Nonpartisan and Education-based News for Chestertown
Armond Fletcher returned to Kent County after military service and a career in business on the greater Los Angeles area. He is a current outreach minister and Co-Founder of Diversity Dialogue. He also serves on the Boards of the Chestertown G.A.R. and the Garfield Foundation.
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Bill Arrowood was born and raised in Chestertown and holds a BA in communications. He is the owner of a successful business in film industry and currently serves as chairman of Chestertown’s Recreation Commission. He also volunteers with multiple local community organizations.
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Holly Geddes is a former IBM programmer, artist, and portrait photographer. She has served on the PTA, two school task forces, and taught 8th grade American history in Montgomery County before retiring to Chestertown. She is the former president of Arts League and Historic Main Street in Chestertown.
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Linda Kuiper is the current Ward 2 councilwoman for Chestertown. She is an administrator for Chestertown-based Psychotherapeutic Services Inc. She was appointed to the Public Guardianship Commission and is a Shared Opportunity Services board member.
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It seems like a mild contradiction that the conservative Eastern Shore of Maryland would have a nonprofit membership cooperative as one of its primary electric power providers. And yet, for seventy-five years, the 52,000 member co-op has provided affordable power to nine counties on the Delmarva and sending the profit back to its users. In his interview with the Spy, CEO Mike Wheatley talks about the Choptank’s special history, as well as the utility’s “all the above” sources of energy, including wind, solar, and the more controversial use of nuclear energy and fracking extraction.
The video is approximately seven minutes in length
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from left to right, WRUS students – Cole Fowler, WRUS Art and Technology Director, James Martinez, WRUS students, Zach Schmidt, Chris Dorcey, Dillon DelRicco and Austin Hill
Students from the Wye River Upper School photography class ventured out of their classroom to the nearby site of their future home, the Centreville Armory, to document the return of a small piece of Queen Anne’s history. Armed with more modern tools, their cameras and their perspective, they captured the installation of the historic structure’s original steel cased windows, including panes of glass that have reflected the lives of local men, who in past decades, marched within it’s walls, readying to go off to war.
The original windows have been salvaged as a requirement of an $824,000. Maryland Sustainable Communities Grant, administered by the State of Maryland Historic Preservation office. As part of the massive renovation project, all 90 windows were removed, refurbished and are now being placed back to their rightful place in the brick exterior.
James Martinez, Wye River Upper School’s Director of Art and Technology, led the 5 photography students in capturing images that show the progress of the transformation. Mr. Martinez has been with the school since its inception 11 years ago. “The Armory, for me shows how far we’ve come and how far we are going. It’s a metaphor for what we do with our students everyday. We are taking something that has slipped through the cracks and transforming it. It’s going to be amazing. I’ve already got so many plans.”
photo taken by WRUS photography student
The students took notice of the repointed brick work, the interior demolition and the beginnings of the elevator shaft. “We are always looking for new avenues to provide our students with enrichment learning. Bringing the photography class to this construction site, gives them an opportunity to see and capture, first-hand the metamorphosis happening to this historic icon in Centreville,” said Chrissy Aull, Founder and Executive Director of Wye River Upper School.
As for the students, they were excited to see plans for their future classrooms. They mostly wanted to know about the music room (which will have 2 recording studios), the art room (the largest space that was formerly a garage) and the student lounge, which will be a place to decompress, read a book, catch up on homework, etc…
Wye River Upper School, currently housed on the Chesapeake College campus, has raised $3.6 million of its $5 million capital campaign goal. However, another $1 million in donations and pledges is necessary in order for the school to open its new doors in the fall of 2014.“This project is important to the life of the school – it will provide a permanent home, opportunities to expand the number of at-risk youth we serve and will increase our academic and extra-curricular offerings. We intend to restore the Armory to it’s role as a hub of the community it once was- a place where dances, community gatherings and athletic events took place,” said Aull.
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On Monday, a petition signed by 183 registered St. Michaels voters was presented to the Town Manager, asking to take Ordinance 429, the ethics law passed September 11 by the town Commissioners, to a referendum vote.
According to Town Manager Jean Weisman, 172 of those signatures have been verified, more than the 156 necessary to meet the town code requirement that a full 20% of registered voters request the referendum. In the almost 30 years that she has worked for the town, Weisman said she has never seen an ordinance challenged by a referendum vote. “Whatever the outcome, it’s good to see that the people are able to vote directly on the issue they feel strongly about,” Weisman said.
Next steps are for the St. Michaels Commissioners to set a date for a special election, or to push the vote off until the town’s next general election, in May of 2014.
At question is the 3 year long debate about the town’s response to the ethics law passed by the General Assembly in 2010, in which all elected officials in small towns across the state are to be held to the exact same conflict of interest and financial disclosure standards as are statewide elected officials. Of the 157 towns in Maryland, over 80 have been exempted from the law.
St. Michaels was granted an exemption from the lobbying portion of the law, but not the financial disclosure portion that is of great concern to many in small towns across the state. By requiring such stringent financial disclosure, residents of small towns are concerned that few people will be willing to run for office. In fact, St. Michaels Commissioner Tad duPont quit his post over the issue in early September.
At their meeting on September 11. the Commissioners of St. Michaels chose to drop an ongoing discussion about asking the state to re-consider the exemption, refused to hear Mr. duPont present the petition to the Commissioners, and forced a vote. That vote resulted in the town adopting “Model B”, the state’s recommended ethics law for small towns in Maryland. For more information on that meeting, see the Talbot Spy story here.
Mr. duPont said that the petition sends a strong message to both the town Commissioners, and the State Ethics Commission. “A one size law does not fit all. That law isn’t right for St. Michaels,” he said.
Only time will tell what effect the referendum vote will have on the town’s ethics law. Even if the present ordinance is overturned after a special election, and the citizens demand that the town ask the state to re-consider the request for exemption, the ultimate decision still lies with the State Ethics Commission.
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Chesapeake crabbers and scientists say 2013 has been one of the worst years in decades for blue crab harvesting, and scientists are attributing the collapse, at least in part, to a murderous biological process: crab cannibalism.
Brenda Davis, manager for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ Blue Crab Program, said last year’s count of 765 million crabs in the Chesapeake Bay was a 20-year high. And with so many creatures clumped together, Davis said, the crabs took care of each other.
“So when you get in that situation, there’s something called density-dependent mortality,” Davis said. “Basically, they’re incredibly cannibalistic, and they eat each other … Last year, there were lots and lots of little crabs. So they’re likely to be eating each other at a fairly high rate.”
According to a 2013 dredge survey from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, crab numbers were down even before the crabbing season started this year. The survey, which was conducted this winter, indicated there were only 300 million blue crabs in the bay, a decline of more than 60 percent from last year.
Davis said crab cannibalism wasn’t the only factor that led to a decreased population. She added that Maryland’s warmer, saltier waters in 2012 also played a part, as the increased temperatures allowed fish like striped bass and red drum, predators of the blue crab, to invade the area.
“So water temperatures probably won’t have a direct effect on blue crab abundance,” Davis said. “But it will affect an abundance of their predators.”
Dan Brooks, president of the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association, said the declining crab harvest has severely hurt the seafood industry, even forcing some watermen to leave their boats and find new jobs.
“Just the scarcity of crabs,” Brooks said. “Prices are up significantly. But luckily for Maryland watermen, this has not only been a bay-wide event but a coast-wide event. One thing that’s kind of strange is that it’s up and down the east coast. From Florida to Delaware.”
If the decrease in crab harvests had only occurred in Maryland and not across the east coast, Brooks said, fishermen in other states could have sold their crab at lower prices, taking away business from Maryland watermen.
Crab numbers in the bay have been low before, dipping to 254 million in 2001. To protect the species from collapse, both Maryland and Virginia took action in 2008, with each state imposing a 34 percent reduction in the catch of female blue crabs.
Those restrictions, combined with natural biological processes, led to the blue crab population recovering and reaching a 20-year high of 765 million in 2012. This year, both states have imposed an additional 10 percent restriction on the catch of female blue crabs.
John McConaugha, a professor of biological oceanography at Old Dominion University, said the states are taking the right approach. And because of that recent recovery, he said not to worry just yet.
“The good news is that it seems to be a very robust fishery and that it can come back,” McConaugha said. “That’s the thing with fisheries. You have good recruitment years and bad recruitment years, and they normally come back.”
By ROBBIE FEINBERG
Capital News Service
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After more than two years and thousands in legal fees deliberating the ethics question in St. Michaels, the St. Michaels Commissioners voted 3 to 2 on Wednesday to adopt a slightly modified version of “Model B”, the ethics ordinance suggested by the state for small jurisdictions.
Despite having asked the public to write letters to the ethics commission to let their voices be heard, Commission President Mike Vlahovich refused to allow a petition signed by 154 citizens to be brought to the table for discussion at the meeting.
“This is a bad way to start as a Commissioner” said Roy Myers, referencing Vlahovich’s refusal to allow him to get up to speed on the ethics question before being asked to vote on it. Myers was sworn into the Commission’s vacant seat less than 30 minutes before Vlahovich called for a vote on the matter. Commissioners Ann Borders and Roy Myers voted against the ordinance, Commissioners Clark, Harrod and Vlahovich voted for it.
St. Michaels newest Commissioner, Roy Myers, left, being sworn in by President Mike Vlahovich
At the Commissioners last meeting on August 28th, two separate ordinances were introduced into the record. One was intended to accompany the potential request that the state ethics commission re-consider the town’s request for an exemption to the law. The other was the State’s Model B with a paragraph about lobbying removed, as the state has already decided that St. Michaels is exempt from that portion of the ethics law.
Town Attorney Chip McLeod recommended to the Commissioners that they had met the state’s most recent request with the letter that he was directed to draft. That letter updated the state ethics board on the town’s progress on the issue. McLeod was saying, in effect, that they had more time to deliberate the question. He also said that once the town meets the requirements of the state law, the state steps out and the town’s own ethics commission will develop the disclosure forms and process to enact the ordinance.
Immediately after the vote, recently resigned Commissioner Tad duPont stood up to speak, holding in his hand the petition signed by 106 voters, 97 property owners and 82 business owners. The petition asked the town’s Commissioners to request that the state re-consider the town’s exemption to the state ethics law. duPont resigned his seat on the Commission over the issue.
President Vlahovich banged his gavel repeatedly, refusing to hear duPont’s comments. “You are out of order! I do not recognize you to speak” he said. After Mr. duPont sat down, a dozen people left the town hall. Many returned later to voice their comment at the end of the session.
Commissioner Borders said “I’m embarrassed that we didn’t listen to them, that we gaveled them down.”
President Vlahovich said “I feel confident that we did the best possible thing for the town.”
At issue was the question of whether the stringent financial disclosure requirements in the state’s law will reduce the pool of citizens willing to step up and run for office in the future.
For more on the history of the ethics debate in St. Michaels, click here, here, here, here and here.
In other business, the Commissioners discussed a potential water rate increase of up to 20% to address issues with the water tower and to purchase more medium to address the town’s arsenic problem. St. Michaels’s town water is among the highest in the state for high arsenic levels, and is eligible for state grants to address it. The Commissioners will introduce a resolution to increase the water rates by 20% starting October 1st.
They also heard an update on the classic car museum that is being planned for Mr. duPont’s property on Marengo St. The town’s Planning Commission has approved the site plan. The next step for the museum organizers is to apply for a redevelopment overlay zoning change and a public hearing.
Newly appointed Commissioner Roy Myers has been a resident of St. Michaels since 1998, when he and his wife retired here from New Jersey. With a MBA from the University of Chicago, he spent 30 years in management and sales at IBM. He is now one of the captains running the Harbor Shuttle in St. Michaels, and recently served on the town’s Planning Commission.
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The alumni chapter that represents Washington College graduates in the mid-Shore area is getting a new name and new leadership. The chapter formerly known as the Talbot County Chapter is now called the Choptank Chapter, reflecting a membership that spans into Caroline and Dorchester counties.
Taking over the reins from long-time chapter co-chairs Kristina Henry ’88 and Eleanor Shriver Magee ’93 are Mark Pellerin ’75 and Kari Rider ’04.
Pellerin earned his bachelor’s degree in American studies as a nontraditional student, starting college at age 25 after a stint in the workforce. He has worked as a yacht skipper and sales representative and today manages several yachts as well as appraising and selling real estate. Rider, an international studies major, is owner of Easton-based Kari Rider Events, a boutique event-planning company she launched in 2009 to provide individually-styled weddings and special events throughout the Eastern Shore and beyond.
Both new chairs agree that Henry and Magee will be a hard act to follow. “Kristina and Eleanor have done such a great job of keeping alumni in the area up to date on events and news from the college,” says Rider. “I loved my experience at Washington College and really wanted to do something to give back. I’m looking forward to growing the chapter and creating some very memorable events for the Choptank area alums.”
For more information on the activities of the Washington College Alumni Association’s Choptank Chapter, call 410-778-7846 or email [email protected].
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