Field Guide: The Dead of Winter
March is here. A co-worker told me he spotted an osprey the other day. A few optimistic buds have emerged. Spring isn’t quite here yet, but these signs tell us that warmer days will be here soon. For the deadrise workboat, Twilight, this spring will mark her 100th year on the water. In her current incarnation, she serves as a floating laboratory for Echo Hill Outdoor School, taking students into the waters of the Chester River, Chesapeake Bay, and Still Pond Creek as they explore estuarine ecosystems. Deadrise workboats, unique to the Chesapeake Bay, were designed to navigate shallow waters in order ...
Riding a Gift Horse
The other day I received an anonymous gift in the mail, a beautiful hardcover book. It was a book I would buy for myself, so at first I wondered if I had actually ordered it and then forgotten all about it. (Okay, to be completely honest, I wondered if I had suddenly gone Sybil, and had an extra personality who went online ordering books for me while I showered or slept.) All I had to go on was the return address. I emailed the bookseller asking for information about the order (just in case I had gone multiple-personality) but their replies ...
Early Greens
Most of the yard has reemerged, and I can walk instead of slog to the greenhouse. In a ‘normal’ year – evidently a theoretical concept – I’d have already started a few seeds for the cool-weather stuff. Kale, collards, spinach, chard, mustard greens, lettuces, bok choy. Some, like radish and peas, I’d even be considering putting into the ground now. Instead, it looks to be months before that can happen since the garden is still under a foot of snow. Fasten your seat belts, folks. It’s going to be a bumpy ride. For the next few weeks, we’ll have to count ...
Best of Chestertown: Dr. Maria Boria
Almost every Thursday evening, Dr. Maria Boria, who turns 80 this year, drives herself to and from a Marydel clinic to provide essential health care to women in the growing Latino community, most of whom have no health insurance. While she took this particular project on only five years ago, Dr. Boria has spent a lifetime working with women in need. After her medical training in England, she moved to India in 1958, and started a hospital that now has 2,000 employees. From there, she started training programs in Latin America and Africa, while also marrying her husband Jim Berna, ...
Still More Snow? Ask Weatherdog
About all anybody talks about these days, except the meatloaf at Lulu’s, yum, and the Beer League going dry, yow, is the weather. It got me recalling what Mark Twain supposedly said: “Everybody’s always talking about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” Now that’s not quite true, even the quote, which somebody else may have said first and somewhat differently. And folks here have been doing plenty about the weather, with shovels. What Twain did say -- “Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get” -- is not very helpful. To find out what’s coming our ...
Occurrences
Kent’s Water & Sewer Rates May Rise
Get ready, the user rate for Kent County water and sewer could go up this year. At the Tuesday commissioners’ meeting, Public Works Director Wayne Morris...
Kent to Cut Curbside Recycling
Could free recycling be coming to end? Looks like it. At the Tuesday Kent County commissioner’s meeting, Public Works Director Wayne Morris proposed...
Road Damage Grows
It’s no secret that now that all the snow has melted driving down Kent County roads can be bumpy. At the Tuesday commissioner’s meeting, Public Works...
8 Watermen Accused of Rockfish Poaching
Eight watermen from Rock Hall arrested for rockfish poaching are the first to face a new system of tiered punishments based on the severity of their crime,...
‘Smart Grid’ Coming To You
Imagine you left town for a weekend vacation, accidentally leaving the air conditioning set on high. No sweat — you can adjust it with an application...
Kratovil Still Against Broad Health Care
WASHINGTON – After a week of pressure from both sides, Rep. Frank Kratovil says he’s unlikely to go along with the current plan to get a broad...
Curiosities
The Prince’s Evening of Reconciliation
The Prince Theatre, known as the Lyceum during much of the 20th Century, has had a painful history of racial segregation. It is remembered — first-hand...
Best Bets
Wednesday, March 10 Women Helping Women Concert: By Women, For Women Location: The Prince Theater, 210 High St. Time: 7 p.m. For more than 45 years, Dr.Maria...
SpyCam: John Andrew McCown 1st Neilsen Award Winner
John Andrew McCown (photo by Trams Hollingsworth) The Chester River Association celebrated the life of Pat Nielsen last Friday night by awarding its first...
Field Guide: The Dead of Winter
March is here. A co-worker told me he spotted an osprey the other day. A few optimistic buds have emerged. Spring isn’t quite here yet, but these...
Riding a Gift Horse
The other day I received an anonymous gift in the mail, a beautiful hardcover book. It was a book I would buy for myself, so at first I wondered if I...
Disturbances
False Report of Missing Child
It was a scary time at Worton Park on Monday evening with Kent County sheriff’s deputies, state police, local firemen and emergency rescue squad personnel...
Crash Injures 6 of Centreville Family
A collision of a UPS truck and a van on Clark Corner road Wednesday afternoon injured six members of a Centerville family, at least two of them seriously. Kelley...
End of a Search
A four-month investigation by the Kent County sheriff’s narcotics team led them to the kind of search that no officer enjoys. First, they got a search...
Poultry Go Up in Smoke
The death count from a fire at Kennedyville is estimated at 30,000 – chickens. The victims could be identified only as “hatchlings.” Deputy...
Town Notes
Hukill Receives Washington College’s 2010 President’s Award
The annual President’s Award, given to an individual for an exemplary record of sustained and acknowledged contribution to the quality of life in...
Eastern Neck Refuge Announces Youth Turkey Hunt
Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in cooperation with the National Wild Turkey Federation will once again conduct a gobbler-only spring youth...
Wind Ensemble Back with Concerts Beginning Next Sunday
On Sunday, March 14, the Eastern Shore Wind Ensemble, with a concert theme of “Cityscapes,” will take its audience on a musical tour of various cities....
Artworks & Main Street Promote Chestertown Arts
The New York Times has called it charming, proud, remarkably unscarred. The Baltimore Sun touts that it’s cozy. The Washington Post uses the words comely...
Alison Brown’s Jazz Banjo at the Mainstay March 12
One of the bright stars in the world of independent music, banjo and guitar player Alison Brown brings her dazzling quartet to the Mainstay in Rock Hall...
Trade & Mercantile
The Feast of Reason Turns off the Lights
The Feast of Reason, which had been one of downtown Chestertown’s top lunch spots for many years, has formally closed. Kathleen Jones, one of the...
Business Wrecked? Call DCA for Towing
A reorganized and revitalized Downtown Chestertown Association is attempting to do what the White House, Congress, the Treasury Department, the Federal...
Benchworks: Chestertown’s Surprise Success
While many Chestertown businesses struggle to stay afloat in the stormy economy, one young local concern is building up staff, expanding space and emerging...
LuLu and Flower Child Grand Openings
There will be two ribbon cuttings in Downtown Chestertown this coming Friday. LuLu’s will formally celebrate its opening at 4:30 PM and Chestertown’s...
Opinion
Spy Op-Ed: Sykesville Vs Ruthsburg – Similar? by Sherry Adam
As the cold rain falls at 7:45 in the morning and the frigid air blows mercilessly in the Ruthsburg Community center parking lot, we wait for the GSA/Dept...
Still More Snow? Ask Weatherdog
About all anybody talks about these days, except the meatloaf at Lulu’s, yum, and the Beer League going dry, yow, is the weather. It got me recalling...
A Tribute to Coach Athey By Bryan Matthews
Coach Ed Athey embodied Washington College athletics for the entire second half of the 20th century. Coach, with his six-decade mutual love affair with...
Letter to Editor: Last Chance for Health Insurance Reform
Music to my ears! “Seeing no prospect of a bipartisan agreement on health care, congressional Democrats say they will make another effort to pass sweeping...
