The Chesapeake Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society maintains a web site offering history, information and locations of over 30 lighthouses and lightships in the Chesapeake Bay region. The society also offers an annual challenge on a September weekend to visit a dozen of these local attractions in just two days. The chapter meets monthly from March through September with visits to lighthouses on land and sea. The society often offers opportunities to access to lighthouses not normally open to the general public. Individual and family memberships are offered by the society, and volunteer opportunities are available to help preserve our Chesapeake heritage.

A partnership between several Maryland tourism and natural resource groups has resulted in a new web site called Wilds of Worcester. WoW offers information on outdoor activities including kayaking, birding and exploration away from the usual beach scene in Ocean City. Visitors can also find information on camping, hiking, boating and biking. Check out the Wilds of Worcester and add some adventure to your next visit to Worcester County, MD.

Worcester County has released a new publication titled Rain Gardens in Maryland’s Coastal Plain.

Rain gardens, are depressions in the ground that are strategically placed to capture runoff from impervious surfaces like rooftops, driveways, sidewalks, and even lawns. A strategically placed rain garden can intercept the runoff, allow the water to infiltrate into the soil, and filter out pollutants like oils, fertilizers, and pesticides before entering the bays.

The brochure suggests ideas regarding the construction and plant selection for a rain garden that will maximize the effect on water runoff from properties in Maryland’s coastal plains. The publication is available for free at the Worcester County Department of Comprehensive Planning office in Snow Hill, MD. An electronic version is available online.

I ran across a link today for some sort of online newspaper called the Tidewater Trader based in Chestertown, MD. I can’t figure out from the web site if this publication has a print version, but that seems likely. The landing page currently has a funny picture of a local legend that appears in Chestertown for St. Patrick’s Day. The site includes classified ads and an extensive list of current and ongoing events for the Chestertown area. Dr. Truth gives advice to a confused Mom about the existence of a ghost in her house. My favorite page on the site is a Word Search. The current puzzle has a St. Patrick’s Day theme, and the puzzle is run by a Java applet that allows you to detach it from the page and rescramble the puzzle if you want to search again. The Tidewater Trader provides a little of that small town flavor on the web.

Despite aging facilities, inadequate classroom space, and increasingly difficult social environments, the teachers and administrations of Maryland schools have achieved the rank of 3rd in a recent survey by Education Week. Check out the results in Quality Counts on the Education Week web site.

The Chesapeake Chapter of the US Lighthouse Society will present the 5th Annual Maryland Lighthouse Challenge on September 15th and 16th. The challenge is to visit nine lighthouses and one lightship in two days. From the society’s web site:

Explore Maryland’s historic lighthouses during this two-day lighthouse adventure! From Point Lookout - Maryland’s haunted lighthouse, to Piney Point - the “Lighthouse of Presidents”. From Turkey Point - home to the last civilian lighthouse keeper, to Fort Washington Light - an unassuming bell tower convert strategically located at the entrance to our nation’s capital… and all the others in between! Each of the Challenge lights has a personality of its own and a story to tell. Enjoy them all, and some of the most beautiful Bay scenery the state has to offer during the 5th Anniversary Celebration of the Maryland Lighthouse Challenge!

The lighthouses included in the challenge tour are Turkey Point, Concord Point, the Lightship Chesapeake, Seven Foot Knoll, Hooper Strait, Drum Point, Cove Point, Point Lookout, Piney Point and Fort Washington.

The 1st Annual Delmarva Blue Crab Festival is scheduled to take place August 10th-12th in Milton, DE. The sponsors of the event include local print, radio and television media companies along with beverage suppliers and several recognizable business names. The festival will designate a portion of its proceeds for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The event organizers have provided a summary of the mission for the festival.

One goal of the Delmarva Blue Crab Festival is to ensure that there are plenty of blue crabs available, now and in the future, so that those of us who enjoy them can continue to do so.
The Delmarva Blue Crab Festival has chosen the Chesapeake Bay Foundation as a beneficiary of the event’s success. A portion of event proceeds will be donated to the foundation.
As one of the region’s foremost nonprofit environmental stewardship organizations, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, www.cbf.org, is uniquely positioned to show and tell us all what we can do to help improve bay and ocean water quality as we improve the environment overall.
A healthier environment means more and better natural resources such as blue crabs. We’re pleased to be affiliated with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and we’re happy to provide our added financial support to their efforts.

A new tradition for Delmarva could be created with the success of the 1st Annual Delmarva Blue Crab Festival. A full menu of entertainment has been scheduled to appear on three festival stages. Ticket options include an All You Can Eat menu of traditional Eastern Shore foods for $30(Adults) and $10(Kids 10&U). Basic event tickets are available for $7.50(Adults) and $3.50(Kids).

State Senator Andrew Harris is offering Republicans an alternative to current Congressman Wayne Gilchrest, who many conservatives consider to be too much of a centrist. Harris has been a member of the Maryland State Senate since 1999 representing Baltimore and Harford counties. He identifies himself as the only physician in the State Senate and claims a “unique perspective on how to provide access to quality healthcare for all of our citizens.”

Sen. Harris has had eight years to build up his resume for higher elected office. In an election year article from 2006, Harris answered several questions about important issues. One of the questions asked for his top three accomplishments while in office. Readers would hope to see what he has done to benefit his constituents, but instead we find:

“Rising to the rank of Senate Minority Whip in 2003, at the beginning of my second term, and helping the governor in that role.”

Harris considers becoming Minority Whip and helping the governor to be one of his three greatest accomplishments, rather than something that would benefit the people he represents. Like many politicians, Harris appears to value a position of power over the concerns of the voters. Of course the governor at that time was Republican Robert Ehrlich. Serving in the state senate is probably not as much fun for Republicans now that a Democrat holds the office.

Another of Harris’ great accomplishments:

“Bringing experience and knowledge of the health care industry to the State Senate.”

State Senator Harris might offer an alternative for Republican voters, but after eight years he appears to value his personal accomplishments and rise to power over the duties of public office.

Senator Mikulski has been promoting the measures that she has supported in recent spending bills. The Senator has maintained her support for projects that will protect and restore some regions of the bay and Atlantic coast as well as the navigation channel of the upper Wicomico River. The Energy and Water Development 2008 spending bill includes $1.9 million for Assateague Island. The north end of the island is suffering excessive erosion as the jetties extending from Ocean City beaches block the normal flow of sand along the coast. The natural flow of sand would partially replenish the north end of Assateague if the Ocean City jetties did not exist. Recent Atlantic storms have accelerated the loss of sand in these areas.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today announced the Energy and Water Development 2008 spending bill, which passed the full committee, provides more than $70 million for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects in Maryland, and $19.6 million for Eastern Shore and Chesapeake Bay initiatives.

“The Chesapeake Bay is a national treasure and is Maryland’s greatest natural resource. This is a federal investment in the lives and livelihoods that depend on the Bay,” said Senator Mikulski. “I will continue to fight to keep the Bay and Eastern Shore communities a priority in the federal checkbook.”

The spending in the bill also includes other projects on the Eastern Shore.

$2 million for the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Restoration Program, which will be used to initiate construction at the Ewell Wastewater Treatment Plant on Smith Island in Somerset County, and to continue the evaluation of the risks and benefits of introducing non-native Asian oysters into the waters of the Chesapeake Bay.

$1.9 million for Assateague Island in Worcester County for restoration efforts that will protect the northern end of the island and its fragile habitat.

$800,000 for the Wicomico River to dredge the upper river. This navigation project serves the Delmarva Peninsula with approximately eight facilities for grain exports and petroleum imports that are vital to the economic health of the region.

$600,000 for the Mid-Bay Island Study, which is examining the potential beneficial use of placing dredged material on James and Barren Islands in Dorchester County.

$120,000 for Goose Creek in Somerset County to begin engineering and design of a maintenance dredging project important to a seafood packing house and commercial fishing vessels.

The complete press release is available online.

In addition to the MSA test information that is now available on the 2007 Maryland Report Card, trends in school performance can be analyzed on mdk12.org. Graphs can be created which show the past five years of data for a school on each grade and test. The site also allows the comparison of schools that fall in similar demographic ranges based on the free and reduced meal program.

This data might create more questions than answers. If you follow a group of students through the years, test results are not always consistent. For instance, at Fruitland Intermediate school in Wicomico County, Grade 4 Reading scores in 2006 were 71.4% proficient and 13.4% advanced. This same group of students provided Grade 5 Reading scores in 2007 of 42.9% proficient and 28.6% advanced. It does not seem possible to create a meaningful analysis on this group of students with such inconsistent percentages.

The ability of the people of the State of Maryland to have access to this information with the ability to compare the perfomance of different schools is one positive result of standardized testing. The inconsistency of the percentages from year to year brings into question the standards that are being set for the students at each grade level.

Governor O’Malley fast tracks $2 million to continue broadband from Salisbury to bay bridge

Funds advanced from FY 09 budget will continue installation of fiber optic cable

SALISBURY, MD (June 25, 2007) – Governor Martin O’Malley, joined by State and local officials at his Cabinet meeting in Salisbury, today announced an advance of $2 million to continue installation of the Rural Broadband Initiative from Salisbury to the Bay Bridge, the second phase of the massive project to bring fiber optic lines to the Eastern Shore and Southern Maryland. Earlier this month, NASA’s Wallops Island Space Facility was linked to Salisbury State University completing Phase 1 of the initiative. Read more…

The former Social Security Building on Main Street in Salisbury was recently transferred to the Epilepsy Association when the facility was vacated by the feds. The taxpayers of Maryland are now funding $150,000 in the form of a grant to the Epilepsy Association for development or improvement of the facility. The original request was for $325,000 in SB460, but only $150,000 was funded in the bond bill. The grant is dependent on the association raising matching funds. I don’t have anything against the Epilepsy Association, but I question if the taxpayers should be paying for this. The Wicomico County Board of Education also competed for the award of the SS building, but they were not successful. The WCBOE currently uses 24 portable classroom buildings as an annex for the main office, and the SS building would have provided a great benefit to the Board of Ed. I guess the process of awarding government surplus property and state grants are two areas that are not meant to make sense. The State of Maryland is facing a large budget deficit next year, but the Epilepsy Association will get its money.