Not long after Ann Swanson began working to restore the Chesapeake Bay, she found herself speaking about it to a group of grade school students. One youngster raised his hand and asked her, “What are you going to do when the Bay is saved? What’s your next job?”

Swanson recalls that question with a wry smile. She never got another job. She’s been laboring for nearly four decades to clean up and revitalize the ailing estuary. On Nov. 21, she retired after almost 35 years as executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, the tri-state legislative advisory body that’s been a key player in the long-running regional effort.

The Bay still hasn’t been saved and, in a sense, it never will be. But that it hasn’t been for want of trying, especially on her part.

“She’s had the spirit, the brainpower, the drive to keep pressing forward on all fronts,” said John Griffin, a former Maryland Natural Resources secretary and gubernatorial aide who’s known and worked with Swanson most of those years.

She’s been at it since 1983, first as a grassroots coordinator for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, then at the Bay Commission, where she was hired five years later.

The 21-member commission, representing the legislatures of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, has been a signatory of every Bay restoration agreement — along with governors and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrators. Swanson has been an adviser to those lawmakers and an advocate for the dozens of Bay-related bills and funding measures they’ve sponsored.

‘Leader of the band’

“She’s been really the leader of the band for decades,” said U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). He called her “the conductor … the maestro” who’s kept members focused on what’s needed.

Swanson characteristically deflects credit to the commission members themselves and to her staff. But state Sen. Sarah Elfreth (D-Anne Arundel), the commission’s current chair said, “she really guides a lot of our work,” advising them on the most critical issues and what measures are most likely to succeed.

The Bay Commission post has been her dream job, Swanson said. It meant working collaboratively across state and party lines to pass legislation and get funding to improve the health of the Bay, its rivers and streams, and its living resources. “I always wanted to work in conservation,” she said. “I wanted to work at the regional scale.”

But for some serendipitous networking, Swanson might have wound up elsewhere. She grew up on Long Island in New York and attended the University of Vermont, majoring in wildlife biology. She also earned a master’s degree in environmental studies at Yale University. Her first job was as assistant state naturalist in Vermont.

It was an internship with the National Wildlife Federation that brought her to the Bay region. She got it with a little help from her physician father, who — worried about her job prospects — talked her up to a federation executive he met on a cruise. One of her mentors at the federation later urged her to apply for a job with the Bay Foundation.

Barely a month into her job with the foundation, she was present at the 1983 conference — sponsored by the Bay Commission — where the first formal agreement was signed by federal and state leaders pledging to work together to restore the Chesapeake and created the state-federal Bay Program. Remembering it today still moves her.

“It was 1,000 people who deeply cared. And it was an issue that had become so compelling and so politically important that everyone wanted to be in the room.”

Back then, she and many others thought that kind of spirit could save the Bay in a decade or so. Within a few years, Maryland and Virginia passed laws to curb sediment pollution from construction sites, and those two states and Pennsylvania each banned the use of phosphate detergents. Maryland and Virginia passed laws limiting waterfront development. Pennsylvania adopted a law requiring farmers to manage fertilizer applications.

Broker of new ideas

The Bay Commission, Swanson said, “has played a critical role in in the trajectory of the whole Bay program because we’ve often been the broker of either a new idea or a … solution.”

In the mid-1990s, amid tensions between Maryland and Virginia over the economically important blue crab fishery, the commission formed a bistate advisory committee that brought together legislators, watermen, scientists and fishery managers to hash out their differences. Swanson chaired a workgroup of scientists and economists that over eight years helped forge an agreement between the states to rely on science to manage crabs as a single fishery across state lines.

With Swanson organizing meetings and writing up testimony and talking points, the commission has also advocated, often successfully, for maintaining and even increasing federal funding for the Bay.

“Ann has been front and center in that effort,” Van Hollen said, “and that includes everything from the annual funding for the EPA for the Bay Program to our efforts to expand support from the agricultural conservation programs.”

Van Hollen, who’s worked with Swanson both in the Maryland legislature and in Congress, said she has a rare ability to distill and communicate the complexities of Bay issues. “She gets the science, she gets the policy and she gets the politics. That’s just an invaluable combination.”

She’s also helped the commission work without rancor. It has both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, but they’ve operated collegially. While partisan differences have grown sharper in state legislatures, they have not carried over to commission meetings.

Politics absent

“It’s probably the most bipartisan or nonpartisan organization that I’ve ever been involved with,” said Pennsylvania Sen. Gene Yaw, a Republican commission member. “Politics doesn’t come up.”

Elfreth, a Democrat, credits Swanson with helping to maintain that culture. She also views her as a mentor. “There’s not been nearly enough women on the commission,” Elfreth said. While their numbers have grown, she noted that at times in the past, “Ann has been the only female voice in the room.” Seeing Swanson among the Bay restoration leadership, she said, has “meant a lot to me as a young woman starting off in my political career.”

Those who think the Bay cleanup effort has gone soft or astray are less impressed with the commission or Swanson’s leadership. Gerald Winegrad, a former Maryland state senator who served on the commission when Swanson was hired, said he hasn’t seen it take any bold or controversial stances in recent years.

“Show me an organization that’s done it better,” Swanson countered. The commission “always has to consider the science, consider the appropriate policy and then consider the do-able,” she continued. “The commission has never worked on policy that’s pablum. They haven’t. They’ve always pushed for something that was meaningful.”

Initiatives advocated by the commission haven’t always been embraced by all three states. It took Pennsylvania lawmakers 11 years to pass limits on lawn fertilizer similar to the bills that sailed through Maryland’s and Virginia’s legislatures in 2011.

“That had to be a high point,” Yaw said of the fertilizer vote earlier this year. “It’s something that she was really frustrated by.” He credited the bill’s ultimate passage to Swanson’s persistence, noting that she had spent “a ton of time” in the past year visiting Harrisburg to buttonhole legislators.

She wasn’t there just for the fertilizer bill, but also for bigger quarry. She was urging lawmakers to take advantage of a big influx of federal COVID relief funds and direct some of it toward cleaning up the state’s rivers and streams — and, by extension, the Bay. In June, they approved using $220 million to create a Clean Streams Fund, with most of it slated to help farmers control nutrient– and sediment-laden runoff. The vote broke a years-long stalemate over getting the legislature to financially boost the state’s lagging Bay cleanup efforts.

Elusive goals

In the years since Swanson started at the commission, Bay water quality has improved — just not enough. The amounts of water-fouling nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment reaching it have declined over the decades, yet still only about 30% of the Bay and its tidal rivers meet water quality standards.

“The conservation, the protection of the Chesapeake Bay has proved far more difficult and much more of a long reach than I ever expected,” she said.

Federal and state leaders recently acknowledged that many goals and outcomes pledged in the latest Bay restoration agreement, signed in 2014 by state and federal leaders, will not be met by their 2025 target date. There’s talk of extending the deadline or rethinking goals.

For Swanson, that’s no reason to let up now.

“We have more money on the table than we’ve ever had,” she said, referring to the hundreds of billions of dollars funneled to states nationwide in the federal infrastructure and inflation reduction bills. “If we can just harness that, and make sure that we spend the money smartly, and listen to our science and use our targeting tools, we actually have the ability to leapfrog in terms of progress.”

She’s leaving that for others now. Asked how she felt about that, she looked away, and her voice thickened.

“I feel like my job … I didn’t finish. However, I also feel that the time is right. Because there’s got to be a newer younger generation coming up. I’ve been at this job 35 years, and it’s done.”

She’ll be 65 in December. Her husband, Eric, retired five years ago and has taken a few trips without her because her work prevented her from going. Her mother is 93 and needs her care.

“I have gardens to grow, I have meals to cook, I have the world to see,” she added. “There’s got to be time in the day for friends. … And so, it’s just the right time.”

Elfreth said the commission hopes to have a new executive director by early next year. But she also hopes that Swanson will be willing to take calls to share her “treasure trove” of knowledge about Bay issues.

In her farewell address Oct. 11 to the governors and EPA administrator on the Chesapeake Executive Council, Swanson presented a bar graph showing how nitrogen reaching the Bayhad declined about a third since the 1980s, when she began her career. Over the same time, the watershed’s population grew by half, increasing the amount of polluted runoff and decreasing forests and wildlife habitat.

“In my really low days, I would say to my husband, ‘You know what my tombstone is going to say? It’s going to say, ‘she died holding the line.’ But what I want to point out is that I came here in ’83 and the line was here,’’ she said pointing to the taller bar on the graph. “So my tombstone will not be, ‘She died holding the line,’ because you have brought [the line] down.”

“But,” she concluded, “you need to do more.”

By Timothy B. Wheeler

When Sara Rich came on board to lead the Choptank Community Health System in the summer of 2016, she and her board immediately started to work on a plan that would fundamentally change and improve the health care of the entire Mid-Shore. Despite the impact of COVID, Choptank has nonetheless moved forward on the nonprofit organization’s commitment to improve and expand affordable and accessible healthcare in the region.

Over the next few months, the Spy will be talking with Sara about Choptank’s increased support for local health needs and the advances they have made in Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s, and Talbot counties.

We begin with Chestertown the Kent County.

This video is approximately four minutes in length. For more information about Choptank Community Health System please go here. 

Maryland lawmakers on Monday announced draft legislation to create a unified Chesapeake National Recreation Area.

The proposal would unite a series of park areas and visitor centers owned and operated by the National Park Service as well as privately owned properties along the Chesapeake Bay on a voluntary basis to deliver more federal resources to the region.

By doing so, the proposal would open up new funding streams and allow the National Park Service to better coordinate planning at different sites in and around the Bay watershed.

Lawmakers hope that could then spur economic growth, bolster conservation efforts and increase public access in the Chesapeake Bay.

The initial four sites that would be managed by the NPS are Whitehall Manor, on the Broadneck Peninsula; Burtis House, which sits between City Dock and the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis; Thomas Shoal Point Lighthouse, off the cost of Annapolis, and the north beach of Fort Monroe, in Hampton, Va.

U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), who co-sponsored the measure with U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), said the four initial sites chosen for the Chesapeake NRA comprise “a great place to start in terms of demonstrating what the power of the Chesapeake Bay is.”

“This is for everyone,” he added at a news conference at the Burtis House. “This is for everyone who cares about this national treasure, the Chesapeake Bay. We want the establishing legislation to reflect the stories, the perspectives, the lived experiences of Bay communities as diverse as the ecosystems of the Chesapeake itself.”

The idea to create a Chesapeake National Recreation Area started as an op-ed in the Capital Gazette newspaper in the 1980s, Van Hollen said.

“The Chesapeake is the birthplace of American identity and the landscape that bore witness to the many diverse people who have lived along its shores, including the Indigenous peoples who lived here for thousands of years before the Europeans arrived, free and enslaved Blacks, and the watermen and women who’ve all played a vital role in the story of our Chesapeake Bay,” said Chesapeake Conservancy President and CEO Joel Dunn. “Their stories are worthy of National Park Service interpretation and education.”

The public comment period is now open for the draft and will remain open for 90 days.

By Meghan McIntyre. John Domen of Maryland Matters news partner WTOP News contributed to this report.

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.

 

 

 

Unofficial results have familiar and new faces in both Kent County Commission race and Board of Education as of 10:30 pm, Tuesday

 

Democrat Wes Moore cruised to victory in the race for governor on Tuesday over Republican state legislator Dan Cox.

Several national news organizations declared Moore the winner just moments after polls were scheduled to close at 8 p.m.

Voters still in line at 8 p.m. can continue to wait in line to cast their ballots.

Moore, a charismatic 44-year-old political newcomer with a sterling resume that includes experience in business, philanthropy and the military, is poised to make history, becoming just the third Black person in U.S. history — and the first in Maryland — to be elected governor.

And Moore’s running mate, former Montgomery County state Del. Aruna Miller, who was born in India, will become the first immigrant to hold a statewide post in the modern era when the duo assume power in January.

Moore hosted an election night victory party at a ballroom packed with hundreds of supporters in Baltimore. Other candidates on hand included Del. Brooke Lierman, Democrats’ nominee for comptroller, attorney general nominee Anthony Brown, and U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen.

In a nod to the slogan he adopted 19 months ago at his campaign’s launch, Moore campaign projected a large slogan “No one left behind” at the front of the ballroom.

Gov. Larry Hogan, the state’s term-limited Republican governor, leaves office on Jan. 18, following eight years in power.

Cox was gathering Tuesday with members of his family and supporters at a hotel in Annapolis.

When Moore launched his candidacy in 2021, four-term Comptroller Peter Franchot was considered most likely to win the Democratic nomination. The pair jockeyed for position in a large field that included several familiar political figures, including former Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez, former state Attorney General Doug Gansler, and former Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker. Dawn Moore’s work in the office of former Maryland Secretary of State John Willis and with Brown in the lieutenant governor’s office helped the couple establish connections with the state’s political leadership, but Wes Moore was untested as a political candidate.

He quickly established himself as a force on the campaign trail, utilizing his dazzling resume, his ability to establish quick rapport with seemingly anyone, and his good looks to maximum advantage. Moore and Miller carried the 10-candidate Democratic primary in July, winning 32% of the vote.

A native of Takoma Park who grew up largely in New York, Moore, after attending a military high school and college, studied at Johns Hopkins and Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, served as a White House fellow, worked on Wall Street, led a combat squadron in Afghanistan, wrote a best-selling book, and ran a national poverty-fighting non-profit.

He faced questions about whether his best-selling book, “The Other Wes Moore,” over-stated his ties to Maryland, and critics said he failed to correct interviewers who falsely said he won the Bronze Star. But Moore survived those challenges.

He won endorsements from President Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and a long list of prominent organizations — including unions representing teachers, police officers and laborers. That backing, along with endorsements from The Baltimore Sun and Washington Post, helped Moore out-fundraise Cox by a 10-to-1 margin.

Moore and Cox engaged in one debate, a testy encounter that aired on Maryland Public Television and two broadcast outlets. While the debate could have served as the starting gun for a more robust campaign, it did not. The two camps appeared to go on auto-pilot once it was over.

Cox workshopped various themes on the campaign trail — accusing Moore of being a free-spending socialist, referring to himself as a “civil rights attorney” — but he appeared unable (or unwilling) to engage in sustained outreach beyond his base. He was dogged by questions about whether he would accept the results of Tuesday’s balloting, and his convoluted answers reminded many of his promotion of baseless allegations about the 2020 campaign, something many voters said was a turnoff.

Moore also benefited enormously from Hogan’s repeated descriptions of Cox as a “QAnon whack job” who had no chance of winning.

Cox spent scarce campaign funds on a lengthy legal battle with the state Board of Elections over when mail-in ballots should be counted. His running mate, Gordana Schifanelli, a Queen Anne’s County attorney, kept an unusually low profile during the campaign, though she maintained a combative presence on social media, where she stoked election conspiracies.

Maryland Republicans were deeply divided after the primary. State GOP leaders appeared less-than-eager to lend their voices to the Cox campaign, as did Rep. Andy Harris, the lone Republican in the state’s congressional delegation. Democrats, meantime, successfully pulled off a unity rally in vote-rich Montgomery County just days after the primary results were tallied, with Perez and Franchot offering powerful endorsements of the the winning ticket.

Political professionals in both parties viewed former state Commerce Secretary Kelly Schulz to be a far more strategic choice for the Republican Party in the general election. But even with the backing of the popular Hogan, her campaign flamed out in the primary, setting the stage for Democrats to retake the governor’s mansion after back-to back losses.

With Democrats likely to maintain their supermajorities in the General Assembly, they will now have full control of the State House for the first time since 2014.

By Bruce DePuyt

For the last few days, the Spy has been sharing with our readers the video highlights of the recent League of Women Forum with MD-1 Congressman Andy Harris and his Democratic opponent Heather Mizeur, last week. The event was held at Kent Island High School in Queen Anne’s County.

The video segments have included opening statements, LWV questions and a representative number of questions submitted by the audience.

We end the series with their discussion of what each candidate would do to increase the orderly flow of immigrants to this country as workers and citizens.

This video is approximately eight minutes in length.

For the next few days, the Spy will share with our readers the video highlights of the recent League of Women Forum with MD-1 Congressman Andy Harris and his Democratic opponent Heather Mizeur. Last week, the event was held at Kent Island High School in Queen Anne’s County.

The video segments will include opening statements, LWV questions, s representative number of questions submitted by the audience, and closing statements.

We continue with their discussion of what each candidate’s stance with regard to Medicare and health care for our growing senior community.