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 of State people to arrive to take us on what is supposed to be a tour of a ’similar’ facility to the proposed FASTC – The MD Public Safety Education and Training Center (PSETC) in Sykesville, Md.  Before we leave the parking lot we are told that there will be NO explosions demonstrated today and handed yet another white, glossy, embossed folder with premium pages of “info” about the Sykesville Academy.  Yet another waste of taxpayer’s dollars.

As the bus we are on climbs the huge hill to get there, you can hear the engine lugging and I laugh as I think of The Little Engine That Could.  We pull in and my first thought is this is nothing like Ruthsburg.  The hills, valleys and natural terrain are so far from that of home – similar?

We get off the bus and go into a classroom where two instructors give us a rundown of what they do there as far as training and tell us that they receive few phone calls in reference to the noise.  We ask questions and find that they set off maybe two explosions per year less than 3 pounds, there are NO armored vehicles, there is NO mock urban warfare zone and they have maybe 18 employees – similar?

The lead “instructor”, Mr. Liebno, is to be our tour guide today and we board the bus again to see the facility.  First are the driving tracks.  As you look around you see lots of paved roads with intersections, stop signs, arrows, etc. just like anywhere you drive pretty much, but you don’t see any cars.  I thought we were here to get an idea of what will be going on at the FASTC driving tracks, not see a ghost town – NO CARS!?  We ask if they can put someone on the track for us, and our tour guide says “sure.”

After a few minutes of standing in the cold at the side of the “high speed” track, two police cars fly by us at about 70 mph on the straight-away then circle around and come back up the hill to stop in front of us.  Our thoughts; we can see that on 50/301 anytime.  There were no screeching tires, no brakes …. Hmmm – similar?  We asked Mr. Liebno about this and he tells us that it is quite costly to go through all that rubber and wear and tear on the car and adds that the smell from those maneuvers makes him sick to his stomach.  What a colossal disappointment.  We were not impressed.

The only thing left is their firing range since there is no mock urban warfare zone and no explosives – not even flash bangs.  These are 25 yard and 50 yard ranges that have concrete flooring with 3 concrete walls and what looks like waffling aluminum roofing.  There are 3 men shooting 9mm pistols and one 12 gauge shot gun.  We are told that we cannot get off the bus without ear protection.  Guns blazing on the 50 yard range made it impossible to hold a conversation even with the person sitting next to you on the bus.

We wanted to hear it from outside so they took us uphill 300 feet from the range and we got off the bus.  After a moment or two they started firing the pistols and the sound was horrendous!  The 9mm pistols blasted away and we were devastated to think we would be hearing this all day long not to mention it was only three guys NOT the 20 – 30 students proposed for the FASTC.  Some actually jumped at the blast of the 12 gauge.  These were not even the larger weaponry; I.e., 45 cal machine guns – again, similar?  Totally unacceptable!!

So to summarize:

PSETC                                                           FASTC

Mountainous terrain                                  Flat terrain

18 employees (only saw 4)                        400 employees

NO students                                                  450 students

Pistols and 12 gauge                                   45 cal machine guns, etc.

2 police cars                                                  100’s of cars including armored vehicles

NO mock urban warfare                             3 Mock urban warfare zones

NO rifle range                                               Indoor/Outdoor rifle range

Explosive detonations 2/yr                        Explosive detonations 3,323/yr

Similar???

I went, I saw, I wasted an entire day.  I am sure that when Senator Mikulski suggested this, she actually meant it should be a site that was actually similar to the Ruthsburg proposal so we could get a feel for what it will really be like at the FASTC.

They had weeks to prepare for this, months even.  I, and I am sure the others, expected tires squealing, cars racing around, braking, circling on the skid pads – lots of action; dozens of shooters blasting 45 caliber machine guns NOT  pistols; explosions/flash bangs; even a hostage situation at the mock urban warfare zone.  What we got……..yet another COLOSSAL government disappointment.

Sherry Adam
1636 Ruthsburg Rd
Ruthsburg MD

Spy Op-Ed: In the People’s Service? by Rachel Carter Goss

To say that I am confused by the activities and relationships of the FASTC Opposition groups is an understatement.   Queen Anne’s Conservation Association, Inc. (“QACA”) is an established organization. Citizens for Greater Centreville (“CGC”) is a separate “group” – it has a blog and posts on many different Centreville issues.  When I first happened upon the CGC I thought I would become a member, since my family home is in Centreville.  I was confused that the suggested membership donation would be made to QACA.  Why?  I thought maybe QACA controlled the site but then researched and saw that CGC has its own President and Vice President.  If CGC has its own leadership/administration then why would the donations go to QACA?  Oh, well –I just chose not to join and now I just respond on their blog.

Then, I read a few letters – boycott letters in particular – that were signed by Citizens for Ruthsburg.  These letters referred to their website, CGC.  Even stranger, I thought, was that the address used by this group was a home address.  When I inquired about the CFR on the Facebook page, Discuss & Stay Informed: Proposed Security Training Center in Ruthsburg, MD, I was told that the Facebook page was the closest thing the group had to its own website. I found this odd because I hadn’t seen any indication that a group was running the page. The person who responded to my inquiry wrote that he had made a donation to CFR and that check went through – wasn’t that enough for me to believe that the group was legitimate.  No, I thought – it is not.  I checked to see if the CFR had filed for 501 (c)(3) status – it hadn’t and it wasn’t even an established LLC – so how could it take donations?  I was left with more confusion…CGC = QACA = CFR = CGC…?

So, why would CFR (aka Friends of Ruthsburg) need money?  There is clear reference to the CGC website.  It is already established so that shouldn’t cost any money.  The man who lives at the home address used in the boycott letters has mentioned that he has over 2,000 pages of documentation ‘against’ the FASTC – well, I thought…maybe the donation money is paying for paper and printer ink.  Some of the people in Ruth burg mentioned they were going to make yard signs.  I don’t know if they did, but maybe the money would be used for the signage?  I was still confused.

Then, I heard that there was going to be a private meeting to be held at the Ruthsburg Community Center and a video was to be presented.  I also heard that copies of the video/DVD had been made and would be distributed.  So, maybe that’s why the CFR needs money – to burn DVDs.   The day after the meeting I asked about the DVD – I was promptly told that it was copyrighted, but I could make a donation to the CFR or FOR of $5 for the DVD – the $5 covers cost of production and shipping.  Hmmm.  How could a non-501 (c)(3) take donations?  And, once it was announced that the DVD would be available in a few local shops/businesses, I thought – well, shouldn’t the cost be less than $5 because there wouldn’t be a shipping cost incurred.  I was still confused.

If the CFR is neither a 5013c nor an LLC how can they take $5 in any way?  Shouldn’t they charge sales tax if they are selling a product?  Well, I later read that QACA would take the $5 as a tax-deductible donation and give the $5 to CFR and they would send me the DVD.  I suppose that is allowed…

With our economy as it is right now, $5 is $5.  QACA is an influential group and, according to past tax returns, they have pretty deep pockets.   So, if everyone involved with CFR/FOR/CGC/QACA is so dedicated to the people of Ruthsburg, why didn’t QACA just pay for the production costs of the DVD along with any expenses accrued for travel, lodging, food… and let people make a tax-deductible donation,  if they choose straight, to QACA?  But, since that doesn’t seem to be the case, I am still confused how a non-501(c)(3) group can take donations and/or why they aren’t charging sales tax.  Maybe the $5 covers production, shipping and sales tax – but what if it’s not shipped to the buyer – I have a headache.

If anyone can clarify…, I would really appreciate it.

Rachel Carter Goss

Spy Op-Ed: The Kids Come First by Bob Kramer

I believe it is quite evident from the public hearings that the parents and citizens of the County of Kent care very much about our public education system. It should also be quite evident that our elected Board of Education (BOE), Superintendent Barbara Wheeler and the Central Office staff have done an in-depth analysis that has presented the public with four proposals regarding the school consolidation issue.

While I think each of the four proposals are well thought out and offer many advantages including substantial savings, I believe choosing one of them (or Proposal #5 – do nothing or Frank B. Rhodes ingenious Proposal #6) is the easy way out. And that’s why I’m offering Proposal #7, the hard choice, but the better one for the long run and will transform our public school system into an economic asset for the county. And here are some supporting thoughts…

A. A community school adds 10-25% to local property values. It’s difficult to say that eliminating a community school would reduce property values in Rock Hall, Millington or Galena by 25%, but even at 10% reduction in any of these communities would result in losses of property tax revenue by about $75,000 + or – within three years.

B. Many parents are considering home schooling and private school alternatives, if their local schools are affected. IF just 50 students depart the Kent County Public School System (KCPS), that results in an incremental loss of almost $300,000 annually in state funding. And depending where these departures come from, it might make further changes necessary.

C. Eventually the economy will rebound and parents will be looking at the County of Kent as a possible new location. IF the State Department does build its facility in Ruthsburg, then there might even more parents looking for schools for their kids. Hopefully, KCPS would be one of their choices. Will the changes in Proposals #1-7 make us more or less competitive with the other counties?

The potential dollar losses in A. and B. above seem to cover any savings in all the proposals except for #4, which seems too extreme to be considered a viable solution. And we’re still left with big future revenue opportunities in C. above and that’s why we should make these changes in stages as I have proposed in #7 (and I understand the logistics problems associated with the K-5 change). We cannot afford to exacerbate the student defections that we’ve been facing in recent years. And I’m not sure the founding families of the Charter School initiative will be engaged enough to consider moving their kids to KCPS… and that’s more lost incremental income.

I’m uncomfortable with putting price tags on school kids’ heads, but that’s what education in Maryland has come down to for a small county like ours. We have to do something, but we have to get it perfect the first time. We just don’t have any margin for errors.

I’m a newcomer to our slice of paradise, but what I’ve learned in ten short years is that there is a tremendous community spirit in our county. This may be a common trait for all rural counties, but I really think we’re more than a bit unique. In any case, don’t our kids come first?

Proposal #7

Keep all schools open.

Extend all elementary schools to K through 5th grade.

Move the Alternative School to the High School (or Chestertown Middle School)

Relocate the Central Office to Chestertown Middle School (or the High School). Invest the proceeds from the sale of the 215 Washington Avenue building into one time educational opportunities so as to not create any tag along operational expenses in future years. There also should be an opportunity to move several Central Office positions to other schools that would create an embedded co-joined sense of involvement in the day to day operations of the individual schools.

Create a strategic Blue Ribbon panel to include parents, educators and citizens (as representatives of the taxpayers) to review:

A. The state school funding formula. It’s not enough to keep saying that this formula is unfair to our small system. We should present what we feel are the necessary changes that would include a base allocation of funds for every system that would eliminate the economy of scale discrepancies between the large and small systems.

B. Evaluate the budget prospects for the next three fiscal years and what operational changes would need to be made to operate within those confines.

C. Delineate what would need to be done to meet all state curriculum requirements within the next three years.

D. Review all school consolidation possibilities.

E. Recommend a permanent location for the central office.

F. Invent the future of KCPS based on a thorough analysis of how the dynamics of STEM, 21st Century, Charter School and Magnet School initiatives can synergized.

G. Provide a continuous feedback at each BOE meeting… with a final report and recommendations due at the January or February 2011 BOE meeting

Spy Op-Ed: The Lipstick on The Collar by John Lang

There’s a story of a man coming in his front door at dawn who tells his wife he worked late and didn’t want to disturb her so he slept in the hammock in the backyard. She advises there’s lipstick on his collar and, besides, she gave away that hammock last month. And he says, “Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”

John Colmers, secretary of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, could have heard that line. He’s sticking to his story: “There is a community mental health infrastructure on the Eastern Shore.”

Never mind that mental health professionals have testified that such “infrastructure” is negligible. At present, Upper Shore has 40 beds for psychiatric care — and they are full. When its doors are locked, where will those people go? The nearest such public center is in Cambridge, and its beds are already just as full. The only other nearby option is Union Hospital, a private facility in Elkton with just five beds for mental care. The Chester River Hospital Center here doesn’t have a psychiatric unit.

Yet even today Colmers argues otherwise in a belated reply to an email sent to Gov. Martin O’Malley a couple months ago by a Chestertown resident urging that Upper Shore Community Mental Health Center be kept open.

He does acknowledge, “There are areas that need to be enhanced.” But he does not specify what those enhancements need to be.

It is only fair to the mentally ill that facilities like Upper Shore be closed, Colmers contends.

As he explains it, Maryland’s health care system has resulted in persons receiving care regardless of ability to pay, adding, “The exception to this has been the way mental health has been handled on the Eastern Shore.”

Colmers points out that an individual who has insurance is treated in the private system. But here, one who is uninsured gets referred to a state hospital for in-patient services.

“This is unacceptable,” Colmers writes. “Our plan is to fix this inequity.”

And therefore the Upper Shore Center will close on March 1. After that, the plan is, if you are uninsured and admitted to an emergency room, you will be admitted to the inpatient unit at that hospital, or be transferred to a general hospital with an in- patient psychiatric unit.

“All Maryland citizens should have access to the same care regardless of ability to pay,” Colmers concludes.

It’s a rendering of real world equity that brings to mind the bon mot of Anatole France: “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to beg in the streets, steal bread, or sleep under a bridge.”

What if the local hospital, such as Chestertown’s, doesn’t have a psychiatric unit? What if the nearest hospital that does is several counties away, or even in another state, like Delaware? Where do the crazed and indigent go, who have no other place for rest? Except beneath a bridge?

Colmers doesn’t address any of that, but he’s sticking to his story, “There is a community mental health infrastructure on the Eastern Shore.”

Which sounds like a man in need of a hammock.

Spy Op-Ed: Delay School Plans by Tom McHugh

The Rock Hall meeting to hear the proposals for Kent County school closings was another example of the spirit and commitment of the Rock Hall community to our local schools.

As a retired educator, trainer of teachers, and Professor of Educational Studies, I would argue strongly for a delay in any attempt to reorganize our county school system.  The proposals from the school administration reek of bad planning and a headlong rush to what could be a terrible decision. At the very least, Proposition #5 should be the choice, at least for now.

Even a cursory exploration on the web of “best school practices” regarding school closures shows you that the first recommendation is the formation of a task force of community leaders, to include:

• business people
• community workers
• parents
• teachers
• religious leaders
• civic organizations
• land owners/ and brokers

This task force would take on the role of gathering facts. Often this process is a year long sequence…not a few weeks. Working with such a group, the county school leaders might work toward consensus and avoid antagonistic confrontation.  Transparency would be assured.

I have worked with public schools in several states over my 40 year career.  In every case drastic moves like school closures are motivated by the real pressures of finances and state mandates.  Both pressures are present in this current situation.  But we must firmly emphasize to our leaders that Rock Hall has a system which works.  Parents whose kids have gone through our schools know that our two schools emphasize the real qualities of a good eduation: caring teachers and administrators, amazingly strong parental involvement, broad community support and academic achievement by the students.  Words like “family” and “fun” and “neighborhood” and “helping” are expressive of what we do here.  Good writing, reading, and math/technology skills flow from those characteristics…not from ipods,or twitters, or technology “integrators”.

Let me close with a quote from the California Department of Education…” The decision to close a school is anguishing. It profoundly affects parents, neighborhoods, communities, district personnel, and, of course, students. It affects relationships, routines, and cherished territorialities. In short, it alters not only district operations but also lives.”

The Kent County school administration and the Kent County school board owe us a period of time…for study and for careful thought. They should not ignore Rock Hall’s call for a stop to their actions. The meeting at Rock Hall Middle School last night would be the envy of most public school systems in this country…we had retired people, teachers, kids, politicians, watermen, parents…all there for one reason: to fight to maintain schools that work.

Thomas F. McHugh,Ph.D
Professor Emeritus, Education
Vassar College

Spy Op-Ed: Will the Church be Relevant in 21st Century by David LaMotte, Jr.

The Chestertown Spy sponsored a forum on November 7th that brought together the rectors of five local Episcopal Church parishes and the question posed was “will the Protestant Episcopal Church exist in the 21st Century, and if so, why would it be relevant to believers?”

As a follow-up I would like to offer some thoughts on a broader question, will THE Church be relevant to spiritual growth in the 21st Century?  Or perhaps put another way, will Christianity become less or more relevant to spiritual growth in the 21st Century, and what can the Church do to be relevant in the future?  As ludicrous as these questions may initially seem, I think they are worth asking to bring about thought and dialog.

I read recently that there are more than 38,000 Christian denominations around the world.  These are churches or groups of churches, like the sizeable Episcopal Church, that differ from each other in some way, be it their worship service or their interpretation of scripture or in some other way.  Within each of these denominations there are numerous differences in beliefs that often cause great struggles, such as the dramatic divisions presently taking place in the Episcopal Church.  And within each individual parish there are broad ranges of beliefs that are sufficient for constant debate and parishioner change.

What about the rest of the world’s population, the majority of the souls sharing this planet who participate in other organized religions or none?  I venture to say there are no two people, be they siblings or strangers, who share all of the same beliefs.  And why should we?  It seems to me every individual has his or her own treasure chest of experiences.  Cultures and educations vary dramatically, and so do individuals’ experiences, no matter how close genetically or environmentally two people may be.

Hopefully, at some point an individual recognizes there is more to life than survival, than seeking pleasure and avoiding pain.  Each person’s search for meaning is paramount, whether it leads to a concept of or even a relationship with God, with the Universe, and it needs to be respected.  Is it really so important that everyone’s beliefs and search be the same as yours and mine?  Surely not, but clearly the core of what we believe does matter, it matters for our own growth, for assisting others in their growth and for mankind’s positive evolution.

It is so incredibly simple and so incredibly complicated.  It is painfully elusive to mankind but a part of every human’s life, no matter his or her circumstances.  In its fullness it is beyond human comprehension yet the opportunity to experience it and gain some understanding of it is available to everyone all the time.  It is what so many who die and are resuscitated emphatically stress that It’s all about when they say “what I thought was important in life really isn’t, how did I not know?”  It is what we are so easily distracted from in our churches and synagogues and temples as we gravitate toward all the things we disagree about, but it is the core of every Christian denomination and every organized religion.   And it is what Christ tried to tell us and what the Church has tried to capture and communicate but so often failed miserably in its countless interpretations.

Will the Church be relevant in the 21st Century?  How can the Church stay true to its critical mission?  How can it better avoid the distractions that divide us from each other within the Church and divide us from the rest of the planet’s souls?  How will the Church evolve as man’s consciousness grows, as man seeks the truth in light of his ever expanding scientific understanding of our universe, albeit quite miniscule, and as he becomes less satisfied with religious dogma and less content to accept the Church’s explanations based upon scripture selected by the early Church, or at least the Church’s interpretation of this limited selection of ancient scripture?

The Church will most certainly be relevant in the 21st Century because like other religious institutions it is built upon Love, love of an all-knowing and all-loving creator or God, love for all persons and love for all of creation, our world and the universe.  This is Christ’s overwhelming and overarching message, and it is the fundamental truth on which the world’s other recognized religions are based.  It is focusing on this truth, measuring all choices against this truth and avoiding being mislead by all other lesser beliefs, which detract from this simple but infinitely misunderstood truth, that will enable the Church and other institutions, which are vehicles for helping us comprehend and create love, to be vitally relevant forever.

The Church will continue to be relevant with its countless denominations and parishes appealing to the broad spectrum of individuals in their unique, conscious or subconscious, quests for meaning and for support in their relations with God and the Universe.  But it will need to be vigilant in focusing on what Christ was trying to help us understand and internalize about Love. It must be careful not to limit its interpretation of Christ’s message of Love and not to portray itself as the exclusive religious source of Love and of relationship with the Creator and the Universe.

Oh leaders of our churches, gone must be the days of dwelling on sin and endless debate of who Jesus was and what the ancient texts were saying or not saying.  The Church is carrier of the greatest messages of Love the world has known yet continues to trip all over itself.  The world is still starving for Love and is so filled with fear, seemingly unaware that we are eternal and only temporarily here, trying to survive and enjoy this brief life, but mostly here to learn, experience, show and teach Love.

It seems the veil between our dimensions of this life and the next is thinning and man’s awareness of multiple dimensions is growing with the frequency of related experiences and with science’s new theories and discoveries.  As Christ’s message of Love becomes more clear, more universal and poignant through these experiences and this knowledge, the Church must evolve with its fundamental yet very dynamic truth.  And I would venture to bet Christ is counting on the Church doing just that.

Godspeed Church of the 21st Century!

Spy Op-Ed: Health Policy over Politics by Rep. Frank Kratovil

The discussion of health care reform has been one of the most partisan and heated public debates our country has seen in years.  As a freshman lawmaker, it has certainly been an eye-opening experience.  What has struck me the most, however, wasn’t the anger and unruliness that grabbed so many headlines during August, but rather the number of people I would encounter who believed that I should commit to voting one way or the other before even knowing what would be included or excluded from the legislation.   This was perhaps the only aspect of the health care debate that was truly bipartisan; I heard from many Republicans who demanded that I oppose any health care reform package, regardless of its contents, while some Democrats have told me I had a duty to unquestioningly support the bill simply because it was a priority for my party’s leadership.

It’s unfortunate that this debate – on one of the most important challenges facing our nation today – has been reduced to such a black-or-white oversimplification.  The need for reform is clear:  Without reform, premiums and out-of-pocket expenses continue to rise rapidly for both middle class families and employers. But the pathway for achieving reform is far more complex.  The goals of reform must be two-fold:  expanding coverage and reducing long-term costs by significantly slowing the rate of health care inflation.  This health care reform debate offers us a historic opportunity, but passing a bill that does not truly achieve these goals would waste this historic moment.

Since the introduction of H.R. 3200 in July, I have voiced a number of concerns about the legislation.  Chief among these were the bill’s failure to curb long-term costs, it’s potential to increase the deficit, and its inadequate protections for small employers, which I fear may have an adverse impact on job creation.   Following the August recess, I also led a group of my fellow freshman in sending a letter to House Leadership urging them to include additional reform proposals in this bill, such as allowing insurance companies to compete across state lines and promoting policies to reduce medical errors, lawsuits, and medical malpractice rates.

While the revised H.R. 3962 made progress toward these goals, I am not convinced that the final bill is a fiscally sustainable approach to reforming health care.  The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) indicates that the bill does not reduce long-term health care costs, and that it drastically increases federal health care spending in the near-term and long-term.  Furthermore, while the bill is projected to decrease the deficit over the first 10 years, the CBO said this reduction is largely due to the removal of a $210 billion provision to correct the formula by which doctors are paid under Medicare.  That “Doc Fix” language was moved into a companion bill, which Congress will consider later this month.  Taken together, these bills will increase the deficit substantially in the years ahead.

To be successful, health care reform must both expand coverage and reduce long-term costs.  Unfortunately, this health care reform legislation will significantly increase long-term spending, is unlikely to reduce the deficit, and even costs several hundred billion dollars more than the $900 billion target for which President Obama has advocated.  As the debate moves to the Senate, both parties would be well advised to dial back the propaganda, put down the talking points, and focus instead on the substance of legislation before them.  I’m hopeful that a better bill is still possible, one that more effectively bends the cost curve while going further to protect small businesses, increase competition, and decrease the deficit.  If and when a bill does come back from the Senate, it will be policy, not politics, that will determine my support.

Spy Op-Ed: Chesapeake Clean Up Plans by John Mann

Earlier this year President Barack Obama referred to the Chesapeake Bay as a “national treasure” and issued an executive order to restore its health.  His plan, revealed on Monday, calls for the EPA to set a series of two-year milestones meant to bring the current cleanup effort (started in 2000) up to speed by 2025.  This strategy represents a shift in leadership from the state level to the federal one.

J. Charles Fox, the EPA’s Senior Advisor on the Chesapeake Bay and Anacostia River, says efforts on the state and individual levels will still be a crucial component for success, “We have to do this in close partnership with state governments and those in the private sector.  We simply cannot succeed on our own,” he said in a conference call with reporters.

It appears that the Obama administration will try to elicit change with both the incentive of benefits and the threat of punishments.  Federal officials pledged $90 million more a year in payments to farmers operating within the Chesapeake Bay watershed.  This “aggressive, voluntary partnership effort” is meant to get farmers to incorporate environmentally friendly practices (such as planting cover crops in the winter) in order to prevent polluted runoff from entering the Chesapeake Bay.

There are also provisions in the plan to work with Maryland and Virginia agencies on rebuilding the oyster and crab populations.  On an individual level, volunteers would have the opportunity to join a proposed Chesapeake Conservation Corps, where they would learn “green” job skills while working to improve the estuary’s health.

If states aren’t meeting EPA guidelines, possible consequences could include rejection of environmental permits, cuts in federal funding, or the blocking of new development, however the specific sanctions won’t be spelled out until later this year.  The public will have a chance to comment on this plan until Jan. 8 when it will enter its finalization stage.  Chestertown residents will have a chance to question Mr. Fox in person this week.

Both Mr. Fox and Ann Pesiri Swanson, Executive Director of the Chesapeake Bay Commission will be at the Prince Theatre this Sunday delivering a lecture entitled, Restoring the Chesapeake Bay: The Next Step (For details, visit www.ehos.org).  This event, hosted by Echo Hill Outdoor School, is the inaugural Walter B. Harris Memorial Environmental Lecture.

John Mann is the Assistant Director of Echo Hill Outdoor School

Spy Op-Ed: School Food and Democracy? By Nancy Taylor Robson

A Sept. 21 2009 article in The Nation written by slow-food guru, Alice Waters, notes the building evidence for the mind-body connection when it comes to food. Especially food and kids. The article mentions Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 documentary, Super Size Me, which features (among other things) Central Alternative High School, a school for troubled youth in Appleton, Wisconsin. In looking for ways to turn things around, Central’s teachers, parents and administrators changed the food. Instead of the usual processed meals, the school cafeteria began offering fresh, locally grown, low-fat, low-sugar alternatives. The healthier meals are delicious. The students love them. They perform better in class and don’t get sick as often. And strikingly, discipline problems dropped sharply. “We are learning [Waters writes] that when schools serve healthier meals, they solve serious educational and health-related problems.”

This should not come as a surprise but somehow does. But Waters goes on to say that that’s not the real end of our story – or shouldn’t be.

“…what’s missing from the national conversation about school lunch reform is the opportunity to use food to teach values that are central to democracy. Better food isn’t just about test scores, health and discipline. It is about preparing students for the responsibilities of citizenship.

“That’s why we need to talk about edible education, not just school lunch reform. Edible education is a radical yet common-sense approach to teaching that integrates classroom instruction, school lunch, cooking and gardening into the studies of math, science, history and reading.

“Edible education involves not only teaching children about where food comes from and how it is produced but giving them responsibilities in the school garden and kitchen. Students literally enjoy the fruits of their labor when the food they grow is served in healthy, delicious lunches that they can help prepare.”

Sabine Harvey’s school gardens are another piece of the puzzle.

Spy Op-ed: The Real Waterfront Story by Bryan Matthews

Chestertown is about to receive a wonderful gift. It won’t cost the citizens a thing, and in fact everyone will benefit many times over.

A contaminated site is about to become clean and beautiful.

Rather than condominiums, townhouses, and apartments that would have maximized profits, college facilities and open space will prevail.

An attractive Boathouse and even a Center for the Environment will eventually grow from the ground.

A public Riverwalk will emerge.

Chestertown will have a beautiful waterfront Gateway.

Like most things, this didn’t happen by accident.

KRM (former owner) could have developed this property any time in the last 15 years and it would have been gone forever.

It chose not to.

KRM could have sold it to developers who would have developed it.

It chose not to.

Washington College has coveted this property (adjacent to our current waterfront) for many years.

Roy Kirby knew the College wanted and needed this property.

Roy and KRM came to the mutual conclusion that the best interests of the College and Chestertown were for the College to acquire this property.

It was not the most lucrative conclusion for either party.

KRM sold the entire property (Stepne & the waterfront) to Roy because Roy made the commitment that he would split the property and ensure the College’s position.

Roy has sold the most valuable piece of Chestertown waterfront property to Washington College for more than $3million less than the current appraised value.

He could have developed it.

He chose not to.

The College has committed to clean up the site, beyond what federal and state laws require it to do.

With Chairman Ed Nordberg’s careful leadership, the College has been involved in this process for over two years, and is well aware of all information regarding contamination and clean-up options.

The best available professionals have been secured, and using modern testing procedures they have investigated all possibilities.

The most current EPA and MDE standards have been and will continue to be met.

The College is fortunate to have the resources to enlist the best expertise available.

It will not happen overnight, but in the coming years the citizens of Chestertown will see a sick piece of land along the river come to life.

In the not-too-distant future Chestertown will enjoy a new treasure along the Chester.

Something to celebrate.

Bryan Matthews is Director of Athletics and Associate Vice President for Administrative Services for Washington College.

Spy Op-ed: CRA Faults State and County by Tom Leigh, RIVERKEEPER®

The Chester River Association is profoundly disappointed with the process that approved construction of a private residential sewage treatment plant for Elizabeth Wilson on Bungay Creek, a tributary of the Chester River, near Rock Hall.

Sadly, final go-ahead for this plant — on September 21 at the Kent County Board of Appeals — came just 10 days before such treatment plants will be banned statewide. Thus, Kent will boast the only such facility in Maryland. That is a painful irony since the Chester River Association was the prime mover in creating the statewide ban of private waste water treatment plants and their accompanying discharge into tidal waters for new construction, which was approved almost unanimously by the 2009 session of the General Assembly.

Why does CRA oppose such plants? Because in this case it will be used to skirt zoning laws – to allow development on land that won’t perc (as the Wilson property would not). This plant makes a mockery of the most basic Smart Growth concepts, putting development on acreage that planners had intended to preserve forever.

So how did this come to pass? It started with the Maryland Department of the Environment.

MDE approved a permit for the Wilson plant — EVEN THOUGH Kent County officials openly opposed it and the Water and Sewer Plan state very clearly that the county opposes such plants.

MDE approved the permit — EVEN THOUGH MDE admits that no other such plant exists in Maryland, that the plant is experimental, that it will require constant monitoring and that its components are not certified for “structural adequacy” or “performance.”

CRA finds this performance by MDE incompetent, unhelpful and even destructive. MDE Secretary Shari Wilson has stated flatly that she and her department are against these plants, that they turn zoning laws upside down. And yet her department apparently didn’t get the message.

Unfortunately, once MDE acted, local officials in Kent seemed to feel they had no choice but to toe the state line. As a result, they allowed a state regulatory agency to dictate what happens here in Kent County.

The county’s environmental health director signed off on the plant. The county’s director of planning and zoning signed off on it because she felt she had no mechanism to decline it once the health department approved it. The county Board of Appeals signed off on it (by a 2-1 vote). But where was allegiance to the Water and Sewer Plan?

The fact is that local officials had the right NOT to sign off on this treatment plant. The Water Management Division of MDE stated specifically within the permit to construct the plant that local officials could halt this process. But they didn’t. Instead, they allowed the river to receive discharged waste from a non-conventional, experimental treatment facility and signed off on it.

In effect, CRA’s view is that our local officials, including the Board of Appeals, paid no more attention to what Kent’s residents wanted, as expressed in the Water and Sewer plan, than MDE did. This is a sad result because there is no doubt these officials care just as much about this county and its environmental health as CRA does.

So where does that leave us? Somehow, we must create a mechanism in the approval process for building permits (and any other permits that are relevant) that demands such permits comply with the local Water and Sewer Plan. Does such a mechanism exist already? Apparently not.

Kent County’s Water and Sewer plans speak very clearly against private sewage treatment plants – yet MDE went right ahead and approved the Bungay plant. MDE is not going to protect local laws. We must find the way to do it ourselves.

–By Tom Leigh, Chester RIVERKEEPER®

Spy Op-ed: School Food by Nancy Taylor Robson

Margaret Ellen Kalmanowicz has got her hands full. She’s the director of both transportation and food service for Kent County schools. Transportation is sorted now, but food service is ongoing. In an effort to improve the school food, Kalmanowicz got a fresh fruit and vegetable grant for two schools, Rock Hall and Garnet. Similar to a farm-to-school program, which more directly connects local growers to school breakfast and lunch programs, it tries to reintroduce real food to kids who were not only raised on Cheetos and chicken nuggets, but have come to expect those things in school, too.

“We had [the fresh food grant] last year too,” says Kalmanowicz. “Every day through fall and spring they have a sampling of different fruits and vegetables.” Kalmanowicz also got a Team Nutrition grant for Worton and Millington Elementary schools, which offers those kids a fruit and vegetable taste-testing one day each week for a year. This grant also requires physical activity and nutritional education for the kids.

The taste testing has gone ‘extremely well.’ In addition Kent County’s schools, like others across the nation, have begun to introduce whole grains in place of white flour for breading, pancakes, etc, but it’s a tough sell among a lot of the kids. And it’s small potatoes nutritionally speaking, but it‘s a beginning.

For anyone who has been horrified by the school menus, and wondered why, when something like 60% of our public school children eat both breakfast and lunch in school – and childhood obesity is increasing exponentially – the menus are so heavily carb-based, one has to look to a software program called NutriKids. Nutrikids is a menu-planning program produced by the LunchByte Systems Company in Rochester, NY, and is the food-planning tool used ‘in over 8,000 schools districts in all 50 states’ according to its website.  Interestingly, one of its four partnerships and associations’ listed on the website is Kellogg’s NuCrew program, Kellogg being the grain and processed food people. Presumably there are nutritionists who plan the menus on this software and vet the balances and the calorie counts – I have not yet dug a little further down to find out who they are, but will – but it doesn’t look like it.

For Kalmanowicz there’s the ‘will the kids eat it?’ issue.  Waste at any time, but especially now, is anathema. There’s also the perpetual question of economics. And the logistics – fresh fruits and vegetables in late winter, during what some Native Americans dubbed ‘hunger moon’ from local producers? Tough. But if we’re going to seriously address the issue of our nation’s health, we need to make healthy changes in school food.

On Thursday at 7:30 PM, Prince Theatre, The Chestertown Spy is sponsoring a  showing of Food, Inc, which addresses some of these issues. Tickets for a suggested donation — a fundraiser for Colchester CSA – are available at the door.

Spy Op-ed: A Hood Over the Head by Peter Newlin

Reading about our Mayor’s parking meter “experiment” downtown raises troubling questions about whether our Mayor has a clear vision of what our community really needs from local government to thrive.  See: www.chestertownspy.com/2009/09/park-on-park

Experiments are good, of course, if they are well thought through.  In this “experiment” she is putting a hood over the head of the parking meters on Park Row, but what is it our Mayor seeking to learn?  The meters don’t generate significant revenue; she’s risking nothing there.

These meters are only to prevent long-term parkers from hogging the spaces customers need. So, how will it help Park Row’s businesses to turn Park Row into Long Term Parking?

I’m told the real problem this Mayor wants to address is making sure the employees in the shops of High Street and Cross don’t need to pump quarters all day long.  Their cars are taking up the parking that other stores want for their customers.  If so, talk of helping Park Row businesses is pretense.

Is Mayor Bailey willing to stick Park Row with the Town’s employee parking?  That will truly undermine Park Row’s businesses, already the step children of downtown commerce.  More to the point, Chestertown’s mayor should know that the Park Row area needs much more serious Town intervention than a month of free parking.

In the 1980s Mayor Horsey hired Landscape Architect John Gutting to design High Street’s brick sidewalks and elegant tree wells.  Then Mayor Horsey assembled Town funding to construct, as designed, the pedestrian friendly, shopping environment we now all enjoy on High Street.

Horsey then followed that up with streetscape improvements to Cross Street.  High and Cross are the product of Town investment in professional design and enacted funding.  Those investments from the 1980s have been paying dividends ever since.  They are helping Chestertown’s downtown compete as a pedestrian oriented marketplace and as a wonderful place to live.  They attract visitors and retirees, both of whom enrich our economy.

Creating employee parking on Park Row does the opposite – it undermines the economy there.  And Park Row’s economy is already in terrible shape.  I know because we recently purchased one of its most prominent buildings for only $125,000 – the value of the land alone.

Why so cheap?  All previous owners invested nothing in its upkeep.  For decades this building has been deteriorating.  Now it is collapsing, worthless.  Could this be the future of Park Row’s other historic structures?

Two other Park Row buildings have structural trouble, and the Town Arts Building on Spring Street, (across from the Post Office) is struggling, too.  Why?  Well for one reason, the Town has never invested in the streetscape for Park Row or for Spring Street.  The pedestrian-friendly brickwork of Cross Street stops at the corner.  Narrow concrete walkways along Park Row signal to shoppers, there is not much of promise to be found here, Spring Street included.

Mayor Horsey nurtured High and Cross over two decades ago.  Our County Commissioners did likewise with the Courthouse campus in the 1990s.  They invested in a landscaped parking lot, and along Cross Street, in a fence, broad brick sidewalks, a beautiful alee of trees – carefully planned by an accomplished designer – another example of local government investing with vision, in design and construction for the long term.

Our downtown parking issues do need to be thought about, but globally, so any changes made will achieve benefits for everyone – the merchants, the shoppers, the tourists and our residential neighborhoods, too.  Where is our Town’s effort for doing this planning?  Has our Mayor ever asked staff to draft a proposal?

Park Row lies at the heart of the downtown business district.  It is one of the most public faces of Chestertown our visitors see, and even so, suffering from Town neglect.  Worse yet, Park Row stands as a microcosm of the troubles that are plaguing our downtown generally.

Are our Mayor and Council satisfied to “live dangerously” on small-potato “experiments” which predictably make selected citizens’ bad situations still worse?  Where are their strategies for investing in the pedestrian environment that our downtown businesses sorely need to thrive?

As a community, we have been trading on assets, wrought by the leadership of our past, but times are much tougher now.  We need our leaders to be honest with us about our troubles, parking included.  We need them willing to work with us all, to shape a shared vision together.  We need leaders with courage, who are committed to shepherding our rich heritage toward an equitable and sustainable future.  Leadership that seeks to pacify us, to put a hood over our heads, so we can’t see our troubles – that just won’t work for us any more.

Peter Newlin, President
Chesapeake Architects
www.ChesArch.com

Spy Op-ed: Penny wise

We’ve sold out our children. How? School food. When I was a child in a city public school, the cafeteria ladies cooked our lunches from scratch. Those same ladies would later hover over the garbage cans as we bussed our trays back. If we hadn’t eaten all our green beans, they would demand to know why. This grouchy inspection provided an incentive to eat our green beans, which were, as the crones pointed out, GOOD FOR US. Not coincidentally, obesity in children was virtually non-existent then, diabetes a term most had never heard.

Now, we have lunch ladies who serve up ‘breakfast pizza’ in the morning, followed by chicken nuggets with ‘dipping sauce,’ rice pilaf, juice bars, mixed vegetables and a hot roll for lunch. It may be edible but it’s not the same as real food. Much of this change is economic. To save dollars – a laudable goal — the system first linked hands with government surpluses. Then, since that didn’t solve budget shortfalls, we brought in vending machines filled with sodas and snacks (sugar and/or chemical sweetener, and trans fats) in exchange for kickbacks aka ‘profit sharing.’

Something like 50% of our kids get both breakfast and lunch in school now. This could have been a good thing for their nutrition and therefore their attention span, their learning capabilities, their waistlines, their overall health, and our society in general if they had been fed a steady diet of richly nutritious meals comprised of fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meat, complex carbohydrates, and milk. If they had been shown by example in school (if not on TV or at home), what healthy nutrition is.  Instead our kids get a steady diet of chicken nuggets, fish fingers, pizza, waffles, pancakes, and more — densely rich in calories, cholesterol, sugars and sodium but not in nutrition. It’s been pennywise and pound-foolish, an old English aphorism meaning an unwise decision may save pennies in the short term, but will cost pounds (in our case, dollars) in the long run.

Our migration to ‘fast’ food in school has been pound-foolish because it’s helped our children grow more and more obese, lethargic, prone to early-onset type-2 diabetes and other weight-related conditions to say nothing of attention deficit and other chemical disorders. Is it the sole cause? No, but it’s a big component. It’s pound-foolish from a longer-term financial perspective, too. The cost to us individually and to our health care system is growing steadily.

California’s Governor Schwarzenegger, a health-conscious parent himself, helped push through a ban on snack machines in schools. It will negatively impact the state’s bottom line in the midst of a fiscal crisis. Easy? Nope. But it’s a good decision. It’s clear from the Kent County School menus that our lunch program is trying to take baby steps toward better food, steps that include a relationship with the local cooperative extension service, which helps provide some local fruits and vegetables in season. But we need to do more. And we need to bring back the garbage can crones.