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November 30, 2023

Cambridge Spy

Nonpartisan and Education-based News for Cambridge

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Promoting the Heritage of the Heart of the Chesapeake in Dorchester

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On November 2, the Heart of the Chesapeake Country Heritage Area annual awards ceremony was held at the Dorchester Center for the Arts in Cambridge. Two individuals and three organizations or projects were recognized for their outstanding contributions over the past year in promoting the culture and traditions of this part of the Eastern Shore. It marked another successful year for the HCCHA, which continues to play a major role in celebrating and developing what’s great about the extended community.

In concert with public and private partners, the Heart of the Chesapeake Country Heritage Area helps people, groups, and government entities preserve and promote the unique historic, cultural, and natural resources of Dorchester County. It’s core mission is to make the positive effect of heritage tourism on the local economy broader and deeper. The HCCHA is managed by the Dorchester County Tourism Department, which relies on the county government for staff, offices, and funding.

When Natalie Chabot left the tourism director position in Allegheny County to take over the one in Dorchester in 2001, a plan had already been made for creating a heritage area here, but it was still in draft form and not in great shape. Fortunately, Natalie had a solid advisory committee to work with, and they commenced the project in earnest.

The community was required to designate boundaries for the heritage area; they at first wanted to make it the whole county, but Maryland preferred to keep the areas smaller. It does encompass the majority of Dorchester, with Cambridge, Church Creek, Vienna, Hurlock, East New Market, and Secretary within the borders, as well as portions of the waterways that surround the county on three sides.

Creating the heritage area was a big process. Natalie and her staff had to attend council and planning commission meetings in every incorporated town and make them part of the project. The management board ended up with a member from each of those towns. According to Chabot, an important aspect of the heritage area is that all the communities within it share a history, heritage, and environment.

“Dorchester County has a very rich history,” she said.

Each of Maryland’s certified heritage areas is defined by the distinctive characteristics that make it unique within the state. Chabot’s team originally decided to concentrate on seven themes for the Heart of the Chesapeake, and one of them involved Harriet Tubman because hers was “such a compelling story.” Evelyn Townsend was the only African American at every meeting, and she just kept saying “Harriet Tubman.”

From the time Chabot took over the tourism director position, the process for the heritage area took about a year. It was formed in September 2002 and celebrated with fireworks at the Visitor Center in Cambridge. It was a big deal, according to Chabot, because “there’s only 13 heritage areas now in the state of Maryland.”

The themes that presently define the Heart of the Chesapeake Country Heritage Area are

  • Agricultural Life
  • Arts, Artists, and Entertainment
  • Chesapeake Landscapes and Outdoor Adventures
  • Dorchester Families and Traditions
  • Dorchester History, Architecture, and Artifacts
  • The Environment
  • Harriet Tubman and the Eastern Shore African-American History
  • Maritime Villages, Trades, and Life
  • Native American Heritage

Throughout the years, the HCCHA has played a significant part in developing the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, Visitor Center, and National Park. It installed large murals, interpreting the area’s themes, on buildings along the Chesapeake Country Scenic Byway. In 2019, it celebrated Dorchester County’s 350th anniversary by creating cell-phone walking and driving guides that showcased Cambridge and the Chesapeake Mural Trail.

Beyond those achievements, the heritage area also awards mini-grants to nonprofit organizations and local municipalities to help with projects that enrich heritage resources and improve the area’s economic health. These grants are made possible by the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority. The awardees for FY2024 included the Taste of Cambridge event, the Dorchester County Historical Society, Groove City Culture Fest, Spocott Windmill (for displays and newsletters), and the Pride of Baltimore II’s visit to Cambridge next year. The Heritage Board also supported the funding applications of area organizations for such endeavors as Cambridge Main Street’s Wayfinding Project, Dorchester County’s FY24 Heritage Management Grant, and the Mid-Shore Community Radio Dorchester History Project.

At the November 2 awards ceremony, the Heritage Area Management Board honored the late Shirley Jackson, Melvin “Zeke” Willey, the “Beacon of Hope” Harriet Tubman Sculpture, the Dorchester Skipjack Committee, and Choptank Communications.

“This year’s group of honorees is exceptional,” said Board Chairman Tom Bradshaw. “Their extraordinary efforts are evidenced in the programs, projects, and ideas that have served to aid, enrich, and inspire the Dorchester Community. These unsung heroes have made a significant impact on enriching people’s awareness, understanding, and appreciation of our rich and diverse heritage assets in Dorchester. They clearly exemplify all that is best in Dorchester County.”

In his speech, Bradshaw also mentioned a 2021 economic impact study conducted by the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority estimating that the Heart of the Chesapeake Country Heritage Area had contributed $40.2 million to the statewide economy and supported 570 jobs. Additionally, the study concluded that the HCCHA generated around $5.3 million in tax revenues for the state and local governments.

“In the Heart of the Chesapeake Country Heritage Area, our top priority is to protect, preserve, and promote Dorchester County’s unique historic, cultural, and natural resources,” said Heritage Area consultant Julie Gilberto-Brady. “But it is important to note that our heritage area also plays a vital role in both the state and the regional economies.”

According to Bradshaw, the Management Board is preparing for the 250th anniversary celebration of the United States, leading up to area events in 2026.

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Promoting the Positives in DCPS: A Chat with Valerie Goff

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What exactly does a communications and community outreach specialist do in Dochester County Public Schools? If you’re Valerie Goff, you try to let the public know about the positives at DCPS.

“Because there are a lot of good things going on in our schools,” said Goff, “and human nature is such that a lot of communication focuses on the negative. And I try to focus on the positive because the positive vastly outweighs the negative.”

For example, Goff was recently at South Dorchester School while the principal was talking to two seventh-grade boys who were about to go and hoist the American flag for the day. Goff followed them and took some pictures of the activity, which she posted on the DCPS Facebook page, something she does frequently. When the photos got a considerable positive reaction from the community, she realized that many people were unaware the flag was still raised each day at the schools. Apparently, modern schools are a bit of a mystery to the general public because, for safety reasons, they’re not as open as they used to be.

“And so, I just do little things really to share that with them,” said Goff, who attended DCPS as a student.

She tries to get out to one school every day, to find out what’s going on. The school secretaries are good sources of information and are used to her dropping by to visit classrooms and take a few pictures. The schools also can be proactive in telling her about anything special happening, such as the recent Halloween celebration in Hurlock.

The annual “Trunk or Treat” at Hurlock Elementary isn’t just for the school but is for the entire community. It’s even open for organizations to set up tables and provide information. The event was already on Goff’s calendar, but she was happy to receive an email from HES’s principal, who hoped she would attend.

“I love doing things like that,” said Goff, “because there’s such a good atmosphere. And the kids are having fun and the adults are having fun, and people are seeing each other that they may not see on a regular basis.”

Another part of her job is communication with the media. She writes press releases, deals with the local press and the Salisbury television stations, and occasionally even has contact with the Baltimore outlets. She connects them with the information they need or the people they need to speak with.

Then there are the bigger projects that are designed to help the school kids feel a part of the community. An important one of these projects is the Ironman competition. When she first broached the subject with them, Goff was surprised to learn that a great number of children had no idea why so many people came to Cambridge in the fall, except that it had something to do with bikes and running.

“In my mind, Ironman is a huge asset to this community,” said Goff, “and our kids needed to be part of it.”

One way to get them involved is the annual letter-writing project, which has come to be quite famous in the Ironman community. In fact, other places that host the competition have begun their own letter campaigns. At the beginning of the school year, the teachers tell their students about the triathlon and about the competitors who converge on Cambridge from many different countries. The kids are astonished at the parameters of the race that involves swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles (which could take them to Ocean City and back), and running 26 miles (like to Easton and halfway back).

“But, the thing that I particularly love and really got me going on this is the Ironman motto, which is ‘Anything is possible,’” said Goff. “Because I think a lot of our children don’t believe anything is possible. They’re growing up in challenging circumstances, and for them to succeed in school, we need them to understand anything is possible. We don’t want to hear, ‘I can’t do that.’ Oh, yes, you can. If you work at it, you practice, you get better.”

So, with these lessons in mind, the students write short letters to the Ironman participants. Some are simply encouraging while others offer specific advice. Goff spends a weekend before the triathlon reading all of the messages (some years over 2,000), and she finds the children’s words moving. More than that, she’s happy that they’re learning something from an important community event.

Another major project that Goff is about to get more deeply immersed in is the school house system, which was pioneered by the Ron Clark Academy in Georgia. Anyone familiar with the Harry Potter series will know about the method of breaking up schools into several “houses” and creating smaller student-groups transcending grade level. In this system, which has already been introduced at Mace’s Lane Middle, Hurlock Elementary, and Maple Elementary, the kids participate in group activities, working toward common goals to collect points for their house, until they eventually feel like a sort of family.

Goff was present at Maple Elementary on the day the annual house prize was awarded. There was much excitement in the air, but what most impressed her was the way the winning house was enthusiastically congratulated by the others. There were hugs and high-fives, and no one looked discouraged at not coming out on top.

“I mean, obviously, they’re human,” admitted Goff. “There had to be disappointment that ‘my house didn’t win.’ But research has shown that the house system helps with academics, it helps with behavior, and it teaches kids a lot of life lessons that help them when they leave Dorchester County Public Schools and go into the real world.”

Ultimately, Goff, who has been with DCPS for nine years, most enjoys the positivity in her job.

“Because I tend to be a pretty positive person, and I like looking for the good and sharing it,” she said. “I like being in the schools and seeing the excellent work our teachers do. I like to see when kids achieve. Anybody who’s ever worked in a school, any teacher will tell you, the look on a kid’s face when the light goes off over their head, that’s good. Sometimes I get to see that.”

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When Annie Oakley Called Cambridge Home

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Famous sharpshooter Annie Oakley and her husband, Frank Butler, retired to Maryland’s Eastern Shore in 1913 after a quarter-century with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. They chose Cambridge as their new home, captivated by its natural beauty and welcoming community.

Annie and Frank purchased two lots on Bellevue Avenue and built a charming colonial bungalow with a unique second-story deck for bird shooting. Annie’s philanthropic spirit shone as they entertained local children and raised funds for worthy causes, such as the Dorchester County Fair.

Despite her remarkable shooting skills, Annie struggled with traditional homemaking, often cycling through cooks. In 1917, they embarked on a cross-country adventure with their niece, leaving Cambridge behind.

Annie Oakley never returned, and in 1926, she passed away. However, the Bellevue house remains, the sole surviving property associated with her in the US, listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1996.

This video is approximately six minutes in length.

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Is the “Tree of Heaven” a Problem on the Eastern Shore?

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In a recent Capital News Service article, Cecelia Shilling focused on what she called a “worrisome invasive species,” the tree of heaven. This deciduous tree kills native plants, threatens habitats, and damages infrastructure. It also provides a home and food for the spotted lanternfly, another pesky invader and enemy of plants and fruit crops. But, how much of a problem is the tree of heaven on this side of the Bay Bridge?

A native of the Far East, the tree was brought to Pennsylvania in the 1700s because it was fast growing. But it was so fast growing that, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, it went on to set up camp in at least 30 states, including Maryland. Identifiable by its strange odor and large, compound leaves that resemble feathers, it injects harmful chemicals into the soil, killing other plants. According to the Purdue Landscape Report, it can disrupt sidewalks and building foundations.

However, the tree of heaven is just one of many invasive plants the Eastern Shore contends with. Others like phragmites, Johnson grass, the Canada thistle, English ivy, privet, and nandina are bigger problems.

“I’m not a horticulturalist or plant biology expert,” said ShoreRivers Director of Community Engagement Darran White Tilghman, “but I would say the tree of heaven is not the greatest threat we have. It doesn’t make the Maryland Department of Agriculture list of invasives.”

In fact, Larry Hemming of Eastern Shore Nurseries in Easton hasn’t really seen any trees of heaven in the area. “It’s not a big problem around here—yet.”

Still, it’s best to deal with the ones you do find. Mikaela Boley and Christa Carignan at University of Maryland Extension suggest chopping into the tree of heaven’s bark and applying tree-rated herbicide, which will kill the root system and prevent expansion.

It is difficult to eradicate an invasive species, though. That’s why Tilghman promotes the introduction of native plant species, which have deeper and more resilient root systems. “Native plants are the best technology we have to soak up nutrients from water before it leaves the land and to hold soil in place.”

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The Mid-Shore’s Other Airport: A Look at Cambridge’s CGE

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At times, it’s a very quiet place, appearing deserted. But, for the 12-month period that ended May 18 of this year, Cambridge-Dorchester Regional Airport on Bucktown Road had 24,594 aircraft operations, an average of 67 per day. The mission of the county-owned, public-use complex is “to serve the air transportation and service needs of Dorchester County and the regional area by safely providing, operating, promoting, developing, and maintaining modern and efficient facilities and amenities for the traveling public.”

However, don’t compare it to BWI or Dulles, because the emphasis here is not on large-scale passenger travel.

“It’s really kind of a mix as far as the operations here,” said Director Steve Nuwer.

The airport covers a wide range of private and commercial uses, but the majority is general aviation, with five percent being military. 43 aircraft call this place home base, including crop dusters and jets. The local flight instructor handles training. Helicopters conduct practice on the grounds, and there are charter flights.

“We don’t have any commercial aviation transport operations out of the airport,” said Nuwer, “so we don’t have any charter operations that are based here, but they do fly in here on occasion.”

Some of those occasions include tourist visits to the Hyatt or even just attendance at the Ironman competition. It’s a long way from when airmail flights began on the grassy field back in 1936.

“There wasn’t a lot of commercial aviation back then,” said Nuwer. “Commercial aviation didn’t really start to pick up at least in this area until the fifties.”

In fact, the first paved runway here was laid around 1950. At some point (the records are vague), the city of Cambridge assumed ownership of the field, but eventually the county took over, and it has remained in Dorchester’s keeping ever since.

Nuwer did his original flight training at this airport in 1979. It was a family tradition to get up in the sky: his father did air shows in the seventies, and his brother flies for the Maryland Department of Agriculture. Nuwer retired from corporate sales and marketing four years ago to work for the airport.

Cambridge-Dorchester Regional has a five-year plan with the Federal Aviation Administration, a rolling plan that is updated every year. They have an eye toward further development of the 350 acres of property; space has already been set aside for building new hangars. Other projects are farther off, such as extending the 4,476-foot runway to the south, which would require moving the railroad and Cordtown Road. The next big endeavor will be resurfacing the existing runway, which the FAA considers to be at the end of its life. Fortunately, the airport just received $52,538 in federal funding for infrastructure improvements.

More recently, the focus was on completing a fence along the road.

“It’s a wildlife fence, because we have a lot of deer in this area and deer can be very, very problematic to aircraft,” explained Nuwer. “So, we’re trying to make it safer.”

They also hope to get a new restaurant into the space formerly occupied by the popular Katie’s at the Airport, which was forced by the County Council to close in January. An eating establishment would be a boon for a place that will inevitably get busier as time goes by.

“General aviation is continuing to grow,” said Nuwer. “Countrywide, there is a shortage of pilots. There’s a shortage of licensed aviation mechanics. There’s a lot of commercial opportunities in aviation. The one thing that this airport has to offer is there’s lots of room to grow. A lot of airports are really constrained. Neighborhoods are growing up around and things like that, and they just don’t have the ability to grow anymore. We’ve got plenty of land.”

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Cambridge Time Machine: Walking Down Poplar Street

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Poplar Street was laid out on a July 1706 map and received its name by 1799. It was reshaped by two fires: an 1892 fire destroyed buildings on the High Street end, and a 1929 blaze took out structures on the Gay Street end. Some of the buildings were reconstructed in brick between the 1930s and 1950s.

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CAN Meeting Raises Continued Concerns Over YMCA Plans to Move to Cambridge Harbor

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Matt Leonard, executive director of Cambridge Waterfront Development,

The members of the Cambridge Association of Neighborhoods gathered at the local library on September 7 for their monthly meeting, and things did or didn’t go as expected, depending on your point of view. There was an unusually good turnout, and events proceeded smoothly—for a while.

The meeting began with CAN President Chuck McFadden offering a reminder that, though membership is free, the board is happy to accept donations from the 564 members to grow the coffers that currently contain $3,867. Regular emails go out to 681 people to keep them informed of what’s happening in the community, such as CAN’s collaboration with the police department on a neighborhood watch initiative. It was announced that board elections will be in December, and then Judd Vickers introduced the guest speaker.

Matt Leonard, executive director of Cambridge Waterfront Development, Incorporated, began his presentation by mentioning that the nonprofit entity had been formed in 2018 for the purpose of developing the multi-use complex known as Cambridge Harbor. CWDI is run by a seven-member, volunteer board of directors appointed by the city, county, and governor.

“They bring a nice cross-section of skills and abilities,” said Leonard as he started through a powerpoint on the projection screen. “Some development, some development law, some communications and outreach and marketing, real estate, events and activation. So, they really bring to the board what we need to make best decisions.”

He displayed CWDI’s mission, which “is to develop Cambridge Harbor in partnership with the community, to the benefit of the community, and to sustainably operate and maintain Cambridge Harbor as an inviting, accessible, active, and enjoyable place to live, work, play, and visit.” Then he explained how CWDI is different from a master developer, who would want to control everything: “We put the community’s vision for the property first.”

This led into the balance CWDI attempts between community development and economic development in creating Cambridge Harbor. According to Leonard, doing both will make the complex socially and economically sustainable.

“If you only do one or the other,” he said, “you will fail.”

Cambridge Harbor takes up 34 acres of land between Maryland Avenue and the Choptank River, 20 of which are developable. 35% of the property (seven acres) will be open public space next to the waterfront. The types of developments incorporated will be a new marina with 150 slips, hotel/hospitality, food and beverage, and residential/mixed use. Also on Leonard’s powerpoint chart was “YMCA.” More on that shortly.

An audience member inquired about the blanked-out spaces under “Developer” on the chart, and Leonard explained the redactions were due to the confidentiality of the potential partners with whom CWDI is currently negotiating.

“We have received a lot of proposals,” he said, “and we’re reviewing those and dealing with those as they come in.”

CWDI will make the decision about the best developers to move forward with, but they’ll still need to go through the normal process that all private developers do, including planning and zoning, city approval, and permitting. The proposed partners will say how many jobs they will bring to the property, and then CWDI will verify the numbers and check with a third-party consultant. The estimated total of new jobs for Cambridge Harbor is 270.

Someone asked if there had been any talk about making Cambridge a cruise-line embarkation point. Leonard said there has, in fact, been some discussion.

“Progress has gone even better than we had planned,” he continued. “So, rather than waiting until the end of 2023 to issue our next report, we are circling back now to you, our stakeholder community, to provide you with an update on our progress.”

CWDI’s six goals for 2023 were the following:

  1. Establish a downtown office.
  2. Launch a website.
  3. Complete amenity and infrastructure plans (for public spaces, parks, roadways, etc.).
  4. Break ground on the promenade (biking and walking path).
  5. Increase mission-critical partnerships.
  6. Advance financial self-sustainability.

While Leonard was presenting this list, a woman in the audience interrupted. “Where does the YMCA fit in?”

“Well, we can skip down to that slide, or we can work toward that slide,” Leonard replied. “What would you all like to do?”

The woman answered, “We’d like to eliminate that slide.”

After the general laughter, other members said they could work toward the slide in question. But this was a foreshadowing of things to come.

Leonard went through his list and explained that CWDI had established an office in the Chamber of Commerce, that a website had been created (CambridgeHarbor.org), and that a Facebook page has been planned.

Responding to the goal of completing amenity and infrastructure plans, someone asked if the public would once more be allowed to swim off the beach in that section of town, something that had been forbidden in recent years. Leonard replied, “That is our plan.” Other people expressed concerns about the water quality of the Choptank, and McFadden said that Matt Pluta of ShoreRivers would be the best individual to address that issue.

Leonard continued with his powerpoint, which showed that CWDI’s current mission-critical partners cover the fields of landscape design, branding, website design, urban development planning, civil and coastal engineering, public infrastructure design, municipal financial advising, development advising, hospitality consultation, and urban transportation. Next, he started the audience through a virtual tour of Cambridge Harbor, touching on maritime heritage and history, the promenade-to-wharf area, maritime trades and the working waterfront, the boutique hotel, waterfront public park, events stage, activated park, expanded beach, and retail district.

A question was raised about the footpath over the Cambridge Creek Bridge, and Leonard said that CWDI wants it to improve but that the decision is ultimately in the state’s hands.

After revealing that he thinks the boutique hotel will cost closer to $25 million than to $30 million, Leonard mentioned he would like developers to create a meeting space in Cambridge Harbor to replace the demolished Governor’s Hall. He showed the plan for the event stage next to the new Watermen Way road. Then he moved to the retail corridor and said, “This is where the YMCA is currently shown on the plan. They’ll bring people to the site year round.”

The free flow of questions began, and the reason for the large turnout of members became quickly apparent.

“The Y says they have no plans to move,” said one man. “They’re gonna stay there.”

McFadden replied, “They said they’re not going to make a final decision this calendar year.”

Leonard followed that up by saying, “We won’t pretend the Y didn’t return an expression of interest, but we haven’t finalized anything.” He added later, “We haven’t signed agreements with anybody yet.”

Then McFadden pressed him a bit on the Y’s plan to move to Cambridge Harbor. “It’s not ‘maybe,’ it’s ‘pretty sure.’” But Leonard countered, “No, it’s ‘maybe.’”

Someone said forcefully that a nontaxable entity should not be placed on taxable property. Leonard said the Y might fit with the community development vision if not the economic development one.

“The Y pays zero real estate tax,” he admitted. “And so will the public park. And so will the promenade. We’re looking at an entity that might be able to help us activate the site in a way that it needs to be activated.”

Then someone shouted, “You already made the deal!”

“I think we’re talking to the wrong person,” said another man. “We need to be talking to Robbie Gill,” who is CEO of the YMCA of the Chesapeake.

Leonard tried to calm the audience by saying that, as a resident of Somerset Avenue, he also has concerns about what will happen to the current Y property on Talbot Avenue if the Y moves. He agrees with Gill’s conviction that the land should be used for residential purposes.

Someone else asked if a new YMCA building would be the “highest and best use” of the Cambridge Harbor property. Leonard said, “If we were to look at the highest and best use, by the definition of what accountants and appraisers use as ‘highest and best use’ for the property, we’d be building six-story condos all the way up to the water, every inch of it. That’s not who we are or what we are, because we have a community-first approach.”

Due to these questions and more, Leonard wasn’t able to continue the virtual tour—which would have covered the tree park, serenity garden, and promenade—before the 8pm end of the meeting.

 

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Empowering Cambridge: The Evolution of Pine Street Enrichment Program

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Julia Barker (left) and Sharon Chester.

The mission of the Cambridge Empowerment Center is to “work in partnership with the diverse community of Cambridge, Maryland, to provide underserved youth and adults in the city with education, health and wellness, work skills, and cultural enrichment programs.” Through that they hope to “ensure that everyone in the city of Cambridge has the skills and education necessary to contribute to the health and well being of the entire community.” This is a big goal for the organization known as the Pine Street Enrichment Program, but they are currently taking steps in the right direction.

The nonprofit, multi-use building opened in 2000 on the site of the former Pine Street Elementary School, which famously burned down in July 1967. It was intended to be a community center and did have some summer programming for children. Then, in 2014, a small after-school program was begun. This was around the time that retired school teacher Julia Barker got involved as a volunteer and tried to help get some funding for the center.

“I mean, they had nothing,” said Barker.

She acquired a grant that was used for computers, cabinets, and supplies. They fixed up a small library for the kids. Thanks to additional funders, things only got better from there.

“Everything’s organized,” said Barker, “and we’re in good shape, and the board gets along very well.”

The board, known as The Pine Street Committee, Inc., has seven members, including Barker. But they are always looking for new additions.

Every year, they have a summer program, and this year’s ran from June 20 to August 17. For four days a week from 8:30am to 4:30pm, kids came to the center for various activities. There was a learning component, part of which was conducted online using the platform IXL.

“We had started the program with 20 computers, and that wasn’t enough for 45 kids,” said Barker. “So, luckily we got some donations.”

They were able to acquire 15 more computers, and, with iPads for the youngest children, there was a sufficient number of units for everyone. The kids worked on their reading and math skills electronically, but they also benefited from volunteer tutors who came in once a week to give individual instruction.

“If they have that one-on-one attention, then they’re willing to do the work,” said Barker.

Some of the kids worked on their math skills, and there was reading time for everyone. The younger children would be read to while the others read independently. But the summer program was more than just academics.

Leslie Bishop, who is secretary of the board, would lead arts and crafts once a week. Someone conducted a weekly Tai Chi session. And, on Thursdays, the kids would have a field trip, sometimes to the public pool, but there were also excursions to an Air Force base and the Caroline County Fair. Overall, the summer was a success for this group of children.

“Personally I think it’s definitely a well-needed program for this community,” said Programming Director Sharon Chester, who added that she felt good knowing the kids were going back to school “with just a little bit of help,” which would put them at ease in the formal learning environment.

“So, we’re looking forward to our school year,” she said.

Because the Empowerment Center was licensed by the state of Maryland for childcare in March of this year, they can now have a full after-school program for 45 children, beginning the second week of September. The kids will be bussed in from Choptank, Maple, and Sandy Hill Elementary Schools and arrive between 3:30 and 4pm. They’ll have a meal provided by their school, and then they’ll go online for 15-20 minutes of math and language arts instruction and review. The rest of the time will be used for socialization, including games.

Then, parents get their kids at 5:30. The staff is currently trying to find a way to take children home if the parents are unable to pick them up.

“There’s a lot of kids whose parents are either working or have no transportation,” said Barker, “so, we’d like them to be able to come.”

The Center has always had a focus on the city’s youth, but the staff hopes to get community events going there, as well. They would like to be using the building during the day, when kids are in school, with a goal of being in operation seven days a week. Already they have monthly soup days for senior citizens and people with disabilities, and they’re brainstorming some other events for those demographics. Additionally, they are considering a preschool program.

But, before they can do any of those things, they need an executive director. In fact, they’ve been looking for one for a while. While Sharon Chester had been doing a great job in her position, she is only part time. So, the board has decided the new hire could be part time, too.

“Once we have an executive director, we can expand, because that person would be here working and doing marketing and trying to get more grants,” said Barker. “We’re really dependent on donations and grants right now.”

And they’re always looking for more volunteers.

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Cambridge Mulls Reintroduction of Impact Fees for New Developments

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A Cambridge city staff report created a year ago detailed how to pay for a five-year, $20 million water and sewer capital improvement program, which led to planned rate increases for July 2023 and July 2024. The report also brought up another source of revenue that hadn’t been used in Cambridge for over 15 years. City Manager Tom Carroll referenced this report at the July 24 City Council Meeting when he proposed reintroducing impact fees for new developments.

An impact fee is typically a one-time payment a local government assesses on a new property development. The fee is meant to pay for public infrastructure improvements that must be built due to the new development, which can put a strain on the city’s services.

“Impact fees are used to help make growth pay for itself so that you are not, as current utility customers, essentially subsidizing new homes,” said Carroll. 

Until the 2008 economic recession, the City of Cambridge had impact fees for water and sewer as well as public safety, parks, and streets. These fees were suspended after the housing market crashed, and they have yet to be reinstated.

“I think from what I’ve gathered from people who have been here, Cambridge was slow to recover from the recession,” Carroll explained. “Our housing boom really started 2018-2019, so this was a full decade after.”

While Carroll admitted that “nobody likes a fee,” in fact impact fees are a preferred alternative to raising property taxes to pay for new infrastructure, which is sometimes taken care of with a special assessment tax levied against taxpayers within a certain district. Obviously, existing property owners would rather have the developer cover the costs. But there are cons to having an impact fee.

“The new home buyer has to essentially pay an extra, you know, if it’s a $300,000 house, it’s almost 1% additional cost to to the home,” said Carroll. “It costs more for a house to be built because there’s an impact fee. It’s not a significant cost increase, but you’re buying a $300,000 house. Every dollar counts, right? So anything you do to increase the cost of a home means that some people are not able to afford it.”

Also, since impact fees can significantly raise the cost of a sizable construction project, developers have been known to consider the fee a disincentive to investment, which can result in the loss of potential jobs in the area. However, some research shows impact fees to be more efficient in raising revenue for infrastructure than property taxes. Additionally, impact fees take into account the cost of development and creating new infrastructure, thus allowing for the creation of a larger bank of developable land.

“The ‘pro’ is the city accumulates money and we put it in a special reserve account, and that reserve account is what we use to undertake things like a booster station,” said Carroll. “And a booster station on the water side allows for pressure for the end of your water system. The further away you get from elevated towers, the lower the pressure is, the more water that’s being used on your system. The more volume that’s being used and drawn out of your system, the lower the pressure is. So you need to add booster stations to keep up with growth, and that’s what an impact fee, as an example, will do. It’ll pay for a booster station, which we need to put right out on Washington Street. So we just acquired some land and it’s right next to the city’s public works facility at 1025 Washington which is where the booster station is going to go which will support new development, new subdivisions, new homes being built to the west on Washington Street.”

The fee is calculated based on the size of the development, the cost of its implementation, and the amount of its impact on the surrounding area. Previously, the city’s impact fee was $2,710 per dwelling unit for water and sewer. Had impact fees been in place in FY 22 and FY 23, the city would have generated almost $1.4 million in water and sewer revenue. So, the absence of impact fees means the city’s water and sewer funds are not collecting between $600,000 and $750,000 annually that could be used to meet the large capital investments Cambridge makes.

When recommending the city adopt legislation to reinstitute an $860 impact fee for water and a $1,850 impact fee for sewer effective on July 1, 2024, Carroll said, “If imposed, impact fees will benefit the existing rate payers and provide more money for our enterprise systems to accommodate growth and replace existing systems.”

The City Council understood the significance of impact fees as a revenue source but also did not want to see these fees hinder development in the city. They decided there would be more analysis and consideration before approving the reimposition of impact fees. But the city staff was directed to prepare legislation for reintroducing the fees, to be effective from July 2024.

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Empowering Parents, Building Community: Moving Dorchester Forward’s Partnership with Family Resiliency Program

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The nonprofit organization Moving Dorchester Forward, based in Cambridge, started as a group of local leaders concerned about the holes in the resources and services available to the community. They chose to concentrate on three areas: early learning, workforce development, and community engagement. The task of getting area citizens involved in what MDF was doing began with Community Engagement Coordinator Shay Lewis-Sisco and her team holding events to create awareness of MDF.

While they were out there, the team asked people what the community was missing and how MDF could connect them to vital resources. It quickly became clear that money, activities, personnel, and action planning (among other things) were sorely needed, so MDF decided to be the conduit to those services. One of the questions the organization asked themselves was, “What are the capacity-building skills for parents?”

Fortunately, they learned about the Parent Encouragement Program from Kevin Beverly, Moving Dorchester Forward’s board president. Beverly, who lives and works in Montgomery County, knew of the PEP group that has been active there for twenty years, meeting with parents and caregivers of children ages 3-18 and then teaching them skills in cohort-based environments.

“A lot of them are parents sitting there going, ‘How do you talk to a teenager, and how do you get them on regular routines’ and all that fun stuff,” explained MDF director Chris Wheedleton. “Particularly for folks that are working two jobs and maybe single-parent homes and all these extra challenges for them from a parent standpoint.”

PEP wanted to work in another community besides Montgomery County, so they came to Dorchester with a grant and the Family Resiliency Program, which helps families learn how to communicate with their children and generally balance the things in their lives.

MDF decided to conduct two pilot programs. Though PEP’s model typically relies on virtual classes, Wheedleton and his team chose to begin theirs in person. The first session of the initial cohort was held on February 7 at Delmarva Community Services Intergenerational Center, with Lewis-Sisco and another community engagement staff member as facilitators.

“We wanted to do it in person simply because it’s about building relationships, and it’s hard to build relationships when you’re doing that in a virtual environment,” said MDF Coordinator Nancy Shockley, who oversees PEP. “We were willing to do the structure and set up whatever we needed to do in terms of the food, in terms of the daycare and facilitation and stuff like that.”

Parents were able to take their children to the in-person session, where the kids were placed in groups by age to work with the community engagement staff while the parents focused fully on their own group. But, there were also challenges with everyone meeting in one place: the time of day they all could gather, activities parents needed to accomplish at home or elsewhere, and the difficulties of transportation.

So, MDF gave the attendees the option of having the sessions online, and the next time they met it was on Zoom, which turned out to work well. The second cohort ran from April to June and was fully virtual. It was offered in two groups of sessions, on Thursdays and Sundays. Any parents who wanted to participate but didn’t have the necessary equipment were provided with it by MDF.

The topics for the eight weeks of sessions, outlined by PEP, were very relatable and included helping a child manage change, raising more motivated and cooperative kids, knowing when to set limits, and responding to a child’s strong emotions. The facilitator would show an instructional video that presented simple tools parents could implement within their families. This would be followed by some specific questions, and the group members would hold a discussion about such things as how their own parents responded to them during difficult incidents of their childhood. There were talks about the three parenting styles–permissive, democratic, and authoritarian–and why the democratic style was the preferred one.

Then there were the discussions of mental health, which children need support with no matter their age or stage of development. Because of generational differences among the parents, there were some for whom the normalizing of mental health was a challenge.

“I will say that, in one session, I felt that culturally, specifically around mental health, there was some tension at times,” said Lewis-Sisco. But, it was her job to set the tone of the conversation, and she made sure everyone knew each session was a safe, confidential environment for difficult dialogues. “As a facilitator, you have to be intentional to make sure that, no matter what the culture is or race that’s present, they have the space to be able to share their experience. And I often say, in facilitated conversations we need to attack the problem, not the person.”

As the group members talked and realized that everyone was being open and transparent, they were willing to continue the engagements and connect on a whole new level. The parents found themselves looking forward to the sessions as their own form of mental health support. While the facilitator would play videos and ask the hard questions, it was up to the parents to provide each other with encouragement. Some of them even learned to be leaders themselves.

“And then from there, we’ve actually been able, through the first cohorts, to identify additional facilitators,” said Shockley, “because the whole idea of using that PEP model is that parents who go through the program can potentially become facilitators of the ongoing groups, which is really just building the capacity and giving parents sort of that peer sort of network opportunity of working together.”

When the cohorts were finished, MDF brought the parents together for a family fun night event at Cabin Fever in Downtown Cambridge. They were able to meet with author Joy Thomas Moore, mother of Maryland’s governor, for some family engagement activities and discussions.

“Both groups that went through said, ‘What’s next? We’d like to keep going,'” said Wheedleton. “And we just met with PEP recently and they said, ‘We’ve got additional funding to actually do eight more cohorts next year.'”

He and Shockley are now planning that with Lewis-Sisco, who will take the lead on the structure of the ongoing Family Resiliency cohorts to commence in the fall. At the same time, they are able to offer the parents other programming focused on such subjects as mental health, first aid, and finances.

“So many of these families are working two jobs and are struggling to make ends meet,” said Shockley. “And that makes parenting even more difficult because of the ongoing stresses of trying to pay the bills and meet all of those things. So, we’ve actually had a number of those parents sign up to participate in some of our other work around generational poverty and how to kind of take the next step and move on.”

For more information on PEP’s Family Resiliency Program or to sign up for the next sessions, contact Shay Lewis-Sisco at [email protected] or 443-440-5370.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.