Ten years ago, I was discussing strategies for marketing events with another business owner, and she said,”Our biggest competition is people’s couches.” This struck me as true back then, but more so now. The convenience of online shopping from the comfort of your couch is tempting. Streaming services offer easy entertainment. As an artist, I understand enjoying leisure time at home and creative hobbies that keep you busy. But as a business person, I need to encourage everyone to consider that when you consider shopping, it is better to leave the house!  Have you considered  the impact that effort  has on your community? Let’s dive into why getting off that couch and hitting up local businesses matter!

Boosting the Local Economy:

Small businesses are truly job creating dynamos. According to the Small Business Administration, small businesses create two out of every three new jobs in the United States. So, by supporting your local mom-and-pop shops, you’re supporting job creation in your community.

And here’s a mind-blowing stat: for every buck you spend at a local business, a whopping 67 cents stays in the local economy! Compare that to chain stores where only 43 cents sticks around. Your money packs a bigger punch when you keep it local, helping your community thrive and keeping the economic mojo alive.

Local businesses are the heart and soul of our community. Each small business brings character and diversity. Vibrant downtowns fueled by the creativity of business owners contribute to the mosaic of our community and fights  the dull sameness of big box stores. Small businesses are alive and provide energy and customer service that cannot be replicated online.

Building Community Vibes:

Shopping locally isn’t just about consuming products; it’s about people. An active downtown helps us maintain relationships with the people who share the world around us. When you choose local, you’re not just buying a product; you’re building relationships. You get to know the faces behind the counter, folks shopping around town, and learn about upcoming events and initiatives.  There’s an eco-friendly result as shopping at small businesses often mean shorter trips for products, and that equals a smaller carbon footprint. Plus, they’re more likely to source locally, sharing the fiscal benefits with other business members of the community.

Why Art Matters:

Art galleries and art events play an important role in our society; holding social, culture, economic innovation to our downtown. Galleries draw visitors which generates jobs and stimulates local economies through consumer spending and tourism. Advertising, graphic arts and supporting local arts initiatives are all part of the industry.

Get off the Couch:

This holiday season, go downtown and enjoy the holiday markets, pictures with Santa, and horse drawn carriage rides. Peruse local businesses to find something that is “just right.” Consider gift certificates for services and classes. And bump into the neighbor you haven’t seen in a while. Cheer for your friends and family in the local parade. Share a hot chocolate and walk around town to soak up the festive decorations. We have the idyllic small town of Easton right outside of our doors, step outside and enjoy the wonders of this season in our community in real time.

Jennifer Wagner
Talbot County

Congratulations, Maryland! We now hold the title for longest ER wait times in the U.S.! Whoo-hoo!

When are the State, Talbot County and its towns going to put the new Maryland University Regional Hospital Center at the top of their priority list?

Attention to this essential infrastructure is long overdue.

We’ve reached a critical point regarding our lack of health care and health care professionals — and now hold the title of having the longest ER wait times in the nation. Sadly, and unfortunately, no surprise to many in our community. And having listened to testimony at many County Council and Town of Easton Planning Commission and Council meetings regarding the Matthewstown, Lakeside, Poplar Hill, MHC and other land developments during the past few years, the breaking-point strain on our current health care providers and community is obvious, unbearable — for our first responder medical and emergency professionals, in particular.

When are our Talbot County Council and the mayors and town councils of Easton, St. Michaels, Oxford, Trappe, etc. going to emphasize and take action on these critical community services? When are they going to consolidate their efforts to address our health care needs?

When are Governor Moore, Congressman Andy Harris, Senator Chris Van Hollen, and Senator Ben Cardin going to make this a front-and-center issue?

https://news.yahoo.com/maryland-hospital-emergency-room-wait-160051413.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

https://www.wypr.org/wypr-news/2023-10-31/maryland-er-wait-times-continue-to-disappoint-in-new-data-drop

https://hscrc.maryland.gov/Documents/October%202023%20HSCRC%20Post-Meeting%20Materials%20-%20FINAL.pdf

Clara Kelly
Easton

We urge the public who are interested in clean and safe water to attend an upcoming hearing on the ongoing pollution of our local Transquaking River. The legal hearing will take place on November 2, 2023 at 1:30 pm in the Dorchester County Circuit Court, 206 High Street, Cambridge. Although the hearing is open for public attendance it is not scheduled for public commentary from the audience. Previous comments and testimony from the public, including the three signatories of this letter, are already part of the record before the court.

Many of our fellow citizens are aware that Dorchester Citizens for Planned Growth (DCPG) has been working since 2014 to try to get the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) to actually do their regulatory job regarding the industrial pollution emanating from the Valley Proteins rendering plant located on the Transquaking near Linkwood. Much of our work (including ten years of water testing) has been behind the scenes but we have sponsored several well attended forums at the Linkwood fire hall in which local residents have expressed their dismay and frustration over continued wastewater and odor violations which have affected the quality of life in the area surrounding the facility. These continuing violations have also contributed to ongoing harmful algae blooms and fish kills in the Higgins Mill Pond downstream from the rendering plant, where a Health Department sign is posted warning against fishing or swimming in the river and the millpond.

Some of you may recall that around Christmas 2021 a holding lagoon failure at the plant created a massive sludge spill into the Transquaking which forced MDE to mandate a temporary shut down of the facility and an accompanying moratorium on the distribution of Valley Proteins’ created sludge in Maryland. Unfortunately this moratorium was only temporary and now more than ever Dorchester and Wicomico counties are being targeted as the primary recipients of industrial sludge from FOUR STATES labeled as “soil amendments.” ( Source: recently released “U of MD Animal Waste Technology Assessment”.)

At the time of the Christmas sludge spill DCPG, along with the environmental organizations Chesapeake Legal Alliance, Shore Rivers, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation had already initiated a legal action against Valley Proteins based on their years-long series of discharge violations into the Transquaking. Eventually, this legal action led to a “consent decree” between Valley Proteins, ( now owned by the parent company Darling Ingredients), MDE, and the aforementioned plaintiffs. This legal document required Valley Proteins to pay a fine to the state of Maryland, submit a plan to upgrade their wastewater treatment system, as well as contribute to the environmental groups’ Transquaking River Watershed Fund which was established to commission a scientific temperature and flow study of the river administered by an independent third party named Earth Data. This study is ongoing.

Unfortunately, what is also ongoing is continued blatant pollution flowing into the Transquaking. In fact, in the last 4 reporting quarters, just since the adoption of the consent decree in September 2022, Valley Proteins has self-reported discharge violations in every quarter. One statistic from the most recent quarter (July 1 – Oct 6 2023) shows an exceedance for BOD (a metric which measures possible oxygen depletion caused by excess nutrients entering the water) of a staggering 355%! (Source: ECHO database where companies provide their pollution numbers to the federal EPA.)

What hasn’t been fixed at the Linkwood facility is simply this: far too much pollution is still being released directly into the Transquaking. At the same time, the greater Transquaking watershed, which drains into Fishing Bay and on into the Chesapeake, is suffering a “doubled peril” from the vast increase of harmful nutrients in the largely unregulated sludge being irresponsibly dispersed on the land. Much of that sludge is a direct result of the rendering process at the Valley Proteins plant. The sad fact, based on both their history of violations and their link to the added threat from excess application of sludge, is that unless MDE requires them by law to not do so they will continue contributing to the death of the river.

Perhaps even sadder is the fact that the technology already exists for them to achieve discharge limits that are actually meaningful. For example, there is a process called ENR (enhanced nitrogen removal) which is required for municipal sewage treatment plants like the one in Cambridge, and also for new residential septic tanks being installed near the water. The ENR process is capable of greatly reducing the content of excess nitrogen in discharged wastewater. Common sense would dictate that a profitable industry directly discharging into a stream would be required to use this process but the current MDE operating permit allows Valley Proteins to propose a treatment facility that allows three times the nitrogen release compared to ENR treatment. And it allows them to increase the volume of their wastewater discharge to over three times the current level! These are only two examples of many regarding the laxity in regulation which MDE has adopted in their oversight of this industry.

DCPG has never called for the closing of the rendering plant at Linkwood. The chicken industry is a large part of Delmarva’s economy and the handling of waste products is a necessary part of the food production process. However, the waste disposal should not come at the cost of broken laws, a ruined river, and threats to public health. That is why DCPG is back in court demanding that MDE be required to revise and strengthen the discharge permit issued to Valley Proteins /Darling in 2022. We are joined in this action by The Wicomico Environmental Trust (WET), Friends of the Nanticoke, and the other environmental groups listed in paragraph 3 above.

Again, the upcoming court hearing on this issue is in Dorchester County Circuit Court on November 2, 2023 at 1:30 pm. While there will be no opportunity for additional public testimony, members of the public are allowed to attend and we urge concerned citizens to do so.

Fred C. Pomeroy , DCPG President
Barbara Hale, Richard Ball, members of the DCPG Board of Directors

I am writing in response to David Reel’s opinion piece in the September 25th Spy.  I understand that appropriately the Spy leaves the content of the writer’s byline to the writer. It would be helpful if David Reel would not be so shy about his Republican Party bona fides as the past Chairman of the Talbot County Republican Central Committee.

This OpEd is characteristic of what I call the post 2016 American Enterprise sandwich.  The American Enterprise Institute is the longtime conservative redoubt that has employed the likes of Newt Gingrich and Dinesh D’Souza. 

In off year elections, the party not in the White House characteristically does very, very well.  In 2016, the Republican Party let their extreme Donald Trump flag fly with disappointing results including the continuing speaker of the house fiasco and legislative stalemate because of the Republican Party’s slimmest of majorities. 

The American Enterprise sandwich is a way for the conservative fringe to further itself with the veneer of non-combative moderation.  The sandwich opens with a seemingly nonpartisan theme, in this case challenges and opportunities for Democrats and Republicans in addressing the African American electorate.  

The meat follows with opinion and statistics which are negative for the Democratic Party. The final section contains platitudes about listening to the electorate.

Any piece dealing with how the Republican Party relates to the African American electorate that does not include the nationwide voter suppression efforts targeting that community cannot be taken seriously.

In the case of David Reel’s OpEd, it is not only in the style of the American Enterprise sandwich, but all the opinion is from American Enterprise staff and all the data is from American Enterprise surveys.

Be on the look out for this type of opinion piece and remember that Donald Trump is overwhelmingly favored to be the presidential candidate for the Republican Party in 2024.  Donald Trump is an existential threat to our democracy and any attempts to distract from that reality should be ignored.

Holly Wright
Talbot County

In its latest and arguably most outrageous effort to insulate the Lakeside project from any County oversight, Talbot County is directly defying the Maryland Department of Environment.  MDE instructed the County to prepare a new Sewer Service Map for Trappe “with the corrected classifications for all of the parcels within the Town of Trappe including the Lakeside development.”  As the lawyers say, “emphasis supplied.”

In response to that directive, the County introduced Resolution 348 (“R348”) to which is attached the new map.  After public hearings and a thoughtful review by the Planning Commission (slated for this Wednesday, October 4th) and action by the Council, this document is supposed to resolve the Lakeside fracas at last.  The map IS ready for review.  However, R348 was carefully drafted explicitly to omit Lakeside entirely from the Planning Commission’s review.  That’s right.  Omit Lakeside—even though it is the central issue, and MDE’s April 24th directive said explicitly “with the corrected classifications for all of the parcels within the Town of Trappe including the Lakeside development.”

As things stand, MDE might not even see this bald defiance for a month, as the County has not sent the proposed Comprehensive Water and Sewer Plan (CWSP) amendment to MDE in advance for review as it is supposed to do.  It is apparently the County’s hope and intention that the faulty Resolution will have gone through the entire County review process—PWAB comment, Planning Commission public hearing, evaluation and vote for consistency with the Comp Plan, and Council public hearing and adoption—without anyone noticing.  Maybe at that point MDE will just accept the outcome and, once again, the hapless Talbot citizens will have been bamboozled.  

And the defiance is directed not at MDE alone.  The Planning Commissioners, who in 2020 were dramatically misled by falsehoods when the original Lakeside map was presented, are being abused here.  And most fundamentally, the citizens of Talbot County are harmed.  If the Planning Commission is forced to accept R348’s improper framing of the “review” of the Trappe sewer map—look at everything except Lakeside—then it might well find the plan “consistent,” and Lakeside would proceed undisturbed.  (And if a jury had tried _____ and been prohibited from considering _____, he’d not have been found guilty, either.)

TIP is doing all it can to keep this debacle from happening, and welcomes the efforts of others.  The Planning Commission should not review R348 as it is now drafted; to do so is to abandon its responsibility to citizens and its duty to the State legislature, who delegated to it alone (not the Council) the task of evaluating land use plans for consistency with the County Comp Plan.  R348 should be withdrawn before the Planning Commission takes it up.  If it is somehow forced upon them, Commissioners should find it “inconsistent” because it asks them to ignore their legal responsibilities to do a proper review,

Unless someone on the Council wants to claim the mantle, TIP lays responsibility for this disgraceful maneuver at the feet of our County Attorney, who from TIP’s point of view has done his utmost to protect and advance Lakeside’s interests for three years.  It was the County Attorney who crafted the language of R348 once the Council gave direction that a stand-alone resolution be prepared.  This is the third attempt to somehow react to MDE’s directive without the matter going before the Planning Commission for a proper review.  (The first was an effort to get MDE to simply accept a “substitute map” administratively; the second was an attempt to bury the issues within a 200-page update of the CWSP that Lakeside’s engineer, Rauch, Inc. has been contracted to prepare.)

It’s all pretty outrageous, and while the County dallies with MDE and the Planning Commission, Lakeside marches on. TIP learned this week that a new plat was just recorded for another 180 lots, Lakeside Phase 1D.  (A State official signed that plat, certifying that it is consistent with the County CWSP.  TIP believes that was incorrect; expect the excuse of “a misunderstanding.”)

Former County Attorney Mike Pullen wrote to the Planning Commission on Wednesday explain the problems with R348 (view here) supplementing  TIP’s letter on point (here).  TIP also obtained a formal legal opinion on this from its Baltimore attorneys, which arrived yesterday (view here).

Meanwhile, on Wednesday TIP submitted to the Planning Commission its comment letter demonstrating the many reasons why Lakeside is inconsistent with our Comp Plan (view here).  That will be relevant only when the Council and/or the County Attorney permits the Planning Commission to do what MDE ordered: review the map for corrections “to all parcels…including Lakeside.”

Dan Watson
The Talbot Integrity Project

Watching the Baltimore Orioles play in the 1960s and 1970s was a pure athletic delight. One person stood out despite the presence of other stars.

Brooks Robinson, who died yesterday at 86, played third base like no other. Though slow afoot, he displayed incredible agility and reflexes that enabled him to scoop up ground balls and throw runners out in incomparable fashion.

His unparalleled magnificence filled Memorial Stadium with shrieks of glee and gasps of disbelief. His universal acclaim constantly drew modest “aw shucks”reactions from the Little Rock, Ark. native.

Surrounded by Orioles stars like Frank Robinson, Jim Palmer and Dave McNally, “Brooksie,” as he was affectionately called, provided spectators with their own highlight reels. Could anyone else perform the miracles he did at third base?

No. He was an All-Star for 18 years and first-round entry in the baseball Hall of Fame.

Like the Baltimore Colts’ great quarterback, Johnny Unitas, Robinson became a beloved figure in his adopted city of Baltimore. Both were friendly and approachable.

Today’s version of Major League Baseball lacks a genuine player and gentleman like Brooks Robinson. His fielding acrobatics had few peers.

Howard Freedlander
Annapolis
…

Our community can be forgiven for being skeptical about Shore Regional Health’s latest timeline for construction of the regional medical center having heard encouraging prognostications for many years. 

One wonders if this is the case now. While the 2025 start of construction date was reported in the September 20th Star-Democrat, LuAnn Brady, the new COO of Shore Regional Health and responsible for managing construction of the medical center, stated at a July 22nd public meeting co-sponsored by the Democratic Women’s Club and the AAUW, that construction wouldn’t begin until 2028.

Without an independent source of information on the situation, scapegoating the certificate of need process for delays is easy because the process is arcane and even well-meaning board members can fail to understand what’s occurring.  A community needs a mayor or other elected officials who will advocate with outside decision makers and provide that independent source of information.

Working as a Certificate of Need analyst for four years in Boston’s high powered health care environment, it was usual to see communities and their elected officials organize to insistently advocate for community health care needs when local hospital’s arrangements with establishment behemoths were at issue. 

Even locally, we can recall the intense community organizing that occurred around the Chestertown Hospital, in which Chestertown’s mayor and councilmen played a part advocating for community needs before Shore Regional Health.

The future of the current hospital site is the present challenge.  There is a clear need for Easton’s elected officials to inform and advocate for the community when it comes to the use of the substantial real estate of the current hospital site.  Our elected officials should organize an independent public process so that interested parties in Easton can know what’s going on and express the needs of the town.

That the elected officials have initiated a public process for community input regarding the current hospital site would be reassuring to prospective donors to the capital campaign. If the 2025 start of construction is to be believed, there’s no time like the present.

Holly Wright
Easton

Dorchester County is paying huge fees needlessly for recycling.  While the recycling measures suggested by the council are great and should be implemented, there is more that we can do.

I, along with other members of our Sierra Club Lower Eastern Shore Group, toured the recycling center in Delaware which is the final destination for our recycling. Here is some of what we learned:

1.  Never put recyclables in plastic bags and leave them in the recycling bins.  When they get to the Delaware facility, they are pulled out and dumped in their landfill because plastic bags break their recycling machines, and it costs a great deal of time and money to fix them. If we banned plastic bags from the recycling drop-off bins, we would not have to pay so much to transport material that is not going to be recycled anyway.  https://youtu.be/PDDihXzoaa4
2. Never put food in the recycling bins. For example, many people leave cheese in their discarded pizza boxes.  In fact, some people even leave leftover slices of pizza in them.  Peanut butter jars need to be clean as well. When we put food in the recycling bins, it contaminates the whole load, so the contents of the bin must be thrown in the landfill. Avid recyclers often put dirty jars and bottles in the dishwasher along with the dishes before recycling them to prevent this problem.

3. Only plastics 1, 2, and 5 are recyclable.  Please check the bottom of the item to look for the number.  If it is not a 1, 2, or 5, it cannot be recycled. An incredible amount of unrecyclable plastic is placed in our recycling bins every day. Plastic toys can frequently be seen as well, but  unfortunately, we can only recycle plastic jars and bottles at the present time.

There is absolutely no reason for Dorchester County to pay for nonrecyclables that will only be transported to Delaware to be thrown away.

The county does not even have to hire anyone to advise them.  Environmental groups, such the Sierra Club, will help for free. 

Folks in our county have good intentions.  They just do not know how to recycle correctly, so they put things in the bins just in case they can be recycled, in other words, they are “wishcycling.” If we educate our residents so that they recycle correctly, Dorchester County will save a lot of money.

Sue Olsen
Cambridge

I read the Talbot Spy’s report of the County Council proceedings of August 22 under Reconsideration of Decision Regarding MDE Letters with interest.

The County Attorney and Engineer’s August 8 recommendation that the Council respond to MDE’s requests in the 2023 draft Report of the Review – an administrative tool used to catalog properly approved updates to the Comprehensive Sewer and Water Plan – was bureaucratically efficient, yet poorly-conceived, lacked transparency, and appeared to short circuit the review process. I suggest watching the hearing video and drawing your own conclusions: County Council, August 8, 2023 @ 47:42.  

Council Member Mielke introduced a motion on August 22 to reconsider the Council’s August 8 decision regarding how to proceed with requests from MDE. That decision was reconsidered with support from Mr. Lesher, Ms. Mielke, and Ms. Haythe. The Council then considered a motion by Mr. Lesher to address MDE’s requests in standalone resolutions rather than as part of the Report. The vote for that decision was 3-2, with President Callahan and Mr. Stepp dissenting. 

“Democracy Dies in Darkness” was adopted by The Washington Post and popularized by investigative journalist Bob Woodward. I applaud Council Members Lesher, Mielke, and Haythe for shining the light on Lakeside, for having the courage to reconsider a bad decision and for taking the necessary time to give the water and sewer maps for Trappe and the EDUs for Lakeside proper review and careful consideration – something many citizens have demanded, but heretofore has not occurred. The community wants to see Council Members vote straight up or straight down on Lakeside and not try to bury the matter in an administrative filing. Talbot County residents and our precious waterways deserve at least that much from our elected and appointed officials.

Keith T. Ghezzi
Talbot County