The Spy’s P. Ryan Anthony and WHCP radio’s Jim Brady recently had their quarterly conversation with Cambridge Police Chief Justin Todd.

Topics included the new drone program CPD is putting into action. The aerial devices can be used for multiple purposes around the city, indoors and out, including tactics, communication, and rescue.

In cooperation with the health department’s Sue Radcliffe, CPD officers have been spending lunchtimes with kids at Choptank Elementary School, where students ask them about their equipment and how they became police officers. As part of community policing, the program is a great way to develop relationships with young citizens.

Though they don’t yet have their statistics for the first quarter of this year, some significant issues the department has been dealing with lately are thefts from vehicles, domestic calls, and disorderly conduct. Through proactive means, they hope to keep crime down as the summer approaches.

CPD recently celebrated the female members of the department and their contributions. Chief Todd promised to continue promoting the accomplishments of different segments of the community, especially diversity in the police ranks. Additionally, the chief emphasized the vital part that the civilian staff plays in the day-to-day operation of the department.

The citizen police academy is getting underway and will allow participants to see how the department functions on a daily basis and what training new officers must go through. And recently a number of officer prospects passed the physical agility test and will be proceeding through the process that will hopefully take them on to the police academy.

The video is approximately 11 minutes long.

In a Zoom interview, the Spy’s P. Ryan Anthony talks with Dorchester County Public Schools superintendent Dr. Jymil Thompson to get an update on the district’s serious budget shortfall and its potential impacts.

With a $5.5 million deficit as of late March, the district is negotiating with its staff unions to address unmet funding promises, including a proposed $3.5 million in raises. If those raises are deferred, the gap narrows, but an estimated 12 to 24 staff positions may still be eliminated.

There is a discussion of how early retirements and attrition are being used to reduce costs, and what will be determined at the next budget meeting. The conversation also turns to the effect these cuts may have on staff morale and the school system’s long-term academic goals, particularly its aim to raise its statewide ranking from 23rd to 15th.

On a more uplifting note, you’ll hear how the Cambridge-South Dorchester Vikings’ state basketball championship has offered the community a much-needed morale boost. Finally, they discuss the recent adoption of Freedom on My Mind, an AP African American history textbook, and its significance in offering students broader, more inclusive educational perspectives.

The video is approximately 8 minutes long.

The racquetball courts have been gutted, as has the band/choir room. This section of the Pauline F. and W. David Robbins Family YMCA in Cambridge will be transformed into a reading hub for young children, thanks to $300,000 in funding provided by novelist-philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. It’s necessary to renovate this area for the new use because there is nowhere else in the facility for it. And what’s a reading campaign without reading space?

The Robbins Y has recently partnered with the Dorchester County Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, which focuses on ensuring that children from low-income families succeed in school and graduate prepared for college, a career, and active citizenship. Reading proficiency by the end of third grade is a critical milestone in a child’s educational development, serving as a key predictor of future academic success and high school graduation.

Sadly, Dorchester County currently ranks 21st of 24 counties in third-grade reading proficiency in Maryland, and recent assessments have highlighted the need for focused intervention. Through this new partnership, the Robbins Y aims to address these challenges by implementing the elements of the CGLR: targeted kindergarten readiness strategies, decreasing chronic absenteeism, enhancing and expanding literacy programs, engaging families, mobilizing community resources to support young readers, and increasing access to out-of-school time activities. The goal is to increase the number of Dorchester County third graders reading at grade level from 21% to 50% in the next eight years.

As the “backbone agency” of the local campaign, the Y will coordinate efforts among various stakeholders, including the John and Janice Wyatt Foundation, Dorchester County Public Schools, the Chamber of Commerce, Moving Dorchester Forward, and other community organizations.

The Spy recently chatted with Robbie Gill, CEO of the YMCA of the Chesapeake, about their part in this endeavor and why it is so important.

Did you volunteer to coordinate or were you asked?

GILL: So, we had attended the screening of a movie, Sentenced, that was done by [basketball star] Steph Curry, and really were moved by that. And then listening to [Dorchester County Public Schools Superintendent] Dr. Jymil Thompson and [Talbot County Public Schools Superintendent] Dr. [Sharon] Pepukayi kind of speak to the challenges around grade level reading, we started to figure, think a bit about how could we get involved. And then when we heard the statistic was 21% of kids in Dorchester County can read on grade level by third grade, we thought, “All right, we need to get involved.”

And so, we had some conversations with the John and Janice Wyatt Foundation Executive Director Matt Peterson and took a tour of some work they’re doing in Winchester, Virginia. And then from there thought, “Man, we could be a really good partner and help move the needle here.” And so, I think it was really through that moment of watching that movie and thinking a little more about should the Y be involved and how could we make a difference, that we said, “Hey, we’re here to help if we can get involved.” So, it was kind of an organic moment for us.

You’ve been involved with the campaign in some way for years.

GILL: So, we were doing early learning programming in the Greenwood community and very involved with that and were a part of the coalition. Never really thinking much about playing this leadership role. But it was kind of through that transition where we saw, not only saw the movie, but they were looking for a leader to step in. And we thought, “Okay, maybe we should play a bigger role than what we’re playing and have the capacity to do that.”

What does it mean that you’re the “backbone agency?”

GILL: So, basically what that means is we’re the facilitators of meetings of the coalition and all the partners that are doing work to support this campaign for grade-level reading. And so that’s a variety of organizations from the library to the school system to His Hope Ministries and all these other different groups that are working with kids. The Judy Center, WIC. And so it’s the backbone agency. You’re pulling those groups together, you’re providing information, training support, data, analyzing where potential gaps may be and trying to fill those in, working with the collective.

So, as an example, we know one of the gaps in this community is from this birth-to-kindergarten. Like there are limited programs and services that are out there to serve kids at a level that were ready for kindergarten. That’s a gap for us. And so, as a backbone agency, we’re going to work hard not only as a YMCA to offer more programming to help kids be kindergarten-ready but also supporting other not-for-profits and other community organizations serving kids to make that a bigger focus. So, you’re really kind of coordinating the collective group of partners and collecting data.

Do you think the goal of 50% of third graders reading on grade level within eight years is realistic?

GILL: That’s a great question. So, if you break it down, yes, but it’s a heavy lift, right? If you would have, we would have figured it out already. Everybody would already be doing it. And it’s an issue for us across the state and across the entire country. But I think if you eat the elephant in small bits, you can do it. And so, we need to do more around this birth-to-kindergarten focus to where kids are ready for kindergarten. There needs to be heavier work on chronic absenteeism. If kids aren’t in school, like that can be tough, right? You can fall behind. And so, what can we do as an organization and as a campaign to help create incentive strategies to support schools to keep kids in class?

And then you’ve got to have a strong, robust enrichment after-school time. So, when kids are out of school that they’re in enrichment-based programs that are helping them continue to grow in the summer, that there’s opportunities for them to where they’re not dealing with summer learning-loss. Kids that aren’t engaged in programming in the summer, fall, back as much as six months. And so, you gotta have that piece, too.

And then, lastly, for kids who need really one-on-one help, that we’ve created a reading-mentor strategy to where, if I’m a child that needs additional help, I can be paired with a mentor who meets with me maybe here at the Y twice a week to help me with my reading. And I think, if you break those pieces out and you really start working at it, you can do it. There’s 360 kids, roughly, born in this county in a year. So, it’s not a massive number. You just have to make sure you’re connecting to those little ones when they’re infants and those families and then, as they get a little older, they get to twos and threes, that you’re like, “Okay, here are all these ways you can get your kids involved in programming that can help them be kindergarten-ready.”

And what does kindergarten-ready look like? You know, that’s “I can tie my shoes, I can eat at the table on my own, I’m potty trained, I have an attention span for 15 or 20 minutes, I can keep my hands to myself.” It’s kind of things that we don’t really think much about, but they’re key functional parts of being ready for kindergarten. If you have six or seven kids in a class of 15 or 16 that can’t do that, the teacher’s gonna spend most of their time navigating corrective behavior and not teaching. And so, yeah, I think if we just really work at it, absolutely, it’s totally doable. If we didn’t think we could move the needle, we wouldn’t have gotten involved at this level. So yeah, we believe we can do it.

So, you mentioned the reading tutoring that could happen here. What other activities would be happening here at the Y?

GILL: Well, so, I really believe that having especially little kids involved in programming at an early age can build a base around attention span and keeping your hands on yourself and all the things we just talked about. And so, we’ll be running more programming for smaller children. … So, I think, you know, it’s not just about reading books at that young age. It’s also about having kids in programs to where they’re learning some of those skills. Like, if I’m in a four-year-old swim lesson at the Y, not every kid is in the pool swimming at once. So, I have to learn to sit on the side and wait and I have to take direction, I have to trust my instructor and all those pieces with the mentoring piece too.

We feel like we have about 800 members at this YMCA that would be good candidates for mentor-reading mentors because they’re either semi-retired or retired and would have some time to do that. And so, our goal is to find about a hundred folks that could support that effort.

And then this space that we’re converting, which was the old band room and choir room here, that’ll be the reading hub. It provides an opportunity where, if you wanted to have Saturday morning book-reading events for young kids and their families to come in, and you can do that. And that’s like a, you know, it’s more interactive today than just someone holding a book. You can see that pretty regularly within the libraries. So, just accessibility and opportunity is kind of key.

And how do we make sure as a community, not only the Y is making a bigger focus on that, but everyone else is working with kids, whether it’s churches or other not-for-profits, that they’re focused on expanding that? And then most importantly, how do we communicate that in a way that parents know, “Here are all the opportunities I have to get my kids involved”?

What else do you want to tell me about the program?

GILL: Well, for us to be successful in this as a community, we’re going to have to have everyone involved. And I know that this collaborative effort has been going on since 2023, and it’s our goal to reinvigorate that and get people excited about it. It’s a huge need. I would argue it might be one of the greatest needs in this community, period. When you think about that many kids not being able to be on grade level by third grade, I mean, it is one of the most prominent indicators of success as an adult.

And so, my hope would be that as we continue to talk to folks about getting involved, that people would think about how they could play a role, whether it’s directly or indirectly through volunteering or financially supporting the program. I think the more people we get engaged and involved in this that care about it and see the need, I think the more successful we’ll be.

And just maybe last thing, [we’re] appreciative of the Wyatt Foundation, John and Janice, that they call this place home and that they see that as a need and willing to invest time and resources in this. I mean, that’s a big deal. That makes a big difference. It’s unrealistic to believe that we can, in today’s world, we can send our kids to school and expect that they’re going to have everything that they need. We’re putting too much on public education to believe that I can send a kid in there in kindergarten, and they’re going to be good all the way through 12th grade. We’ve got to do more as communities to make sure kids are ready and then, even once they get there, that we’re supporting them.

I wasn’t a super-sharp reader as a kid and needed a lot of extra help and fortunately grew up in a place where I was able to get that. And that was super helpful for me. I heard a saying from a mentor of mine a long time ago: “There are no throwaway kids.” So, we need to dedicate as much resources as we can to make an impact. And the more people we can get involved, the better.

Are you excited about leading this effort?

GILL: Yeah, man, I’m pumped. It’s going to be cool. I mean, kids are great. And reading is something that inspires your creative side. Like, when you read a book, it’s on your terms. You know, when you watch a TV show, it’s like they’re giving you the script. But when you read something, it’s in your scope. So, how you read it and perceive that story is how you do it. There’s a lot of freedom in that, and there’s a lot of creativity in that, and it’s very empowering.

Maybe the part of that movie [Sentenced] I struggled the most with is watching those adults struggle to just live day to day. Like the one girl that couldn’t work the cash register because she couldn’t read the menu. And then the other thing about that is you see how that lack of literacy passes down to future generations. Like, it’s pretty scary, right? So, being able to read is a big deal. It should be like walking or learning to swim. I think learning to swim should be the same way. Like, everyone should have that skill. Reading is the same way. It’s a gateway to future success.

In mid-February, a press release posted on ChooseCambridge.com announced that City Manager Glenn Steckman would be available to meet with interested citizens at his City Hall office on Saturday the 15th. People were invited to bring their concerns or just introduce themselves. Another release was later posted for a similar “open house” on March 8th.

The Spy recently sat down with Steckman to discuss these meetings, including what concerns were brought forward and what could be done to address them. (The text has been edited for length and clarity.)

You’ve held meetings on February 15 and March 8 for people to come in and talk to you. Were there any dates before that?

STECKMAN: After the 8th meeting, someone called and asked if they could come in and see me on a Saturday. So, I went ahead, and someone else called and I said “Come on in.” So, we ended up, though it wasn’t publicized, I had two city constituents come in and talk. Okay with me. So overall, in the three times that I’ve been in here on Saturdays in the last month, we’ve had six people come in and speak.

What was the impetus for your open-door meetings?

STECKMAN: Well, actually, I’ve done this a lot during my career. I think it helps. You know, we need to remember that not everybody can come in and speak to the city manager if they wish to from 8 to 5. And recognizing that, that people work and they want to come in and talk with the city manager on any issue, I started making time on Saturdays. And when I worked in Nome [Alaska], I was working every Saturday, so I didn’t have to announce it. People would see my vehicle parked in the parking lot. And our building was in a different configuration, obviously, from here. So, people would know that I was there and they would just [come in]. Oh, and I would make appointments for people who just couldn’t get in during the week.

What kinds of concerns were discussed?

STECKMAN: Well, you know, concerns about traffic, concerns about [Cambridge Waterfront Development, Inc], where that was going. You know, a lot of traffic and safety complaints. I mean, it’s what I was expecting, things that were impacting people directly. And it also has resulted in a couple meetings to meet with larger groups of people that might be having coffee somewhere and they would like to come in and hear what is going on in the city and getting it from, you know, from the horse’s mouth, in a sense. They’re hearing it from me, and I look at it as a way to build faith and trust in the city operations.

Were any issues a surprise to you?

STECKMAN: Well, there were […] some poles that were still standing around from the street meters, which then I started noticing and seeing more than I have realized. I’ve been doing this for 25 years. I’ve managed cities that were going in bankruptcy, managed cities to go out of bankruptcy. So not a lot surprises me. I’ve built a career in helping municipalities move forward in a more positive light.

What were your responses to some of these issues?

STECKMAN: Well, a lot of these issues can’t be addressed immediately. It’ll be addressed as we get into this later, into the spring and to the summer, because it requires removing poles and putting up new signage. And we’re going to be doing three miles of paving this summer, this late spring/summer. So that’s also going to require, you know, where they were concerned about crosswalks and everything else, all that will be addressed at that time. It just gave them the knowledge that it was going to occur, and they knew their concerns were heard. I mean, a lot of this is making sure people hear their concerns are heard and to see where we can get them addressed in a timely fashion.

Where’s the paving going to be taking place?

STECKMAN: Paving is taking place all through the town and in portions of the downtown. And that’s where, when people have raised that, that’s where the crosswalks and all of those safety [things are]. Now, the other aspect of the paving, when the bids went out, proposals went out this past summer, the staff was not aware that there had to be some ADA improvements. So, this Monday night, the council will be asked to do ADA improvements on all the intersections where the paving has occurred. While we had ADA improvements there, they were done years ago, and ADA has since done another upgrade of the standards. So, what you’re supposed to do is, when you’re paving through the intersection, you need to improve the crosswalks areas.

 

Did you get the impression the people who came in [on Saturday] were satisfied with the discussions?

STECKMAN: They thanked me for being here on a Saturday and being willing for them to come in and talk with me. I’ve gotten a couple letters on that. … People like to be heard, and I want to let people know they can be heard. Not that we’re always going to be able to solve problems. Some of these, you know, I’m sure we’re going to have concerns raised that are more on a county level or state level. I do meet with the county manager once a month, and if I hear of any of these issues, I do take it to him to discuss.

I assume you’ve received emails and phone calls from citizens with concerns, also. Can you tell me anything about those?

STECKMAN: Well, in some ways it’s around the same issue. You know, senior citizens concerns. Some people will make an appointment to come in and see me to talk to the issue directly. That’s what I prefer. I’m more of a one-on-one or one with a group of people. I’m not a big, huge fan of emails because sometimes feelings don’t get conveyed, and I just want the people to know that they’re being heard. And we’re going to try to address these issues. And some of this has resulted in having monthly meetings with certain kinds of groups, senior citizens in particular, so they can voice their concerns.

What are the concerns that senior citizens have?

STECKMAN: Well, the senior citizens’ concerns I think are like […] the cost of living, the need for additional support, more activities for senior citizens. You know, the Delmarva Community Services does a great job, but they can only afford three days a week of elderly services for the elderly to come in and socialize and receive definitely a good meal. I think personally we should be doing it five days a week. I don’t want to see our elderly isolated in their homes, disconnected. And in other communities where I’ve come from, we’ve offered five days of services. Now, this is typically not a city issue. It was where I was working before because we heavily supported senior services. I’ve brought some of these issues to the county to consider if they could provide additional funding.

But, you know, we have a lot of elderly that live within our community. We want to make sure that they have a good place to live, whether it’s in subsidized or supported housing. And we also want to make sure that they can, for those that own their homes, can stay in their homes, you know, that cost to do some repairs to their homes. We want to work with them if they have sidewalk problems, if they have roof problems. We do have programs here at the city.

What problems can you address on your own, and which will require the involvement of the city council?

STECKMAN: Well, as the CEO of the city, we’re looking at internal issues right now. You know, in terms of what are we spending our money on. Are we getting the maximum return on our revenues? For instance, one of the things that was just done is creating a sweep account so that any of our cash that is not sitting in a CD or somewhere else gains interest. And it’s, you know, we have a large checking account and a couple checking accounts. So, what we’ve done is by moving to a sweep account, it’ll increase at the current interest rates. We estimate an additional $90,000 in revenue to the city.

We’re looking at how we purchase our insurance. We’re looking at potentially implementing deductibles on some of our insurance so that […] we take into consideration risk, too. We’re looking at our workman’s comp. Any way that we can find internal savings there. And obviously going through the budget this year, because this is not my budget per se. I mean, I wasn’t involved in creating it. I think we’re going to be finding some additional savings from a day to day. It’s just, it’s really managing your budget and seeing if you can maximize efficiencies, and that’s pretty much what I do.

Also, we’re looking at getting the grant projects started that have been approved. You’ve seen where we’re looking at moving along on the old City Hall. We’re waiting for a couple easements from the state to be signed so we can get the [request for proposal] out on painting the clock tower and addressing hazmat issues within the building that need to be addressed before we formally go out to any bid process. Now, the council is going to be involved in that.

But the grants were here, but we, you know, we’re trying to push them to get them going and the funds spent [on] the Cannery Park. The RFPs for the first additional phase, I should say Phase 1A, what we’re calling it internally, is to do a cleanup of the site and a dog park. The dog park hopefully will be open by–if everything goes right, the bids come in–what we anticipate will be sometime in late August, early September. And that’s been something we’ve heard a lot about.

My dog will be very happy for that.

STECKMAN: I’m glad. And I have two dogs, too, so I’m a dog lover. But showing folks that projects are getting done is very important from the staff side. Now, obviously this Saturday we’re having a retreat, so we have three new council members. That way we can let them hear what the staff’s goals and objectives to reach those goals are going to be for the next six to 18 months. And I think hopefully the staff and the council will inform the staff of what their goals are.

But I think both sides should be surprised because I have gotten the information from both sides that the staff and the council are very much in alignment on a lot of issues. And that’s important to allow us to go forward. Now, I’m not saying that everybody’s always going to agree on everything, but I think there is a solid commitment. I think Mr. [Tom] Carroll did a good job in hiring a lot of these staff people. It’s my responsibility to make sure we move forward.

How are you liking the job [as] city manager here?

STECKMAN: Well, first of all, I enjoy what I do. I’ve been in several cities with challenges. I will say Nome is going to be hard to–Nome is probably the third best thing I ever did in my life. After marrying my wife and the kids, it was an experience that is like no other. I like it here in Cambridge. I mean, I was a city councilman in Ocean City. I’ve known Cambridge for decades. I was born in Maryland. I was born in Baltimore City at Mercy Hospital.

I was a councilman in Ocean City for 10 years. I started my career in city management on the east end of the county in Vienna, Galestown, El Dorado, Brookview, Church Creek. So, it’s like coming home for me. We sold our house in Salisbury and have bought a house here in Blackwater Landing. So, we’ve bought that within 20 days of coming to work for the city.

The Spy’s P. Ryan Anthony and WHCP’s Jim Brady speak with Dorchester County Commissioner Mike Detmer about the county budget, federal project cuts, the possibility of a new township, and more.

This video is approximately 12 minutes long.

On the occasion of the parent organization’s 105th anniversary, theSpy’s P. Ryan Anthony speaks with three members of the League of Women Voters—Mid-Shore. Co-president Glenna Heckathorn, secretary Mary-Beth Goll, and past president Lorraine Claggett discuss what the group does and how it’s still relevant in the 21st century.

This video is approximately ten minutes in length.

The Cambridge Spy’s P. Ryan Anthony and WHCP’s Jim Brady recently spoke with Dr. Jymil Thompson, Dorchester County Public Schools Superintendent, about the budget deficit, student crime, gender protections, and more.

This video is approximately 15 minutes in length.