The Spy

Ask Irma: The Role of Adult Children with Aging Parents

October 14, 2019 by The Spy Leave a Comment

Senior Nation is committed to offering resources to help us deal with the challenges and opportunities of aging. To that end, we are launching a new monthly video blog called “Ask Irma” hosted by Irma Toce, C.E.O. of the Londonderry on the Tred Avon in Easton, where we will be exploring on all topics related to aging.

After a professional career working with adult children and the care and of their aging parents, as well as going through that experience herself with her own in the Netherlands, Irma Toce seems particularly well qualified to talk about this unique change of roles and responsibilities for the “kids” in the family.

With many parents living well into their 90s, their adult children increasingly play a critical part in caregiving or providing much-needed relief to aging couples from the sometimes overwhelming challenges facing those in their later years.

This video is approximately two minutes in length. For information about Londonderry on the Tred Avon please go here.

Academy Art Museum’s Craft Show’s People’s Choice Award Goes to Hegland Glass

October 13, 2019 by The Spy Leave a Comment

This year, all Academy Art Museum Craft Show patrons were invited to take a ballot and vote for the “Best in Show” during their visit with the 70 artists spread throughout the Museum and the Waterfowl Building.

Patti and Dave Hegland

Academy Art Museum director Ben Simons explained, “During the three full days of this year’s Craft Show, we share with our community the 70 ‘winners’ who are the artist/makers selected in our juried craft show process; and so, we wanted the Best of Show to be selected by those who came to the Craft Show from the Preview Event on Thursday through Saturday evening.”

On the final day of this year’s Craft Show, Ben Simons announced on Sunday morning that the 2019 Winner of the People’s Choice Award is Hegland Glass of Chestertown, Maryland.

Patti and Dave Hegland learned early in their careers in engineering and finance how important an acute attention to detail is which they apply to all phases of their craft from the complexity of the designs to the precision applied to the finishing processes used to polish and shape each piece.

They are a husband and wife team known for innovative designs, complex construction, and precise finishing of their art glass. Acute attention to detail during each phase of the process is critical to a finished piece of work. Intricate designs incorporate hundreds of multi-layered hand-pulled murrine individually placed within thin strips of clear, transparent or opaque glass placed on edge. Once formed, each piece is extensively coldworked — shaped, ground, sandblasted and polished to enhance the visual impact and feel of the finished vessels and sculpture.

Their studio is located in historic Chestertown, Maryland on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. For more information, email: hegland@heglandglass.com or call: 410-778-1713

TAP Moments: Director Ed Langrell on a “Prisoner of Second Avenue”

October 12, 2019 by The Spy Leave a Comment

While there is no official clause in the Tred Avon Players bylaws that every Neil Simon play they produce will have Ed Langrell as its director, that is the way is has worked out for several years. From The Odd Couple to Barefoot in the Park, Ed has been the goto fellow for Simon’s most hilarious stage productions, and this continues starting October 24th when “The Prisoner of Second Avenue” opens at the Oxford Community Center for a limited run.

Ed came by the Spy studio last week to give a short take of Simon, the themes of Second Avenue, and his admiration for the legendary playwright, as he and his cast make final preparations for opening night.

Tred Avon Players are presenting the Broadway comedy The Prisoner of Second Avenue by Neil Simon on October 24, 25, 26, 27, 31 and November 1, 2 and 3 at the Oxford Community Center. Ed Langrell is the director and John Perkinson is the assistant director.

Edna and Mel are a struggling, middle-aged couple living in New York City. Mel has just lost his job, the walls of their apartment are much too thin, and the city is in the middle of a heat wave. Their troubles escalate when Mel suffers a nervous breakdown. Mel becomes slightly paranoid, the apartment is robbed, and their neighbors, well, they don’t help matters much. Throughout it all, Edna does her best to support her husband, even getting a job of her own after Mel is fired. Mel’s siblings are called in as backup. Quickly, in a crowded apartment in the most crowded city in the world, all hell breaks loose.

Leigh Marquess and Steve Ford portray Edna and Mel, and the siblings are portrayed by Barbara Mann as Pearl, Maire McArdle as Jessie, Susan Patterson as Pauline, and John Norton as Harry.

Performances dates are October 24, 25, 26, 27, 31; November 1, 2, and 3. Performance times are Thursday, Friday, & Saturday at 7:30 pm with Sunday matinees at 2 pm. Tickets are $22 for adults, and $11 for students (fees included). October 24 is Half Price Preview Thursday. For tickets go to TredAvonPlayers.com or call 410-226-0061. The Oxford Community Center is located at 200 Oxford Rd. Oxford, MD 21654. Tred Avon Players is sponsored in part by revenues from the Talbot County Arts Council, which is funded by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council.

Eastern Shore Travelers Face Two Roads: One to BWI, Another to SBY

October 7, 2019 by The Spy 3 Comments

Perhaps it takes something like a two year Bay Bridge repair project to force people, mostly for the first time, to consider the Eastern Shore’s only commercial airport in Salisbury, Maryland. That was the motivation for the Spy to start thinking about SBY when given an unexpected opportunity last week to ponder such things while waiting in a traffic jam to across the bridge last week.

As a result, the Spy started an official inquiry into the matter, and our findings were surprising.

In our analysis of time and cost on what airport to use for a trip from the Shore to Los Angeles, the differences is results were striking. In the comparison between a BWI-LAX nonstop flight on Southwest versus an SBY-LAX American with a connection, there was only a 40-minute difference in final time spent to arrive in Los Angeles. And there was only a $31.35 price gap without factoring in possible check-in luggage fees on American.

And what does the traveler get in exchange for that forty minutes and thirty bucks? The peace of mind of experiencing an almost forgotten time in air travel. Starting with a simple and uncongested hour trip from downtown Easton to the terminal parking ($9 a day) and the surreal moment of getting out of one’s parked car and walk less than 50 feet to the airline counter in under two minutes. The security hurdle is more reminiscent of checking out a book at a public library. And then on to a regional jet for either Charlotte or Philadelphia.

That is only one of many reasons the Shore should take an interest in SYB. Long overlooked, despite its legendary history with Hansen Aviation (Piedmont Airlines), the Salisbury-Ocean City regional airport now has a new sense of itself with a new airport manager and an initial $5 million investment in the airport’s future. If things go according to plan, your next trip to London could start on the Lower Shore.

The Spy sat down recently with Dawn Veatch, SBY airport manager, to understand more clearly Salisbury’s desire to be more competitive with Western Shore airports, but also the extraordinary economic development power of a regional airport operating at peak efficiency.

This video is approximately minutes in length. For more information about SBY please go here.

Comparison (October 31 to November 5, 2019

Easton to LAX
	Dep	Time to Parking	Bridge Delay	Park Shuttle	Ticket/Gate	Total to Gate	Flight time	Total Time	TOTAL	Arrival
Southwest – BWI	3:50 PM	100	20	25	40	185	540	725	910	6:30 PM
American – SBY	11:43 AM	60	0	5	5	70	810	880	950	4:49 PM
									-40

Chesapeake Forum: Lifelong Learning in Talbot County Begins a New Era

October 4, 2019 by The Spy

There is something a bit noble about the nine board members of Talbot County’s Academy for Lifetime Learning when they found themselves without an anchor sponsor over a year ago. The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum had just given them notice that with its many significant projects underway and with a limited staff, it would need to suspend their sponsorship. While many volunteer boards take that news with resignations, all nine immediately agreed to begin anew with the creation of the Chesapeake Forum.

While it may take them some time to reach their enrollment high of over 500 students a year, board members John Ford and Glory Aiken highlight in our Spy interview their belief that the future and need for adult learning will grow well beyond those numbers soon enough.

This video is approximately two minutes in length. For more information about Chesapeake Forum or to enroll in a class please go here.

Commerce: Bountiful’s Jamie Merida on Keeping Retail Growing on the Shore

October 3, 2019 by The Spy

While there continues to be good news on the main streets of Mid-Shore towns as a new generation of entrepreneurs open up new retail stores, there remains a significant problem in finding tenants to fill the increasing number of large commercial spaces in the over 10,000 square feet range.

In Easton alone, these large empty stores, from the old Safeway on Harrison, the former Earth Origins on Marlboro, and the News Center in Talbottown, remain a major reminder to the community that it has a long way to go before town leaders can say things have returned to “normal” in their retail sector.

That is one reason to look with hope at Bountiful’s recent move to its new location at Goldsbrough and Route 50.

With almost 20,000 square feet to fill, Bouniful’s owner Jamie Merida has taken a calculated risk that his customer base will actually grow in this new location, which has quickly become a new gateway into Easton thanks to the stunning new Community School building addition.

Believing that retail shopping must be an experience in itself, Jamie not only refurbished the Ceder Glass Company building into a brilliant open space showroom. He also convinced his friends at Turnbridge Point Bakery to join him in the new location so customers could enjoy fresh pastries and coffee as they walk through a delightful maze of home furnishings.

The Spy sat down with Jamie last week to hear first hand how he decided to purchase the property, his views on the retail industry, and a word of warning to landlords that they must reduce their rents to ensure success for new tenants to fill these big holes.

This video is approximately six minutes in length. For more information about Bountiful please go here.

Understanding the Plant: Cannabis Use in Treating Addiction

September 30, 2019 by The Spy

It is hard to believe that the legal use of medical cannabis will have been the law in Maryland for two years come this December. Compared to its progressive counterparts in the country, Annapolis lawmakers took a considerably longer time embracing the plant’s medicinal benefits despite substantial evidence documenting its extraordinary capacity to heal and comfort those in need.

There are a number of reasons for this tardiness, but the first is a long and painful history with drug problems in Maryland. It didn’t matter what kind of illegal substance it was, and communities only saw their devastating effects as the source of addiction, crime, and a host of other issues that destabilizing neighborhoods and destroyed families.

The other was that any kind of approved use would send a very mixed message to young people. Just when law enforcement leaders were warning their communities about cannabis being a “gateway” drug that led teenagers to far more dangerous and possibly fatal opioid abuse, it was hard to balance that danger with some possible benefits.

In the end, Maryland has joined 32 other states in the legal use of medical marijuana, but there remains a cloud over its use and application. Even with two dispensaries serving the Mid-Shore, a certain stigma still exists on its use and its users.

The Spy, in partnership with Hippocratic Growth, LLC, the owner of Ash+Ember of Centreville, believes it is important to help our readers understand more fully the use of the plant and how it may improve the lives of loved ones suffering from a variety of ailments.

We begin as the region ends its anti-opioid “Goes Purple” month of September with the counterintuitive use of cannabis to help addicts stop using these powerfully addicted and fatal drugs.

Ashley Herr, the co-founder of Ash+Ember, talks about this very misunderstood use for cannabis and the remarkable impact it is having on those struggling to end their addiction.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. For more information about Amber+Ash services, please go here. Disclosure: Chestertown Spy publisher and editor Steve Meehan is a principal in Hippocratic Growth, LLC.

Galloway Mansion Move from the Air

September 23, 2019 by The Spy

If a picture is worth a thousand words then aerial photographer Hunter Harris has succeeded in capturing the mammoth undertaking of moving the historical Galloway Mansion last week to Queenstown from its original location in Talbot County.

Owner Christian Neeley engineered the remarkable undertaking of moving this 250 year old house by barge 5o miles to its new home in Queen Anne’s County.

Spy Minute: Airport Day

September 22, 2019 by The Spy

While the Spy doesn’t believe in profiling in most cases, it is safe to say that those that enjoy Airport Day are either under 3 feet tall or come to the event with child strollers. That’s not to say that the annual event is not popular with others, as we witnessed on Saturday when the normally traffic-free Airport Road was packed with cars waiting to find a parking place.

But as the Spy reports with this short video report, those small people and their parents couldn’t have found a better day to feed their loves of not only aviation but cars and almost anything else that has wheels.

This video is approximately one minute in length

Senior Nation: Talbot’s Community For Life

September 19, 2019 by The Spy

The idea of aging in place has long been a goal for many seniors. The familiarity and safety of one’s own home is a major motivator to find creative ways for people to stay put rather than the disruption of moving. And for years, and in many different parts of the country, communities have experimented with unique ways for seniors to remain rooted.

None was more prominent or successful that Boston’s Beacon Hill Village. The subject of a NBC News feature, as well as countless newspaper articles, Beacon Hill became the first of a movement to structure a program of helping neighbors live independent lives by offering handyman, transportation, technology, and other services.

That movement landed in Talbot County several years ago with the creation of the Talbot Village Connections. And now that organization has officially transitioned to become part of the new Maryland Community for Life program for Talbot.

The Spy spent some time recently with Stacey Woodworth, the Service Navigator for Maryland Community For Life – Talbot’s Service Navigator, and member Isabelle Bedell to talk about this growing organization and the unique benefits it offers for those wishing to age in place.

This video is approximately four minutes in length. For more information about Maryland Community For Life – Talbot please go here

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