Gov Asks Feds for Small Business Aid
WASHINGTON – Gov. Martin O’Malley asked Maryland’s congressional delegation Thursday to devote unused federal money to spur small business lending and create jobs in the state, where unemployment remains at 7.5 percent despite more than $4 billion in stimulus funding.
Money returned from the Troubled Asset Relief Program should be used to guarantee small business lending, O’Malley suggested.
“If you could make it possible for us to access those dollars — to be repaid to the federal government — it would allow us to leverage on a one-to-six basis, the sort of small business lending that could be going on to create jobs and improve the business climate in our state.”
The appeal came as O’Malley brought his Cabinet to Capitol Hill Thursday to lay out his administration’s federal funding priorities for fiscal 2011, which begins July 1. The event was organized by Sen. Barbara Mikulski.
O’Malley presented the delegation with an agenda focused on job creation, transportation infrastructure and public safety. Federal dollars are expected to be harder to come by due to the federal spending freeze proposed by President Obama, which would begin on Oct. 1.
The state is facing a $2 billion budget shortfall this year, which the governor has proposed filling by furloughing state employees, transferring $1 billion from other funding sources and slashing $375 million from state agencies.
The federal government has its own fiscal problems. Last month, the federal deficit was a record $220.9 billion, which is 14 percent higher than the previous record from February 2009.
O’Malley said, “Although we’re one of the stronger states from a fiscal standpoint…I know that we would be in deep trouble were it not for your prompt action and leadership on this.”
Mikulski asked how much money Maryland had spent to recover from the back-to-back snowstorms earlier this year, saying she was working to acquire federal “dough for snow.”
Transportation Secretary Beverly Swaim-Staley said the state spent $130 million, doubling the $65 billion budgeted. The state already won a federal disaster declaration for one storm, and Maryland Emergency Management Agency director Richard Muth said he expects to submit another request to the federal government within the next two weeks.
[By Graham Moomaw of Capital News Service]
Plastic Bag Tax Gets Support
ANNAPOLIS – The General Assembly has been reluctant to raise taxes in an election year, but 39 legislators across both chambers are co-sponsoring an act to place a 5-cent tax on disposable carryout bags.
The Chesapeake Bay Restoration Consumer Retail Choice Act would require Maryland businesses to tack the 5-cent fee onto each disposable bag used by a customer.
[A similar measure for Chestertown has been proposed by Mayor Margo Bailey. But she's heard from the Maryland Municipal League that the state attorney general's office considers that a tax -- and Chestertown, as a municipality, doesn't have authority from the General Assembly to impose such a tax. Thus, it would need passage of one of these proposed bills, by the General Assembly, before a plastic bag fee could take effect here.]
Businesses stand to receive a penny per bag sold, unless they offer a 5-cent credit to customers who provide reusable bags when checking out. Businesses offering the credit would receive 2 cents for every bag sold. The rest would go to the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Coastal Bays 2010 Trust Fund.
Del. Kathleen Dumais, D-Montgomery, cites the Bay’s deterioration and proven evidence that plastic bags pose a harm to the environment as her reasons for cosponsoring the bill.
The legislation comes after the Council of the District of Columbia unanimously passed a similar law last summer, which took effect Jan. 1.
[By Adam Kerlin of Capital News Service]
More Snows, Fewer Mallards
The midwinter waterfowl survey showed a significant decline of mallards and diving ducks but a growing number of snow geese in the Chesapeake region, the Department of Natural Resources reports.
Mallards went from 58,300 last year to 34,200 this winter. Divers fell from 157,66 to 102,000. But snows increased from 61,200 to 78,600.
Despite a poor nesting season for Canada geese last summer, says DNR, their numbers slightly increased over last year – from 498,200 to 519,500.
“Wintering Canada geese remained high and were likely bolstered by migrant geese pushed south by cold temperatures and snow north of Maryland,” DNR says.
Reduced diving duck populations is due largely to lower numbers of redheads, canvasbacks, scaup and ruddy ducks.
“Extensive ice in the Chester River prevented diving duck use of this major wintering area favored by canvasbacks and scaup,” according to DNR.
Icing apparently affected black ducks, whose numbers are slightly down from last winter – from 24,900 to 22,500.
The midwinter survey has been conducted annually throughout the U.S. since the 1950s, providing information on long-term trends in the bird populations. It is the only source of estimates for important specises such as Atlantic brant and tundra swans. It showed brant rising slightly, from 800 to 1,000, and the swans in slight decline, at 14,000, down by 200 from last winter.
Each winter, pilots and biologists from DNR and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Survey count the waterfowl along the Chesapeake shorline and the Atlantic coast.
This past January they observed 787,100 waterfowl. The year before they counted 836,900.
The 2010 total still shows healthy growth above some recent years. In 2006 they counted only 577,100 and in 2007 they found just 478,900.
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 all searching for a missing child.
The State Police helicopter swooped low over the park. Deputies prowled the grounds on foot. Official radios crackled with directions. Concerned residents phoned around and emailed one another for news of what they’d heard about “an abducted little boy.”
It was all for nothing – a bogus tip.
“There was no little boy abducted,” Sheriff John Price said today.
“We had a report of a child unsupervised and unattended at Worton Park yesterday around 6 p.m.. The call was anonymous. Deputies responded and tried to see if it was a credible report.
The sheriff said deputies, assisted by fire department personnel, conducted a ground search but were unable to locate any child at all.
“We hadn’t received any (confirmed) reports of missing children,” said Price, “but we thought we should err on the side of caution.”
Whoever phoned in that tip erred, too. Today there’s quite a number of police and firemen with arresting words for the caller.
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, Maryland Natural Resources Police said Monday.
NRP said two of the men – William Howard Beck and John Franklin Riggs, both 43 – are repeat offenders who were charged with oyster poaching in December. The state subsequently suspended Beck’s rights to catch oysters for the season.
“Repeat offenders will not be tolerated,” said Secretary John Griffin. “We take these crimes against our public resources very seriously.”
Beck and Riggs were caught at 2:30 a.m . Christmas morning – well outside legal harvesting hours – with seven bushels of oysters on their boats, the NRP reported.
On Feb. 23, officers arrested Beck again and charged him with possessing striped bass greater than 36 inches and mutilating fish so that size could not be determined. The NRP said they traced Bass after checking J & J Seafood in Rock Hall and finding striped bass with cut tails.
The next day NRP officers found striped bass hidden in the cabin of a boat belonging to Riggs and charged him with failing to check in fish within the required three hours of completing a fishing trip.
Riggs and Beck also face charges of failing to properly mark gill nets in the Chesapeake Bay and keeping an unattended striped bass gill net.
The NRP also charged Lewis Herbert Cain Sr., 63, Christopher Wesley Lingerman, 37, and Joel Colon, 29, with possession of striped bass greater than 36 inches.
These three were charged after NRP officers boarded a commercial fishing boat on Feb. 23 in Rock Hall Harbor and found three oversize striped bass hidden in a compartment under the deck of the boat.
NRP officers boarded another fishing boat the same day and charged James Daniel Elburn, 51, Donnie Bartus Collier, 55, and William Bartus Collier, 81, with possessing striped bass greater than 36 inches.
Officers reported finding these three with a number of striped bass mutilated so their size could not be determined.
The new tired penalty system means these watermen, if convicted, could face fines up to $1,000 for a first offense and up to $2,000 for each subsequent offense.
Additional penalties could include points on their licenses and suspensions of from 180 to 365 days.
During the last week and a half of February, all around the Bay and its tributaries, the NRP seized approximately 16,500 yards of illegally anchored gill nets and 3,200 pounds of rockfish.
NRP said removal of such nets is a priority because they continue to catch all species of fish and other aquatic creatures as long as they remain in the water.
“The seized nets were found to contain not only rockfish but dead diving ducks and loons,” the agency reported.
‘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 on your iPhone.
Or imagine getting to work and realizing you forgot to run the dishwasher. No problem, because another application can start your appliances remotely.
These scenarios may sound far out, but they are almost reality for Maryland residents. Thanks to $10.5 billion in stimulus funds from the federal government, the first stage of “Smart Grid” technology will come to your home as soon as this year.
The idea behind Smart Grid is that each house will have a “Smart Meter” sending and receiving real-time information from utility companies using a radio frequency. So when your home loses power, you won’t have to call the utility to complain because the Smart Meter will have already sent out an alert.
“The meter on your house really belongs in the Smithsonian,” said Stephen Sunderhauf, who works for PHI, the company that owns Pepco and Delmarva Power.
But some Maryland groups urge caution, arguing that the government hasn’t had time to create grid standards yet, the technology is still untested, huge start-up costs will ultimately fall on consumers, and private information about our daily routines could be misused.
Despite these issues, modern electronic devices and renewable energy sources like wind and solar power need a Smart Grid. The electric grid now in use is based on technology from the early 1900s, Sunderhauf said. “The sooner we bring (Smart Grid technology) to our Maryland marketplace, the better off our consumers will be. Embrace the future.”
Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. successfully completed a Smart Grid pilot program last year, and Pepco has already begun installing Smart Meters in Delaware, with Maryland to follow soon.
Both companies need the Maryland Public Service Commission’s approval before they can install Smart Meters for all customers or use federal stimulus grants for Smart Grid — $200 million for BGE and $168 million for Pepco.
If the commission approves BGE’s plan, it will start installing 2 million Smart Meters as soon as this year, finishing by 2014. Pepco has a similar timeline.
Smart Grid advocates say consumers will save money by being able to determine times when energy costs are highest, and choosing to run energy-guzzling appliances during off-peak hours.
Initially, customers should be able to track their energy use after a day’s lag time through a Web site. Eventually, customers will have in-home displays with instant information about their energy use and cost.
“Smart Grid technology will absolutely offer consumers options to decrease their rates,” said Maryland Energy Administration spokeswoman Christina Twomey. The Energy Administration, she said, supports BGE’s Smart Grid plan, with some recommendations.
The administration would like to see customers who are uncomfortable with technology retain regular rates, instead of instituting mandatory “time-of-use” rates, when energy costs more during peak daytime hours, Twomey said.
Another problem is that Smart Grid lacks standards, which must be determined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, said Theresa Czarski, deputy counsel for the Office of People’s Counsel in Baltimore.
“We really felt we were rushed into this (BGE) case because of the federal money,” Czarski said, adding that major Smart Grid start-up costs will ultimately fall on consumers.
Czarski is also concerned about privacy. ”(Smart Grid) opens a portal into people’s houses,” which can be hacked into, she said.
The Future of Privacy Forum also discussed privacy issues in a November 2009 report, suggesting utility companies may be tempted to sell information about customers’ energy use.
“It is not yet clear who along the grid will have access to a user’s personal information and where on the grid such access will be possible,” the report said.
The current grid is “dumb” by comparison, running near maximum capacity all the time and costing everyone. On hot days when everyone uses air-conditioning, utility companies must purchase extra energy at extremely high rates to meet demand.
If customers can choose their own energy-use programs, it will help utility companies better forecast needs and keep prices lower, said Asher Epstein, managing director of the University of Maryland’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship.
Epstein joked that companies could even create a “deadbeat power package” so the utility company could prevent television watching for a non-paying customer, while still providing basic services like heat.
Loss of privacy may be the downside, Epstein said.
“The utility company is going to know exactly when you wake up, when you shower, when you wash your clothes. They’ll have a very intimate profile of how you live your life.” Still, Epstein said utility companies are taking appropriate safeguards.
Most people already have home electronics that send information elsewhere, Easton added, including the Internet and cable TV. “This kind of (utility) information is probably less of a concern and it helps you save money,” he said.
Some large cities, like Boulder, Co., and Miami, have already begun major Smart Grid projects, with mixed results. Electricity prices shot up for some users while others saved significantly.
Most experts agree Smart Grid is inevitable in order to fully harness renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, and to support new technology like electric cars.
Now there is no good way to store excess energy — a basic problem because solar power is created during the day and wind power when it’s gusty — but an advanced Smart Grid system can store and redistribute energy as needed.
A national Smart Grid could even eliminate the need for 180 to 200 new power plants in the next few decades, said Paul Wyman, Lockheed’s Smart Grid manager.
[By Tiffany March of Capital News Service]
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 health care bill through Congress, suggesting instead that the legislation be split into a series of smaller bills.
In an interview with Capital News Service, Eastern Shore representative said the plan advanced by President Obama and the Democratic congressional leadership allows Republicans to continue to obstruct health care reform on a purely partisan basis.
“There are those who want to make this a political statement about the president and so forth and defeat it simply for those reasons,” Kratovil said. “I think the process that we’re talking about doing, in some ways, allows them the ability to do so.”
Kratovil was one of 39 Democrats who voted no when the House passed a health care bill, 220-215, in November. Instead of being swayed by party leaders in need of votes, Kratovil appears ready to vote no again.
Although details of the strategy are still being worked out, Democrats hope to first convince the House to pass the Senate version of the bill. Party leaders have said they hope to then pass a set of fixes to the bill using the controversial reconciliation process in the Senate, which would allow legislation to pass with only 51 votes rather than the 60 needed to break a Republican filibuster.
A spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., confirmed that House leadership plans to put the Senate bill to a vote.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is on a final push to gather the 217 votes needed to get the Senate bill through the House. Those efforts have focused on two groups of skeptical Democrats; those who strictly oppose federal funding for abortion and fiscal conservatives concerned about the bill’s effects on the deficit.
Kratovil, a freshman facing a tough re-election fight in the Republican-leaning 1st District, fits squarely in the latter.
Kratovil said he will vote no if, as expected, the House is asked to pass the Senate version of the bill.
By splitting the legislation into smaller bills, Kratovil said Republicans would be forced to vote yes or no on the provisions they claim to agree with, which would help clearly define those who want to reform health care from those who only want to block the majority party.
“The way we’re moving forward — from the public’s perception — is perceived as all or nothing,” Kratovil said. “I don’t think it needs to be zero sum.”
Kratovil rejected the idea that the entire process should be reset, saying that breaking the legislation down to individual parts would be the best way to reach middle ground.
Creating a federal insurance exchange, allowing competition across state lines and allowing young people to stay longer on family insurance plans were cited by Kratovil as examples of industry reforms he thinks could pass as standalone bills.
Addressing the issues one by one would boost public confidence in the process and would avoid the expected controversy over using reconciliation, Kratovil said.
Both sides of the debate competed for Kratovil’s ear this week. On Wednesday, he was one of 31 members of Congress invited to a reception at the White House. The stated purpose of the event was to thank the attendees for supporting the recently enacted pay-as-you-go legislation. But Kratovil was one of 10 invitees from the House who voted against health care reform last year, which led to speculation that Democratic leaders were also using the occasion to convince skeptics to change their votes.
“That pressure is only as great as you allow it to be,” said Kratovil. “I make my decisions based on the facts.”
On Thursday, the National Republican Congressional Committee made thousands of automated phone calls into Kratovil’s district, urging constituents to call their congressman and press him to vote no again.
“It would be hard for his constituents to trust him to oppose every form of Obama’s healthcare takeover,” said Andy Sere, a spokesman for the NRCC. “In terms of stopping this bill as it is now, we’re glad that the phone calls seem to have helped.”
Michael Cain, the director of the Center for the Study of Democracy at St. Mary’s College, said that Kratovil’s stance against the current health care reform proposal is good for his standing in the district, but the health care issue in general could be an albatross around his neck even if he votes no.
“In some ways, his vote might be overshadowed if the bill is passed,” Cain said. ”It could be that the first District wants to send a message by bringing back a Republican.”
[By Graham Moomaw of Capital News Service]
Perdue, ‘Family Farmer’
ANNAPOLIS – The chairman of Perdue Farms calls a lawsuit against his company and one of its contract farms “one of the largest threats to the family farm in the last 50 years,” and asked Maryland’s Eastern Shore delegation to help.
Jim Perdue, chairman and CEO of Perdue Farms, said no lawsuit would ever have been filed if state agencies would “do their job.”
Tuesday, the Assateague Coastal Trust and the Waterkeeper Alliance announced they are suing Perdue Farms and a farm owned by Alan and Kristin Hudson in Berlin. The environmental groups say the farm illegally discharged “harmful pollution” into the Pocomoke River.
Assateague Coastkeeper Kathy Phillips said the dispute began when she flew over the Hudson farm and saw what she believed was a large pile of chicken waste sitting uncovered. She took samples of water downstream of the pile, and said the results showed high levels of bacteria.
Maryland Department of the Environment officials said the pile was actually Class A sewage sludge — human waste that has been treated at a wastewater treatment plant and is used as fertilizer. Their water tests also found high levels of bacteria, but the department has not said whether the farm violated any regulations or if they will take any action.
Perdue said the MDE should have acted more quickly to grant required discharge permits, and that the lag time created a “void,” opening the door for potential lawsuits against farms.
The MDE has regulations for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) that went into effect January 2009. Farms must have a certain number of animals and discharge wastewater or contaminated runoff to be considered a CAFO.
These farms are required to get a discharge permit. The permits were not available before Dec. 1, 2009, because of a legal challenge by the Assateague Coastkeeper, the Waterkeeper Alliance and other groups.
Under previous rules, only a handful of farms qualified as CAFOs. But with the new regulations, about 500 farms — including the Hudson farm — have submitted applications for the discharge permit. MDE’s web site says it could take 180 days to process permit applications.
“You won’t see (lawsuits against farms) happening in Delaware,” Perdue said. “I never thought I would ask for more government intervention.”
Perdue also said the MDE should have done testing at the Hudson farm earlier, which could have negated the need for a lawsuit.
The environmental groups filed a 60-day intent to sue notice in mid-December, and MDE officials immediately went to the farm to investigate, said Dawn Stoltzfus, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of the Environment.
Initially, the inspectors were denied access to sampling, but they were able to take photos and gather visual evidence on three days in December, Stoltzfus said. Inspectors took samples in January that showed high levels of bacteria, but the department has not finished analyzing the results and cannot discuss them further, she said.
Perdue did not comment on whether he thought the Hudson farm had violated any laws, but said he is worried about the legal costs to the family and to other farm families.
Perdue said he thinks there are more lawsuits coming.
“There are a number of additional family farms on the list,” Perdue said. “They (the environmental groups) really have no interest in water quality. They have one interest: litigation, lawsuits.”
Eastern Shore Delegation Chairman Delegate D. Page Elmore, R-Somerset, said the delegation will raise the issue with Gov. Martin O’Malley.
“I don’t want to see the day when our chickens come from Delaware and Virginia,” Elmore said.
Delegate James N. Mathias Jr., D-Worcester, said he is “extremely distressed” by the lawsuit. ”This is a fundamental industry in our district,” he said. “We are with you, man.”
[By Jennifer Hlad of Capital News Service]
Pipkin’s Bridge Crusade
His ideas may get short shrift in the Democrat-controlled General Assembly, but Republican state Sen. E. J. Pipkin is stirring up debate on several measures aimed at what he calls the most ignored group in Maryland – the Bay Bridge users.
His bill SB 991 would require the state to temporarily stop collecting tolls when eastbound vehicles are waiting for longer than 30 minutes to cross the bridge.
Another, SB 649, requires an immediate and independent inspection of the bridge using state-of-the-art technology.
Such technology, employed after the fatal August 10 accident on the bridge, Pipkin said, is the only way that corroded steel inside bridge girders was discovered.
“It is also deeply troubling that the invasive examination of the westbound bridge’s suspension cables was overdue by six years,” said Pipkin. “What else don’t we know about the condition of the bridge?”
Pipkin’s SB 648 would spur consideration of a third bay bridge.
“There is no dispute of the need for a third bay bridge,” the senator stated.
“The citizens who endure the intolerable traffic gridlock deserve to have their demands taken seriously.”
Athey’s Services Are Saturday
A service will be held Saturday, March 6, at 1 p.m. at Christ United Methodist Church on High Street for Coach Ed Athey. A reception will follow at Washington College in the Casey Academic Center.
Known to generations of Washington College grads and all over Chestertown simply as “Coach,” unadorned, as if there were no other, Athey was as beloved a figure as ever walked that old campus. He died at his Chestertown home on Sunday. He was 88.
Edward L. Athey, professor, coach and athletic director at the college for 38 years, was born in Moundsville, WV, on October 26, 1921. He was one of three boys raised during the Great Depression by the late Edward W. Athey, a railroad policeman, and his wife Alice. When he was old enough, Ed took on part-time jobs to help the family stay afloat, but he always found time to play sports.
A natural athlete who excelled at basketball, baseball and soccer as a youngster, he honed his athleticism by playing semi-professional basketball right out of high school. A year later, he began his collegiate career at Frostburg College, playing basketball, soccer and baseball.
With the encouragement of coaches Tom Kibler and Fred Dumschott, Athey transferred to Washington College in the fall of 1942. Not surprisingly, the basketball team won the conference championship that year.
In 1943, just after he was called into military service, Ed Athey married his college sweetheart, Rachel Lovell, with whom he would raise three children: young Ed, Ron and Patty. Athey spent the next two years flying missions in China with the U.S. Air Force.
He returned to Washington College in 1946 for his senior year. On a whim, he took up football—Coach George Ekaitis played him at the quarterback position.
Intent on a teaching career, Athey earned a master’s degree in education at Columbia University. A few months later, in August 1948, he was back in Chestertown again, earning his stripes as “Coach.”
In his first year, Coach Athey taught physical education classes and served as chair of the department, was head coach for the basketball, soccer and track programs, and helped out as a scouting coach for football. After one year on the job, Coach Athey added “Athletic Director” to his collection of hats.
In a career that spanned five decades, Athey coached six varsity sports—baseball, basketball, cross country, soccer, tennis and track, as well as JV lacrosse. On the soccer field sidelines from 1949 through 1981, Coach was named Division II-III Soccer Coach of the Year in 1980. But the baseball program was always his special love: he was assistant and later head coach of baseball for 49 years, continuing to coach the Shoremen squad even after he retired from his post as AD in 1987.
Last spring, Washington College dedicated the new ballpark on campus to honor the longtime baseball coach.
As director of athletics, Athey played a leading role in the activities of the NCAA, the Middle Atlantic Conference, the Mason-Dixon Conference and the United State Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association.
He also instilled in Washington College coaches and athletes an appreciation for the life lessons students learn through sports competition. Widely respected as a champion athlete, coach and administrator with a gentle, easy-going manner, Coach Athey has been enshrined in Athletic Halls of Fame at Washington College, Frostburg State University, the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and the Maryland State Athletic Hall of Fame.
Remembering his mentor, coach and predecessor, Bryan Matthews, the current Athletic Director of Washington College, observed, “Coach Athey has embodied the spirit of Washington College more than anyone in the last 60 years. He has touched more lives in the Washington College family than anyone in half a century, and he will be missed by more people than can be counted.”
Predeceased by his first wife Rachel and his son Edward M. Athey ’67, Coach Athey is survived by his wife, Marge McCorkel Athey, his son Ron and daughter-in-law Julie Crew Athey ’93, daughter Patty and son-in-law Patrick Grieb; daughter-in-law Cathy Athey; step-son Don McCorkel and his wife Laura McCorkel; grandchildren Carolyn Athey Harms ’93 M’97 and her husband Kevin Harms ’96; Lisa Athey Clarke ’96 and her husband J.B. Clarke (the head lacrosse coach at Washington College); Charlie Athey ’01, Eddie Athey, Tricia Athey, Marcia Grieb Fellows and her husband Jon Fellows ’02 M’04, and Andy Grieb ’07 and Nia and Joel McCorkel; and six great grandchildren: Logan, Jenna, Paige and Parker Archie Harms, and Jessica and Samantha Clarke.
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 Jean Gavigan, 33, and her 12-year-old daughter were flown to shock trauma for treatment of head injuries. Gavigan’s mother, Bessie Anne Salsburg , and her three other children, aged 8, 4 and 2, were taken by ambulance to Chester River Medical Center.
Queen Anne’s County deputies reported the UPS truck was westbound on Clark Corner Road and had stopped to let traffic pass before making a left turn into a driveway. The 2000 Dodge Caravan approached from the rear and was unable to stop before striking the rear of the truck.
UPS driver Gregory Stephen George, 48, of Centreville, was not injured.
Preliminary investigation indicated that wet road conditions at the time, 12:55 p.m., and speed, were factors in the crash.
“It also appeared that no one in the van (occupied by Salsburg and the Gavigans) was restrained by seatbelts or safety seats,” the sheriff’s office reported.
Charges are pending.
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 and seizure warrant for Darius Lamont Gibbs, 26, of Centreville, that included a Lincoln Town Car and a residence in Rock Hall.
According to the sheriff’s report, Gibbs was detained as he drove north on Rt. 289 near Pomona.
“During a search of Gibbs person,” as the report puts it, “it was revealed that Gibbs had a plastic bag that contained numerous individually wrapped rocks of suspected crack cocaine secreted inside of his body.”
Officers also recovered a handgun, a digital scale and cash, from an unspecified location.
Gibbs was being held Wednesday in lieu of $10,000 bond, charged with possession of crack cocaine, marijuana, CDS paraphernalia and possession of a firearm in relation to drug trafficking.
And Around We Go, Faster
Maybe you’ve noticed how days here have gotten shorter. And not just in Chestertown and Kent County which are used to getting the short end of things.
Incredibly, it’s that way everywhere.
Yes, daylight this time of year is supposed to last longer, what with the vernal equinox approaching. But suddenly, it seems, there’s less of it.
Scientists at NASA say the massive earthquake in Chile may have shifted the Earth’s axis. That would create shorter days.
According to a computer model at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as reported by CNN, geophysicists determined that the 8.8 magnitude quake that struck Chile on Feb. 17 moved the Earth’s axis about three inches. That shift means every day should be 1.26 microseconds shorter. It’s measurable, and brace yourself, it’s permanent.
Good news is, you’ll get to knock off work that much earlier.
State Denies Town Plastic Bag Fees
Chestertown’s idea seemed simple enough: impose a small fee, say 25 cents, for every plastic bag customers use for their purchases at local stores. A nickel could go back to the stores to compensate costs and the rest could be dedicated to recreation projects or green initiatives here.
What better way to rid the landscape of so much of the plastic detritus that clutters farm fields, clogs the ditches, snags in shrubs and trees?
The Town Council, not exactly the most unified of bodies on many issues, readily agreed. It seemed pretty popular, too, with most residents, who’d have to cough up the quarter – if they didn’t bring their own cloth bags.
Then Mayor Margo Bailey figured she’d better check with the Maryland Municipal League to see if there were any impediment. But this was only a routine check.
Washington, D.C., had done it – one of the few places that successfully has. Their fee is just five cents but their cleanup targets a much poorer area, Anacostia. One penny goes back to the stores and four cents of every charge is for cleaning up the Anacostia River.
So, the mayor checked. As she reported to the Town Council on Monday night, the answer was a disappointing surprise. No, said the MML. They talked to the state Attorney General’s office and got a thumbs down.
“They said, I may call it a fee, but it’s really a tax,” says Bailey. “And I have no taxing authority as a municipality.”
This may be confusing to residents paying local property taxes. But Bailey explains that every taxing authority is something granted specifically by the general assembly.
“Say we stop people speeding. Those tickets, we don’t keep any of it,” Bailey says. “That money goes right to the state. Municipalities have asked the General Assembly if we could keep a little of it, since it’s our police officers, who we pay, who give out the tickets. The state has consistently said no.”
Then what can be done about getting fees on the ubiquitous plastic bags?
The mayor said she discovered that a bill has been introduced in the General Assembly, House Bill 1210, that would do pretty much what Chestertown wanted. And Council Member Mary Stetson came across a companion measure in the Senate, SB462, doing the same thing.
These propose a fee on plastic bags with some money going back to the stores and the rest dedicated to The Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays 2010 Trust for ridding them of what else? Stuff like plastic bags.
The mayor is urging residents to email or write letters to members of the appropriate House and Senate committees considering the bills. There is no general web address for this. Interested folks will have to send individual emails to each committee member. Chestertown will be posting appropriate email addresses on its website.
Meantime, one that works is norm.conway.senate@state.us.md.
The plastic bag lobby has been all over Chestertown’s initiative like a plastic bag.
Town Manager Bill Ingersoll said he was called to the phone, and kept on it, by a young woman representing the industry who demanded to know if Chestertown was banning plastic bags. No, he said, only proposing a fee.
Well didn’t he know that plastic bags can be recycled? That there are many wonderful uses for recycled plastic bags? And so forth.
Ingersoll pointed out there really aren’t but a couple of places hereabouts where plastic bags can be recycled (something like only three percent of plastic bags do get recycled). He suggested she, and her industry, weren’t leading the issue; they were falling far behind it.
Ingersoll’s last words to her as he hung up: “You picked the wrong town to bully.”
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 Reserve and money wizards George Soros and Warren Buffett have not.
Fix business here.
For the local repair job, DCA has brought in some of the best-known, home-grown entrepreneurs to form an entirely new slate of officers.
DCA President Nancy McGuire advised the Town Council on Monday that the association leaders, elected Feb. 17, now include Ellen Walmsley, Shannon Piasecki, Andy Goddard, Bob Ramsey, Marilyn Klompus, Michele Timmons and Kirsten Forney.
They are reaching outside of historic downtown, McGuire said, offering membership to businesses uptown and even on the edge of town. ELB auto repair on Flatland Road is being included. McGuire suggested Southern States, over the bridge, could be embraced. She also recommends Brampton Inn, and Lauretum Inn, both on Rt. 20, as likely members.
“The only reason we aren’t for the moment appealing for the shopping centers is they have their own dynamic and anchor stores,” says McGuire. “So we have our hands full getting shops and businesses and professional offices, lawyers and doctors.
“We also will accept and be delighted to have individual property owners. That’s part of our bylaws but we’ve never much thought about it.”
A first task is studying what innovations other communities in the same shape are doing to brace up local businesses.
“Towns all over the country are facing the same thing we are here,” McGuire observes. “It makes you feel better that others are struggling with you and rewarding that others are trying to figure it out also.”
As an example, she cited a move by business groups in Alexandria, Va., to enhance a two-block neighborhood, named Delray – by getting a local butcher shop started.
As she noted, a butcher shop has the benefit of bringing customers to a location throughout the day and through the working week – something shops in downtown Chestertown, many catering to weekend visitors, could appreciate.
Asked about that afterward, McGuire turned cautious: “I’m fearful of being specific. In this town you mention one thing, and the next thing [people think] a butcher is going to open next week. We don’t want to do that [be specific about early ideas].”
But she insists DCA today is “very organized and very methodical. When we bring something forward it will be because we’ve done a lot of homework.”
As she told the Town Council, looking around Chestertown she was reminded of a television program titled Life After People.
“None of us, in our entire community, can afford, nor want, ‘Chestertown After Business.’”
Flushed Drugs Harming Bay Fish
WASHINGTON – Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler said Tuesday that pharmaceuticals flushed into the waste stream pose a risk to the environment and called for a national prescription drug “take-back” program to remedy the issue.
Gansler moderated a panel at the National Association of Attorneys General meeting on the ecological risks of throwing away medicines. He also spoke of efforts to control the impact on waterways that feed into the Chesapeake Bay.
“We have many fish in Maryland and Virginia and other states that no longer know whether they are boys or girls,” said Gansler, noting reports of fish found with both male and female reproductive parts in the region.
The problem is pharmaceuticals entering rivers and streams from wastewater, agricultural run-off, prescription drug production and “what we do” with leftover medicines,” said Ellen Silbergeld, an environmental research professor at Johns Hopkins University.
“Prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs and antibiotics are among the top four most frequently detected chemicals in our water systems of this country,” said Silbergeld.
“Nearly half of Americans take one to two prescription drugs every year and, in fact, a large number take many more,” she added. “This kind of activity directly impacts on our environment.”
The nation must improve its management of pharmaceutical use, production and disposal, invest in the national sanitation infrastructure and gain control over non-essential issues like agriculture and the widespread use of antimicrobial agents in personal care products, in order to begin solving the problem, said Silbergeld.
A national “take-back” program, which Gansler called for, was the primary solution discussed. It would offer a “green” way for people to toss out prescriptions.
Gansler said he hopes for a “true” program headed by pharmaceutical companies in conjunction with drug stores that would allow customers to obtain refills and dispose of the rest in an “oil drum” outside the store.
“It would stay there until it gets filled up and every month or so, the sheriffs or law enforcement would come, take that drum to a hazmat incineration facility and [safely get rid of their prescriptions],” he said, adding that such a program would not cost much.
[By Andrew Katz of Capital News Service]
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 as a major player nationwide in marketing, advertising and public relations.
Benchworks, which moved its operations to Kent County in 2003 – into owner Thad Bench’s barn at Worth’s Folly Farm at Worton, with a staff of four – has rapidly grown to 25 fulltime employees with an additional 75 contract workers.
Its latest expansion in early February saw it taking over Seed House at the Radcliffe Mill complex, to be the site of its creative services headquarters.
Bench reckons Benchworks could be Chestertown’s 15th largest employer today in terms of payroll and staff. He says negotiations with new clients could see the business doubling in size over the next year.
“Benchworks is now in the top one percent nationally of marketing services firms in revenue,” says Bench. He notes that a company such as his doesn’t like to talk specifically about dollars and cents, but he puts revenue in excess of $10 million annually.
“Most of our clients are Fortune 500,” says Bench. They include Coca-Cola, Pfizer, Ryland Homes, Shire Pharmaceuticals, Honest Tea and Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
At present Benchworks is helping Coca-Cola with the launching of new brands, VEB and FUZE. And
all the work, ad copy, designs, sets and filming are being done right here in Kent County.
Why is a company like this thriving in Kent County? Why not Madison Avenue? Or Baltimore, Chicago, LA or DC?
“Kent County has been an absolute Godsend to us,” says Bench. “The people we’ve found here are very capable, very qualified. And clients love coming to Kent County, they think it’s a special place.
“It’s great to get work done here. We have an old granary building out on the farm and I’ve converted it into a guest house and meeting facility. We do brand strategy there. It’s really a special place and people recognize it for what it is.”
But what about reaching out to new clients? How is that done when the closest major airports are Philadelphia and Baltimore?
“We like to say we are equally inconvenient to everything,” says Bench. “But that was the Faustian deal made in coming here. I knew I’d have to travel and the bulk of clients are not found locally. I will say that after a week of travel and I get to the airport, and home is still an hour and a half away, it’s a little dispiriting.
“But as soon as I go over the Bay Bridge my bloodpressure goes down 30 points.”
In addition to Seed House, Benchworks is keeping its 44,000-square-foot warehouse and offices on Talbot Boulevard for daily operations, production and distribution.
Bench says his company works closely with other creative services, like Mullen-Ashley, and has found other exceptional local talents such as filmmaker and videographer Kurt Kolaja and artist Marcie Ramsey for illustrations.
Benchworks is in late stage negotiations with new clients in the pharmaceutical industry, and Bench says if those go favorably the company could easily double revenue in the coming year. “Then we’ll need to add staff.”
“Our hope is we can encourage this type of growth and maybe make Kent County a nexus for creative services talent.”
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 the college, was a man who represents the best of what graduates of that time remember about their alma mater.
When I was a student at Washington College in the early 1970s, Coach Athey was the Director of Athletics as well as the head soccer and baseball coach. I remember thinking that Coach was old then, as he was over thirty.
In fact he was in his fifties at the time, was in great shape, and still a competitive athlete. Whenever we passed through Cain Gym and happened upon the noontime badminton matches between Coach Athey and Coach Don Chattellier, we dropped everything to watch, as these were spectator events of extraordinary athleticism, and not to be missed.
Coach was still the basketball pick-up player of choice (along with Coach Tom Finnegan), but the special treat was when he would show us his two-hand set shot from mid-court. Making these shots straight-up was routine for Coach.
The interesting shot was when he would call it “through the rafters and nothing but net.” Somehow he would weave the ball up through the metal rafters and find the way down through the net, without it touching anything. This seemingly impossible shot was twenty years before the famous Larry Bird ad on TV, and was real. Coach would make more of these than he missed, and when I stand at mid-court today I still can’t see how he did it.
Coach Athey was my first real boss. How lucky was I? As a twenty-five-year-old head coach at Washington College, I was fortunate enough to work under him as the Athletic Director. Needless to say, I was spoiled for life.
As challenging and emotionally taxing as coaching can be, especially for a (too) young head coach, it is indescribable how fortunate I was to have had a mentor with the wisdom, compassion, perspective and love for people and life that Coach Athey had. His spirit has always been truly infectious.
Athey’s Field is a wonderful collection of many of the stories of Washington College heroes, history and traditions that Coach Athey was a part of. A set of stories is framed around the coaches, teams and athletes that, like Coach Athey, chose to make this College their home. His mentors: Tom Kibler and Charley Clark; his friends and peers: Don Chatellier and Don Kelly; his coaches: Tom Finnegan, Penny Fall, Fred Wyman and Holly Bramble; and the countless athletes who loved him because they were fortunate enough to play for him and those who loved him only because they knew him.
For any who experienced Washington College between the late 1940s and the late 1980s, it is all still Athey’s Field. Some of us are just lucky enough to be keeping his seat warm.
Over the last fifty years no man has managed to touch and inspire more members of the Washington College family.
And, next time you are in Cain Gym, go to mid-court and see if you can figure out how he made those shots.
[By Bryan L. Matthews, Washington College Director of Athletics, Excerpted from Athey’s Field, from Literary House Press]
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 State Fire Marshal Paul Schlotterbeck reports the sudden fire destroyed a 564-foot-long, tin-covered wooden chicken house on the farm of Lee Troyer and somewhat damaged another adjacent poultry dormitory.
Damages to the structures are estimated at $175,000. The loss of the chickens was said to be $8,000.
Sixty-two firefighters from the Kennedyville, Chestertown, Betterton, Galena, Millington and Crumpton volunteer fire departments responded to the fire that broke out at 11 a.m. Friday. It took them about an hour to put it out.
No people were injured. No one was inside the building, except for the chickens. The cause of the fire is unknown. Schlotterbeck said the conflagration was “not considered suspicious in any way.”
Enviromental Groups Sue Perdue
ANNAPOLIS – A coalition of environmental groups is suing Perdue Farms Inc. and a farm that contracts with Perdue, saying the farm illegally discharged “harmful pollution” into the Pocomoke River.
The Assateague Coastal Trust and the Waterkeeper Alliance in December filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue after Assateague Coastkeeper Kathy Phillips said she sampled water flowing from Hudson Farms on Logtown Road in Berlin and found high levels of bacteria.
That bacteria included levels of fecal coliform and E. coli in concentrations far exceeding state limits, Phillips said.
Phillips described the Assateague Coastkeeper position as an “on-the-water advocate who patrols and protects the Maryland and northern Virginia Eastern Shore.”
Phillips said she was on a regular monitoring flight from the Ocean City airport when she saw standing water and piles of waste near drainage ditches on the Hudson farm.
The Assateague Coastkeeper and Waterkeeper Alliance announced on Dec. 17 they had filed a letter of intent to sue, noting uncovered manure piles on the property.
Maryland Department of the Environment officials inspected the farm Dec. 18, 21 and 23, and Jan. 7, said Dawn Stoltzfus, a spokeswoman for MDE.
The inspectors saw a “large stockpile of Class A sewage sludge” — not manure — stored next to a waterway. At MDE’s request, the sludge was moved to a covered area away from a drainage ditch, Stoltzfus said.
The MDE inspectors performed a detailed assessment Jan. 26, taking samples of the sludge and water samples at various locations along the drainage ditch, Stoltzfus said. The samples showed high levels of bacteria, Stoltzfus said.
Scott Edwards, director of advocacy for the Waterkeeper Alliance, said group representatives were not able to go onto the farm. But he said the farming industry has operated “in secret for so many years,” it is hard to determine exactly what is going on.
Phillips said she can see some of the methods by traveling around the Eastern Shore. Some farms are doing the right thing, she said, but this one caught her eye because of the piles of waste near the back of the farm.
“Poultry growers who do the responsible thing, who keep their facility clean, it costs them money to make that extra effort, but they’re out there doing it,” she said.
The lawsuit asks for $37,500 per day of violation, though the number of days of violation would be determined in court.
Phillips said the lawsuit is not anti-farm or anti-agriculture.
But Edwards repeatedly criticized the poultry farming industry — and said he thinks federal guidelines that allow open storage of waste for 14 days are “irresponsible.”
“The notion of the family farm is long gone here in the United States,” he said. “These aren’t the pastoral, bucolic activities that people think of. These are factories.”
[By Jennifer Hlad of Capital News Service]
