keep taxes at the same rate if possible while maintaining our chartered service responsibilities
o Continue to stress and ensure that racism cannot continue in our community
o Complete the Redistricting of the Town’s four voting Wards
o Work with the Kent County Commissioners to discuss reinstatement of a tax rebate or tax differential for Chestertown
o Work with the County to generate Hotel Tax revenues from Air B-n-B’s and other forms of room rentals that elude this fee
o Continue our work with businesses, business associations, industries, and institutions to improve the local economy and keep storefronts filled
o Aggressively market Chestertown Marina and work with downtown business owners to develop cross-marketing strategies that encourage visiting boaters to patronize their stores
o Support all events, festivals, and celebrations that bring our Town to life. Hopefully these events will return to enliven Chestertown’s weekends by late summer or early fall of 2021
o Protect the Town’s drinking wells at all costs
o Repave or repair streets as part of a comprehensive, long-term plan
o Complete Phase IV of the Rail Trail to Foxley Manor
o Work with Chestertown’s Main Street program to add directional signage throughout the community
o Work with Washington College, ShoreRivers, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, and community stakeholders to design, engineer, and identify funding sources for the planned waterfront walk along the Chester River on College-owned lands between Wilmer Park and the mouth of Radcliffe Creek
o Work with the medical community, Eastern Shore delegation, Kent County Commissioners, and local residents to advocate for the retention of services at our local Hospital
o Pursue funding for construction of a true Community Playground at Wilmer Park in Chestertown
o Work with the Recreation Commission and adjacent property owners to create a design and funding strategy for improvements at Ajax Pocket Park
o Work with leadership in the Chestertown Police Department to chart a course for the future that ensures maximum coverage for public safety that is financially sustainable

IN MEMORANDUM:
In 2020, the Town and Kent County had approximately 40 deaths attributed to COVID-19. The vast majority of these fatalities were attributable to outbreaks that occurred in two of the community’s nursing homes at the start of the pandemic (March/April/May). The Mayor and Council send out prayers and condolences to the many families that lost loved ones.
The community also lost three individuals who served the Town government itself in a dedicated fashion. Their impact will not be forgotten. Those lost were Margo Bailey, who served first on the Town Council and then as Mayor of Chestertown for 20 years; Marty Stetson, three term Councilman from the 4th Ward; and Joan Merryman, our incredible administrative assistant who served the Town for 30 years.
THANKS TO TOWN STAFF
Lastly, while the Mayor and Council often get the most press relating to Town affairs, it is the Town’s employees that keep everything operating smoothly on a day-to-day basis and serve as the face of the Town government for the majority of our constituency. This includes the staff at Town Hall, the street crew, the utilities department, and the Chestertown Police Department. Thank you for your dedication to Chestertown, your professionalism, and your determination to continue to provide essential services to our residents during a very challenging year.

This video is approximately 20 minutes in length.

Grading the Kent County Virtual Classroom: A Chat with Principal Mary Spiri

January 4, 2021 by James Dissette 1 Comment

If a crisis can be an inflection point for innovation, a changing education imperative was required immediately in March. With an all-hands-on-deck attitude, Kent County educators initiated digital classroom platforms to continue teaching their students.

Dr. Mary Spiri, Principal of Kent County Middle School, talked with the Spy about some of the challenges, concerns, and successes as classrooms shifted from classroom to computer monitors, a world far from the normal educational experience.

Spiri says that while the online system has been robust technologically, it remains to be seen how middle-schoolers develop socially and emotionally without the on-site classroom experience. Learning is about relationships and trust, she notes, and without the one-on-one teacher-student relationship, it becomes harder to customize lessons around any individual student’s needs.

The Kent Middle School Principal has also been impressed by parents’ engagement with the new process.

“I have not bumped into a single parent all this time who is not saying I want my child to learn. Help me learn how to do that more on my end.”

Here, we talked with Dr. Spiri about the spectrum of challenges facing educators in this “new normal” and how they continue to build a bridge to the students they no longer see in their classrooms daily.

Kent County Middle School is lucky to have her at the helm of educating this critical developmental age group and helping her teachers steer them on the right path toward academic and career success.

This video is approximately ten minutes in length.

Leslie Prince Raimond Reflects at 80

December 21, 2020 by James Dissette 2 Comments

The Spy recently caught up with Leslie Prince Raimond to celebrate her 80th birthday with a retrospective conversation about her life promoting the arts and culture of Kent County.

It’s impossible to pack in five decades—a life’s work—in a ten-minute video, but one thing is for sure: if the arts are pathways to the human spirit, in Kent County they also lead to Leslie Prince Raimond and the legacy of her late husband, Vincent “Vince.”

Together, the Raimonds ushered in the foundation for the burgeoning art scene we experience today in Kent County.

“Vince always loved the arts of many levels. By the time he got his degree after WW2 at the university of Alaska he was overseeing all sorts of theatrical activities and encouraged friends who were artists and poets to continue their craft,” she says.

In the late 60s, Vince Raimond arrived in Chestertown and determined he wanted to promote the many artists he discovered throughout the county. With Leslie Raimond, then a recent graduate of Washington College, the two sought ways to underwrite and showcase art and theatre events.

At that time the Maryland Arts Council sought county representation and Vince seized the opportunity to form the Kent County Arts Council followed in the mid-70s by the founding of Actors Community Theatre who produced well over 100 plays often using the Washington College theatre during summer breaks.

Raimond went on to steward the Kent County Arts Council as its Executive Director, continuing through grants to support individual artists, groups, and special projects like the renovation of the G.A.R. Charles Sumner Hall and helping with the C.V Starr Center’s “Oral History Workshop Project: The Civil Rights Movement on Maryland’s Eastern Shore,” to name a few.

In 2018, Raimond passed the arts leadership role to John Schratwieser who will continue the KAC foundational mission as the Kent Cultural Alliance. As fate would have it, the Alliance’s new office and artists workshops and gallery will be housed in the renovated arts building across from the Post Office and dedicated as the Vincent and Leslie Prince Raimond Center.

But never fear. Raimond is always near a new enterprise, both as an advisor to KCA, and working on her own projects.

This interview begins with a description of Vince Raimond’s founding of Kent County Arts Council and touches on a few of her many roles as Kent County’s pioneer of the arts movement that has come to define Chestertown along with her observations on the cultural significance of Black gospel music, Chestertown’s link to the “Chitlin Circuit,” and the day the Freedom Riders came to town.

The video is approximately eleven minutes in length.

WC-ALL: The Tradition Continues Via Zoom with Jan Elvin

December 18, 2020 by James Dissette 2 Comments

For perpetual students with a thirst for learning, WC-ALL offers a host of classes, from seminars about the musical “Hamilton” and constitutional law to infectious disease and baking bread.

Since 1992, Washington College’s Academy of Lifelong Learning (WC-ALL), a peer-led, self-supported autonomous department of the College, has been attended by thousands of adults who want to learn for the joy of it.

The Spy interviewed Jan Elvin, former Council Member and Council Chair of the program, to find out how the program was adjusting to the new normal of online instruction.

“We’ve held our own pretty well through having to go through this huge change to Zoom classes. There was some concern that people would not want to do it, but WC-ALL members are by definition are smart and curious and eager to learn, so we’ve had a pretty easy time switching to Zoom,” Elvin says.

Each college semester, a six-week session offers 12-15 courses. Members of the program pay one all-inclusive fee and may take as many courses as they wish.

One of the popular programs at WC-ALL is their “Learn at Lunches” meetings, an on-site gathering of members to meet with lecturers from out of town. Although the on-site program has been suspended, Learn at Lunches will continue virtually with a class on “Civil War Music” taught by broadcast journalist Geoff White scheduled for January 14.

Elvin says that finding instructors has been a fairly easy task since Chestertown is replete with retired professionals. Even though WC-All has a committee tasked with finding volunteers, willing participants are discovered more often by word of mouth.

The Spring class instructors introduction is slated online at 3 pm January 5, and registration is open from December 18 to January 18.

Here, we talk with Elvin about how she and her husband, eminent ACLU attorney Alvin Bronstein discovered Chestertown and how she became an integral part of the WC-ALL program.

This video is approximately seven minutes in length.To find out more about WC-ALL and to register for the Spring semester, go here.

Art on Lockdown: Yuh Okano

December 14, 2020 by James Dissette 4 Comments

When I first saw Yuh Okano’s silk scarves during an outdoor Chestertown artist market, I was impressed by the unique spectrum of colors in her work. I wanted to know more about her creative process and ascendance as an artist whose work has been collected by the Museum of Modern Art and many international exhibitions.

Turns out, after befriending fellow artist Faith Wilson while attending many of the same art shows, Okano decided last February to make Chestertown her home after 20 years in New York City.

Okano’s residence on High Street is more like a workshop and gallery. The first floor is a fabric dying room and workspace where yards of silk is stretched hammock-like. These are her blank “canvases” that will be painted and dyed with her visions of the natural world.

The second floor is a gallery for her favorite works from the past and new creations for sale. Okano explains that the fascinating small shadow boxes on the wall are fabric concepts from which larger projects may evolve but often stand alone as art in miniature.

Okano says that her childhood in Japan was influenced by her family of artists, including an uncle who was a renowned famous graphic designer. In the early 1980s, her artistic pathway brought her to the US and Rhode Island School of Design.

“To this day, my network of friends from RISDY, and artists I’ve met along the way, have formed a valuable network. We help each other,” she says.

Drawing heavily from the natural world, Okano exhibits a rich and joyful chromatic scale offset by creations that lean more toward muted olive and cinnamon earth tones.

From bold to subtle, all on silk or fine wool, her commercial work offers ornate necklaces, flower pins, shawls, and handbags of Devore fabric.

If you visit her gallery, you must see her Shibori Dumpling Bag,

Okano’s fabric art appears in museums and galleries worldwide from Japan and MoMa to Finland and Denmark, and she has taught fabric arts in equally diverse countries.

Scan her website for a full introduction. These few minutes do not do justice to the range of this artist’s work.

This video is approximately 7 minutes in length. To see her prolific range of art, visit her website here.

Sweet: Main Street Gifts High-Tech Mobile to Town

December 10, 2020 by James Dissette Leave a Comment

Chestertown is about to receive a new, high-tech mobile stage made available for Main Street and other non-profits.

One of the bright spots in Monday’s Town Council meeting was a Memorandum of Understanding presented by economic development and Main Street coordinator

The memorandum describes the transfer of ownership to the Town of a Stageline SL75 mobile stage.

Funding from two grants—the Maryland Heritage Area Authority ($54,335) and the Robert F. Schumann Foundation ($35,000)—helped Main Street Chestertown purchase a high-tech mobile stage for the Town and its nonprofit organizations to use for events and presentations. Main Street contributed $10,000 and the Mayor and Council committed $5,000 toward the purchase.

“The stage features a hydraulically-raised roof and hydraulic stabilizers. Along with the basic stage, Main Street purchased key accessories such as expansion wings, backdrop and side panels and two sets of stairs,” Macintosh says.

Offered for use by non-profits and Main Street functions the mobile stage will exclude commercial functions.

Earlier plans to “christen” the stage and officially present it to the Town during Earth Day festivities were dashed by the COVID crisis, as were more recent plans to host Santa on the stage for his chats with children.

“We look forward to one day being able to unveil it for the first time for the public and use it at an event!”

This video is approximately two minutes in length.

Council Member Tolliver Withdraws Chestertown Human Rights Commission Motion

December 8, 2020 by James Dissette 2 Comments

In a surprise reversal during Monday night’s Town Council meeting, Ward 3 Councilman Ellsworth Tolliver withdrew his motion to support Ordinance 07-2020 to create a Chestertown Human Rights Commission.

“The only thing I have to say about it is that because the ordinance has gotten so far from what it was intended to be, I’d like to make a motion to withdraw it until a later time when it could be put together in the way it was first intended,” Ellsworth said.

A four-month effort by the Council, the ordinance was grounded in Tolliver’s September Resolution “Chestertown Unites Against Racism” and its “commitment to establish a human rights commission” to address racial injustice.

The initiative went through several rewrites to expand the definition of protected rights to include age, race, disability, religion and sexual orientation.

At that point, Tolliver voted against sending the ordinance to committee.

The next several weeks brought about agreement between Tolliver and the Council and the final version of the expanded ordinance was expected to pass during the December 7 meeting.

But that was not to be. Reviewing the ordinance over the last few weeks, Tolliver decided that it no longer represented the original intention.

The motion was withdrawn in a 3-1 and one abstention vote by the Council.

Further consideration of a Human Rights Commission remains to be seen. As Barbara Jorgenson pointed out in an email to the Spy and Council, the issue was not tabled as mentioned by Mayor Cerino— has been withdrawn.

After the vote, Cerino accepted public input.

Barbara Reeder called in urging the Council to withdraw the motion to pass the HRC. She said that it was counterproductive and the Town’s pledge to unite against racism doesn’t need to be supported by a human rights commission.

“It’s going to take the town working hand in hand in glove to work with the community of color and giving them a leadership role to identify meaningful, collaborative issues to further the original purpose of the Human Rights Commission.”

Reeder listed points she feels would serve the town better, including: increase the number of people of color on all boards and commissions; publish a history of the Chestertown African American Community; dedicate more in-town property for more affordable housing; establish and support minority owned businesses, and enroll town officials in a racial awareness program.

This video is approximately five minutes in length.

Sections

More