Dr. Santo Grande, Ed. D, President and CEO of Delmarva Community Services (DCS), the Mid-Shore’s nonprofit public transportation organization, has announced the appointment of Andy Hollis as Deputy Director for the organization, effective January 4, 2021. 

Mr. Hollis most recently served as County Manager in Talbot County, a position he held for over 17 years until retiring to serve the community with a more active role in a non-profit organization.   In this leadership position, Mr. Hollis will be assisting Dr. Grande with day-to-day operations, strategic initiatives, and the development of the Chesapeake Grove Project.  “The opportunity to transition to a non-profit organization is one that I have given much thought to recently. I recognize my growing desire to help those who, through no fault of their own, need assistance.  DCS fits that bill for me, and more, because for over 40 years they have stepped up and met the call to provide for others.  I am blessed to spend the next chapter of my professional life with such amazing people and such a special organization.”  

The focal point of the Chesapeake Grove community is the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Intergenerational Center. The facility will offer state-of-the-art senior and intergenerational services to the region and is the first of its kind on the Eastern Shore. The center will provide services designed to enhance the lives of adults and children through shared experiences within the 50,000 square foot facility and among the wider community.  

The center’s concept was inspired during a visit by Dr. Grande to St. Anne’s Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where Sister Edna Lonergan, President, and her staff work to meet residents’ psychological, social and physical needs, through an extensive array of services and facilities. After a discussion with the president of the center, Dr. Grande decided to use the Wisconsin site as a model for Chesapeake Grove.  

Dr. Grande states,”The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Intergenerational Center will bring several services under one roof, but in a space designed specifically to address modern expectations for community services and facilities. Most importantly will be the genuine interactions among seniors, individuals with disabilities and children.  The St. Anne’s Center has proven that this model works and how mutually therapeutic/beneficial this type of shared community space can be among the wider community when combined with programming.”

In addition to the intergenerational center, the Chesapeake Grove community will include housing for seniors.  These apartments will provide residents immediate access to the services and facilities within the Intergenerational Center and will have easy access to the multi-county Delmarva Community Transit network.  At this time 61 units of housing are in the development phase. 

The intergenerational center is planned for completion in July of this year.  As such, Delmarva Community Services continues to encourage contributions to support the planned Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Intergenerational Center.  Mr. Hollis, in his new role encourages donations to this worthy cause. He states ” Delmarva Community Services, and particularly Santo Grande, are unsung heroes on the shore.  The work they do for the less fortunate and the elderly in our community is admirable and so desperately needed. A donation to the new intergenerational center will further those efforts and be a worthy investment in the wellbeing of our friends and neighbors.

Please reach out to us at 410-221-1900 or andy@dcsdct.org.  for more information or to arrange a tour of the project.”  

At its meeting on March 8, the Chestertown Recreation Commission voted unanimously to forward for its consideration the following site plan for improvements to Ajax Park.

BACKGROUND:

In the 1970s, a downtown area adjacent to the old railroad tracks and a business named Ajax was used by youth and adults as a basketball court. It was fondly remembered by many residents, primarily though not exclusively African American.

By 2016, what had eventually become a public park was sadly neglected. The Town made some improvements by relocating playground equipment, resurfacing a one-hoop basketball court, and installing a fence. Adjacent to what had become a walking/biking trail, the park is now routinely used by families of small children and youth practicing basketball.

In 2019 the Recreation Commission proposed to remove the basketball court and install a large, badly needed, all-ages playground on the site. However, the grass-roots backlash from the community was immediate and intense. Lawn signs to “Save Ajax Pocket Park” proliferated and more than 200 people signed petitions to retain the basketball court, which occurred around the same time as the national “Black Lives Matter” movement was at its peak. Eventually, it was decided to locate the new playground at Wilmer Park and the Town proceeded to submit a funding grant proposal to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. If DNR approves the proposal and the state legislature funds it, construction should be able to begin as soon as August 2021.

DRAFTING A PLAN

In response to the expressed community demand to preserve a basketball court at Ajax, in late 2019 an ad hoc committee was formed by businessman Frank Rhodes to plan on restoring it as an important recreation facility. Members included retired Kent County High School basketball coach Darryl ‘Cleats’ Deaton; Recreation Committee members Amy Crouch, Harold Somerville, and Jim Bogden; Kent County Recreation Supervisor Jill Coleman; and community representatives Paul Tue and Doncella Wilson.

Coach Cleats passed away in August 2020. The Ajax Committee decided to name its proposed basketball court after him, honoring his vision for Ajax Park to become a significant youth development facility akin to the famous Rucker Park in New York City.

The Ajax Committee proceeded to draft an evolving series of plans, taking into account several constraints:

• Town officials made clear that public funds were not available to make improvements, so any upgrades would have to be funded privately. A community fund-raising campaign would be necessary.
• The Maryland Transportation Authority (MTA) owns the wide strip of land bordering the park: thirty feet from the centerline of the rail trail on each side. Obtaining permission to place anything permanent on this land (referred to as “the easement”) would likely require a lengthy approval process.
• Two large drains on the site cannot be relocated without major expense.
• The Recreation Commission made public promises that the existing play equipment at Ajax would not be removed until the Wilmer Park playground is installed and available for use.
• On the other hand, local officials also indicated that a portion of the town’s adjacent parking lot could be repurposed for Ajax Park.

The Recreation Commission consistently recognized the value and need for wider community input on what to include at the park. The sudden, extended onset of the COVID-19 pandemic interfered with plans to organize public meetings during 2020.

The Commission recently held three public meetings on the evolving plans:

• An in-person meeting on January 21, 2021, at the outside deck at 98 Cannon
• An online Zoom meeting on February 18, 2021
• An online Zoom meeting on March 8, 2021

At each of these meetings, members of the public expressed widely divergent views on the purpose of the park (for youth basketball, for toddler play, or for some combination of both) and the scale of the improvements. The Commission worked hard to take into account the concerns expressed by a few of the park’s neighbors who are adamantly opposed to expanding the basketball court due to worries about noise and public order while accommodating the wishes expressed by many other members of the community who want a safe and convenient basketball court for the town’s youth. The planning committee initially proposed a full high school size court but agreed to reduce its scale: a major concession to the neighbors. A smaller court is still consistent with Coach Cleats’s vision that it be a youth development facility, but it could not be used by town or regional basketball leagues. A smaller size is also less likely to be attractive to groups of adults.

The resulting plan extends the existing asphalt court from 60 feet to 80 feet long, with the same width so as not to encroach on the MTA easement. The court itself will have lines painted to make a regulation-length junior high school size court, 74 feet long, though it would still be 7 feet narrower than regulation size. A second hoop and benches would be added.

The existing toddler playground will be moved onto the easement, near the existing swing set there. Not involving the installation of permanent features, MTA approval should not be necessary. Nor does the move need to wait for the Wilmer Park playground to be finished.

MOVING FORWARD

Upon approval by the Town Council, the Ajax Committee will proceed to raise funds to make the improvements. The full amount of necessary funds will be in hand before construction begins.

Appendix: The site plan (not professionally surveyed).

Also, two positions on the Commission are currently open. The only requirement is to reside within Chestertown municipal boundaries. Interested people should contact their Council member.

The Chestertown Town Council accepted the recommendations of the Redistricting Committee and empowered the city manager to create an ordinance redrawing the ward map of the Town.

The recommended change was in response to a January 20, 2020 letter of concern from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) noting that “the existing four-ward election system in Chestertown is severely malapportioned, and also unfairly dilutes Black voting strength.”

The letter also calls attention to the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment requiring “election districts to be as equal in population.”

To that end, a Redistricting Committee consisting of two residents from each ward was formed in February 2020.

The Redistricting Rules called for no more than 10% deviation between ward populations. They must contain at least one minority-majority Ward with a plurality of a Black voting age population (at least 40%) to give black voters a greater political voice. Also, by Redistricting Committee agreement, a revised ward map must not displace any current Councilperson.

Because of the six-month delay in releasing the 2020 census data, the current rebalancing of ward populations is based on the 2010 census and will be reviewed once the 2020 data becomes available. At that point, adjustments could be made.

A mass mailing addressing the ward changes sent out after the new ordinance is in effect.

The map below reflects the changes in the four Chestertown voting districts. Answering Ward 1 Councilmember David Foster’s request to list the new boundaries by streets, he was provided with this outline by the Town.

Maple Ave./Washington Ave. is the boundary between Wards 1 and 2. The dividing line stops at Campus Ave., then goes west on Campus to Prospect Ave., north to the Gilchrest Rail Trail, then south to Calvert Street, then in a straight line down College Avenue. There are no residents in the Dixon Business Park, so the line from College Ave. was drawn straight to the municipal boundary bordering the headwaters of Radcliffe Creek.

Campus Ave. is the boundary between most of Ward 1 and 4, then Rolling Road before it dips back in on School, then Cedar, then Valley (these three roads are not identified because of the font size that was used for the map), and then east on Greenwood to Schauber.

Ward 3 is separated from Ward 2 at College and Calvert. It then goes one block south to High Street, which is the dividing street between Wards 3 and 4, then east on Morgnec Road, then north along the Gilchrest Rail Trail to the northern municipal boundary.

New Chestertown Ward Map accepted for writing of the Ordinance:

New district population proportions.